Parents and students,
Welcome back to the 2011-2012 school year. It is a very exciting new year and we are well under way. We have many new things at WHHS this year.
This is my blog and I plan to update date it at least once a week.
1. The lap tops have been pretty good so far. We are still working out the bugs. Please be patient with us as we figure out the best way to utilize these tools for your child's education. We are very excited about how these have already changed how teachers are teaching and students are learning.
2. The Geo Thermal heating and cooling is working very well. There are some things we will be working out with this also. But I was very happy to have our new system in place at the beginning of last week. While it was very hot outside, our students and staff were quite comfortable inside.
3. The bathrooms in the main lobby are done and are very nice. We put all new partitions and mirrors in along with tile and paint. There are also baby changing stations for our guests at evening activities.
4. Mrs. Winter and Ms. Wilson have gotten off to good starts in our English and Music programs. I feel they will be great additions to our staff.
Feel free to stop in and check out our new things when you have some free time. We always encourage visitors. Just check in with Peg at the office. If I am available I will give you a personal tour.
With the new laptops we will really be expanding our use of Sharepoint in the high school. If you do not know what Sharepoint is, I encourageyou to ask your son or daughter. They can show you and explain how it is being used in their classrooms. All lesson plans will now be on Sharepoint.
So far things have gone very smoothly at the high school. Just a couple of quick reminders for parents as we start the school year.
1. If your son or daughter will be absent from school please let Peg at the office know as soon as you can. E mail works great for Peg, so do not be afraid to use that. If you do not contact us, we will contact you. Remember our attendance policy no longer effects semester testing, but we do want every student here every day. If they are not here we need to know that you excused them. As parents it is your responsibility to make sure they are in school if at all possible.
2. If a student is in an activity and they miss one period or more (half of first period counts as a period) they will not be allowed to practice or perform in their activity. Pre-approval is fine for the following: medical appointments, legal obligations, funerals, obtaining a drivers license, college visits and things at the discretion of the principal. Please remember that we need to know about these things before school starts. E mail would be fine for pre approval as well. Just know that you are not approved until Peg or I responds to your e mail.
3. Please keep track of lunch accounts. Peg tries to keep students aware of where they are at but remember you can access that information on JMC and also pay online through our pay-schools link. Any questions contact Peg at the office.
4. JMC grade books should be starting to have some scores. Please use this tool to check your student's progress through the semester. We do not anyone to be surprised in December.
5. Yes I said December. With our new calendar we will wrap up the semester tests before Christmas break.
Academic Letters
We have began an academic lettering program here at West Hancock. Any student who maintains a 3.5 GPA for the year will receive a letter for the year. This will look like an activity letter but include the inscribed word "academics". We handed our first ones out Friday at our pep rally based on last years grades. As students become 2,3 or 4 time letter winners we will have a pin for each year they can add to the letter. We feel this is just another way to honor our high achieving students.
Advisory Update
For our first activity we had 40 minutes of time to get reacquainted and meet new people. We did a couple of group activities and discussed many new school policies. It was a nice beginning to our advisory year. This Friday we met and discussed goals for our academic year. Each student got to see their transcript and was to think about how they can improve this year. Don't be afraid to contact your student's advisor to check in on how things are going with them. Coaches Bob Dodge and John Paulus will be joining our male group of advisors. This will help our numbers be a little more manageable of the boys end of things.
For those of you who made it to the football game Friday night (judging by the crowd I would say that was most of you!) you saw a great display of our community support and school spirit. It was also a heck of a game. Let's keep up the support as we get into Volleyball and Cross Country seasons and our fine arts groups begin their performances.
This weeks calendar:
Monday - JV FB - Newman - H - 6:30
Tuesday -XC @ Newman - 4: 30
VB @ Forest City - 6:00
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday - 1 hour early out
V FB @ Lake Mills - 7:00
Weekend - Draft horse show
Monday - No school - Labor Day parade @ Kanawha - WHHS Marching band
Tuesday - XC @ BK - 4:15
VB - GH - H - 6:00
JV FBGH - H - 6:30
