November 2018 Edition

The first quarter of the school year is already completed and time is flying by!  Homecoming week was successful with so many fun and exciting events and activities for our students and staff.  As you may already know, the football team took down Taft and the homecoming and middle school dances were among the most well attended that we have ever had!  

As we reflect upon our many reasons to feel grateful, it is always inspiring to consider the many ways our students and staff team up to share what they have with others.  Activities such as the FFA “Food for All” and the annual canned food drive will soon be underway.  In December, student leadership classes and clubs raise money to shop for others in need through projects such as “Shop for a Student” and the “Tree of Giving.”  If you are interested in supporting any of these projects, please contact Mr. Neville or Mr. Nelson at the high school or Mrs. Barrios at the middle school.

With the recent release of our school district’s state report card, staff members are working diligently as we continually strive to meet our school improvement goals for the year.

We celebrate many positive indicators of improvement on this year’s report card including  5 of the 6 middle school “At a Glance School Profile” indicators showing growth in the areas of ELA, Math, Science, Individual Student Progress, and Class Size. (The middle school led our district in making progress in 23 out of 33 sub-groups.  These are their highest marks for the last three years!)  For the high school, four out of five indicators showed improvement over the previous year in the areas of On-Track to Graduate, On-Time Graduation, Regular Attenders, and Class Size.  I am very happy with student and staff success on last year’s growth.  We are looking forward to even better results for this coming year.

The fall sports concluded with very successful seasons.  The volleyball team was co-champions with six all-league girls and  “Coach of the Year” was awarded to Heather Hughes.  Cross country had its first state competitor in ten years.  Kaleb Floyd finished 18th place in the state overall.  The high school football team hosted its first playoff game in ten years!

Students district wide joined in the national “ShakeOut” earthquake drill in October.  Staff highlighted and reviewed the “Shelter in Place” survival kits which were donated to every classroom in our district by the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde.  We thank CTGR again for their continued support.  We regularly practice emergency responses in an on-going effort to keep students and staff safe.

As we move on to a fresh second quarter, we look forward to continued progress and growth as we work together to help our students succeed.

LEAD (Life Education for Alternative Directions) is a program for students who wish to have a blended online and in-house education here at Willamina High School.  This model allows over 30 students to take online Acellus courses as well as participate in traditional classrooms for English, Math, Science, PE, Construction, Welding, Art and Drama programs. Acellus offers all core subjects with over 36 district approved electives. It is a self-paced curriculum in which high school students set personal goals to pace themselves over a semester/year. Students must be diligent and on task, watching videos, taking notes, and passing all quizzes and exams to receive credit. Two students have already accelerated their learning to graduate early this year! In the first quarter of school, our 32 LEAD students have achieved a total of 40 classes, for a total of 32.5 high school credits.

Mrs.Griggs, a teaching assistant in her second year, continues to be a huge support person with Mrs. Hughes (also in her second year) to work effectively with our Willamina LEAD students. Both have the ability to help students focus on the core classes they need to be academically successful and be on track towards graduation.

8th Grade English Language Arts

In 8th grade Language Arts, students began the year with a short poetry unit.  We started with a “Me” poem where students wrote about themselves. For the second poem, we ventured outside to become more attuned to nature and wrote Japanese Haikus.  Students were to write at least two poems, but several enjoyed it so much that they wrote more. The final poem was to be made into the shape of what the writing was about. Many creative poems came out of that unit. 

In Literature, students learned about the elements of fiction and completed the first book project.   The project was to create a container representing their book, make up 10 questions and answers, create a 10 word dictionary for vocabulary words, and choose five objects that related to the book.  Students put a lot of thought and effort into their projects. 

8th graders are also beginning to think about Promotion and end of the year trip.  We would like to do a fundraiser sometime after January or February to help raise money for this.  Any parent who is interested in helping with the fundraiser or Promotion should email me at sherree.barrios@willamina.k12.or.us or call me at the Middle School at 503-876-2545.

Improving student attendance and reducing chronic absenteeism continues to be a goal for our district.  Attendance matters.  We want every student to come to school everyday and to maintain a 92% or better average for the entire year! 

Posted 11/13/2018