Our Willard Schools
The Pride
April  12, 2013

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In This Issue
Kindergarten Screening

Willard East               April 17th

Willard Central          April 9th

Willard Orchard Hills May 6th

Willard North             April 18th

Willard South            April 16th

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Willard Parks

Youth Baseball

The signup deadline is May 3rd.  Make sure to come by the Rec. Center to sign up! 

   

New Websites  
Two new websites have been launched.:
  
www.willardparks.com is the new home for all of your Willard Parks news and information.
  
www.willardaquatics.com  is a new site just for our aquatics programs.   Please visit for all your aquatic needs.
District Office

April in school districts doesn't only signal Spring it also signals hiring of teachers! State Law mandates that public school teachers must be voted upon for re-hire by April 15th or they are automatically extended a contract for the next year.
  
Most professionals are simply hired until them, or the organization, decides it is time to part ways. Not so with public school teachers. Two types of contracts exist for teachers: Probationary and Indefinite. Probationary contracts are extended to teachers that have successfully served in a specific school district for five years or less. Teachers that have served in a district for six years or more receive an indefinite contract.
  
There is much debate about "Tenure" for the public school teacher. Most of the public believes that a "Tenured" teacher is untouchable and has a job for life. This simply isn't true! Tenured teachers have simply earned the right that they cannot be dismissed from a public school for a frivolous reason. Tenured teachers may be dismissed for any of the following reasons: Inadequate Performance, Neglect of Duty, Insubordination, Immorality, Abuse of Drugs / Alcohol, Conviction of a Felony, Mental or Physical incapacity.
  
Fortunately, Willard has exceptional teachers! Each year this is a time to reflect and be thankful for our excellent staff. I appreciate their efforts, dedication, talents, and most of all their love of kids!
Have a great weekend!

Kent
 
Dr. Kent E. Medlin
Superintendent of Schools
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Athletics & Activities

I had the privilege of attending a workshop last weekend that was one of the best I've ever attended. The speaker was Greg Dale, Ph.D. and Professor of Sport Psychology and Sport Ethics at Duke University. The subject was "Keeping Sport in Perspective". He addressed this topic from three perspectives: the student; the coach; and the parent. I've listened to many speakers....some things stick with you....some go right through you. This one moved me. It made me gain a greater appreciation for what we have in Willard. Since that workshop, I have supervised a soccer game and a baseball game. In both cases, I watched with new eyes....and I liked what I saw. We are incredibly lucky to BE WILLARD!

 

Speaking of soccer, the Lady Tigers defeated Webb City on Tuesday to run their record to 7-0 on the season! They will be playing in the Kickapoo Invitational this weekend and start tonight at 7:00pm at Kickapoo. Play will resume on Saturday. Next week the girls will travel to Carthage on Tuesday and to Parkview on Friday. Also, a special "Congratulations" to Dylan Owens on being named "Athlete of the Week" by the O-Zone website.

 

Congratulations to the baseball Tigers on their impressive 10-2 victory over Nixa last night. This puts them at 8-5 on the season. They have a very busy week ahead of them as they will travel to Harrison, AR on Monday, to Neosho on Tuesday, to Republic on Thursday, and will host Nevada on Friday....whew! Good luck Tigers!

 

The track Tigers have been very busy and here is the long list of results:

The Willard Tiger boys competed at the Hillcrest Invitational on Friday night. Juniors Kolbe Kinghorn and Z. Barr paced the Tigers, bringing home three medals between the two at the prestigious event. Competitors from around the state gathered at John F. Kennedy Stadium, on the campus of Parkview High School, to compete for eight medals in each event. With thirty schools in attendance, earning a medal was quite an accomplishment. Kinghorn was able to earn two. His long jump of 20' 8" earned a fifth place finish and his 400 meter dash of 51.97 seconds earned sixth place and his second medal of the day. Z. Barr was the highest finisher for the Tigers, earning a silver medal for his 200 meter dash of 23.24 seconds. Junior Daniel Horne completed the medals for the Tigers with a sixth place finish in the high jump (6' 00"). The boys, and the girls, will travel to West Plains for a varsity meet on Thursday.

 

The Girls' Night Out Meet, hosted by Glendale High School on Thursday, featured thirty schools from around the state. When competing against traditional large-class track powers such as Blue Springs, Liberty and Jefferson City, not to mention the always-tough Ozark Conference and Central Ozark Conference schools, bringing home one of the eight medals for each event is certainly a challenge. Senior Ali Frazier was up to the challenge bringing home two medals for the Tigers with her second place finish in the discus (with a personal-best throw of 126' 7") and a third place finish in the shot put (37' 4"). Freshman Chloe Andrews also had a big day with her personal best time of 2:25.62 in the 800m run. Andrews earned the third place medal at the meet.

 

Our golfing Tigers have also been busy. Here are their results:

 

Team Score: 327 (2nd best team score in the past 4 years)

Team Place: 2nd out of 14 Teams
Willard Individuals 
Marshall Faulkner - 77 (Tied for 5th overall)
Robert Mitchals - 80
Jared Holmes - 82
Lance Parrish - 88
Eric Rodocker - 98
Silo Ridge Invitational:
Team Score: 361
Team Place: 7th out of 17
Willard Individual Results 
Marshall Faulkner - 77 (5th overall out of 83 players)
Robert Mitchals - 86 (21st)
Jared Holmes - 98 (50th)
Eric Rodocker - 100 (57th)
Lance Parrish - 103 (64th)
  
Congratulations to the Willard High School Winter Guard for earning the 1st Place Gold Medal this past Saturday at the Mid Continent Color Guard Association Championships. This is the first time the winter guard has won their division at Championships. The winning margin was by a mere 0.2 of a
point. WHS was the host site for the 55 schools who attended Championships this past weekend.
  
It's Good To Be A Tiger!
Jeff Staley
Activities Director 
High School
  
Middle School
  

Spring is finally here and thanks to our Green Team the flowers are blooming in our flower beds. Yearbooks are also here! Thanks to Mrs. Loveland and the yearbook team for creating a well put together yearbook that captures important memories at WMS in 2012-2013. Thank you to Mrs. Graves and all who helped with the Mulan production last week. We feel privileged to have so much talent in our building! Last week we celebrated the wonderful help of the paraprofessionals in our building and this week we celebrated our librarian.

Upcoming Events:

  • Come out to support our track team tomorrow at home for the Willard Invitational Meet starting at 4:oo pm.
  • We are hoping for a good turnout next Thursday, April 18th at the Title I Parent Night at Barnes and Noble 6-8pm
  • The peer ambassadors will be putting on a black and white themed dance for the 8th graders next Friday, April 19th 7-9pm.
  • Softball will be playing 4 games next week
  • Plans are already underway for next years 8th grade Washington DC trip. An informational meeting will be held on April 16th at 7pm in the MS library.

Thanks for check in on us!

 

Amy Sims and Stephanie Walters

Principal and Assistant Principal

Intermediate School
  
North Elementary School
  
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South Elementary School
 

A big thank you to everyone who came out and celebrated Thursday evening at our Parent Appreciation Dance and the Care to Learn Brownie Wars. These two events are hosted by our building Family and Community Together Cadre and the Willard Care to Learn chapter. Proceeds from the Brownie Wars will go to the Willard Care to Learn to help families in our community with health, hunger or hygiene concerns. It was a great evening of music, dancing, face painting, games and snacks!

 

Our third and fourth grade students have been busy with MAP ATTACK every Tuesday and Thursday in preparation for the upcoming MAP test. Grade level teachers have created some amazing lessons and are reviewing test taking strategies to help students prepare for the test. I am confident that students will DO THEIR BEST ON THE TEST due to all of these extra steps to ease test anxiety. Testing dates will be April 23, 24, 25, 30 and May 1 and 2. We will have a MAP kick-off assembly on Monday, April 22nd at 3:00. Don't miss this friendly competition of third grade teachers vs. fourth grade teachers in our test taking obstacle course!

 

Kara Crighton-Smith

Principal

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East Elementary School
  

Today Willard East hosts a school-wide Spring Concert at Willard High School. Each grade level will be performing two songs for our entire school community. We would like to thank the high school staff for allowing us to use their beautiful facilities as we did not think we could fit everyone into the small Willard East Gym. We would also like to recognize the elementary music teachers Mrs. Kuchta, Mrs. Chatman, Mrs. Reynolds and Mrs. Reed for their hard work putting this event together. It is also important to recognize our art teacher Miss Mathers with her detail in making all the signs for the program. It will definitely be a night to remember!

 

Kindergarten Screening is next week! We are excited to meet all our new Little Tigers.

 

Melinda Miller

Principal

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Central Elementary School
 

Orchard Hills Elementary School

 

We have had a busy week at WOHE!

 

We continue with Camp MAP this week and next. We have taught the 3rd and 4th graders some "jingles" to remember some procedures on the assessment. Check out our YouTube Video at

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6PU3raUM-c.

 

Today several students had a pizza party to celebrate being top money raisers for Jump Rope for Heart. Congratulations to Kason Swofford who was our top fundraiser. He gets to have our WOHE gymnasium named after him for the entire year! Way to go Kason!

 

On another note, summer school forms went out this week to all K-5 students in the district. Once again we will have two sites; Willard North and Willard South as locations for summer school. This year, both schools will provide ALL children free breakfast and lunch at no charge to families. Forms must be turned in no later than May 3rd.

 

Have a wonderful weekend!

 

Rhonda Bishop

Principal 

 
Special Services

This week our focus for autism is on communication. Please take a minute to visit the blog and read about this skill area and how it relates to students with ASD.   I would like to thank Ashlie Henry, Speech and Language Pathologist at Willard Orchard Hills Elementary, for the information as well as Shannon Roberts, Special Education Teacher at Willard Orchard Hills Elementary, for compiling the information and creating the blog. The link is http://willardspecialservices.weebly.com/blog.html

 

Have a fantastic weekendJ


Caryn McDonnell

Director of Special Services 




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

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