WillardPublicSchools
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The Pride
October 17, 2014

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Your Voice
 
Each week this section will feature a 2 minute survey asking for your input on an important school issue. Please take a couple minutes to let Your Voice be heard.
Willard Parks

 

Youth Basketball Registration

Oct. 1st - Oct. 18th  

 

Safe Halloween Trunk or Treat
October 25th 2014 from 6pm-8pm

 

Dungeon of Doom Haunted House

Friday, Oct. 24th & Saturday, Oct. 25th: 7-10 pm 

 

9th Annual Christmas on the Frisco - Nov. 22nd

www.christmasonthefrisco.com

 

3rd Annual Willard Turkey Trot 
Thanksgiving Morning November 27th 2014

 

Music Class Registration Underway

www.willardparks.com/music-classes

 

 
 

 

 

 

 

  
District Office

Last week, Dr. Medlin's Pride article spoke of not wanting to take anything for granted regarding the upcoming bond issue. As I read it, it struck a chord with me that perhaps, as a school community; we shouldn't take our district for granted either!

 

Willard Public Schools is much more than just the town of Willard. It's farm families, it's a large group of families who call Springfield their "home", and it's a destination for families looking to move to this area. It's easy, after living in our school community for 21 years, to take for granted the hard work our staff puts in to make our district a place where students receive a quality education. But, when parents who are moving to this area have the choice of schools like Republic, Nixa, Ozark or Springfield, why do they choose our district? There is obviously something that attracts their attention that we who have either lived here all our lives or lived here a long time take for granted.

 

In my 15 years working in the district, I can't begin to count the phone calls - "interviews" if you will - and requests for tours or school visits for parents shopping for a great school first, then a home in that school district. I say all that to say, our district provides jobs, opportunities for families, and quite honestly, attention to our communities that otherwise might not exist without the quality of our schools and our district's reputation. Please don't take that for granted when you consider our request for a bond issue. It all comes at a cost.

 

This bond initiative will impact 4 school campuses, at least 4 of our largest extra and co-curricular programs, provide opportunities for at least one more school and community program addition, and pave the way for future boards to have many additional options for growth. In the past, bond issues have generally been focused on one major building project, with maybe a few extra things thrown in. This bond casts a wide net of opportunities for growth, renovation, and restoration throughout the district. We can't take for granted that these opportunities will just happen . . . it takes all of us being willing to step out and step up for our students and our school community!

 

Willard Values Education!

 

Julie Germann

Board of Education President

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Athletics & Activities
Ozarko champions....#1 seeds....state ranked....all-conference....all-district....I think the Tigers are pretty good!  We are starting to wrap up the Fall activities (Winter sports start practice in two weeks) so we have a lot to celebrate!

Congratulations to Chloe Andrews and Justin Johnson on finishing 5th and 10th respectively to earn 1st Team All-COC in the COC cross country race held in Nixa!  Both teams did a great job and will look to continue their success next Saturday (Oct. 25th) in the District race held at Lake Springfield.

The Volleytigers finished their regular season with a 26-6 record as they defeated Marshfield last night!  The girls earned the #1 seed in the district tournament in Waynesville.  They will play their semifinal match at 4:30 on Tuesday.  The championship match will be at 7:30 that same night.  Good luck ladies!

The football Tigers had a convincing win in the mud last week as they defeated Branson 36-0 to improve to 7-1 on the season and maintained their #5 ranking in the state.  They have a huge showdown tonight as they travel to Carthage.  This game will determine who gets the #1 seed in the district tournament.

The soccer Tigers have been rained out the past week.  Next week they will host Neosho on Monday, Rogersville on Wednesday, and Webb City on Thursday.  All of these are rescheduled matches from rainouts!  Good luck Tigers!

Congratulations to softball  team members Allison Davis and Bridget Rippee for making 1st Team All-District!!.  Allison also made first team All-COC and Bridget made second team All-COC!  Great job ladies!

Congratulations to "The Cutting Edge" for being crowned Grand Champion at the Ozarko Invitational Marching Band Festival at Missouri State University this past Saturday. "The Cutting Edge" was one of 30 high school bands from Missouri, Arkansas and Oklahoma to participate in this event. Our band took 1st place honors in the Silver Division during preliminary performance along with being awarded individual caption awards for Outstanding Music, Outstanding Visual, Outstanding Percussion and Outstanding Drum Major. In finals, the band also received the Outstanding Music Award in conjunction with being named Grand Champion during the finals portion of the competition. 

The speech and debate team had their first tournament last weekend at Kickapoo and Glendale! 
  
At the Novice tournament Ruby Hobbs and Ashlyn Wadle advanced to Semifinals in US Extemp. Elijah Pitts and Carson Kroenke advanced to Congress Super Session. Placing 3rd in Humorous Interpretation was Joe Amundson and placing 2nd in Dramatic Interpretation was Hannah Scott! The Novice took 7th place overall in Sweepstakes.
  
The Varsity also had a great weekend.  Going to Semifinals in Duo Interpretation was Lindsay Smith and Brie Jarvis, in Humorous Interpretation Ryan Largent, and in US Extemp. Conor Wadle. Katelynn Wilson placed 5th in Humorous Interpretation, Jacob Burnett and Cole Baker placed 2nd in Duo Interpretation, Conor Wadle placed 3rd in Champ Lincoln Douglas Debate and Emily Raney placed 1st in Student Congress. The Varsity Placed 6th overall in Sweepstakes out of 34 schools!
 
It's Good To Be A Tiger!
 
Jeff Staley
Director of Activities / Athletics
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High School

This Friday, October 17, is the annual FCCLA Fall Blood Drive in the WHS Auxiliary Gym.  The FACS teachers and FCCLA students do a tremendous job of organizing and facilitating the event.  Several students volunteer to donate blood as well as work the event making it a huge success.

 

This week several curriculum meetings have been held.  Teachers and instructional coaches meet regularly to discuss teaching and learning as well as update and adjust curriculum so that our students are best prepared.  To watch and listen to teachers discuss what students need to learn most, how they might best learn it, and then organize it to actually make it happen is impressive.  The WHS staff are working hard to prepare our students.

 

Willard High School's theatre department will be presenting The Developing Dinner on October 24th.  RSVP's are required by October 18th.  More information is available on the high school website for those interested in attending.

 

Mrs. Tobin and Mrs. Russell continue to organize, equip, and motivate students to perform at an extremely high level.  Our students are responding in tremendous fashion!  The WHS speech and debate program has been recognized by the National Speech and Debate Association as part of the 200 Club!  This ranks the WHS program as among the top 5% of schools nationwide.

 

It is GREAT to be a Tiger!

 

Curt Graves

Principal 

 

  
Middle School

I've got spirit yes I do, I've got spirit how about you????  7th and 8th grade students designed t-shirts to help us display our pride of being a Willard Tiger.  Check out the designs below and click on the link to fill out an order form for these awesome t-shirts!!  

 

Amy Sims

Middle School Principal

 

WMS Tiger Pride TShirt Order Form

8th Grade Shirt
8th Grade Shirt

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

7th Grade Shirt
7th Grade Shirt
Intermediate School
  
North Elementary School
 

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South Elementary School

Parent/Teacher Conferences are just around the corner.  Willard South will be holding conferences on Thursday, October 23rd and Tuesday, October 28th from 3:30-7:00 each night.  This is an important opportunity for all parents to partner with their child's classroom teacher as well as special class teachers. 

 

The school and home partnership plays a very important role in the development and academic success of all students. If you have not scheduled a time to meet with your child's teacher, please email or call as soon as possible.  We are looking forward to this opportunity to share your child's strengths and areas of growth for the first quarter.

 

Kara Crighton-Smith

Principal   

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East Elementary School

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Central Elementary School
WC teachers and students were busy learning this week.  Students dove into new writing genres, math units, and 4th grade students plunged into the world of fractions!  Several teachers were also busy this week observing in their peers' classrooms to share instructional strategies and practices in literacy and mathematics.
Our PTO fundraiser was also delivered this week.  Thank you to Brooke Jarvis, Tonya Michaels and Carrie Key for their efforts in the fundraiser!  Also, a special thank you to Clark Montgomery, Tim and Cary Swadley, and Daphne Taylor for making light work of the large delivery!

WC also had picture day this week.  Parents who missed ordering prints for their child can do so online by following the directions from the WC webpage.

As we look ahead to the rest of October, mark your calendar for these events:
Tuesday, 21st - 3rd Grade Music Program 2:45 and 7:00pm
Tuesday, 28th & Thursday, 30th - Student-Led Conferences 4:00-7:30pm
Friday, 31st - Terrific Tiger Celebration at Community Time
                    - PTO Fall Parties 2:45

Last but not least, mark your calendars for NOVEMBER 13th.  The WC Family will be hosting a chili cook-off and dessert auction to support Mrs. Katrosh and her family.  You can enter your chili for the "Tough Enough to Wear Pink" cook-off competition or donate a dessert for the live auction by calling the school office at 831-4440.  $5 at the door gets you a spoon and a mustache, great entertainment by Willard's very own Dallas Jones, and the chance to bless and support Mrs. Katrosh and her family.

Shane Medlin
Principal

Orchard Hills Elementary School

This week's Pride article from WOHE  is written by guest writer, Miss Danielle Jones, Fourth Grade Teacher

 

As the old saying goes, "It takes a village to teach a child."  Over the last month, WOHE 4th grade has been fortunate enough to expand our village outside of our small town Willard community.  About a month ago, we ambitiously decided to embark on a journey of raising enough money to take our 4th graders to the Children's Literature Festival on Missouri State's campus.  This festival hosts authors from all across the country who come to speak with one purpose in mind, to inspire Missouri's youth to be passionate about writing.  As teachers, we knew that this day would pair beautifully with what we were trying to embed in our young writers.  Little did we know our small ember of an idea would turn into such a blazing fire!  We began fundraising through an online site called AdoptaClassroom.org.  Through online teacher promotion, our desire began to spread to friends and beyond.  Shortly after we began fundraising, we were approached by a friend from Ohio who was touched by our story and was so passionate about our cause, that he extended our plea out to a rather large community that he was a part of.  Before we knew it, we were receiving donations from California, New York, Iowa, Virginia, Ohio and others. 

 

Needless to say, we met our goal and were able to attend the festival!  Never have I seen a group of kids more excited about anything.  Students were devouring books by some of the authors in preparation for the big day.  As the students sat in the auditoriums just soaking up the knowledge the authors were pouring into them, one thing in particular stood out to me.  In all of the presentations we saw that day, inevitably the author would end up saying something that had such a strong relation to the skills we had taught our students to use as writers.  Each time, the students would turn to us and mouth, "That's just like you taught us!"  They were just grinning from ear to ear with a pride that can only be attributed to the fact that they had yet again been validated as 'real' writers themselves.  What an amazing opportunity our village created for these young writers! 

 

Danielle Jones, 

Fourth Grade Teacher 

 
Special Services

Last Saturday, 13 students from Willard participated in their first bowling practice for A Sporting Chance.  The students will continue to practice their bowling skills for the next two weeks and will then be competing in a tournament on November 15th.  They will be competing with other students across the region.  I would like to thank Jessica Gomes, A Sporting Chance coordinator, Amy Stroder, Assistant Director of Special Education, and the teachers/parents who volunteer their time to make these opportunities available.  Extra-curricular activities are beneficial for all students and all ability levels!


 

It's a fantastic way to get involved.  More information can be found on our webpage at

http://willardspecialservices.weebly.com/parents.html


 

Have a great weekend! 


 
Caryn McDonnell

Director of Special Services




Willard Public Schools | 417-742-2584
500 E Kime
Willard, MO 65781

 The Pride is a publication of Willard R2 School District.


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