Important Dates:
July 17-21: "Grey Week"--staff are working but we are closed to parents and students.
July 24-28: "Dark Week"--entire GUHSD is closed, including WHHS. No staff working.
August 1: Many classified staff return from break.
August 2: Guidance Office re-opens with Counselors back.
August 10: Teachers return for the 2017-18 school year (more information to come)
August 14: HOWL Day with Freshmen
Tuesday, August 15: First day with students (Regular bell schedule day--not a Monday late start)
Happy summer...I hope you are enjoying the summer. We thank all the faculty and staff who worked diligently through summer school at our temporary location on the Health Occupations Center (HOC) campus right next door. Ultimately almost 300 students earned credit so THANK YOU all!!
I wanted to address this critical component of our high school life. Many of you know and understand that student enrollment and student course "wish lists", along with teaching contracts and overall courses offered to meet both graduation and UC "a-g" admission requirements drive the development of the master schedule. The 2017-18 school year is one of the last two years of the 10-year decline in overall high school age student enrollment for the East County and West Hills has been seeing this played out. Currently we are at 1712 students and dropping. With a projected deficit of $11.1 million by the District overall, we have had to support cost-cutting across the district in a variety of ways, most of them aimed away from individual campus'. However, some of those have not been avoided like being supported in the last two years with "over formula" staffing support. This is when the Board has taken a position of "no lay offs" so although West Hills has not had enough students to fully support keeping all of our certificated staff, the District has pitched in with "over formula" funds to do so. This ended for this school year. Thus, for the first time in many years, sites did "lay off" teachers (not West Hills) according to enrollment projections. Our official District enrollment projection is 1861. This projection is not proving to be the case, and so we have had to make very difficult and painful decisions within our Master Schedule. Department Chairs have been involved all along the way and we are grateful to partner with such experienced and smart Chairs. Transparency and communication are fundamental values to me and the entire Admin staff and that will remain so, even when talking about difficult and painful decisions. As a Department Chair and Leadership team, we made choices regarding a variety of programs and courses that felt would draw students to WHHS--like our new Computer Coding and Project Lead the Way (PLTW) Engineering courses. However, we have lost so many students that we have had to look at other areas within the Master Schedule to try to balance our "allowed" staffing from enrollment and contractual requirements of teachers, with trying to meet graduation and UC "a-g" requirments for students. With that said, Master Schedule is in the works and as soon as it is final, we will let Chairs and teachers know. This typically will take us into early August given we were two GIS short for almost the entire second semester. We know and understand the need to have as much information as possible and as soon as we have that for you, we will share.
West Hills has been undergoing many physical changes due to construction here is an update:
Project 1: Solar covered parking at the front of school:
This is moving along well. Each footing (round concrete pillar) had to be sunk 16 feet into the ground to hold the frame for the solar panels. On track to complete by August 1.
Project 2: Air Conditioning / Heating Units: Over 100 units have been airlifted onto roofs of buildings with old units removed. Also on track to complete by August 1. Check out this San Diego NBC news coverage for some live footage...
Project 3: Gym Floor: Every 10 years each of the GUHSD high school gym floors get sanded down to bare wood and refinished. Our floor will look beautiful with new colors, logo and court lines drawn. Should be complete by the end of July.
Project 4: Home Economics building name is done....now it is the Pack Den. Complete refurbishment of the interior to provide for more student restrooms, larger ADA compliant classrooms and a Sensory room for use with students with special needs. On track to complete by August 1. (Sorry no photos).
***NEWLY ADDED PROJECT*** Replace all security cameras and video taping for improved campus supervision and safety. Should be done by August 30. This was a much needed project newly funded through Measure BB. Thank you all who worked on getting out the vote on this ballot measure and who voted "Yes" to it!
***NEWLY ADDED PROJECT*** Replace all security cameras and video taping for improved campus supervision and safety. Should be done by August 30. This was a much needed project newly funded through Measure BB. Thank you all who worked on getting out the vote on this ballot measure and who voted "Yes" to it!
Not really OUR construction project, but it IS right across the street....
Pardee Homes renames "Castle Rock" to "Weston"...they decided this "...better reflects the western Santee location..." They note that model homes are "...anticipated to be available for viewing in the late 2017, with the first homes ready for move in by mid-2018."
That's it for the summer update. We'll publish a "Back to School" letter with specific information regarding our Faculty and Staff Professional Developement days, announcing new staff and providing additional information. Enjoy these beautiful days....Go Wolf Pack! 