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We've updated our look & added friends!
As a parent, staff member or fan of Willard Schools we hope you'll enjoy reading about school happenings each week. In addition to the new look we've included a few new features as well.
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Kid-Venture Days
$17.50 per child - Includes field trip
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MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!
OK, I know it's Halloween but Christmas is not far away and I like Christmas better! I have never enjoyed scary movies, but still watch Rudolph every year get attacked by the Abominable Snow Monster. Abominable then gets his teeth pulled out by Hermey the elf and learns how to hang the star on the Christmas tree without a ladder. (You know the story!)
I teach Advanced Law for a local University and every year I am questioned whether or not schools can legally use the term "Christmas" for their calender. Some believe it to be a legal violation utilizing the argument that schools are proselytizing religion by using the term Christmas. The result has been that many districts recognize Christmas Break as Winter Break. (I always wondered why people would want to celebrate "Winter"???) Other legal minds (of which I agree) believe that Christmas has been declared a legal holiday and by simply using the word "Christmas" does not proselytize students because it has become not only a celebration of the birth of Christ it has become a non-religious historic term. Missouri HB278 became law on September 11th. The bill is very short and is found below:
"No state or local governmental entity, public building, public park, public school, or public setting or place shall ban or otherwise restrict the practice, mention, celebration, or discussion of any federal holiday."
Therefore, the debate in Missouri is over. It no longer matters if you believe Christmas Break is against the law or if you believe (like me) that we always had the right to use this term. Willard has celebrated Christmas break for the past 10 years that I have been Superintendent of Schools. I guess HB278 simply validates that we were correct in our belief! (I wonder if it is legal to have Halloween, Thanksgiving, Easter, Superbowl, and End of the Year parties or do we need legal permission to do that??)
Only 27 Days to Thanksgiving, and 54 shopping days until Christmas!!!!!!
Merry Christmas!
Have a great weekend!
Dr. Kent Medlin
Superintendent
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It doesn't seem possible but some of our Fall sports are winding down, some are just getting started in their district tournaments, and Winter sports start their practices on Monday.....Are you kidding me?!!!!! It's been a great Fall season and football, soccer, and cross country are going to try and extend it a little further!
Congratulations to the VolleyTigers on another fantastic season which ended Tuesday night with a tough three game loss to Waynesville in the district semifinals. The girls ended the year with a 21-12-2 record! Great job ladies!
A very special congratulations to MIki Andrus for being a unanimous selection for first team All-COC in softball! Also, congratulations to Allison Davis for making 2nd team and to Olivia Rhoten and Maddie Reynolds for making Honorable Mention.
Congratulations to Garren Schweigart and Chloe Andrews on qualifying for the Sectional race in cross country tomorrow in Camdenton. Both will be trying to qualify for the State race next week in Jefferson City. Good luck Tigers!
Can someone say 7-2!!!!! Congratulations to our football Tigers on an outstanding regular season as they defeated Carthage last week on Senior Night. The Tigers earned a bye in the first round of the state playoffs this week. They also earned the right to host a second round game next Wednesday at 7:00pm. Our opponent is yet to be determined but come out on Wednesday night and support the Tigers in their district semifinal contest!
A big congratulations to our soccer Tigers on their victories over Catholic and Greenwood in preparation for their district tournament. We are hosting the tournament and here is the schedule as for now.....it could change with the weather:
Saturday, 1:00pm - West Plains vs. Hillcrest
Monday, 4:00pm - Willard vs. West Plains/Hillcrest winner, 6:00pm - Rogersville vs. Republic
Wednesday, 5:00pm - Championship match
Congratulations to the Marching Band for taking 2nd place in both the Gold Division and also in the Open Class Finals at the Francis Howell Marching Band Festival over the weekend. There were 22 bands in competition. The band also received the Outstanding Field Visual Award in the Gold Division during prelims. Over the past 5 weeks the marching band has competed with 120 bands from Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Kansas placing 4th, 2nd twice, and 1st twice. Diallo's Dream has had quite a journey.
It's Good To Be A Tiger
Jeff Staley
Activities Director
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Willard R-2 School District and Willard High School are blessed to have great teachers.As a parent of an elementary student, I get to experience the quality teachers.As a building principal, I get to see quality teachers at work every day.Please help us congratulate Mrs. Schnakenberg, business education, as the K-12 Educator of the Year for the Southwest Missouri Business Education Association.She will be representing the association, our school district, and community at the MBEA State Conference this upcoming summer.
As well, great students are throughout our district and school building.Please congratulate Robert Mitchals as he has been elected as District Vice President for Missouri DECA.He will be part of the State DECA Action Team.
We have no school on Tuesday, November 5, as the Star Summit will be held joining three different districts of education professionals for professional development.Teachers will have an awesome opportunity to work with others in their fields of expertise.
The second WHS 21st Century Skills meeting is next week on Thursday, November 7, after school.This is a collaborative effort to build vision and direction for WHS.Students as well as staff and administration are invited.There is discussion and initial planning to conduct a 21st Century WHS meeting where students, parents, staff, and administration would collaborate late this fall or early in 2nd semester.WHS is truly concerned with doing what is best for our students and the future of our students.Fully preparing our students for their future is a tremendous challenge yet opportunity.If you are interested in being a part of this, please let us know.
It is GREAT to be a Tiger!
Curt Graves WHS Principal |
Congratulations to our Lady Tigers! Both 7th and 8th grade teams took third place at the COC Tournament.
Congratulations to the WMS football team for finishing up their season with wins against Reeds Spring!
8th grade boys Cross Country ended the season with a 1st place at the COC meet! Awesome Job!!
We are still taking orders for the WMS student designed Tiger Pride shirt (see the order form below). Orders must be in the office, with payment, by November 8th.
The WMS Annual Veteran's Day assembly will be held on November 11th. Dessert bar in the library for the student and their veteran guest at 11:30 am with the assembly to begin at 12:30 pm. Invitations can be picked up in the office.
Tuesday WMS held "MIX IT UP DAY". This is a national campaign to bring awareness to intolerance and bullying. Students were encouraged to mix up their wardrobe with mis-matched clothing and they also mixed it up at lunch by sitting in different seats.
The 5th Annual WMS Washington DC Trivia Night is Saturday, November 23 at 6 pm in the WMS upper gym. Teams of up to 10 people compete against each other to help students raise money for the DC trip. Tickets are $10 per person. Get a team together and join us for a night of games and trivia! See Mr. Biggers or email [email protected] for tickets. A special thanks to the Dickerson Park Zoo, Zotts Creamery and Honda of the Ozarks for sponsoring this event.
Thanks,
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Thanks to all our parents that came out for Parent/Teacher conferences last week. It was great to see so many of you in the building and taking the time to check on how your child is doing. Our book fair was also very successful and we appreciate those of you that stopped by to find something good for yourself or your child to read. In conjunction with our book fair, our students collected change in their homeroom classes for the All For Books challenge. This program raises money every year for children that are in need of reading resources. WIS students stepped up in a big way this year and raised over $1000. Awesome job!
Speaking of helping out others, the WIS community has a really cool service opportunity coming up. This Monday, November 3rd, there will be an opportunity for all of us to be involved in a service activity tied to our current shoe collection drive. As many of you know, Sole Food (the shoe collection people) gives all of the proceeds from selling the shoes to Friends Against Hunger. FAH has an annual event where they package 1 million meals in a single weekend. It takes a ton of people to pull the event off, but it is so rewarding. Prior to the Million Meals event, they have 34,000 bags that must have an expiration label applied to them. So, with all of that said~ please join us in the WIS cafeteria Monday, November 3rd immediately after school to help place stickers on these bags. This will be a great opportunity for us to serve together! Anyone is welcome; staff, students, family, friends, community members, anyone capable of placing a sticker. We hope to see you here!
Enjoy the cool November weekend!
Tom Davis
Principal
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It is official...the holiday season is just around the corner and our calendars are full of upcoming activities! Willard South is no exception. Last week we had a steady stream of parents entering the building to meet with teachers for conferences. This week we celebrated Red Ribbon Week with lots of festive dress up days for each day of the week and a special visit from the High School Theater students.
This week we also celebrated student achievements with our monthly Tiger Pride Assembly. Congratulations to all of the students who earned an award including our Most Valuable Tiger, Character Ed, Attendance, Golden Tray, Fight Free and much more! On Thursday, we also celebrated the season with Fall class parties. A BIG THANK YOU to all of the amazing Homeroom Helpers who helped coordinate this event.
Don't miss these upcoming events next week at Willard South!
Tuesday, November 5th--NO SCHOOL FOR STUDENTS
Thursday, November 7th--PICTURE RETAKES
Friday, November 8th--Veteran's Day Assembly 2:00
Have a great weekend!
Kara Crighton-Smith,
Principal
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Central Elementary School
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It has been a busy couple of weeks at WC! Thank you to our students and parents for joining us for Student-Led Conferences last week. This time together allowed students the opportunity to demonstrate their learning for their parents in the classroom and also allowed teachers and parents the chance to review the Standards-Based Grading report card and MasteryConnect electronic assessment platform together to track student learning. We greatly appreciate the time and partnership between students, parents and teachers for these important conversations!
This week, Mrs. Gromer led our Red Ribbon Week activities to stay Drug and Bully Free at WC. The students enjoyed the different dress-up days and festivities while sharing and learning ways to make healthy choices.
As we look ahead to next week, school will not be in session on Tuesday, Nov. 5th. Many schools, including WC, are voting polling stations. In an effort to provide more student safety, school will not be in session to allow voting to take place. Teachers from Willard, Nixa and Ozark will be joining together for professional development to make the most of this day! It will be a powerful day of learning as teachers across these great districts share instructional strategies and collaborate on how to best serve student learning needs!
Enjoy the beautiful fall weather and have a safe, happy weekend!
Shane Medlin, Principal |
Orchard Hills Elementary School
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The Run For The Orchard 5K/1 Mile/Tot Race was a huge success! Thanks to all the Willard Folks who came out to participate. We appreciate our sponsors and volunteers from our school and Red Tree Church as well.
Our cooks at WOHE are the GREATEST! They made 30 dozen homemade cinnamon rolls that did not last long at the race. We are very grateful to Willard High School and the organizations who came out to help. Thanks to Dana Kimmons and her FFA posse, the Willard High School Cheerleaders, The Willard Tigerettes, and Willard High School National Honor Society for stepping up to make our event a success.
We will have a money total soon to share with everyone. Congratulations to all the runners who participated and placed. Our top overall male and female were Scott Dunsmuir, and Christy Mahan both who have had student attend WOHE. We hope to see you at the race line next year!
Dr. Rhonda Bishop
Principal |
On Monday, staff across the district participated in a professional development day dedicated to addressing the unique learning styles of students with special needs. I had the privilege of attending three different presentations that day. I listened to special education teachers and counselors provide information and resources about specific disabilities such as autism, speech/language and specific learning disabilities to name a few. I listened to creative ideas on how to individualize the learning for each student to help them succeed. I observed teachers collaborating on how to determine accommodations/modifications for the general education classroom and who to ask if they have questions on how to implement the IEP in their room. It was a great day and I am confident one that will have a lasting impact on students.
As we close the month of October, our awareness activities will slow down, but we are committed to growing as a district in working with ALL of our students so that they can be the very best they can be. Thank you to everyone who shared in the presentations, activities, and discussions! We are very blessed to have the support of our school board, community, parents, employees and administrators.
Respectfully Submitted,
Caryn McDonnell
Director of Special Services |
Curriculum, Instruction & Assessment
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On Tuesday, November 5, while students are enjoying a break from their school activities, K-12 teachers will participate in the first annual Shaping Teachers Across the Region (STAR) Summit.
This professional development opportunity joins the teachers and staffs from Willard, Ozark, and Nixa in a day of professional learning and growth. Teachers from all grade levels and areas of expertise will present on topics ranging from instructional best practices to using technology in the classroom. Teachers from K-4 will meet in Nixa, 5-8 teachers will meet at Willard High School, and 9-12 teachers will meet at Ozark High School. We are excited to share with our colleagues in the southwest, and know this opportunity will bring together many talented educators to learn from!
Danielle Sellenriek Director of Curriculum, Instruction & Assessment
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