Monday, April 27, 2020

April 27th Weekly Blog (COVID-19 Edition)

Weekly Video Update - This week I provide an update on student feedback, graduation, yard signs, building access, and fees.

Click here for this 2:36 video

Senior Yard Signs - Our graduating families picked up their yard signs yesterday as all graduate families have a yard sign available to them free of charge compliments of West High School. Please check our daily announcements if you did not pick up your sign for information on how to get yours. A big thank you to our parent volunteers and Athletics/Activities Administrative Assistant Kim Dutelle for coordinating this for our graduates! Enjoy the pics below:












U.S. News Best High Schools - According to U.S. News & World Report, West High School was ranked 1,189 out of 17,792 high schools nationally who qualified, putting us in the top 7% of high schools in the nation! We ranked 32 out of 551 high schools statewide putting us in the top 6% comparatively in the state of Wisconsin! The entire Waukesha West community contributes to this distinction and we need to celebrate it while keeping our growth mindset! Way to go West!






Housing Instability - Please see the information below if you or any families you are aware of with students within the School District of Waukesha are experiencing housing instability.





Book Boxes - Mrs. Shaina Sepulveda, West English teacher is passionate about literacy, as is the case with many of her colleagues. She led the charge for our Freshmen students to read in school daily which directly supports West's focus on increasing literacy skills in our students. Recently, West High School Senior Dylan Waller reach out to me about a potential Eagle Scout project of building book boxes for some of our classrooms, so I connected him with Mrs. Sepulveda. Please see the results in the pics below. These boxes will be in multiple classrooms at West next year and will house texts for students to enjoy and build their passion for reading along with important skills! Thank you to Mrs. Sepulveda and Dylan for making this happen.







Graduation Letter - Please see the letter below that was shared with West families via email last week:

Dear Families of the class of 2020,

During this continued pandemic, the health and safety of all of our students and families continue to be our top priority. We understand that this has been a difficult time for families, especially for our seniors who will be graduating.

Thank you to the many students who completed a survey regarding graduation options. 
Based on student responses, our graduates overwhelmingly prefer in-person graduation later in the summer, rather than virtual graduation in June. 

Governor Evers decision to close schools for the remainder of the 2019-2020 school year means that no school events can take place before June 30, 2020. Therefore, we are selecting Saturday, July 18, 2020, as our graduation date with an outdoor morning ceremony at West High School. The ceremony will begin at 11:00 A.M.  Should this day not work due to inclement weather or any other unforeseen circumstance, we will use Saturday, July 25th, 2020 as our alternate date. Further communications will be issued with details regarding the logistics of the graduation ceremony.

We appreciate your patience and support during this ever-evolving public health crisis. We are continuously following the directives of federal, state, and local governments and agencies while trying to accommodate the requests of our families. We will keep you apprised of any updates.

We are excited to be planning and celebrating with you and your graduate in July!

Sincerely,

Ryan J. Patt

South Graduation - 8:00 A.M.
North Graduation - 9:30 A.M.

Parent Resource - Below is a one-page parent resource document that was shared via email last week. It may be useful for you in this stay-at-home environment. Here is the link to the official document.





West Virtual Talent Show - In the event we do not come back to school, or if we come back close to the talent show date, Mr. Jonas wants to have a virtual talent show for Waukesha West. I would be great practice if we do come back and students can perform as well. Mr. Jonas asks students to record and send a video of their talent to him directly via email at frjonas@waukesha.k12.wi.us for the purpose of creating a Youtube compilation for the West community to enjoy regardless of what the future entails. Remember that submission, means you consent to be on Youtube. Mr. Jonas is happy to support you with ideas if you are interested, so reach out to him if you prefer. Videos must be submitted by April 30th.

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