Westwood Way
Happenings In Panther Nation - November 2020
On early Tuesday morning, as I was riding my bike, I applied my brake to begin slowing down to turn back towards the house for the final leg of the ride. As I completed the turn and began peddling, I realized that the brake had failed to release, and it had become tough to pedal.
I continued to attempt to pedal and free the brake, but it was solidly in place and did not appear to be releasing. It quickly became apparent that I needed to stop and solve and the issue. As I attempted to look at the rear tire in the dark, I realized that the braking mechanism was much different than the bike I rode as a child. After realizing I didn’t have a clue of what to do, I got back on the bike, began peddling, and quickly recognized that the brake had released!!
As I rode back to the house, I reflected that our journey this year is very similar to this incident. We have been traveling a journey on which it feels that we are “in the dark” most of the time and need to apply the brakes. And when we do “apply the brakes,” they tend to stick and stop all progress. This can cause us to worry about when and where to “use the brakes” while we are on our journey.
I believe that there are three thoughts to take away from this:
1) Sometimes we don’t need to apply the brakes! This year has presented some scary and stressful moments. We are changing faster and more radically than ever before. While this change is scary, that doesn’t mean that it isn’t good. Good things are happening out of the change, and we may not need to “apply the brakes” and slow down but instead, adjust to the speed and embrace the change.
2) We need to be careful how hard we apply the brakes! As we travel on our personal journey, we will have times that we need to monitor our speed and slow down. But we must be careful that we don’t stop all progress in an attempt to regain control. It is so easy to overextend in all areas of our life, including how we control the speed of change.
3) Sometimes we need to come to a complete stop! This journey is a hard road and has many turns, bumps, inclines, and declines. If we are not focused on the specific aspects of our journey, we can begin traveling so fast that we will lose control. The truth is that at times we need to stop, focus on ourselves, and recharge.
As we look forward to having a week off, I highly encourage you to do #3. Apply the brakes, come to a complete stop, and recharge. Focus on yourself and your family and reconnect with those that you haven’t dedicated the time to. This holiday season needs to be about you and your loved ones, and you DO NOT need to feel guilty about that being your focus. You have poured into your job until the point that there is nothing left to pour. My prayer is that you will have a restful holiday and know that I love you and care deeply about you!!
Wade
School Board Update
During the Special Called Board Meeting on November 16, the following items came before the School Board.
The School Board canvassed the ballots for the November 3rd School Board Trustee election.
Jeff Cooper, Bryan Jones, and Ronnie Stanhope were sworn in for their respective positions.
During the November Board Meeting, the following items came before the School Board:
Christine Bedre presented a curriculum update in which she discussed Early Childhood and College, Career, and Military Readiness goals.
Christine Bedre presented the Westwood Elementary Targeted Improvement Plan.
Ky;e Johnson presented a finance update in which he discussed Program Intent Codes, Summary of Finance, and the current PIC standing in the District.
The School Board unanimously approved the WES Targeted Improvement Plan as presented.
The School Board unanimously approved the Early Childhood, College, Career, and Military Readiness goals as presented.
The School Board unanimously approved the budget amendment as presented.
The School Board unanimously approved the Remote Homebound Instruction Waiver as presented.
Curriculum
This month I heard the saying, "the key to success is to focus on goals, not obstacles." As it is nothing new, hearing this quote truly made me think about the focus and goals. In education, we have a lot of goals. Examples of goals may be academic, attendance, athletic, extra-curricular, progress monitoring, benchmarks, end of the year, and so on. I think it is essential to reset and ask yourself, What is our focus? What do we cultivate our conversations around the focus? What is allowed to affect the focus of the goal? What needs to be accomplished to fulfill the purpose?
The High School has worked diligently to realign courses, pathways, and industry-based certifications for the 2020-2021 school year. Mrs. Kelly Green, our CTE and Testing Coordinator, has partnered with Region 7 CTE and the printing department to compile all programs of study into an easy to read booklet. Click the link to check it out! 2020-2021 WHS Programs of Study Guide Book Moving into the spring semester, work is already underway for the 2021-2022 school year to begin expanding offerings of study programs.
In the 2018-2019 school year, the Primary kindergarten team embarked on a Texas Lesson Study journey. The group met weekly with Region 7 Lesson Study specialist Brooke Kinsman. The selected low performing TEKS from English language arts and reading as well as mathematics were studied in-depth, then exemplar lessons were created. At the start of the month, we were notified these two exemplar created lessons were published by TEA on the Texas Gateway. Congratulations on your hard work and dedication to evolving your craft! To locate your lessons, please log in to Texas Gateway and click these links TXLSR7.007, "Rhyming is Out of This World!" and TXLSR7.008, "Centers in Subtraction."
Teaching & Learning: https://www.smore.com/2edzs
I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving break!
Special Programs
Over the last month, our department has had a strong focus on communicating English as a Second Language program information to teachers throughout the district. Although many of our educators have experience working with students who are identified as English Learners (ELs), we must continue this conversation with both new and experienced teachers and support staff. Just as we constantly decipher previous academic data for all students to inform decision-making, it is critical that we also include the review of historical English proficiency data for our ELs. We must target the needs of each student to see progress in all areas. In order to see the desired progress, we must have a deep understanding of their current level of English proficiency in each of the 4 language domains: Reading, Writing, Listening and Speaking. This data can be found in previous TELPAS results. Growth in each of the aforementioned domains can be reached through the implementation of our state curriculum, the English Language Proficiency Standards, and sheltered instruction strategies. Region 7 Education Service Center has an online course that provides an overview of the 8 components of the Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol Model. This course can be accessed here by all district staff. Additionally, this SMORE was created for quick access to district resources and strategies. Please reach out if you ever have any questions or concerns about our English as a Second Language program.
I wish each of you a happy, safe, and relaxing Thanksgiving break!
Business & Finance
This has always been my favorite time of year! I don’t know if it’s the changing weather and colors of fall, the holiday movies, and music, or the time spent with family, but it always makes me happy. One thing is for sure, we are rapidly approaching the end of 2020 (and for most of us 2021 can’t get here fast enough!).
In the school finance world, this means we are finally closing the books on the 2019-2020 fiscal year and putting the final touches on our audit preparation. The annual financial audit is a way to ensure that the District is using the funds provided in methods that are honest and that best practices are being followed. It also is a large part of the District’s financial accountability rating. The final audit file has been sent and we are looking forward to having the auditors in the office real soon.
This time of year is also when school districts receive their rating for the previous financial year. This is called the FIRST Report and stands for Financial Integrity Rating System of Texas. The 2019-2020 FIRST rating tells the accountability story from the 2018-2019 fiscal year. The Results Are In!!!! Westwood ISD received a perfect score of 100 (out of 100 maximum points), resulting in a Superior Rating from TEA! This is another example of how Westwood ISD is pursuing Excellence in all departments.
As we move closer to the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, I hope you all take time to reflect and be filled with gratitude for all your blessings. This holiday season will probably look different than those in the past, but just that we have the opportunity to see another holiday season is a blessing. Happy Thanksgiving from the Finance Department!!
PEIMS
Happy November, Westwood ISD! Typically, this time of year, you hear and read about the things for which people are thankful… well, ‘tis the season! Professionally, I am so thankful that I work in a district where employees are valued and supported. The fact that I am supported allows me to be supportive of others. We can all lean on each other when we hit speed bumps and overcome the obstacles that get in our way - and 2020 is throwing us some serious obstacles!
In the PEIMS universe, the staff is in a period of working furiously to resolve hiccups in our district data for submission to TEA. These hiccups are called “fatals” (pretty dramatic, I know). Fatals result when one code does not agree with another code. At times, it seems that when one fatal is resolved, two more pop up in its place. Regardless, we persevere and lean on each other as a team. Submission 1 will be fatal-free and is due to Region 7 before we leave for Thanksgiving break. If your campus PEIMS clerk seems to be a little stressed these days, show her some love!
Let’s love one another, Westwood ISD!
Food Service
Hello Westwood, Juan Torrez, Child Nutrition Director in partnership with Southwest Foodservice Excellence (SFE) here where we know the children are absolutely first. November has been a great month thus far even though we have had some bumps in the road we were still able to make the most out of this month on the foodservice side. On Thursday, November 12th we had our Thanksgiving Day lunch for Elementary and it was different but we still maintained a sense of normalcy for the children. Our High School and Jr. High had their Thanksgiving Day lunch on Friday the 13th and this day too was great and I was able to observe students really enjoying the meal. As always safety is our top priority and our kitchen staff continues to commit to safety processes and procedures for all. As we transition into December I will be introducing some scratch-made soups on our lines and as always we are ever-evolving our customer service and experience for the students and all other customers, so if you start wondering why we are having more of a smile feel free to let us know. Our priority is you and what we can do to assist you food-wise.
From our Food Service staff, we wish you a Happy Thanksgiving and Fall Break, and remember SFE is always here to lend a helping hand with school and community.
Facilities Services
November is a wonderful month of the year for our team. The hustle and bustle of the start of a new school year fades, cooler weather sets in, and the work demand eases. The maintenance department has completed enough work requests to get the numbers down to where they are able to complete some of the not so urgent requests. Our grounds crew are enjoying the change of pace and getting to spend time working on things other than our unrelenting grass. They will soon be cleaning/repairing fences, completing winter maintenance on their equipment, and planting winter grasses. Everyone has a tough job, but these guys have the most labor-intensive, and we all really appreciate everything they do.
Usually by this time of the year our custodians are changing their cleaning practices due to flu season. This year’s cleaning and disinfecting schedule for communicable diseases have been in full swing since the beginning. These new schedules are by far the most intense our team has ever experienced. Although we had a bumpy start as most classroom settings require different strategies, I believe everything has been ironed out. It has truly been a challenge to adapt and overcome all of these obstacles but the challenges have made us better and will continue to push us towards excellence.
Thanks to our Facility Services Departments for all of their hard work, and their ability to handle any problems that arise. Our pride is the solid foundation of our team’s success.
I hope everyone takes the time to enjoy the holidays safely with family.
Transportation
The Transportation Department has had a great month in November. It's a great day to be a Panther. Our Training for the month was Covid Procedures, Change- deal with it positively, Complacency, and making good decisions. I am glad to announce that additional lighting has been added to our bus yard for employee safety in the mornings. We are also in the process of adding new bus loading signs for all campuses. A special Thanks to our administration for helping us with these projects. As a department, we will also train employees on student management for bus drivers and bus monitors throughout the year, educate students on bus safety procedures at the Primary and Elementary Campuses, and improve our communication within our department with district leadership and campus administrators. The Transportation Department continues to put our student's interests first daily. I appreciate my employees for the continued support daily and work ethic. If I can assist you at any time with a transportation concern or problem, feel free to reach out to me, Phil Nedbalek, at 903-723-0425.
Technology
The Technology Department’s vision and desire have provided our staff and students with the best and most efficient customer support and service possible. Over the past month, we have significantly reduced our daily ticket load to single-digit numbers. We have set high goals for daily ticket closures, and we continue to work hard to maintain those goals daily. Our department’s goals, quick responses, and ticket closures have put us on the path towards Organizational Excellence.
With the Holiday season right around the corner, this is the time we start to focus on future technology needs and summer projects. One item that tops our list is replacing the aging infrastructure equipment. This equipment lays the foundation for everything else and is in dire need of replacement.
Helpdesk At A Glance: The Technology department has resolved 844 tickets since the start of school. Within the last 30 days, we have resolved 230 tickets.
As we work hard to maintain our department’s Organizational Excellence, we continue 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.
We have reached a pivotal phase in our athletes’ training regiment (the mental training). The athletic department focus during this phase (BOOT CAMP) is two-fold:
1.YOU WILL SINK TO THE LEVEL OF YOUR TRAINING.
2. F.A.M.I.L.Y. - Forget About Me I Love You.
We are excited about the opportunity to watch them GROW through this phase when faced with adversity.
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 Girls and Boys Basketball
Girls Basketball:
The Lady Panther Basketball team got a huge win over 4A Rusk on Tuesday night moving their record to 2-2 on the season. During the opening week of the season, the Lady Panthers split their games versus Alto and Kerens to start the year 1-1. Again in week two, the Lady Panthers won one and lost one versus two quality opponents in Frankston and Rusk. The girls are scheduled to travel to Diboll on Friday night.
The Junior High Girls opened their season versus Elkhart and will host Fairfield on Thursday night for their second game of the season.
Boys Basketball:
The Westwood Panther boys basketball team is off to a solid start with a 2-1 record. They opened up the season with a win at Cross Roads, dropped a close one versus Groveton, and picked up a huge win on Tuesday night at home against Corrigan. They will travel to Neches Friday night for a matchup against the Tigers.
The Junior High Boys kick their season off on Thursday night when they travel to Fairfield.