Principal Benji Carrier has accepted a new position as Youth in Custody Coordinator for the Utah State Board of Education. December 17th will be his last with GWHS. Joshua Bell, current principal of Horizonte Instruction and Training Center in Salt Lake City, will replace him beginning mid-January. Until then, Chad Thompson will be the acting administrator at GWHS.

It has been the greatest privilege of my life to be the principal of George Washington High School. I have loved working with so many different staff members and students. 279 is just a random number to most people, but to me it will always be a special number. I had the privilege of handing out 279 diplomas while I have been here, and that is not something I take lightly. I find it a rare privilege to be a witness to a young person overcoming obstacles and succeeding. Thank you all for inspiring me to be more than I am. Thank you for accepting me as a person, flaws and all. With all of my heart I wish you well and am excited for Joshua Bell to come in and be the new principal. Please show him the same love and respect that you've shown me.

Effective January 4, 2022, breakfast will be served from 7:30 to 8:05 AM. Students wanting breakfast will have to be on time as it will no longer be available after 8:05. This is a state and district wide procedure.

Alejandra Magana Rosas is December's Student of the Month. ARISE is an acronym for our behavior standards at GWHS. Alejandra exemplifies these standards in the following ways:

• She is a top attender who is making sure and steady progress towards graduation (Accountable)

• She is a good listener who is extremely kind and friendly to everyone (Respectful)

• She is an avid reader who has checked out 362 books from Ogden City School District in the past eleven years (24 this year alone!) and she’s an amazing artist. While she mostly keeps to herself, she is a leader when it comes to doing school projects (Involved)

• She follows rules and stays out of trouble (Safe), and

• She has made honor roll or high honor roll every term she has been at our school and she is a constant award winner at district art contests (Excelling)

Alejandra loves the art classes she has taken at GWHS and is the library’s best patron. She enjoys her biology class, especially learning about nature. Trees are one of her favorite things to draw. Alejandra loves reading graphic novels, exploring new places, hiking, fishing, and going to the beach. In the future she'd like to write and illustrate graphic novels, share her art and travel around the world, starting with a visit to a tropical rainforest.

Each December for the past several years GWHS has collected donations of new or gently used items from faculty, staff, friends, family and generous community partners to stock our Santa's Workshop. For two weeks students are able to "shop" in Santa's Workshop for themselves or their family or friends during the holiday season. This year our top attenders were invited to shop a week early at an exclusive preview event.

Huge shoutout to Kenlee East for organizing Santa's Workshop this year. It is a big responsibility and she did a great job!

Jessica Deer teaches our 11th grade ELA classes. She moved to Ogden this year in order to be closer to her family, with GWHS being the second school she has taught at in her three years of teaching. Jessica says, "I loved the school I was at in Cheyenne, Wyoming. I student-taught (finished my Bachelor's Degree) at that school, long term subbed there, and then taught there for two years. It was hard to leave such a great school, but I knew that moving to Ogden and GWHS would be a great experience for me and an opportunity to make a bigger difference in the lives of the students at GWHS."

When Jessica's not at school, she uses new opportunities to spend time with her family on the weekends, which she couldn't do before. She finished her Master's Degree in Curriculum and Instruction in September, so it has been nice to have even more time to explore this new town that is rich in so much history and so many fun things to do! She also enjoys reading new books and taking her Goldendoodle, Beckham, out for walks and hikes.

Our Student Body Officers organize door decorating contests between Advisory classes for Halloween and for Christmas. Here are a few of this year's Christmas doors.

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