Westwood Way
Happenings In Panther Nation - March 2017
Panther Pride
Happy Monday!!
As we continue on the journey of exploring new ideas and thoughts, we must contemplate the process of learning. My belief is that learning occurs continuously throughout an individual's lifetime. I also believe that each of us learns from individual experiences in our life. Our knowledge is a result of our collective individual experiences and each of us may learn different things from the same experience.
As we dig deep into the learning process, I would like for you to consider that learning is truly unlearning, learning, unlearning, learning, and so on. This process authentically presents itself when we meet in collaborative teams. Each of us brings knowledge, as a result of our experiences, and shares it with the team. As a team member, we must be willing to listen and possibly unlearn something so we can experience new learning. This could be the greatest benefit of collaborative meetings that I know!
My goal with this post is to start the conversation. What are your thoughts on learning? The concept of unlearning, learning, unlearning....? The value of collaborative meetings?
I would love to hear your thoughts about these questions or any others thoughts spurred from this post!!
Wade
School Board Update
Phil Nedbalek presented the annual transportation report in which he outlined vehicle inventory, current mileage on vehicles, accomplishments during this school year, and future plans and goals.
Tricia Wardell provided a budget update for the 2016-2017 school year. This update outlined the budgeted amount and expenditures by function. This report will be provided on a monthly basis for the remainder of this budget year.
The board reviewed the Board Operating Procedures as a 1st Read. Board members made revisions that match current board procedures. These revisions will be made to the document before final approval during the April meeting.
Janice Bryan and Christine Bedre discussed the possibility of beginning Full Day Pre-K during the 2017-2018 school year. During their presentation, they explored academic benefits, social benefits, and long-term classroom success. They also presented the possibility of Westwood ISD staff members being able to enroll their Pre-K age students in the full-day program as a benefit of employment in our district. This discussion will continue during the April board meeting as an action item.
District and Campus Improvement plans were approved as presented.
Policy Update 107 was approved as presented.
The School Board Election scheduled for May 6th was canceled due to Don Rice, Craig Nivens, and Ronnie Stanhope running unopposed.
A Palestine ISD resolution conforming district boundaries was acknowledged by the Westwood ISD School Board.
Smith, Lambright, and Associates were approved as the financial auditor for the 2016-2017 school year.
Teacher contracts were approved as presented and contracts for the 2017-2018 school year will be available soon. The board recognized the service of Cindy Christian who will be retiring in August. Cindy has been a dedicated and committed Westwood ISD staff member for 17 years and will be missed by the Panther Family!
Curriculum
Student learning and growth continues to be our focus. Instructional staff participated in a professional learning opportunity presented by ESC 7 staff which focused on Differentiated Learning. Strategies were shared to provide staff with fresh ideas to better meet the instructional needs of our students.
Round 2 of our curriculum meetings were exciting! Grade levels and departments were able to celebrate successes and plan for the next 6 weeks.
TELPAS is well underway! Online Reading tests are taking place. Our ELL students are rockin’ this assessment! This week is the first round of STAAR 2017, and we are confident our students are well prepared and ready to prove it!
Special Programs
Our ESL department recently purchased Imagine Language and Literacy. This is a web-based resource from Imagine Learning for our Pre-K – 6th-grade students in our ESL program. Imagine Language and Literacy place the students on a personalized learning path that provides them with the five components of reading instruction and academic language through peer modeling and the use of multiple contexts. Teachers were recently trained on this program and some have already begun implementation. Debbie Chambers, a 3rd-grade teacher, has worked with ELLs for several years and she knew this program would be great for our students when she first encountered it at the ELL Summer Conference in Kilgore. Here is what she had to say about the student’s initial reactions to the program “I just had three do the first part—they are so excited! They did not want to stop and they are asking…Can we do it at home too? LOVE IT!!!!! I wish you could have seen their faces----HUGE smiles, big bright eyes and I even think they grew a few inches taller right before my eyes!” We believe this program will help us as we continue to give our ELL population the targeted, systematic instruction they need to be successful learners.
Business & Finance
We are moving forward with the 2017-18 Budget at this time. All of the campus principals have received their budget worksheets and are meeting with their staff to develop their campus budgets. In addition, the various directors have received their budgets and are in the process of preparing their department budgets.
We are projecting a balanced budget at this time and will be striving to achieve that.
We are in the midst of posting multiple teaching and administrative positions currently. We will begin the hiring process as soon as possible to guarantee the best candidate available.
PEIMS
Westwood’s PEIMS department is working hard to collaborate for the 2017-2018 school year. While it may seem early, preparing for the upcoming year now is vital. We are reviewing InfoSnap (student online registration) to ensure the program is working at its best for our district. We are also reviewing courses and class size to assess what our future schedule needs are. Needless to say, we are working hard at planning for our future year to come!
Food Service
1) Tornado Tuesdays at WHS have been a great success, and Ruiz Foods visited the campus with the Tornado Truck and provided free samples to junior high and high school students
2) Mrs. Satcher won the “Best of the Bunch” Award presented by TDA. Only 77 District Administrators in the State of Texas received this award.
3) The 2017-2018 Menu Planning stages are in the works! Watch for “Try Day Friday” to begin on your campus!
4) For National School Breakfast Week, Mrs. Satcher took some pictures of Primary Students, and they will receive “Milk Mustache Photos with Superman”
Upcoming Events:
School Café App provided by the Texas Department of Agriculture to start testing in April or May.
Every Kid Healthy Week is April 24th through April 28th.
Facilities Services
Current Projects:
· Replacement wind screens for tennis courts
· Gym pad replacement at Primary and Elementary
· Installation of new equipment at Primary Head Start playground
· Testing preparations
· General spring maintenance
Completed Projects:
· Replaced 11 Dry Erase Boards at the High School
· Replaced approximately 20 mirrors in all buildings
· Painted Tennis Courts
· Prepared facilities for track and field events
· Drainage improvements at the High School
· Installed new lift station pump for baseball concession
· Installed plumbing chase covers for pest (Skunk) exclusion at Junior High
· Cleared a major sewer blockage at Junior High science building
· Remodel the Primary Special Program classroom
· Repaired lights and noisy doors in preparations for testing
Transportation
The Transportation Department continues to have a great year. We have buses being refurbished in Huntsville with Texas Industries. We also are busy with end of the year trips and sports. Things are good. I thank you for your continued support. I am also working and planning for the 2017-2018 school year and our upcoming end of the year report.
Technology
Things have been busy in the technology department. We are excited to announce that we have selected several staff members and administrators to serve on our website evaluation committee. Our first meeting will be held on April 6th in the Administration Building beginning at 3:30 pm. Our websites are one of the first places parents and community members visit to look for information on what is happening in our district. I want to thank all of the members of the committee in advance for being involved in helping improve the sites.
Our technicians have been working hard preparing lab computers on each campus for state testing. In order to ensure a smooth online testing environment, we have been required to close campus labs for an extended period of time. I know the headache the closures cause on each campus and I want everyone to know that we sincerely appreciate the campus administrators and staff members generously working around the inconveniences. The successes we have seen with online testing over the last three years are a direct result of your generosity and patience.
Athletics
Baseball
Finished 2nd in the Westwood Baseball tournament, went 1-2 in the Alto baseball tournament, presently 4-7 season record, 0-3 in district playing all games close. The team is performing much better this season.
Softball
Went undefeated in the Frankston Tournament, presently 11-8 and 1-3 in a tough district losing 2 one-run games and a two-run game.
Boys Track
32 are competing in track, 16 varsity and 16 JV. The sprint relay has won two of the last meets and 800 relay has finished no worse than 3rd. We have finished in the top 4 in last two meets. The Jr. High has lots of numbers and kids competing well. Both groups finishing high in both meets with the 8th grade winning the Neches track meet this past Monday and the 8th grade relays winning meets.
Girls Track
Won the Crockett Invitational by 60 points and placed 3rd in the Fairfield meet. Both meets were extremely fast meets. Girls have 35 plus running and giving great effort. Jr. High girls got 2nd in the Crockett meet and won the Neches meet Monday night. Many Jr. High girls out running this year and doing a great job.
Tennis
The high school tennis team has hosted two matches this spring and been quite successful at both. The Panthers defeated Rusk and Elkhart at these matches. We have 20 athletes playing tennis this year.
Power Lifting
Both the boys and girls teams had a great year. We had two girls qualify for the Regional meet with Janzel Barroy placing 5th at Regionals. On the boys side, we had 3 guys qualify for Regionals with Malik Benson finishing 3rd at Regionals, Cannon Churchman finished 5th at Regionals and Trey Walters finished 7th at Regionals.
Football
We had Malik Benson signed a letter of intent to play football at Mary Hardin-Baylor, who was the National Champions this past year in D-III football. This is a great accomplishment for him.