Our Willard Schools
The Pride
www.willardschools.net
November 16, 2012

In This Issue
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District Office

This week, several administrators, teachers, and instructional coaches had the privilege to travel to Kansas City to the MSTA State Convention.   Willard instructional coach Carolyn Nixon was being recognized as the recipient of Secondary Educator of the Year for the state of Missouri.  

 

At the convention, Dr. C.J. Huff the Superintendent of Joplin spoke to the audience about what Joplin learned after the tornado. Dr. Huff started his speech by stating that he was not going to talk about the tornado, the devastation, the hurting families, or the difficulties in reconstructing Joplin schools.   Dr. Huff said that Joplin learned about people, especially educators, and their willingness to give of themselves.   At Thanksgiving last year, Joplin Schools had an idea to open one of their middle schools and provide a "fun time" for students during the holidays. Dr. Huff said, "We wanted a place for students to go and relieve some of the pressure".   The administrators estimated 100-200 students interested in coming on Thanksgiving Day, Friday and Saturday.

 

The school sent out the flyer with all students and received 400 responses on the first day which quickly climbed to 1,100 youth wanting to come during the holidays. The school had found a big need, but realized they did not have enough volunteers to facilitate that many youth in their buildings.   Dr. Huff reached out to other school districts surrounding Joplin. Teachers, administrators, and counselors gave up their Thanksgiving break time to help Joplin young people who were hurting and needed a place to escape from their FEMA homes.   Many of the Joplin students were "sharing homes" as families were getting back on their feet.

 

Thanksgiving is a time of remembering and being grateful for friendships and family we have. As we go into the Thanksgiving Holidays, I am reminded of how thankful I am of the community of Willard, the students of Willard Schools, and the incredible staff I work alongside.  

 

Have a great weekend,

Stewart Pratt

Assistant Superintendent 

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Athletics & Activities

In some ways, winter sports got underway last night as we hosted "Meet the Tigers" night. Wrestling, girls basketball, and boys basketball took the floor and demonstrated what they have been working on. In some cases they will be putting it to the test for real very soon. Here is a rundown of what's coming up:

 

The Lady Tigers will start things off on Monday as they host Monett. All three of our teams will play that night as the freshmen will start at 5:00 followed by the JV and then the varsity. The girls will then travel to Rolla next Saturday to play in the Rolla Shootout. Varsity will play at 3:00 followed by a JV game. Good luck ladies!

 

The Tigers don't open play until next Saturday when they will travel to Rolla for the Rolla Shootout with the girls. The JV will play at 3:00 followed by the varsity.

 

The wrestling Tigers won't start their season until Dec. 1st when they travel to Neosho for the Neosho Tournament.

 

Speech and Debate went to Nixa and had another great weekend! In Semi-Finals they had Caleb McMurtrey in Novice International Extemporaneous Speaking, Emily Raney in Novice Dramatic Interpretation, and in Novice Duo Bri Liarmomatis and Bri Taylor, Max Ksenafontov and Zach Manes. In Finals there was Juliette Baker 6th and Kayleigh Amstutz 4th in Novice Humorous Interpretation, Greg Hamilton and Derby Davis 5th in Duo Interpretation, and Mercer Martin 2nd in International Extemporaneous. In debate Halen Holton won 3rd in Lincoln Douglas Debate and Greg Hamilton won 3rd in Champ Lincoln Douglas Debate! Great Job!

 

By the way, rumor has it that Kendra Chappell and her students have outdone themselves....AGAIN! with the musical. If you haven't seen it, I strongly encourage you to get out tonight or tomorrow and treat yourself to something special.

 

It's Good To Be A Tiger!

Jeff Staley - Activities Director 

 

High School
If you haven't seen 'Seussical the Musical' yet, there is still time. Performances continue tonight, November 16 at 7:30 PM, as well as on Saturday, November 17 at 2 PM and 7:30 PM. With over a hundred cast, crew, and staff, the production is very impressive.

WHS continues to work at providing the best academic preparation for our students. Next month, December 5-6, our juniors will be participating in an ACT Field Study. Mrs. Kiesewetter, Assistant Principal at WHS, is leading our ACT Committee. The field study is an excellent opportunity for our students as well as for our staff to provide national feedback and garner insight into the expectations in order to best prepare our students to be college and career ready.

First semester final exam information will be posted on our website in the coming days. Finals are scheduled for December 19-21. Best practice for our students is to be sure to attend reviews and take finals as scheduled.

Congratulations to Mr. David Matthews, WHS math teacher, and his wife, Erin, on their new little girl, Pfeifer Brookann. We want to welcome the newest Willard Tiger to our family! Please have a safe and happy Thanksgiving. It is truly great to be a TIGER!

Thank you for making Willard High School the premier high school in the Ozarks!

Curt Graves
Principal 
Middle School

The middle school has been hopping with excitement this week. Basketball and wrestling are in the swing of the winter season. Winter Guard has begun and drew quite a crowd of young ladies. Coach Miller has started archery club after school and we are looking forward to a successful year. The amount of hours these individuals put into their activity is great and I'm sure we will see their pay off in the end.

 

Saturday, Christmas on the Frisco Trail will be having several events held at the middle school. Stop by to visit with Santa, enjoy browsing the crafts, or taste some chili at the cook off. Hope to see you there!! Thanks for checking in on us!


Amy Sims and Stephanie Walters

Principal and Assistant Principal

 

Intermediate School

A spirit of giving at WIS

I wanted to take some time in this week's article to highlight a few of the efforts to "give back" our students and staff have recently been involved in. It is great to see our students so eager to help others that are in need in our community and other parts of the world. We should all be very proud of them!

Ms. Harron headed up the "Sole Food" shoe drive again this year. Students and staff donated 333 pounds of used shoes here in the building. A portion of the proceeds from the shoes Sole Food collects goes to Friends Against Hunger. The remainder of the proceeds go to purchase well drilling rigs, water filtration systems, and other supplies to bring clean, fresh water to those who thirst. Further, the shoes are sent to countries such as Tanzania and Haiti to provide affordable footwear to those in need. What an awesome way to help others with something that normally ends up in a landfill! You can find out more about this program at their website,
http://solefood.us/ 

Ms. Abbott and our Go-Green club took on a new project this year in making WIS a collection point for the Cell Phones for Soldiers organization. This program takes gently used cell phones and turns them into prepaid calling cards for U.S. troops throughout the world.
http://www.cellphonesforsoldiers.com/ To date, WIS has collected over 75 phones putting us very close to our goal of 100. This is a great way to show our appreciation to our troops and keep our old phones out of the trash. Go-Green would love to have yours!

WIS is currently wrapping up our annual Thanksgiving food drive. Students have been bringing in donated food items for the last two weeks and the result is amazing. Mrs. Skaggs and our student council have been busy today sorting and labeling everything in preparation for distribution next week. Our goal is to give 25 WIS families a full Thanksgiving meal that they would not be able to provide on their own. Thank you to all those that have sent in food donations as this would not be possible without your help.

Enjoy the warm and sunny weekend!

Tom Davis
Principal

North Elementary School

I am thankful for the wonderful students at Willard North. They make me laugh, they make me cry, and they make me stretch myself beyond the limits. I am thankful for each and every one of them. I am thankful to my parents who partner with me, who talk to me, who support our school. I am thankful to my teachers and staff who come to work excited for a new day and the opportunity to make a difference.

 

Have a great weekend and an even better Thanksgiving!!!

 

Angela Stevens

Principal

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South Elementary School

We held our annual Veteran's Day Assembly on Friday, November 9th. We had over 125 Veterans and family members in attendance. It is always an honor to host a special event for those who have helped protect our country. They were welcomed with a breakfast in our library that was put together by our wonderful kitchen staff. Our students had a variety of writings displayed in each hallway from kindergarten through fourth grade for the Veterans to read. During the assembly, Veterans watched a video with pictures of students in our building, a bell performance and poetry by our After School Actors and everyone joined together to sing the song My Flag. A special thank you to everyone who helped make this an incredible event for each and every Veteran.

 

This week we had our fundraiser pick up. I want to give a BIG THANK YOU to all of the family members who helped make this our best fundraiser event!! Our final profit was....$9,866!!! Thanks to your continual support for our students and staff members, the profit will continue to fund our school shirts, family night events, field trips and numerous other activities.

 

Have a great weekend!

Kara Crighton-Smith

Principal

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East Elementary School

Last Friday we celebrated Veteran's Day. It is always an honor to have these ladies and gentleman join us for a day of recognition. Thank you to Doug Johnson and his wife Diana for all their help and hard work putting together a memorable event for our Veteran's.

Tonight we are looking forward to Family Movie Night! We will be showing The Lorax at 7:00PM in the Willard East gym. This is a free movie night for our students and their families.

Holiday season is upon us! Be on the look out for information for our annual holiday food and toy drive. If you would like to "adopt" a family for the holiday season please let us know. We have families that could always use a little help during this time of year. Even the teachers pitch in. For the past few years, instead of buying each other gifts for the holidays each teacher buys something for one of our families in need. This is a very rewarding experience that we all look forward to.

As we will be out of school next week we hope that your family has a nice Thanksgiving.

 
Melinda Miller

Principal  

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Central Elementary School

It has been a busy week at WC. 2nd grade students carried on the Broadway Beat with their music concert this week. They did a great job sharing popular Broadway hits with our student body and their family and friends. It was an enjoyable evening and the students' hard work paid off. WC students also showed their generosity by collecting items for the Fall Food Drive. I am proud of our students and their efforts to help others in need.

As we look ahead to next week, our students will be celebrating their hard work on our PTO Fundraiser. Tuesday, students will have the chance to turn me in to a "human hotdog" at Community Time. Some students earned the opportunity to ride to lunch in a limousine with the principal. Our students hard work paid off in over $10,000 for our school's PTO to purchase our school shirts, technology and other learning materials for our school. Our parent and community partnership is greatly appreciated! Thank you for supporting WC and our students!

Have a great weekend and a blessed Thanksgiving with family and friends.

Shane Medlin

Principal


Orchard Hills Elementary School

Last week was a busy one for Orchard Hills! On Thursday night, the 2nd and 3rd grade classes hosted the musical "Squirm" to a packed audience in the Commons! It was fantastic! Thank you Mrs. Kuchta and Mrs Palmer for your work on this special night! It was fantastic!

 

Friday morning, we hosted our 3rd annual Veteran's Day Assembly. We were pleased to have around 40 veteran's join the children of WOHE in celebrating. Thanks go out to Pat Lloyd who spoke to our students on the topic of "Freedom". Kindergarten Teacher Sarah Blakemore sang the National Anthem and Rachel Young sang "Letters from War". The fourth grade class did several musical numbers with Evan, Trisha, Dezaray, TJ, and Maria singing beautiful solos! It was a very special event!

 

Because we were not busy enough, we hosted our 3rd annual "Run for the Orchard" on Saturday! We were blessed with amazing weather and huge crowds of people! We beat our record of 300 participants in all three races by registering 304! Congratulations to Tyler Henry and Christy Mahan for being the overall Men and Women's winners on the 5K! Thanks also go out to Dallas Jones for providing the musical entertainment! We should know soon what our proceeds are.

 

Next week is a short week! We are thankful for the huge community support shown to us every day and we are blessed with amazing families in the Willard District. From our school family to yours, HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

 

Rhonda Bishop

Principal

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Special Services

Breakfast with Santa

Date:    Saturday, November 17, 2012

Time:   Breakfast - 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.

 *Picture with Santa - 7:30 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.

Where: Willard Middle School cafeteria

              205 Miller Road, Willard MO 65781

Cost:    $7.00 per adult breakfast, kids eat FREE

 

Come enjoy breakfast and show your support for Willard A Sporting Chance. In addition to a delicious breakfast of all-you-can-eat pancakes, sausage, and a beverage, you will receive one FREE picture with Santa Claus per adult meal purchase. Additional picture copies may be purchased for $3.00 each. See you Saturday! Hosted by Willard A Sporting Chance

 

Caryn McDonnell

Director of Special Services




Willard School District | 4177422584 | [email protected] |
460 E Kime
Willard, MO 65781

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