Grizzly Gazette- 01/09/2023

Welcome back West Briar! I hope that everyone had a wonderfully restful break and came back recharged to take on the second semester!
Before our Holiday break started, we had a few great events including our Spelling Bee. Congratulations to our two winners- both in 8th grade- Winner- Raidah Rishona & Runner-Up- Phoebe Amakiri. Our performing arts groups also visited the Buckner Parkway Place (across the street from campus) and performed Winter music for their retirement community. They were so thankful and asked that we come back soon!

Cycle 4 begins this week as students will get back to work. This Thursday and Friday, during student's PE classes- we will have a laptop check. Students will need to bring their laptops to PE class those days to ensure we get their laptop accounted for. Students not in a PE class will be gathered during the lunch period. It is important that we periodically check the status of student laptops.

Let's make it a great start to the new year!

• January 2023 - School Board Appreciation Month
• Mon, Jan 9 - Return to School
• Fri, Jan 13- School Safety Community Meeting - 9AM (flyer below)
• Mon, Jan 16- MLK Day- Student & Staff Holiday
• Tue, Jan 17- Campus Tour (for prospective students)
• Thu, Jan 19- Westside HS Showcase (flyer below)
• Sat, Jan 21 - School Choice Fair- Heights HS (flyer below)
• Sat, Jan 28- School Choice Fair- Westside HS- 9AM- 12PM (flyer below)
• Sat, Feb 4 - HISD Parent Organization Expo (flyer below)

WBMS AM Announcements Link

West Briar Community,

Please know that I completely understand how shaken our community is after the event that unfolded the last day before the winter break. I share this genuine concern for the safety of our students and staff and do not take the responsibility lightly. Having my own children, I deeply take this issue to heart.

I want to add one additional detail that did not go out in the communication Wednesday, the 21st: The weapon did not make it's way into campus that day because it was actually found in the grass, by custodial staff mowing the lawn. When found, the custodian brought it inside to our officer. This is an important detail that did not make it into the official statement.

In an effort to open up the lines of communication with our community, we will hold a community meeting Friday, Jan 13th at 9:30am in our library. To help make this meeting available to as many parents as possible, I will also stream it live through Microsoft Teams. Parents can ask questions through the chat feature or live during the meeting.

Here is the link to the meeting Friday:

• SCHOOL SAFETY MEETING TEAMS LINK* (QR Code at right will also be the same link)

*You can use your personal email to log in (through your browser) or your student's login information through the app. Either will work. You will enter a waiting room and then you will be let into the meeting once it's going to start.

My hope is that we can come together as a school community and proactively mitigate dangerous situations by encouraging our students to speak up, staff to build meaningful relationships with students by truly listening, and for us all to take all threats and reports seriously. Remember that anonymous tips can be reported through Say Something tip line. Encourage your students to report however they feel most comfortable. Any adult on campus can direct a student to an incident report form. We need your support.

Together, we can make West Briar a safe campus.

Lea Mishlan

Principal

Resources

TX State Parents Guide to School Safety

National PTA School Safety- Family Resources

NC Safer School Info for Parents

Ted Talk (shared by a parent) - School shootings can be prevented

The HISD School Board updated our Student Attendance Policy to mirror the Texas Education Code (TEC) 25.092 (Attendance for Credit 90% Rule). A student in grade levels K-12 should not be given credit or final grade for a class unless the student is in attendance 90% of the days in which the class is offered.

We will continue to remind students the importance of attendance- in all class periods. In middle school and high school, the 90% rule applies to each individual class period. This includes coming to school late and remaining in all classes throughout the class period.

Students who have accumulated more than 10% absences in their courses during the school year will have asterisks (NG) printed on their report cards next to the courses in which the excessive absences occurred. These students will be denied credit in these courses based on the current HISD attendance policy unless the attendance committee grants credit because the absences are due to extenuating circumstances.

• Students who lose credit due to excessive absences may appeal if the student achieves an average of 70 or above at the end of the semester in which the no-credit (NG) status appears.
• All Attendance Committee meetings and appeals for the 22-23SY must be cleared by June 15, 2023.

Thank you WBMS PTO for our fantastic Holiday Lunch provided for us on Friday! Everyone truly enjoyed the baked potato bar and treats. They even had a Teacher contest and Ms. Scott won by guessing how many pencils there were. We appreciate all that you do to support our staff!!

The below poem was shared by a West Briar parent in light of her daughter going through a difficult time. We would like to share it with you:

If you’re happy, and you know it clap your hands. *silence*.

If you’re happy and you know it clap your hands *crickets*.

I’m sorry something must be wrong with me or either society, because for some odd reason these children are no longer clapping with me. Someone yells you have to say depressed or anxiety. They’ve become conditioned to accepting feeling empty. Where has all the happiness gone? What ever happened to laughter, what happened to joy? There’s no room or acceptance for that misunderstood girl and boy. That kid is so weird and I think she has something in her backpack. Excuse me young lady those kids reported your bag looks suspicious. Hand it over so I can check for anything malicious. Brace yourself it’s about to get vicious. What? All I have are my emotional scars and abuse on my back. Here take my bag, there’s a lot of damage to unpack. Open up the bag out jumps “you’re ugly, you’re stupid, you’re fat. Omg look at her clothes I would never dress like that!” Okay I’ve seen enough hurry and get to class before the bell. Handing her back a bag of her own personal hell. He’s over security his job is to protect so now who does she tell? Why didn’t he say anything? Why didn’t he try to further investigate? Well emotional scars aren’t physical so we’ll just have to wait.

By the time it gets physical you’re already too late!

We are looking for a group of parents that would be able to help us translate with parents of different languages. Unfortunately, the district does not provide translators which makes it difficult for us to communicate with some of our parents.

If you are able to offer your time and translating abilities for any of the languages below, please reach out to our Social Worker- Ms. Madison Taylor at madison.taylor@houstonisd.org. We would truly appreciate it!

Languages Needed

• Arabic
• Pashto
• Persian/Farsi/Dari
• Swahili
• Ukrainian
• Russian
• Vietnamese

Canvas gives parents access to student learning. Parents/Guardians interested in monitoring student's Canvas courses, calendars, and announcements can use the Canvas Parent App. More information can be found here: Canvas for Parents

*Please note that West Briar is transitioning to this new learning management system and therefore, some teachers utilize it more regularly than others. Expect that teachers will have a Canvas course home page set up.

Families can show their support of West Briar MS by donating to this year's Grizzly Giving campaign. All funds raised will go directly to support WBMS students, teachers, projects, and programs! Please see the flyer below for more details. You can also download the form here: Grizzly Giving Form

More information can be found on our PTO website here.

Attendance: Mr. Anderson- compassion.anderson@houstonisd.org

Registration/Enrollment- Ms. Rodriguez- laura.rodriguez@houstonisd.org

Nurse: Nurse Papillion- rebecca.papillions@houstonisd.org

Special Education Secretary: Ms. Aguilera- joana.aguilera@houstonisd.org

6th Grade House Secretary: Mr. Rachal- tony.rachal@houstonisd.org

7th Grade House Secretary: Ms. Bass- vbass2@houstonisd.org

8th Grade House Secretary: Ms. Young- syoung1@houstonisd.org

Social Worker: Ms. Taylor- madison.taylor@houstonisd.org

Campus Administrators Webpage (includes new School Counselors)

Faculty/Staff Directory