Monday, April 24, 2017

April 24th Weekly Blog

Welcome Back! - Welcome back to all students and families. We are now enjoying some Spring weather and pushing to finish the year strong. We have a busy end of the year that includes some heavy state testing, AP testing, finishing classes strong, prom, West's Got Talent Show, and graduation. Parents continue to encourage your students to finish strong and students, hang in there and push hard to finish the race and leave no doubt about who you are as a learner!!

Purpose Corner - Please enjoy the three minute video as I discuss our "Feed Continuum" and the work our staff did around feedback during the school year as part of our focus on increasing rigor.

Please click here for this 3:25 video

Waukesha C.O.R.E Robotics Team - Congrats to the members of the combined Waukesha C.O.R.E Robotics Team who qualified for the FIRST Robotic World competition in St. Louis on April 27-29 with a win during a regional competition in La Crosse on April 15. C.O.R.E 2062 was a part of the alliance which took first at the competition!  The alliance scored the highest semifinal score in the world this year!  C.O.R.E. also won the Innovation in Control Award for a second time (they won this award at the Wisconsin Regional a couple of weeks ago).  As they are head to the FIRST Championship Competition in St. Louis we wish them best of luck!!

 Principal Advisory Council - Here is the link for the minutes of the Principal Advisory Council meetings. We met last on Wednesday, April 19th. Your representatives information is below. Please connect with them for bringing questions to the group you may have. We will report information through our monthly minutes linked above:


Carrie Schuettcarriejschuett@gmail.com
Dean Chyladean@chyla.com
Gretchen Scottgecscott@yahoo.com
Jana Manningjmanning@waukesha.k12.wi.us
Kari Cernykcerny@mcw.edu
Karie Ruekert-Kobiskekarierknp@yahoo.com
Kelly Glesnerkaglesner@wi.rr.com
Kim Dutellegemini6667@aol.com
Laura Witekgottwins@hotmail.com
Leslie Ericksonthatlesliechick@gmail.com
Maria Zagorskime_zagorski@sbcglobal.net
Maureen DuPontmaudupont@att.net


Seniors!!! Fee Balances means..... No Graduation ceremony - Fees are due- June 9th......Please pay all fees online through your Infinite Campus Parent Account.  New this year, beginning with the 2017 graduating class, school board policy requires all fees and fines to be paid in full for a student to participate in the graduation ceremony. Your student will not be able to participate in the 2017 graduation ceremony if fees are not paid in full by June 9th.

Senior/Faculty Basketball Game - On Friday afternoon April 7th we had our annual game against our Senior students.....and though I am not one to gloat...I had been confident with my words and again they rang true as we defeated our Seniors students once again this year! I did feel bad for a moment until I realized that now our staff must train for the current Juniors who will be seniors next school year in order to have the same outcome! Thank you Seniors for having some fun with us and we wish you the best! 

Graduation 2017 Dates & Times: Graduation day for the all three Waukesha legacy high schools will be June 10th, 2017. Waukesha West High School will be holding graduation ceremonies in the West Fieldhouse on this date beginning at 2:00 P.M. As we are one community divided into three high schools, this year graduation times among all three high schools are staggered to enable friends and family to attend multiple ceremonies if they so choose. South High School ceremonies will begin at 10:00 A.M. and North High School ceremonies will begin at 12:00 P.M. on this date. Please begin informing friends and family who will be attending.

Project Graduation - All West parents needed to help at June 10th's Project Graduation!Graduation is less than two months away and the Project Graduation Committee has a fun night of food, games, activities and prizes for our senior class.  In order for this night to run smoothly and to keep this long-running tradition going strong for future grads, parents of students in all grade levels are needed to help out throughout the event. Shifts are available in all areas: from decorating, food prep, working in the kitchen and running carnival or casino games to checking in students as they arrive and being part of the security team.  Please consider how you can help and sign up here: http://www.signupgenius.com/go/8050444a8a72ba46-project5.  Thanks for supporting our seniors and school! Please access the link below if you would like to check out Project Grad.... Project Graduation Website Link


Archived Announcements Link: Please access this link to find all of the information in our daily announcements from previous weeks.


Preview of this week: Please check the calendars by downloading the West App or clicking on these two links to preview what is happening at West High School this week:


West Athletic Calendar Link

Monday, April 3, 2017

April 3rd Weekly Blog

Enjoy your break!!! - It never ceases to amaze me how quickly we get to this point in the school year. I want to wish everyone rest and relaxation on our upcoming break. Everyone pushes hard to get to this point, and it is time to reset and recalibrate to finish the year strong! That being said I will not be blogging again until Monday, April 24th.

Enjoy your break!!! continued... - I want to recognize two groups of staff and students that will be engaging in learning over our break. First is our music department who has a planned trip to Orlando and will be putting their musical talents on full display as they perform at multiple venues in and around the Orlando area, including Disney, under the direction of Mr. Duffy, Mrs. Granzow, and Mr. Carpenter. Second is a group of students who will be doing a service trip to Ecuador. Their goal is to perform service to help local residents have a better quality of life. We had a group of students take a similar trip last year to the Dominican Republic and it was a life altering experience for many of them...safe travels to all students and to Mrs. Abruzzo, Mrs. Acker and Mr. Harttert who are leading the group! Below is a photo from last years trip.



Purpose Corner - Please enjoy the brief video as I discuss our "Depth of Knowledge" focus and the work our staff did around this to during the school year to focus on increasing rigor.

Please Click Here for 2:57 Video


Senior/Faculty Basketball Game - This Friday afternoon will be our annual game against our Senior students. I have been giving this game some attention because I am directly involved in trying to win because of being on the faculty team. I look forward to a great assembly with some outstanding half time activities. Below is last years picture with me holding the championship trophy which I expect to win again! Just a side note, I have lost a little bit of hair from last year to this year...



Graduation 2017 Dates & Times: Graduation day for the all three Waukesha legacy high schools will be June 10th, 2017. Waukesha West High School will be holding graduation ceremonies in the West Fieldhouse on this date beginning at 2:00 P.M. As we are one community divided into three high schools, this year graduation times among all three high schools are staggered to enable friends and family to attend multiple ceremonies if they so choose. South High School ceremonies will begin at 10:00 A.M. and North High School ceremonies will begin at 12:00 P.M. on this date. Please begin informing friends and family who will be attending.

Help support "Circle of Friends" - COF is a club that meets after school and on weekends for fun activities and socializing.  This club is amazing and the social opportunities that are created are outstanding. Please support this club by purchasing T-shirts that will be sold for $10 during all three lunches - Tuesday and Wednesday, April 4th and 5th.  Different sizes from small to 2XL are available.  If you're interested in joining or would like more information, please check out the t-shirt table at one of the lunch hours.


Project Graduation - Every year our parent community puts on an amazing event for West graduating Seniors known as "Project Graduation." You cannot truly understand all of the work and effort that goes into to making this go off without a hitch and more importantly a culminating event to celebrate our Seniors after a four year journey through our halls. Please access the link below if you would like to check out how you can help out through volunteering your time or supporting this event through donations..... Project Graduation Website Link


Archived Announcements Link: Please access this link to find all of the information in our daily announcements from previous weeks.


Preview of this week: Please check the calendars by downloading the West App or clicking on these two links to preview what is happening at West High School this week:


West Athletic Calendar Link