Notes from Dr. Irvin
Your WGHS Weekly eNews for May 14
Hello WGHS Families,
I drove by school and Moss Field on Tuesday night to witness the recognition of graduation night as we had planned over a year ago. It was bittersweet to see the families taking pictures of their children, likely having a mix of pride and disappointment. I hope we all emerge from the historical moment more sober about our connection and obligation to each other. We will be safer as a community if we have fidelity to suggested practices as recommended by public health officials. That is on our mind as we have crafted plans for ending the current school year, imagine graduation, and consider next year. All are fraught with challenges and dodge any desired certainty we might want to extract. As and educator, I am able to know the promise of our students, those we will formally say goodbye to at graduation and those that will reconnect with us in the fall. In spite of what is occurring around us all, I am more hopeful than discouraged for what lies ahead.
Check out our E-learning page for information on the remainder of the school year:
https://www.webster.k12.mo.us/Page/23157
Best,
Matt Irvin
Wrapping up the School Year: Schedule, Lunch Accounts, Donations
Week of May 11-15
- Teachers may teach new content or have students turn in a culminating project or activity with teacher or peer feedback.
- Friday, May 15 will be a student support day/turn-in work
End-of-Year Plan by Department:
World Language: Continued Learning
Math: Continued Learning
English: Culminating Reflection
Fine Arts: Teacher feedback on projects
Industrial Technology: Continued Learning
Innovation: Capstone Projects
FACS: Capstone Projects
Business: Capstone Projects
PE: Continued Learning
Science: Culminating Reflection
Social Studies: Final Assessment
Week of May 18-22
- Recap and finalize learning for all students and not for new learning or new assignments.
- Teachers will schedule time during their set office hours to connect with students.
- Teachers will make additional efforts and outreach, and support for students, particularly those who are at-risk of not completing essential learning for the semester.
- Teachers will communicate any missing work and other “wrap-up” types of work with students.
- Students can submit incomplete or missing work.
- Students who have completed course expectations will not be expected to meet or check-in. The only students expected to complete work during the week are students who have incomplete or missing work or working to raise a grade.
Lunch Accounts
- If you have a senior with a negative balance, please log into the parent portal and pay the fine. Otherwise, your senior's diploma will be held.
- If you have a senior with a positive balance, you can either request a refund or donate to another sibling/student. To do this, email Chartwell's directly at pelant.nancy@wgmail.org.
- All positive balances for underclassmen shall roll over to the next school year. If you wish to request a refund, please email Chartwell's at pelant.nancy@wgmail.org.
Donations
COVID-19 has put a financial burden on so many of our families. If you would like to donate to a general fund to cover student fees/fines, please call Roro Cotner, bookkeeper, at (314) 626-3393, between the hours of 12 - 4 p.m. Monday-Friday (She cannot accept calls on May 11-12 due to senior returns). If you would like to donate to a specific student, please mention when calling.
Once a donation has been made, you will receive a receipt and tax letter if requested. We're sorry, but she can only accept credit card payments at this time.
Student Textbook and School-Issued Item Returns May 19-22
Webster Groves High School textbook and school-issued item returns will take place May 19-22 from 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. at Roberts Gym. All 9th-11th grade students, and any seniors who did not attend this week, will return any rented/school-issued textbooks, sports uniforms, technology (including laptops/Chromebooks/Garmin devices), and/or school district instruments/band uniforms. Students should also turn in library books. If students have any personal items they must retrieve inside the building, they must notify us as they arrive.
**Please note: Any items not collected by May 22 will be donated, as summer cleaning begins.**
Please note: Yearbooks will be available for pick up at another time. Yearbooks will not be shipped to the high school until late May. We will send information regarding pick up at that time.
In order to follow social distancing guidelines, only 10 students will be scheduled at a time. Students will have 10 minutes to return their items and exit the building. We are sorry, but for the safety of our students and staff, only the student will be allowed in the building—parents must wait in their cars. Parking is available on both lots near Roberts Gym.
All those who enter the building will need to wear a mask. If your child does not have a mask, we will accept their items at the exterior door to Roberts Gym. More details about the return process will be sent later this week.
Each class will have a designated day for returns:
Tuesday, May 19 Juniors
Wednesday, May 20 Sophomores
Thursday, May 21 Freshmen
Friday, May 22 All students who cannot attend on their scheduled day
The sign-up link has only been sent to students at their wgcloud accounts, to avoid duplicate sign-up entries. Please encourage your student to check their school email and sign-up during their scheduled day.
To ensure student and staff safety, please do not arrive before your scheduled time. Please wait in your car until your scheduled time.
We will send more detailed information at the end of this week.
A Peek at the Week Ahead
- May 19-22, 9 a.m. - 4 p.m.: Students return school-issued items. Must sign up for a 10-minute spot on Sign-up Genius (sent to all student email accounts)
WGHS Summer Reading Expectations
In a typical school year, the WGHS English Department would assign specific summer reading novels for each of our classes. However, due to the COVID-19 outbreak and our inability to access the building over the summer, we are unable to distribute books to our students this year. However, we fully expect and enthusiastically encourage ALL incoming students to engage in summer reading on their own. We are expecting students to read at least one novel of their choice before school starts again in August. Please see the Library webpage for links to online access to books and to see a list of suggested titles.
The library will also participate in the District Webster Reads program. Any student who reads a minimum of 3 books can turn in a form by Sept. 11th, 2020, to be recognized. The form will be available on the Library webpage as well.
Summer Courses for Experiential Learning Credit
We’re offering some exciting courses this summer like geocaching and baking. This is a great chance to earn credit and have some fun! Click the link below to learn more and apply!
Seniors/Graduation
Senior Fines
Graduation Updates
World Languages Department Honors Senior Class
Senior Parent is Requesting Your Pictures for a Video Tribute
Chaney Hagemann, senior parent, is requesting any pictures you may have for a video tribute project for our seniors.* She is looking for individual or group photos of our senior class. Please email all photos to wghsseniorpic2020@gmail.com.
*This is not a school-sanctioned project.
Celebrations
ECHO Celebrations
JournalismSTL awarded the print version a SUPERIOR rating, and the Echo's Voices of Webster Radio/Podcast Overall a Best of Show rating, its Online Overall an Excellent rating and its Video Newscast Overall an Honorable Mention.
Three students earned Superior ratings for their individual entries. These were junior Jaden Fields for her Sports Photo of "Fans at the Soccer Championship" and her News Photo of "Senior Patrick Lee leads the pack with chants and inspirational speeches," and Stisser and junior Addie Palmquist for their Commentary Copy "Acceptance pressure transforms admissions process."
Six entries earned Excellent ratings. These were Bennett for her Sports Photo "Senior Elizabeth Zareh slides into home plate" and her Feature Copy "New program facilitates student-created businesses," Weihl for his Broadcast News "Students walkout to raise climate change awareness," sophomore Zeke La Mantia for his Feature Photo "Senior Zia Massena gives instructions for the fall play" and his Feature Photo "Seniors Evan Palmer and Matt Muldoon and freshmen Luca Giordano and Zach Andrews perform during fall play," and Fields for her Sports Photo "Junior Julian Tilford heads the ball."
Seven entries earned Honorable Mentions. These were Weihl for his Commentary Copy "Impeachment should be larger focus in classrooms," Keller for her News Feature Copy "Teachers share pre-teaching experiences," La Mantia for his News Feature Copy "Custodial staff maintains school, makes connections," Bennett for her Sports Photo "Women’s swimming defeats Hazelwood West," graduate Gretchen Skoglund for her Individual Broadcast Feature "Seniors share high school insight," freshman Ava Musgraves for her Individual Broadcast Feature "Halloween costumes for dogs" and freshman Cory DeWald for his Individual Broadcast Feature "Makerspace offers students hands-on learning."
Distance Learning Information/Updates
Summer School 2020 Announcement
At this point in time, we are still planning to have educational programming for our students this summer. However, and with respect for the health and well-being all, our summer programming will be online.
Our high school students (rising 9th through rising 12th grade) will take online classes in a virtual format. High school summer school courses will run from June 1st through July 2nd. WGHS students who have already enrolled in a summer class will maintain enrollment in these virtual courses. Space is still available in some courses and interested students should reach out to their counselors regarding enrollment.
All summer school programming is dependent on full state funding. Any possible cuts to funding may cause us to alter what we are able to offer.
May Distance Learning Updates
https://www.webster.k12.mo.us/Page/23157
Tech help
Tech Hotline: 314-455-7080, 8AM-8PM
Weekly Schedule
In the effort to be mindful of the work around e-learning, we will begin taking each Friday to focus on supporting student engagement and refining our work around distance learning. Each teacher will have their established office hours and no additional instructional material/lessons in the effort to promote mastery of the essential work assigned for engagement. Students can also use those days to contact counselors, prepare for AP test(s), or engage in other pursuits that promote wellness.
Some guiding principles of student support days:
Teachers and staff will work to support students and their learning through communication they have already accessed with students and families.
Teachers will collaborate with colleagues on best practices for distance learning with district-based support and PLC teams within their respective departments.
This will allow students that did not have needed access the chance to have more support and time to finish assignments.
Grading
Please communicate to your teacher how the work is going relative to workload and stress. It is important to allow us to adjust on the feedback we hear as we do this work.
Our staff is focusing on how students can be successful with engagement during this period and providing feedback around the intended learning. We do want to support students in continued acquisition of skills that will support future ready citizens: critical thinking, communication, and collaboration.
Distance learning period will be a separate grading category/assignment type in Tyler SIS where all grades will be placed while school is conducting distance learning. It will have different weight, with the period prior to distance learning being ⅔ of semester grade and the distance learning period being ⅓, including the final. Students should work with their individual teacher to raise their grade for the semester in addition to the work they are doing during distance learning.
This determination was made after consulting DESE guidance and with the awareness that distance learning is impacted by many variables for students: consistent access to digital devices or the internet at home, changes in student support in distance learning, and additional demands on students.
Teachers and staff are working with students to maintain their previous level of achievement through a myriad of supports and assessment design. Administrators and teachers are in communication when students are not able to engage and will work to excuse or reduce work missed due to lack of access. Under our current circumstances, we are working to monitor and adjust as needed for students to be successful for the remainder of the distance learning period.
*In the case that there is an undue hardship (i.e., health-related issues, persistent access issues, etc.), administrators will have the latitude to work on behalf of students to make determinations to ensure students are successful.
Prom
We are working to have prom and are looking at options and how we might adjust settings and potential dates. We have tentatively rescheduled Prom for June 20, 8-11 p.m., location TBA.
April/May Calendar Events
In accordance with the Stay-at-home orders, we will need to either cancel or postpone our upcoming high school events. Please see the status of our events below for the month of April/early May:
April 18 Prom, New date: June 20
April 22 Jazz Concert, Canceled
April 25 Schoemehl Run, Virtual
April 28 Band Concert, Canceled
April 29 One Acts, Canceled
May 3 Senior Awards, Online Presentation
May 6 STUCO Banquet, Online
May 6 Choir Concert, Canceled
May 7 Statesmen Sports Awards, Online Presentation
May 8 WG A Cappella Extravaganza, Postponed
May 12 Graduation, postponed/TBD (see below)
May 12 Orchestra Concert, Canceled
End-of-year schedule/Finals:
After reviewing survey results from parents and students, we have revised what was originally our finals week (May 18-22).
If underclassmen enrolled in courses predominantly composed of seniors have successfully demonstrated competency in the course through engagement, assessment, and task completion, they may complete the course in the same time frame as seniors. Underclassmen should contact their individual teachers if they have questions.
Week of May 11-15
- Teachers may teach new content or have students turn in a culminating project or activity with teacher or peer feedback.
- Friday, May 15 will be a student support day/turn-in work
End-of-Year Plan by Department:
World Language: Continued Learning
Math: Continued Learning
English: Culminating Reflection
Fine Arts: Teacher feedback on projects
Industrial Technology: Continued Learning
Innovation: Capstone Projects
FACS: Capstone Projects
Business: Capstone Projects
PE: Continued Learning
Science: Culminating Reflection
Social Studies: Final Assessment
Week of May 18-22
- Recap and finalize learning for all students and not for new learning or new assignments.
- Teachers will schedule time during their set office hours to connect with students.
- Teachers will make additional efforts and outreach, and support for students, particularly those who are at-risk of not completing essential learning for the semester.
- Teachers will communicate any missing work and other “wrap-up” types of work with students.
- Students can submit incomplete or missing work.
- Students who have completed course expectations will not be expected to meet or check-in. The only students expected to complete work during the week are students who have incomplete or missing work or working to raise a grade.
Check-out Process for Seniors
Seniors, pending they meet all graduation requirements and necessary coursework, will complete classes by May 8.
Graduation Ceremony
We will adjust our original reservation at Chaifetz Arena on May 12. We now have June 26 at 7 PM as a potential reschedule option and July 24 at 7 PM as a back-up. We will share more as we get closer to potential dates.
AP testing
There will not be any face-to-face AP exams this year.
Students will take AP exams at home.
Exams will be 45 minutes.
Exams will NOT contain multiple-choice questions.
Students with accommodations will be able to use their accommodations.
Exams will be administered online between May 11th - 22nd. Make-up test dates will be available for each subject from June 1 through June 5.
Exams will be assessing a reduced scope of content, content that would “typically” have been covered before March. Please contact your AP instructor for details regarding your specific course.
From College Board, "We're confident that the vast majority of higher ed institutions will award college credit as they have in the past. We've spoken with hundreds of institutions across the country that support our solution for this year's AP Exams."
Students have the option of canceling their exam(s), and CB will waive the $40.00/exam late fee they would have charged the school. To cancel, please log into the Total Registration webpage here: https://user.totalregistration.net/AP/263573 and request to cancel your exam.Select "Coronavirus Crisis" as your reason to avoid the $40/exam late fee. Refunds will be processed in batches on a weekly basis.
For more information visit the College Board: https://apcoronavirusupdates.collegeboard.org/students
Summer School
At this point in time, we are still planning to have educational programming for our students this summer. However, and with respect for the health and well-being all, our summer programming will be online.
Our high school students (rising 9th through rising 12th grade) will take online classes in a virtual format. High school summer school courses will run from June 1st through July 2nd. WGHS students who have already enrolled in a summer class will maintain enrollment in these virtual courses. Space is still available in some courses and interested students should reach out to their counselors regarding enrollment.
All summer school programming is dependent on full state funding. Any possible cuts to funding may cause us to alter what we are able to offer.
Office Hours by School Subject/Department
Visit our website for the most up-to-date E-Learning resources and information.
- General information on the importance of E-Learning, expectations, length of assignments and workload, and what to expect while school is closed
- Resources for support, including counselor contact information
- Tech hotline
- Office Hours by department
- Resources for time management and a custom WGHS Weekly Planner
Visit us HERE or click below for more information!
A Message from Our Counselors
While conducting school virtually, WGHS school counselors and social workers will continue to support the academic, social and emotional, and post-secondary planning needs of our students. Our office hours are from 8:30-9:30am daily (for immediate attention) but we are available by phone or email throughout regular school hours. Please see our contact information below and reach out with any questions or needs you may have. Students can also request assistance by completing this form and their counselor will follow up with them.
Additionally, there are a number of outside agencies and organizations available to provide support to young people and their families during this difficult time. Below is a list of resources available to you and your family.
Virtual Counseling: Parents or guardians should call the numbers below to set up services.
CHADS Coalition: 314-952-8274
Preferred Family Health: 314-729-7050
St. Louis Counseling: 314-544-3800
If you need support and cannot wait, please use one of the crisis numbers below:
Youth Connection Helpline: Call (314) 819-8802 or text BHEARD to 31658
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 800-273-8255
Child Abuse and Neglect: 800-392-3738
For emergencies, please call 911
As always, please reach out with any questions or concerns. We look forward to seeing you all soon!
Sincerely,
Alex King
Counselor (A-E)
314-666-0220 king.alexandra@wgmail.orgKen Winingham
Counselor (F-K)
314-252-8194 winingham.ken@wgmail.orgJoe Hepfinger
Counselor (L-R)
314-918-4133 hepfinger.joe@wgmail.orgSimone Cunningham
Counselor (S-Z)
314-918-4134 cunningham.simone@wgmail.orgKaren Verstraete
College & Career (A-K)
314-301-9921 verstraete.karen@wgmail.org
Jennedy Lombard
College and Career (L-Z)
314-384-9658 lombard.jennedy@wgmail.orgAnne Gibbs
Social Worker
314-527-4753 gibbs.anne@wgmail.orgSuzanne Goldstein
SSD Social Worker
314-918-4281 goldstein.suzanne@wgmail.orgAnn Marie Guntli
SSD Social Worker
314-384-9723 guntli.ann@wgmail.orgBarb Smith
Office Assistant
Transcripts and Summer School
314-918-4138 smith.barbara@wgmail.orgBrittany Hill
Office Assistant
Scholarships
314-527-0533 hill.brittany@wgmail.orgWebster Groves High School
Email: erb.mickey@wgmail.org
Website: hs.webster.k12.mo.us
Location: 100 Selma Avenue, Webster Groves, MO, USA
Phone: (314) 963-6400
Facebook: facebook.com/WGAlumni
Twitter: @WebsterGrovesHS