W-G Parent Email(2-26-10)

Dodge Ball Tourney is tonight Feb. 26 from 6 to 8 in the MS gym. Please come out and support the MS PTO. They do a lot of great things for our kids!!
Jim Coffin will be tomorrow Saturday from 8 to 4 pm our Jazz Band performs at 8:15. We have some great bands here from all over and should be a another Great Show.
Individual District Speech competition is at Earlham tomorrow. Our first student performs at 10:12, the last is at 1:21.
Schedule Changes Starting Monday March 1st. School will start 15 minutes earlier (8:15 on a regular day) and end 15 minutes later (3:45 pm on a regular day).
Wednesday's will start at 8:15 am and end at 2:30.
NEXT WEEK ONLY - Monday and Tuesday the days will start at 8:15 and end at 1:45 conferences are still from 3:00 pm to 8 pm.
If we have a 2 hour late start because of weather we will start school at 10:15 am.
Conferences - Remember Parent teacher conference next Monday and Tuesday Mar. 1st and 2nd from 3 to 8 pm in the HS Gym. We changed the way conferences are done to accommodate parent wishes. Please make it a point to attend this year's conferences. We love to see all the parents!!
Middle School Sound systems for the classrooms. We have put four sound systems in the MS where the teachers wear a microphone around their necks and the their voice is projected throughout the room. As parents we all get the "I didn’t hear you" selective hearing from our middle schoolers. I am not sure this is going to help that all together but we hope it will help those students with hearing issues. As a parent of a student who is deaf in one ear, I hope this will help all the students. The nearly $5,000 of funding came from our special education fund. We may purchase three or four more in the future.
What makes my job great is when I meet a (very) veteran teacher in the hallway who is so excited to tell me about their class and how well it went and how impressed they were with the students and how creative and on and on. It had to do with choosing characters in a book and connecting them to current people. I loved how the teacher was so excited! Those are the things that make our weeks and sometime months!
Have a great weekend! Go HAWKS!

2-5-10 Parent Email

What are we doing about the snow days??? I just want to thank everyone for their input from the survey and emails. A parent asked why did we not go to school for a full day on Wednesdays and not have professional development for the teachers. The main reason was because we thought we could not do that since Wednesdays are already counted as a day. We have since found out that this may be allowed. We would then plan to have professional development after the students leave (Whatever time that is!). When we created the survey we thought we could add a half hour or hour to the day. We found out that a special exception was made two years ago so schools could do that! Later in the week we received information from the State Department of Education that we could potentially do that again. We are working on the details and will be coming out with those soon. Going to school on Saturday's was at the bottom of my list and of the survey as well. SO no need to change your Saturday plans. (yet)

Let's Dance!! The High School Winter Formal was very well attended last Saturday. Most everyone had a great time and it seemed to go well. The dress of the night was a strapless short dress. A lot of tugging going on by the girls! Tugging the top of the dresses up or tugging the bottom of their dresses down. Also high heal shoes which lasted about five minutes on their feet! The attire for the men was black pants with black shirts and solid colored ties. I thought everyone looked very formal. Thanks to you all, as parents, for supporting this event. Next week is the middle school formal. I know this is going to be a big event as well. Thanks to both the HS Student Council and the MS PTO for putting on these fun events.

This week has been very busy with home activities about every night and sectional wrestling here on Saturday. Jazz band to Earlham and State Large Group Speech in Ankeny on Saturday. Also Middle School Citizenship Trip today to Sleepy Hollow in Des Moines.

Please remind you sons and daughters to drive safely to and from school! More snow today and over the weekend.


The boy's basketball team playing at Well's Fargo Area in February 9th. The dance team will also perform during 1/2 time of the game. The cost of the tickets in $10 per person and will include watching the Iowa Energy play after. Tickets will be available at the high school office or at basketball games.


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