October 30th Weekly Blog

Purpose Corner - Please enjoy the video as I discuss specifically our professional development that occurred this past Thursday, October 26th.

Please click here for this 3:17 video 

Waukesha West Girls Cross Country - Congratulations on posting back to back top five finishes at the WIAA State Meet that was held in Wisconsin Rapids this past Saturday, October 28th. The team was paced by Brooke Lytle (22nd), Becca Langer (23rd) and Kaya Kuokkanen (24th)  What a great finish to an outstanding season!

Boys Soccer - Way to go in making it back to back state tournament appearances this past Saturday, October 28th by knocking off #1 seed Wauwatosa East 5-0.  The Wolverines scored all five goals in the second half, led by a hat trick from Spencer Standarski.  New for this season, the remaining four teams are reseeded upon entering the state tournament.  West has earned the #2 seed, and will face #3 seed Oregon on Thursday, November 2nd at 1:30pm at Uihlein Soccer Park. Go WEST!

Boys Volleyball Team - Congratulations on being Regional Champs by beating Madison LaFollette this past Friday October 27th 3-0! Stat leaders were: Alec Boland with 37 assists and 2 aces, Matthew Spellman with 3 aces, 14 Kills on 15 swings, Ryan Langemak with 12 kills and middle blocker, Andrew Zagorski with 4 blocks and 9 kills. Libero, Erik Hansen had 13 digs and 2 aces. Come support your Wolverines, this Tuesday, October 31st for their Sectional match, at Kettle Moraine High School, starting at 7:00 pm.

Varsity Football - Last Friday the football team took control in a Level 2 Playoff matchup against Stoughton and completed a 35-0 victory.  West will now travel to Monona Grove for a Level 3 game this Friday, November 3rd. Be there to support the team!

West End Players - Waukesha West was selected to present the showcase play at this year's Wisconsin High School Theater Contest.  West's production of the hilarious comedy Noises Off will be the weekend's opening event.  This selection is in recognition of the quality of West productions and its success at the state theater contest over the past several years.  West has won the top award each of the past five years along with numerous awards for acting, directing, and technical theater.  

You don't have to come to the state contest to see Noises Off, though.  The play will be performed at Waukesha West November 3-5.  Tickets are available online at westdrama.com.

Principal Advisory Council - Below are the names of the individuals on the Principal Advisory Council. We met as a group most recently on Wednesday October 18th. We will be meeting again during our monthly time next on Wednesday November 15th. Please contact the representatives with questions/comments for our next meeting. The meeting minutes are linked here:

Amy Holzinger	aholzinger@sbcglobal.net
Ann Pascavis	mapascavis@hotmail.com
Cathy Frantz	cathyk21@gmail.com
James Boling	jmbjrboling@gmail.com
Jennifer Engel	j_rengel@sbcglobal.net
Jim Karpowitz	karpman@aol.com
Mark McGinnis	wxmarkmc@gmail.com
Mercedes Rawson	Rawson96@wi.rr.com
Sarah Bristol	north_physics@yahoo.com
Wendy Hamilton	wendyhamilton4@gmail.com
Betsy Peters	bpeters1247@gmail.com
Michelle Werner	michelle@hatchstaff.com

Empowering Parents Series - The next presentation will be on College/Career Readiness and Infinite Campus tools and will be held November 7th from 6:30-7:30 pm in the Waukesha West Media Center. Please RSVP using information on the flyer. Below is a link to the flyer for sign up and a visual of the flyer.

Empowering Parent Series Flyer Link

AP Test Registration...it has changed from last year..... - Please access the link below to our website for all the information you need to register fro AP tests and understand the changes that have occurred to that process for this school year. 

AP Registration and Information 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 clicking on these two links to preview what is happening at West High School this week:

West Main Page Calendar (Link)

Wolverines Pride Athletics.Activities Site (Link) 

October 16th Weekly Blog

The Cadets of Waukesha West - Congratulations to the Cadets of Waukesha West Marching Band for earning the First Place Trophy and Best Musical Presentation Award in Class AAA at the 2017 WSMA State Marching Band Championships!  The Cadets endured the downpour and gave a fantastic 1st place award performance! Enjoy the video of their performance as well as some pictures....way to go Cadets!

Please click here for this 16:20 Video

Congrats to Peter MacCudden! - And...... thanks to all of you who voted for Peter and helped him achieve this well deserved recognition which reflects the entirety of the team... the article is below..

Peter MacCudden of Waukesha West has been selected as the Week 8 Player of the Week following a statewide vote on WisSports.net. His big day helped the Wolverines top Muskego and secure at least a share of the Classic Eight title. He was chosen from a strong group of nominees in Week 8. A total of 4,682 votes were cast, as MacCudden's 1,893 were enough to edge second place Joe Garcia of Racine Horlick, who tallied 1,583 votes.

The Wolverines clinched at least a share of the Classic Eight title and MacCudden continued his strong season as the team beat Muskego 31-6. A strong contender for WFCA Offensive Player of the Year, MacCudden carried the ball 30 times for 248 yards and three touchdowns. He also threw a 27-yard score to Tyler Leitner in the first quarter on a halfback option pass. He also had seven tackles on defense.

Classic 8 Conference Champions who stand alone.... - The Waukesha West Varsity football team captured the Classic 8 Conference Championship trophy this past Friday by beating Catholic Memorial to remain the only undefeated team in conference play. They begin their journey into the state playoffs this Friday night at home against Germantown at 7:00 P.M. Hope to see you there!

Classic 8 Conference Champions - Congrats to the Waukesha West Varsity boys soccer team as they won the Classic 8 conference title outright with a conference record of 6-1-1 Please come and support the team as they begin their playoff run by hosting Milwaukee Bay View this Thursday October 19th at 7:00 P.M. Be there!

Early Release Schedule - The district has implemented early release days for this school year. The first day for this is next Wednesday, October 25th. Please see the daily schedule below for this day. Students are eligible to be picked up at 12:05 P.M. For those taking the bus, they will arrive at 1:05 P.M. All students who are staying on campus after 12:05 P.M. must remain in our lunchroom until their departure for the day. All students are to leave West by 1:05 P.M.

Purpose Corner -Please enjoy the video as I discuss upcoming professional development focused around mental health needs of our students and AVID!

Please click here for this 2:43 video 

District Career Fair - This is a wonderful district wide event for all students grades 6-12. Feedback from the event last year was that is was excellent and well worth the opportunity to have colleges and businesses come to us here in Waukesha. Please consider attending!

Take Back Day - This is a community event that offers safe disposal of unwanted prescriptions, medicines etc. Please see the flyer below to ensure safe disposal of dangerous substances.

Empowering Parents Series - The next presentation will be on College/Career Readiness and Infinite Campus tools and will be held November 7th from 6:30-7:30 pm in the Waukesha West Media Center. Please RSVP using information on the flyer. Below is a link to the flyer for sign up and a visual of the flyer.

Empowering Parent Series Flyer Link

AP Test Registration...it has changed from last year..... - Please access the link below to our website for all the information you need to register fro AP tests and understand the changes that have occurred to that process for this school year. 

AP Registration and Information Link

Fall Parent/Teacher Conferences - Parent teacher conferences are on Tuesday October 24th from 4:00 P.M. - 7:00 P.M. at West High School. Teachers will be in their classrooms per our usual format. Teachers manage their own conferences so parents will experience different processes for meeting with each teacher. Communication from parents to teachers is critical for success and technology allows us to communicate better than we ever have. With that being said, I ask all parents to consider if they truly need to come in and take a teachers time if their child is meeting expectations. Being that the time is short, and the purpose of this night is geared for parents and students to meet with teachers if they need more support, please consider alternate means of communication to maximize teacher time. It can be very difficult to meet with all teachers on this night, so I encourage parents to pick half of their child's teacher to try and get to on this night.

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 clicking on these two links to preview what is happening at West High School this week:

West Main Page Calendar (Link)

Wolverines Pride Athletics.Activities Site (Link) 

October 9th Weekly Blog

Positive Staff and Student Shout Outs! - Every month of this school year I share out a document that encourages our students to give a shout out to teachers that have made an impact on them in the classroom. I also share a document with teachers to showcase the positive and good things their students do in the classroom. I then share the dialogue between parties. Please enjoy the samples from West below:

Student shout out to teacher - She is very inspiring and refreshingly positive and full of energy. She gives us choices on what we want to do as opposed to dictating our lesson plan to us. She is an effective teacher while being fun and down to earth. She is highly creative and one of a kind, she is a great teacher to have and person to get to know in general.

Staff shout out to student - In class, I noticed that (Student) was petitioning that his peers voted for a specific student for Homecoming court. When I asked him why that boy should win he said, "He has to work really hard in school, and he is the nicest person in the entire grade. He encourages everyone and is always positive. He should represent our class." I don't know the other boy, but I thought it spoke volumes of (Student) that he noticed these behaviors in a peer and that he felt so strongly to recognize these qualities during Homecoming.


District Career Fair - This is a wonderful district wide event for all students grades 6-12. Feedback from the event last year was that is was excellent and well worth the opportunity to have colleges and businesses come to us here in Waukesha. Please consider attending!

 Purpose Corner - Please enjoy the video which continues the discussion of our focus for this year at West High School and touches upon our Educator Effectiveness system more in depth.

Click here to access this 2:20 video

The Cadets of Waukesha West - Congratulations to the Cadets of Waukesha West for two outstanding competition performances over the weekend! This past Saturday in Sauk Prairie the Cadets' placed first overall and won caption awards for best music, best visual, and best color guard, and on Sunday in Fort Atkinson the Cadets received the first place trophy in class triple A and received the 2nd highest score of the day.  Come see the Cadets finish out their performance season at this Friday night football game halftime show, and at the State Marching Band Championships this Saturday October 14th at 7:15 P.M. at UW-Whitewater. Go Cadets!

Battle to the Bell...Wolverine Football - A shout out to the Wolverine Varsity football team as they beat Muskego this past Friday night to remain unbeaten this season. Pleas come out and support them this Friday the 13th at home as they face CMH for sole possession of the Classic 8 conference title. They have been one of the best teams in the entire state this season....ALSO please see the email and link below to support Peter MacCudden and vote for him as he represents West on a statewide platform....

Congratulations,

One of your football athletes, Peter MacCudden, has been selected as a nominee for the Statewide Player of the Week on WisSports.net. For more information or to vote for the winner, please visit our full article here.

Feel free to share this information with your school and community, as the winner is selected by a state-wide vote that is open until Thursday at 4 pm, with the winner announced shortly after that.

Take Back Day - This is a community event that offers safe disposal of unwanted prescriptions, medicines etc. Please see the flyer below to ensure safe disposal of dangerous substances.

Empowering Parents Series - The next presentation will be on College/Career Readiness and Infinite Campus tools and will be held November 7th from 6:30-7:30 pm in the Waukesha West Media Center. Please RSVP using information on the flyer. Below is a link to the flyer for sign up and a visual of the flyer.

Empowering Parent Series Flyer Link

AP Test Registration...it has changed from last year..... - Please access the link below to our website for all the information you need to register fro AP tests and understand the changes that have occurred to that process for this school year. 

AP Registration and Information Link

Fall Parent/Teacher Conferences - Parent teacher conferences are on Tuesday October 24th from 4:00 P.M. - 7:00 P.M. at West High School. Teachers will be in their classrooms per our usual format. Teachers manage their own conferences so parents will experience different processes for meeting with each teacher. Communication from parents to teachers is critical for success and technology allows us to communicate better than we ever have. With that being said, I ask all parents to consider if they truly need to come in and take a teachers time if their child is meeting expectations. Being that the time is short, and the purpose of this night is geared for parents and students to meet with teachers if they need more support, please consider alternate means of communication to maximize teacher time. It can be very difficult to meet with all teachers on this night, so I encourage parents to pick half of their child's teacher to try and get to on this night.

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 clicking on these two links to preview what is happening at West High School this week:

West Main Page Calendar (Link)

Wolverines Pride Athletics.Activities Site (Link) 

October 2nd Weekly Blog

Homecoming Celebrations! - Homecoming week was full of school spirit. Please see the video below and the corresponding pictures which showcase all the great things our staff and students did this past week!

Please click here for this 3:28 video

It is the little things that matter and get noticed....an email from an Arrowhead parent...

My family and I live in Hartland, and my wife and I are parents to two boys, 9th and 4th grade, who were with us in the stands.

On a long pass play with the Arrowhead receiver successfully completing the pass, he sustained an injury to his shoulder area, and we watched as he laid motionless on the sideline for several minutes while he was tended to by trainers and others.  From the visiting stands, we witnessed the entire Waukesha West's team all along your sideline, down on one knee with their helmets off and on the ground next to them.  We also observed your student section sitting down and quiet.

 In my business, I have a favorite quote that I like to use, that goes like this.  "I can't hear what you say, because what you do rings so loudly in my ear."  Well students kudos to you for speaking so loudly with your actions.  Our actions as individuals make up a large part of what I call your "personal brand."  Well, the collective brand of Waukesha West was very well represented on Friday night, and those 10 minutes or so in particular. 

         Please feel free to pass this message on to whomever you would like, especially to              the team.  I would be honored to know that this feedback was given to them.  I                    believe it would be a good reinforcement that it was noticed, and that it matters.

Good luck with the rest of your season, and kudos again on your display of sportsmanship and class.

Principal Advisory Council - This past Wednesday, September 27th was the first meeting of the West "Principal Advisory Council." I would first like to thank all parents who showed interest in being part of the council, all applicants were more than qualified and I made tough decisions in putting together the council. Our first meeting found us getting to know one another through some ice breaking activities and then I talked alot. My goal through this was to let the committee know who I am and how I make some decisions to better understand situations that not all parties have information about. As a committee we will share the meeting minutes monthly. The individuals on this council are committed to bringing questions/feedback forward for questions and answers. Please connect with anyone of the council members as needed, the names and contact information for most members is below as I confirm email addresses for a few other members...

Amy Holzinger	aholzinger@sbcglobal.net
Ann Pascavis	mapascavis@hotmail.com
Cathy Frantz	cathyk21@gmail.com
Jennifer Engel	j_rengel@sbcglobal.net
Jim Karpowitz	karpman@aol.com
Mark McGinnis	wxmarkmc@gmail.com
Mercedes Rawson	Rawson96@wi.rr.com
Sarah Bristol	north_physics@yahoo.com
Wendy Hamilton	wendyhamilton4@gmail.com
Betsy Peters	bpeters1247@gmail.com

 Purpose Corner - Please enjoy the video which continues the discussion of our focus for this year at West High School and touches upon our Educator Effectiveness system.

Please click here to access this 3:03 video

Wall of Fame Induction - This past Friday we honored the newest members of our West Wall of Fame for 2017, Father Michael Wolf and Elizabeth (Robe) Englin. Please enjoy their induction credentials below:  

Empowering Parents Series - The West Student Services team has a vested interest in supporting our students as well as their families. The team would like to offer a series of presentations focused around relevant school topics. Please take a moment to share your opinion; your responses will drive our presentation topics and format. I ask that you click on the link and provide us your insight so we can serve you well!  
                                                  

Empowering Parents Series Needs Assessment (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 clicking on these two links to preview what is happening at West High School this week:

West Main Page Calendar (Link)

Wolverines Pride Athletics.Activities Site (Link)