Week of May 3-7, 2017

The mission of West Hills High School is to graduate critical thinkers and problem-solvers who contribute positively to society as productive, responsible citizens.

Activities for the week:  

We return to our regular bell schedule with AP testing of select students. No bulletin will be read aloud over the loud speaker--please do so within your own Period 3 class.  

Monday:        Collaboration Day; GUHSD Golden Apple Awards night in our Theater,

                                                      6:00 p.m., honoring retirees and "Golden Apple" 

                                                      teachers of the year. 

Tuesday:       Regular Day; Valedictorian Selection Committee in Lounge at 2 p.m--all 

                                             are welcome; Please let Ginny know so we can have the 

                                             right number of handouts.

Wednesday:  Regular Day; Senior Concert in the Theater at 7:00 p.m. 

                           

Thursday:      Regular Day: Department Chair and Leadership Meeting, 2 p.m. E-8

                                          

Friday:           Regular Day: District Art Show opens at Parkway Plaza; 

                                             Spring Dance in Gym at 7 p.m. 

Staffing Update: 

English Department: Please join us in welcoming long-term substitute Ms. Kaitlin Hoff for Barbra Ruggles who is on maternity leave through the end of this school year.

Art Department: Please join us in welcoming long term substitute Mr. Marshall Holmes for John Goodman who is out on knee surgery  through the end of this school year. 

  Tuesday, June 6, 12:30: End of Year Luncheon in the Foyer--please join us as we celebrate the year and send off our new retirees and welcome back our alumni faculty and staff who are not out traveling the world. 

Wednesday, June 7, 7:30-12:00: Senior Breakfast and Graduation Rehearsal in the Gym; All teachers of Seniors during these periods (according to finals schedule) please join us in the Gym to supervise and support our work with the Seniors to get them ready for the ceremony the next day.

Thursday, June 1 Senior Awards Night in Theater: More information TBD

Thursday, June 8, GRADUATION: More specifics to come--ceremony begins at 8:30 a.m on our field however, faculty and staff participating have earlier call times. This is a contractual work day. 

ASB and Class Election Outcomes: Thank you all in facilitating both our class and ASB elections through reading bulletin notices, supporting student candidates, and answering questions. The ASB results may be found here. Class Officer election results are here (focus on yellow highlighted names). 

Please join us for our Spring Performing Arts programs...all are welcome and all events begin at 7:00 in our Bob Guess Theater for the Performing Arts:

May 3	Senior Concert
May 11	Spring Beginning / Intermediate Guitar Concert
May 13	Spring Advanced Guitar / String Orchestra Concert
May 18	Band Pops Concert
May 25	Spring Choir Concert
May 30	Advanced One Acts
June 2	Theater Production One Acts

Please take a read through the last  "Wolf Call" newsblog for this school year with for more information about all kinds of important topics and links to resources you can use. 

As always, our website has a wealth of information and links wolfpack.guhsd.net

Go Wolf Pack!

Week of April 24-28, 2017

The mission of West Hills High School is to graduate critical thinkers and problem-solvers who contribute positively to society as productive, responsible citizens.

Welcome back Wolf Pack! We hope you had a wonderful break and enjoyed some fun with family and friends! Just a few short weeks until Graduation...we can hardly believe it!!

Activities for the week:  

Special Testing Schedule is in effect for the next 4 weeks

Class Officer Campaign Week; ASB Office Applications Due

Monday:        Collaboration Day; ASB Blood Drive sign up at lunch in black circle

Tuesday:       Odd Day; ASB Blood Drive sign up at lunch in black circle

Wednesday:  Even Day; ASB Blood Drive sign up at lunch in black circle

                           

Thursday:     Odd Day; ASB Blood Drive in Gym Foyer for students who signed up in
                                       advance with parent permission slip.
                                       Student Senate period 5 in B-1 due to testing
                                       (Will not take entire block time)

                                          

Friday:           Even Day; 

  CAASPP Testing Calendar

Here is our CAASPP testing schedule. There are extra posters in the mail room and extra 8.5" x 11" copies in the VP office and at reception as well as the library. Every period 3 teacher got a stack to hand out to their students originally. Thank you for your support in encouraging students to do their best and take these exams. We need 95% participation rate or higher for all 11th (ELA and Math CAASPP tests) and 12th graders (Federal Science test pilot) in order to meet our state criteria. 

  Tuesday, June 6, 12:30: End of Year Luncheon in the Foyer--please join us as we celebrate the year and send off our new retirees and welcome back our alumni faculty and staff who are not out traveling the world. 

Wednesday, June 7, 7:30-12:00: Senior Breakfast and Graduation Rehearsal in the Gym; All teachers of Seniors during these periods (according to finals schedule) please join us in the Gym to supervise and support our work with the Seniors to get them ready for the ceremony the next day.

Thursday, June 1 Senior Awards Night in Theater: More information TBD

Thursday, June 8, GRADUATION: More specifics to come--ceremony begins at 8:30 a.m on our field however, faculty and staff participating have earlier call times. This is a contractual work day. 

Calling all teachers interested in leading our LITERACY efforts--we are planning for next year and need YOU to stay involved or get involved if you have not yet done so. We want to thank Jennifer Romanowski, Penny McDowell, Jodi Kohler, Randy Cambou, Barbra Ruggles, Cece Boehme, Cathi Coffin, Kristen McLaughlin, Suzanne Sannwald and Josh Reiderer (plus perhaps several others I am not aware of prior to my return in January 2015) for leading these efforts. Please know we appreciate YOU and are inviting you and any other teachers interested in this work to join us as we discuss and get ready for 2017-18. If you would like to join this team, please let Ginny Bell and Robin know so we can add you to the group Doodle poll on when our next meeting should happen. Thank you. 

  Speaking of Professional Development...here are the results to date of the PD Google Form sent out just before Spring Break. We have 30 responses so far with interest in Technology and Departmental Time coming in as the two strongest interests. You may enter your response here if you would like to do so. 

Check out the new changes with the English Language Arts and the English Language Development framework. We are now looking at students needing both Integrated English Language Development and Designated English Language Development.  Check out this chart that describes this very well. Here is the GUHSD operational bulletin explaining how English Learners are designated in compliance with the state requirements. 

The ELD District team will be hosting Integrated ELD (iELD) Standards training during Summer Institute,  July 10 - 14 and July 31 - August 4, 2017.  This training will be for content area teachers (science, social science, math, and English) to understand the ELD standards and how they are integrated into their content.  All content teachers are encouraged to attend.  

We will also be offering this one-day session four times during 2017-18 school year.

Coming soon....WHHS will have Five MAJOR construction projects!

Project #1: Football and Track Field and Stadium Closed: April 3-29, 2017: Our entire football  field will be replaced under warranty. Due to the extensive nature of this work, there will be NO ACCESS to any part of the track and field of any kind for anyone other than the installation crew.

UPDATE: Take a look at how it turned out:

Project #2: Beginning during Spring Break, our HOME ECONOMICS building will be CLOSED and remodeling begins to build an ADA compliant student restroom and additional specific facilities for students with moderate to severe disabilities. The entire facility will be fenced and the DG lot at the back of the school will be the construction staging areas (fair warning if you park back there). Both Mr. Knopp and Ms. Boehme will move to temporary classrooms elsewhere on campus and no access to any part of that building will remain until it re-opens FALL 2017. The building will also be re-named "PACK DEN" and new signage will be installed. 

Project #3: Solar power installation / covered parking in the faculty and East Senior Parking Lot beginning at 1:00 June 8 (yes...the day of graduation): Both entrances and exits to these lots will be closed and no access will be available throughout the summer. This is expected to be ready for the start of school August 15. 

Project #4: Summer School will be centralized in the Health Occupations facility next door. Some Admin and staff will be on site at HOC for summer school operations, the remainder of WHHS Admin officesand staff will move to the Library so every building can get heating and air conditioning units replaced under Prop U and Measure BB. ALL parking and access to these two building will be in the West Lot and the access road will be CLOSED with no faculty or staff parking for summer school on the interior of campus due to construction. 

Project #5: The GYM will be CLOSED July 3-28, 2017 so the entire gym floor can be sanded down to bare wood and resurfaced. This is done once every 10 years to maintain the playing surface.  Chris Quarders, Don Rutledge and Josh Reiderer are communicating specifics to the ENS Department and coaches. If you have any questions, please see one of these gentlemen. 

As always, our website has a wealth of information and links wolfpack.guhsd.net

Go Wolf Pack!