Westwood Way
Happenings In Panther Nation - March 2019
Earlier this month, our two daughters came to visit so they could attend First Monday with Marla. This allowed me an opportunity to spend an entire day with our three grandkids! I was excited to have a day alone with them and our youngest, Blakely, was excited to spend part of the day going on an adventure.
Around midmorning, we put on jackets, hats, and boots and took off on our adventure through the woods close to our house. During our time together we collected pine cones, discovered a dead animal, inspected mushrooms, and walked up and down creek beds. As we explored, Blakely continuously tried to do everything Emma and Mason did but with her being three versus thirteen and ten years old I found myself constantly warning Blakely to slow down and not try to walk through certain areas. She continued to push the boundaries and would get aggravated with me and tell me she could do it. After a while, I realized I needed to stop holding Blakely back and let her take some risk. She found her limits and honestly surprised me as she did things I didn’t think she could do!!
I wonder how many times we do this to our students and the people we work with? Do we try to “protect” them and in turn stifle them from discovering their limits? Do we hold them back like I did Blakely and not allow them to explore and enjoy the adventure? Do we not empower them to imitate the example of others like Blakely was trying to do with Emma and Mason because we have decided they will not be successful?
As we finish out the school year, I challenge you to think about how we are approaching the adventures in and around our lives and begin using phrases like the ones listed below.
You can learn anything you want to
instead of
You're either good at it or you’re not
I want you to challenge yourself
instead of
I don’t like for you to be challenged
When you fail, you learn
instead of
When you fail, you’re no good
Effort and attitude determine everything
instead of
Abilities determine everything
This may take some time
instead of
This is too hard
I will learn from them
instead of
My friend can do it
Wade
School Board Update
During the March Board Meeting, the following items came before the School Board:
Mr. Nedbelak spoke in support of the school bond and expressed appreciation for the School Board.
The Board unanimously approved the 2019-2020 Instructional Calendar.
The Board unanimously approved the expenditures for improvements to Agriculture Science Barn facility.
The Board unanimously approved the 2018-2019 budget amendment #2.
The Board unanimously approved a resolution to consider Superintendent, Wade Stanford as Superintendent of the Year - Texas Association of School Boards.
Christine Bedre presented the 2017-2018 Annual Report including the TAPR during the public hearing segment.
Phil Nedbelak presented the annual Transportation Report in which he gave an overview of staff successes, major purchases, and safety training.
The Board acknowledged all staff contracts as presented.
Curriculum
The season of benchmarking is now complete with the focus on reviewing our student data, determining individual student needs for growth, and preparing aligned remedial lessons to advance our students to the next level. I appreciate everyone’s hard work and flexibility as we completed this large task across the district.
Another vertical alignment day is in the books for WISD. Our content areas continued to reveal highlighted expectations for district, teachers, and students within each department. As I mentioned back in November, whether we know it or not, we all hold ourselves to a specific standard. This shined during our showcase at the end of our planning as multiple groups mentioned the word accountable. I am so proud to be apart of a hard-working team that engages in transparent conversations that occurred during our time together. Please take a few minutes to complete the vertical alignment survey from February’s meeting. Click Here to complete the vertical alignment feedback survey.
Our 2019-2020 school calendar was approved Monday night. With this calendar, three exchange day’s will be required for teachers, instructional paraprofessionals, as well as nurses and librarians. The professional learning handbook will also be sent out soon along with Eduhero compliance information needed for the 2019-2020 school year.
Great News!!! Westwood University is Back for 2019 exchange day credit! Dates for Westwood University will be June 3 - 6, 2019 and June 10 - 13, 2019. If you have a specific request for your grade level, department or campus, please let me know so we can discuss specific needs. If you would like to present at Westwood University, please fill out the following form → Click Here. All sessions for Westwood University will be found in this Google Document as well as the links needed to Eduphoria to register for each session.
Finally, don’t forget about National Library Week - April 7-13, 2019! Let’s celebrate this amazing week and continue to encourage our students to read with every task they are given.
Click Here to view Mrs. Luna’s Monthly Instructional Technology Smore.Special Programs
Last month, we held a Panther Family Night for the parents and families of our students served through our English as a Second Language (ESL) program. Our parents were provided with the opportunity to see some of the programs and strategies their children engage with throughout the school year to build their English proficiency. Parents were also provided with information and tools that can further help them support their child’s education. Most importantly, in support of our belief that parent involvement is welcome and parents are encouraged to have a voice, events like this give parents an opportunity to engage with staff, ask questions and provide feedback. We are thankful for these opportunities and the attendance of our Panther families. We look forward to holding another family night towards the end of the school year to celebrate the ongoing success of the district’s ESL program.
State testing continues as we enter into April. We will wrap up TELPAS these last two weeks of March and our window for STAAR Alternate 2 opens at the beginning of next month. STAAR Alternate 2 test administrators have already attended training and they are ready to get started. While they begin administering those assessments, Mindy will hold several training sessions for our STAAR test administrators and monitors. We will kick off spring STAAR testing on April 9th.
While we all know that our students are so much more than a test, we also know the importance of providing them with a secure and stress-free environment while they take their assessments. Let’s all work together and exhibit patience and kindness throughout the upcoming testing days. If we are calm, our students will be calm.
Business & Finance
Budget is the magic word this time of year! Preparations are in full swing with campuses and departments to get ready for next year while also closely monitoring the end of this year (while acknowledging it also covers the district for August of the next school year). Certain funds are required to be spent in specific program areas, so we are working to make sure we take full advantage of opportunities provided to the district.
Most purchasing decisions are made my mid-April to ensure items are received before campus staff leave for the summer, so preparation for the end of school and summer school is already happening. Please make sure to check out reports from Operations departments as we have so much happening to have a strong final push of this year and be ready to kick-off next year!
A final note, while not directly related to current district operations, I encourage you to stay in the loop with what is happening with the Texas Legislature this session in relation to school finance. There are some promising discussions occurring at the moment which could increase school funding *fingers crossed*!
PEIMS
It' hard to believe we are headed towards the end of this school year! Our department has stayed busy all year, and we continue to keep learning and improving as we go. Skyward Online Enrollment is close to completion. Training, meetings, and discussions have taken place to include and consider thoughts and ideas. We are excited to be moving forward with improved registration and enrollment processes to serve our guardians better and support our staff with accurate, timely data.
PEIMS leaver validation has been in the works this month as well. We have worked diligently collecting data and supporting documents. We are happy to say data has been submitted!
With spring upon us, we are now looking into the 2019-2020 school year for courses we will offer and preparing for our master schedule. Pre-K roundup is just around the corner.
Food Service
I would like to give thanks to the dedicated hardworking and resourceful managers and staff in the kitchens helping each campus to meet the district needs.
With spring comes field trips, please notify the cafeteria managers on your campus as far in advance about your planned trips as possible. Please take advantage of the sack lunches the school can provide for each student for these trips. Without utilizing these lunches, a burden can be placed on some families to provide a meal or money for children to eat when they are away from the school cafeteria.
Facilities Services
My, how time flies! With spring break behind us, we look forward to the end of spring on that special day when we get to see all of our hard work come to fruition. Seeing Westwood graduates walk across the stage is a wonderful reminder of why our work is not just a job, but is our lifestyle. It reminds us that what we do every day is making a difference, providing a positive impact on students, their parents, and our community. If you have not had an opportunity to see the pride, joy, and energy at graduation, I encourage you to come out and witness it this year. This sense of accomplishment is the driving force that helps our departments grind through the summer projects to prepare our facilities for the next school year.
Our Facility Services departments have been very busy maintaining our campuses as usual. Maintenance has painted the stage at the Elementary school in preparation for upcoming programs. Annual rain gutter cleaning is complete at the Elementary campus. They have also completed some much-needed painting at the stadium and flooring in the stadium press box. Please take some time out of your busy schedule to come out and support our Panther athletes in the track and field events happening the end of March and the beginning of April. We work very hard to keep our facilities as nice and tidy as possible, and we like to see students and their families out enjoying them. Our custodial staff made a clean sweep inside our buildings to prepare them for the return of spring break. The grounds department has been busy cleaning up after outdoor sporting events. I think I have even seen them out trying to wake up the grass from its winter dormancy just so they can spend more time on their mowers.
Thanks for taking the time to keep up with the happenings here at Westwood ISD. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions please do not hesitate to call or mail me at (903) 373-5108 jkshultz@westwoodisd.net
Transportation
The Westwood ISD Transportation Department had a great month for March 2019. Student safety is held to the highest standards for our department daily. Nothing is important as our student and employee safety. Bus drivers are the first point of contact daily with students riding the bus. Our department continues to maintain a safe, clean, and successful way of travel for all students. We are currently in spring sports with many trips daily.
Our Transportation safety meeting for March was conducted on Tuesday morning 3-19-19. Bus Pre-Trips, Bus Basics, Paperwork, and General Bus Practices were discussed. We did have 100% in attendance with great response from employees. All training is documented and kept for future reference. One topic of great importance was talking to employees about staying focused and not being complacent. We started the year in May, and now we have to finish strong.
Cody Allen was selected as Employee of the Month for Transportation. Cody interacts well with students daily and is a great asset to the Transportation Department and Westwood ISD. Plans are already being made for our summer transportation projects. We will be having Summer School and preventive maintenance projects for our department.
If I can assist you in any way in regards to the Transportation Department, please contact me at 903-723-0425.
Technology
Last month was an exciting month for balancing technology needs throughout the District. My team has been working hard to provide the best customer service in the county. Despite the internet outage that happened right before scheduled online benchmark testing, we were able to quickly identify the cause of the outage, schedule equipment replacement, and push out workarounds to maximize productivity during the outage. We are in the process of planning and designing alternate solutions to minimize future points of failures and alternate access to the internet.
On a positive note, the outage expedited the reconfiguration of the wireless LAN controller. At the start of the year, a temporary access solution was in place. Now, staff and students can use their computer/Chromebook credentials to access the wireless network. Issues with the guest WiFi were resolved too. There is no authentication needed to access this network, but the guest WiFi was intended for visitors only. Please be sure to connect to the appropriate WiFi network.
With special “Thank you’s” going out to Mrs. Carwell, Mrs. Place and everyone else who helped with online testing, we had a successful deployment and use of technology with online testing. In the last eight months, the district has added 342 more Chromebooks to our inventory. This has lightened the burden of physically moving the devices around from campus to campus for special events. My team has made some major changes in the Google Console to make it easier and more versatile to use Chromebooks for online testing. As we continue to add Chromebooks to our device inventory (with the goal of having a Chromebook cart in each classroom), students will have easy access to devices, resources, and online testing.
Recycling old devices has moved up our priority list as summer approaches. We have started getting quotes and pick-up processes from several computer recyclers.
February was the deadline to submit requests for the E-rate program. What is E-rate you ask? E-rate is an FCC program that makes telecommunications and information services more affordable for school districts. Based on our eligibility, we receive discounts on our phone lines, Internet access and all the equipment and services related to the internet. Discounts range from 20-90 percent.
The department continues to maintain and support our current systems and infrastructure by monitoring, tweaking, and resolving problems as they arise.
Athletics
We are focusing on building Champions instead of Winning Championships.
Habits reflect the mission. The habits of our athletes
On and off the field
are being held to a higher standard
And our student-athletes are meeting the challenge.
Philosophy
The Panther Mission Statement: (program/coach’s part)
To GROW men and women of integrity who relentlessly pursue excellence.
The Panther Vision Statement: (athlete’s part)
GROW Everyday
Execute Westwood DNA
Be the toughest program in Texas
WESTWOOD DNA (core values):
Energy/Tempo Monday - relentless effort. We will attack with tenacity and make them quit.
Competition Tuesday - 1-0 Mentality. We are one play warriors who always compete.
Toughness Wednesday - comfortable being uncomfortable. We will impose our will and dominate with toughness.
Family Appreciation Thursday - value others above ourselves. We are a team of ‘foxhole’ brothers.
Discipline/Finish Friday - Discipline - always doing what needs to be done. We will continue to row the boat every day.
Finish - do more than is expected. We are a freight train that terrorizes with our finish.
Updated results from Softball, Baseball, Girls Soccer, and Powerlifting:
Softball:
The Lady Panther Softball currently sits at the top of the district standing at 4-1 and will travel to Buffalo on Friday to finish out the first round of district. With a win on Friday, the girls will be in the driver seat for a shot at the district title.
Baseball:
The Panther Baseball team has made great strides from last season till now. They have already doubled their win total from last season and are primed to reel off some more wins in the near future.
They sit at 1-3 in district play and travel to Buffalo on Friday as well.
Girls Soccer:
The girl's soccer team finished district play in a tie for 3rd place. We will play Lorena in a Bi-District Playoff game this Friday at 6:00 pm at Rudder High School in Bryan.
Powerlifting: The boy's powerlifting team has experienced a lot of success this season. We had two regional qualifiers that competed at the regional meet last week, Aeneas Page and Cannon Churchman. Page finished 2nd in the 123 LB. Class and is headed to STATE POWERLIFTING MEET. Page went to STATE MEET in Abilene and represented Westwood with a tough 7th place finish.