Wayfinder Informational Brochure

• Student-facing materials available in Spanish for 23-24 SY.

• Student-facing materials will be available in all partner languages no later than 24-25.
  
  

Sample Lessons

Sample Guardian Home Connection Activity

Wayfinder Informational Video

Family/Guardian Informational Video

SEPTEMBER

• Thu, SEP 14th: School Picture Day (*order ahead at lifetouch.com with Picture Day ID #EVTX6M4QZ)

OCTOBER

• Thu, OCT 5th: Back to School Night at West Sylvan from 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM
  
  
• OCT 8th ~ 13th: Outdoor School for 6th graders (*overnight stay all week with curriculum at the camps)
  
  
• Fri, OCT 13th: NO SCHOOL for Educator Planning

Students have been assigned to an Outdoor School campsite with their BLOCK class. Please refer to this chart by Teacher to find the campsite where your student will spend the week.

Please do not park in our neighbors’ driveways or block their personal property. On the narrow streets, please be cautious that you are not impeding traffic by blocking the street. Form two lanes for drop off and pick up so that more vehicles can move through the process in a timely manner.

Thanks to the long hours and hard work of our Student Technology Liaison, all chromebooks were handed out this week to students. Though several hundred of the devices were sent for repairs over summer, several students are already concerned about issues with their chromebook. Students can bring chromebooks needing repairs to Ms. Crombie in the Main Office during the school day, between the hours of 10:00AM - 3:00PM. Each Friday, repaired computers are returned to the school and damaged computers are picked up. In the meanwhile, a loaner computer will be issued to students, as supplies last. We have cases for chromebooks, however, many 7th and 8th graders refused to take and use the cases last year and their chromebooks are in poor condition. Remind and encourage your student to take care of their chromebook, and keep them in protective cases. Chromebooks are used for class assignments daily. Students will need to charge their device each night and bring their charged chromebook to school each day. Students and families will be responsible for paying for replacements for lost chargers throughout the 2023-24 school year. They will be ordered through PPS OTIS, and cost $67/each.

Thanks to Mr. Alonzo (Student Success Advocate: RJ), Mr. Steve (Campus Safety Associate), Mr. McVicar (School Management Specialist for School Climate), and Ms. Jett (Instructional Coach), the bus system has been updated for those students who ride buses. There is a visual aide as students leave campus where they can easily see which buses have arrived, where they are located in the line of buses. Buses that are late are also noted. We are aiming to help ease the stress and anxiety of finding the bus each day for students with this visual system. Encourage your student to speak to any adult by the buses to ask for help, if they have questions.

WSMS is a cell phone free zone from 9:00 AM - 3:45 PM daily. We request and advise all families to keep scholars’ cell phones at home during the school day. If a scholar brings a cell phone to school, they will be expected to store their turned-off phone in their locker throughout the entire school day (including lunch periods). Important messages can be sent to our main office via email (westsylvanoffice@pps.net), and will be forwarded to your scholars’ PPS student email account. If your scholar chooses to use their cell phone, smart watch, air pods, tablet, et al, it will be confiscated. If your scholar uses their device to check a text from and/or answer a phone call from you, their phone will be confiscated. Please do not text or call your scholar during the school day, except in case of emergency.

Social Media Blocked on PPS Devices:

New this year, our OTIS team is blocking all social media access on school devices. Also, WSMS has an expectation that cell phones are off and away throughout the entire school day, including lunch and passing periods.

Interested in Volunteering and Being More Involved?

Become an approved PPS volunteer by following the information here. Once your application is approved, please contact the Main Office to see how and when you can be of service. Our Friends of West Sylvan parent/family organization also regularly shares ways to get involved on campus, specifically to volunteer in the Library, monitor hallways, help in the Main Office, help in classrooms, and do recess duty.

We can hardly wait to have more families involved in volunteering on campus, taking part in Friends of West Sylvan, and serving on School Site Council and School Climate Committees. If you may be interested in having a voice in one or more of these school groups, please sign up here.

We are currently looking for parent volunteers to run Oregon Battle of the Books this year. OBOB is quite time-consuming, and we do not have adequate staffing in the Library to make it happen without a team of committed volunteers. Reach out to Clair McInnis (cmcinnis@pps.net) for details.

The Oregon Battle of the Books (OBOB) is a statewide voluntary reading motivation and comprehension program sponsored by the Oregon Association of School Libraries in conjunction with a Library Services and Technology Act grant. Students in 3rd-12th grade, regardless of ability, are exposed to quality literature representing a variety of literary styles and viewpoints.

A wonderful way to keep your student engaged and out of trouble is to get them involved in extracurricular activities, such as youth sports. All information to register students for PIL Youth Sports is located here.

** After-school sports are run entirely through PIL and West Sylvan does not have any information regarding tryouts, practices, schedules, etc.