Warrior Word - Summer Edition

Thank you for connecting with WSD via the Warrior Word Newsletter, which always highlights announcements from our departments and schools. You will find upcoming summer updates and events you won't want to miss during this issue.

We are grateful to OUR COMMUNITY for passing our EP&O Levy! This levy helps with our mission of Every Student Every Day! Here is the Levy result, which you can also view on the Grant County website.

• YES: 372
• NO: 304

We also wanted to remind ever yone of our commitments to continue to grow in various areas such as Community, Family, & Staff Partnerships, Professional Learning Communities, Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS), Academic, Assessment, Behavior, and Social-Emotional Learning, and Operations and Logistics. These are all focus areas on our District Strategic plan.

Strategic planning plays a vital role in the continuous improvement efforts of an organization. It's the process of documenting and establishing the direction of an organization by assessing where we are and envisioning where we want to be

Within our District Strategic Plan, our focus areas also have various action plans to ensure we are successful in meeting our goals. WSD is committed to being transparent with parents and stakeholders and collaborating. We have gotten feedback from administrators, directors, staff, parents, and stakeholders. It has been great to connect and have meaningful conversations that will help us better our district for the following school year and beyond.

We are rooting for our staff and students as they finish off the school year and are thankful for another school year!

Our department would like to give a huge shoutout to Jeffrey McClelland, Morris Schott STEAM Elementary Special Education Teacher. He has been the rock of the special education department for several years, and he has changed the lives of so many students. We are so excited for this next chapter in his life as he moves closer to family. Thank you, Jeffrey, for your dedication to the Mattawa community. We wish you the absolute best, and we will miss you.

We would also like to thank the amazing families in our community. Your support this year has truly been remarkable. From preschool to our transition school, you continue to push us to be the best educators we can be. Your children are the reason we love doing what we do. We look forward to our continued partnership.

Wahluke is an incredible school. We are fortunate to have an amazing special education staff. The teachers, para educators, SLP - Speech and Language Pathologist, OT - Occupational Therapist, School Psychologist, and office staff are excellent at what they do, and we could not ask for a stronger team. Our office will remain open during the summer, so please stop by if you have any questions.

LaDonna Fogle | Special Education Department Director

The 21st Century Summer Program is in the works! Please read below to find out what our summer program will be offering Wahluke School District's elementary students.

Elementary schools will focus on the following during the 21st Century Summer Program:

• MSSES Elementary will focus its summer program on Art and Literacy with focus on the current 4th and 5th grade students.

• MES Elementary will continue its focus on Literacy serving the current 1st and 2nd grade students.

• SME Elementary will be serving current 4th and 5th grade students with a focus on Arts & Robotics programs.

How to enroll your student to the 21st Century Summer Program?

• 21st Century will be sending summer registration forms by May 31, 2022 inviting students to participate in the program along with flyers and details about the summer program.

21st Century will focus on 6 themes for the summer:

• 6 Weeks (June 20th - July 28th) 9:00 AM - 2:00PM | Monday - Thursday
• 1st Week: Desert Animals
• 2nd Week: Animals around the World
• 3rd week = Independence Celebrations
• 4th Week = Local Agriculture and Food
• 5th Week = Agriculture and Food around the world
• 6th Week = Summer Celebrations + Advancing to the Next Grade (Field Trip)

David Orozco
21st Century Program Director

Happy Spring, Warriors! ☀️

We now have new Hobart Dishwashers in all of our Kitchens – so exciting! Our next round of Kitchen upgrades for school year 22/23 will focus on outdated equipment that doesn’t heat evenly and time-saving tabletop equipment that helps our Food Service Team Members work more efficiently as we serve healthy meals to our Students.

This month our Jr. High Team Member, Kathy Blevins, moved on to a full-time position with another local company, Voith Hydro. Our next change will be the retirement of Terri Haupt-Davis this Summer. Terri has been with our Department since 2015 and her ready smile and hardworking attitude when serving our students will be greatly missed. Thank you, Terri, for all your time and dedications at WSD.

On May 6 we celebrated School Lunch Hero Day, which is a nationally-recognized opportunity to demonstrate our appreciation for our Food Service Heroes. It’s always wonderful when our students make cards and posters for our Food Service Team Members, as shown below.

We’ll be serving Summer Meals once WSD starts Summer Break in mid-June. If you would like to help prepare and serve meals, please reach out to Jennie at jnorton@wahluke.net or 206.859.8302. Summer Substitute applications are available on Wahluke.net. We expect to serve several hundred local children in June and July and then our numbers will increase once we start the Jump Start Program on August 1.

We hope you have a relaxing Summer and look forward to seeing your return for SY 22/23! Way to go, Warriors!

Jennie Norton

Child Nutrition Department Director

After School Study Table

We continue to offer after school study tables to all high school students on Wednesdays in the High School Library from 3-5pm. At this time, students may also schedule to take the STAMP Test and earn up to 4 Spanish Credits dependent upon their score.

Saturday Study Table

Saturday Study Table Sessions continue being offered on Saturdays from 10am-2pm. Please encourage students to attend if they need help. We only have 6 weeks left of school so let's finish strong warriors! If you have any questions feel free to contact GEAR UP Staff at gearup@wahluke.net or (509)932-1908.

Gear up has had various university campus visits which have allows students to explore education options after high school. Below you will find a recap of our recent tips and summer opportunities for students.

College Campus Visits:

• A total of 37 GEAR UP students participated on this campus visit to Eastern Washington University in Cheney WA.

• On May 11th a total of 55 students attended the campus visit to Washington State University in Pullman WA. Big shout out to Mr. Watrous, Mr. Granados and Mr. Herrera for chaperoning this field trip.
  
• On May 12th a total of 16 students attended the Big Bend Community College Preview day event in Moses Lake WA. Students learned about Big Bend's 62 degree and certificate programs, financial aid, scholarships, the application process — all in one place! There was also live music and workforce education program demonstrations.

Alaska Airlines Aviation Day Recap:

A total of 19 students attended. It was our first time attending this event, and we were very happy we did! This event is aimed at inspiring aviation dreams in youth. Aviation Day provided the opportunity for students to learn about the various paths in the aviation industry as well as education possibilities for a successful career. It was very well organized, the entire staff/volunteers were very nice and accommodating, lots of hands-on activities, overall, so much to learn/experience.

BIG SHOUT OUT to Mrs. Betty Palmer and Ms. Elizabeth Tapia for volunteering their time and making this trip possible for our students. If you would like to view the full recap video make sure to check the Alaska Airlines Aviation Day Video using this link.

Coming Up:

University of Washington/Seattle Central College Campus Visit

Attention Warriors!

If you would like to participate in the University of Washington field trip on June 7th, please stop by the GEAR UP office located in the library to sign up and pick up a permission packet. Only the first 55 students who turn in their completed packets will be able to go. We encourage and welcome parents to join us for campus visits/educational excursions. If you’re interested in participating in any of these, please reach out to GEAR UP staff via email at gearup@wahluke.net or via phone at (509)932-1908.

Summer Program Opportunities:

Juniors→If you are interested in this 2 day summer opportunity please reach out to Mrs. Tapia or Mrs. Adame at gearup@wahluke.net or via phone at (509)932-1908. Only 12 students will be able to attend, so act quickly. If you would like more information, do not hesitate to ask GEAR UP Staff.

This spring has been a busy time for the M2 (Multilingual & Multicultural) Department. We were able to send Migrant staff, a school board member and 6 parents to San Antonio, Texas for the National Migrant Conference. Everyone came back motivated and full of ideas to support our staff, students and families.

Wahluke High School has been training teachers in how to provide academic language support in every class using EL Achieve’s Constructing Meaning. This year’s cohort just finished the last day of their five-day training last week. Next year we will only have a few staff to train, along with any new hires, and the entire building will be trained and implementing these strategies in their classrooms. A huge shoutout to Chelsea Brannock and Alice Jaakola for providing the excellent professional development. For more information about Constructing Meaning, visit the link here.

We also had the final PAC Meeting of the year last week. This one was an opportunity to celebrate all the hard work that families have done this year to support their children. We had two student groups perform as well as a parent group showing us traditional dances from Oaxaca. The remainder of the meeting was run by one of our parent officers, gathering parent input on their goals for their children and how we can partner with them to reach those goals.

There will be a lot of happening over the summer in our department so make sure to follow our Facebook page here to stay up to date!

Bethany Martínez

Multilingual & Multicultural Services Director

Outdoor Careers Day turned out well! The skies were clear, the winds calm, students had “passports” to prompt discussions. RDO Equipment, Grant Co. PUD, branches of the military, AirLift NW, FBI, WSP, IBEW112, colleges and universities, AJAC, were some of the guest professionals.

The barn project was completed, and goats arrived to their new homes. We have a large FFA roster this year, and students are already participating in events. They are in Tri-Cities at the 92nd Washington Future Farmers of America (FFA) State Convention

As we prepare for the CTE Skills Expo on May 24th , students are wrapping up projects.

Headed to Nationals! This summer our FBLA - Future Business Leaders of America ans TSA - Technical Student Association is heading to compete in their National Competitions. We wish them good luck with this endeavor, way to represent our district and community.

The annual Mother’s Day Plant Sale was hosted in the Junior High greenhouse. FFA was able to invite elementary students to the building and all walked out with individual plants to take home.

We’re still working with Big Bend Community College to develop more articulation agreements, and to plan out a CTE Running Start program.

An exciting summer is ahead of us!

Betty Palmer

CTE Department Director

Hello Summer! As we wrap up the school year we would like to remind everyone to stay safe throughout the summer break and enjoy some much needed time off.

The Safety and Security team has wrapped up on Right Response training for the year and will pick it back up in September.

The Event Staff will be looking to add new members to the team for the start of next school year. With the end of June, we will also start maintenance on cameras, radios, signs getting fixed and parking lots repainted. Hope to see everyone next school year!

GO WARRIORS!

JJ Calzadillas

Safety & Security Coordinator

Buildings are in the middle of administering state and district testing.

Our district-wide parent night was held in early May. We received valuable feedback that will be used to revise the strategic plan before bringing it in front of the School Board for adoption.

Staff shout-out LeeAnn Neary. LeeAnn has been working extremely hard to support all district staff and students with students. We are thankful that you are a part of our team!

Amy Marlow

Director of Teaching & Learning

A lot has happened in the libraries in the last couple of months. Over Conferences and spring break, WSD's Library Information and Literacy Program team went through all the old books in the WJH collection and surplussed the books that were no longer needed, unboxed all of our new books and reorganized how the library books are displayed.

Several classes have already visited the library, and we are excited to see students officially checking out books for the first time since 2016. The next step of the WJH library redesign is to figure out how to paint the space and update the layout to fit the needs of the school and students.

Our Library Design Committee will continue to meet until the end of the school year to make these decisions. The plan is to have the entire library completely updated by the time everyone returns in August.

On April 27th, the C3 Hub Communication, Connection and Collaboration Hub (WHS Library) hosted its first ever Maker Night. Students had the opportunity to use all of the makerspace supplies available in the library. Students had fun using the Oculus Rift, racing Sphero robots, playing the piano using bananas, trying origami, crocheting, and doing book art. The students creativity was amazing to see and we can’t wait to see what they do during our next event.

Other News:

May 4th - August 17th is Sora’s Summer Reading program Sweet Reads. During this time 50 new books will be available for students and staff to check out. In addition to the new books offered by Sora Sweet Reads, WSD purchased a comics collection with new books for each grade of student. Students and staff now have access to over 1,700 new comics titles. Check out all of the amazing new books available at any time on the Sora reading app.

Angelica Spreen

Technology Integration TOSA

WSD is extremely excited to announce Jerardo "Jerry" Puentes as our new Maintenance Director. Jerardo "Jerry" is a WHS graduate and has been working in the maintenance department for the past 6 years. We are excited to see him grow in this new role . Congratulations Jerry!

WSD would also like to thank our former Maintenance Director and now Grant County Fire District Chief Matt Hyndman for his time at the Wahluke School District. We are grateful for his time here and excited for you to embark on this new journey and for all the work that he will do for the Grant County Fire District and our community.

NEW TECHNOLOGY ROLLOUT PLAN:

In December of 2021, WSD was awarded the Emergency Connectivity Fund Grant. The ECF Program will cover reasonable costs of laptop and tablet computers; Wi-Fi hotspots; modems; routers; and broadband connectivity purchases for off-campus use by students, school staff, and library patrons.

With this funding, WSD is planning on replenishing and updating all student devices to ensure that we are 1:1 (all students has their own device) with devices that can last their intended lifespan, and meet the needs of our students no matter where they are learning.

A one-page informational document was given to parents and families during spring conferences, explaining the plan for the New Technology Rollout. This informational document can also be found below.

Please be on the lookout for the next announcement and update from your student's school and I.T Department.

Hello Wahluke Staff and Community,Spring is busy in our School District. That includes the HR Department.

We are thankful and appreciate all of our staff’s year of service at Wahluke. In March, we celebrated our classified employee's milestone years of service. This month we celebrate the certificated staff members that have reached milestone years of service, please take some time to congratulate these teachers and certificated staff members.

We are working to recruit and hire job positions for next school year. Check out our job postings here(https://wahluke.tedk12.com/hire/Index.aspx) We will always strive to hire the best qualified candidates for all of our positions.

A few of current openings are new positions and support our District Strategic Plan goals. Other positions become available as current staff members depart Wahluke and venture off into new experiences. We want to thank those employees that have been a part of our team and contributed to the educational program within our community.

Liz Leitz

HR Director

The end of the school year is always bittersweet. As we wrap up state testing and district testing, we also ramp up a lot of FUN and engaging activities for students and teachers to get to know each other and make great memories at Morris Schott STEAM Elementary.

The next month will be very busy continuing our mission to Create HEROES with every student, every day! Here's a list of some great stuff happening this month!

Karl Edie Morris Schott STEAM

Elementary Principal

Saddle Mountain Elementary continues to focus on improving our students' reading and math abilities through intentional reading and math instructional strategies, curriculum, and small group instruction.

4th Quarter with just a few remaining weeks of school: Parents please encourage your children to keep working hard this quarter to ensure learning at high levels and preparing for the next grade. Teachers are teaching grade level work that will help them grow and learn.

Several Assessments: (Smarter Balance: reading/math/science, Dibels & iReady) are currently being taken that require students' best efforts and encouragement.

Here is the link to the spring assessment schedule to be up-to-date and help your students be prepared.

SME Students Videos:

Check out these videos our students participated in! Our students are kind and showed their appreciation to their teachers and for Mother's Day!

• SME Mother’s Day Video
• WSD Teacher Appreciation Week Video

Make sure to check out the upcoming events and activities we have planned at SME.

Thank you SME Staff, Students and Parents!

Saddle Mountain Elementary

Kurt Hoffman, Principal and Niki Swanson, Assistant Principal

I would like to thank our teachers for all the support they give our students as they help them to learn and grow. WE continue to push our students to believe in themselves by letting them know that WE believe in them and that through hard work and resilience they can achieve the skills necessary to be successful learners.

I am very proud of our students as they continue to grow and learn, but I am also very proud of the work, effort, and dedication that all staff are putting forth as we grow and learn to grow together.

As part of the growth and development there have been a few opportunities for professional development this 2022 year some of those opportunities have been attending the WABE conference (Washington Association for Bilingual Education).

The school year is moving quickly we are in the midst of SBA Testing (State Smarter Balanced Assessment). Teachers have been working hard to prepare students for the SBA through giving students testing taking strategies and giving student the obstacles to see where they are at in knowledge and understanding of certain standards as well as giving students experience to SBA testing format/view.

Thank you Counselors for the Cookies with Counselors Night it was a very successful night with over 60 parents showing up. Thanks for sharing with parents our services and our Warrior Code and how parents can help their children at home.

Before we spotlight some of our successes we would like to encourage you to continue helping us with our Mission, Vision, & Belief by encouraging our students to read at home and working with us side by side when possible.

Mission: Empower students to be successful by providing opportunities to develop resilience in their growth and development and live by the warrior code.

Vision: All Mattawa Elementary students will develop and master -- literacy skills, knowledge, and character to be successful learners.

We will achieve this through:

• Quality instruction in every classroom

• Articulated, aligned curriculum and assessments across the system

• 21st-century teaching, learning, and teacher/student efficacy

Belief: In everything we do, we will:

• Focus on learning, growth, collaboration, results, and continuous improvement

• Ensure data-driven decisions

• Provide equity of opportunities and resources

• Communicate with and engage students, families, staff, and community

WE are under way with Dibels, Reading & Math iReady Testing, and our Smarter Balance Assessment (SBA grades 3-5). Please encourage our students to put forth their best effort and let our students know we believe in them. They can do it!

#Belief! In our students, in ourselves, and in each other(linked 🔗) #Together We Are Better!

Mattawa Elementary School
Art Lopez, Principal

Anthony Voelker, Assistant Principal

There is a lot happening as we bring this school year to a close! We are excited about our upcoming Student Showcase on May 24, 2022 from 5-7 PM. There will be food and plenty of opportunities to see the great work students have done this year!

The Smarter Balanced Assessment is coming soon. Staff and students are preparing to work hard and do their best. Students will also do MAP testing in June in order to give staff data to inform their instruction. We are confident that our students will show growth, and we are proud! Please make sure that your students attend school and get lots of rest during this time, so they can perform their best!

June 10th is 5th Grade Move-Up Day! 5th graders coming to WJH next year will be on campus to participate in some fun activities and learn a little bit about what is in store for them as 6th graders.

We had over 150 students participate in spring sports this year! Student-Athletes competed in Softball, Baseball, Soccer and Track. WJH is also sending 8 students to Dallas for the TSA (Technology Student Association) Finals in June. Congratulations to students and staff for the hard work and dedication during these activities.

Wahluke School District and Wahluke Junior High will be having Jumpstart August 1 - 11, 2022. This is a great opportunity for WJH students to get into the building, meet some staff members and get to know WJH before school starts on Aug 22, 2022.

Wahluke Junior High

Amy Johnson, Principal

John Muchlinski, Assistant Principal

The High School has wrapped up SBA testing, and the CM training (Constructing Meaning for E.L Achieve) for teachers. Athletics, CTSOs (Career & Technical Student Organizations), and Clubs are all active again.

Athletics, CTSOs, and Clubs are all active again. The band recently put on another great concert, and over Spring break they played at the opening of the Beverly Bridge section of the Palouse to Cascades trail. The girls track team is on their way to District Championships, Boys Soccer has qualified for the state tournament, FFA wrapped up their plant sale, and we're planning for award ceremonies and graduation events. Prom was a hit, thanks to everyone who rallied to make it happen and to Ms. Jones' leadership. Prom Week was fun every day.

Students have been out touring colleges and universities, and 19 students went to learn about various career paths at the Alaska Air Aviation Day at Sea-Tac Airport last week. We are hosting parent nights to share information about CBTech, Running Start, and College in High School programs. More information and dates to come.

We have just finished the Sectioning portion of the student registration process for 2022-2023.

For more information regarding any events coming up please connect with us on our website (www.wahluke.net/o/whs) and @WahlukeHS on Facebook.

District Calendar

• May 21: WHS Saturday Study Table

• May 23: Late Start - Specialist Late Start Days

• May 24: WHS Student Showcase | 5:30 - 7:00 PM | WHS Commons

• May 24: WJH Student Showcase | 5:30 - 7:00 PM | WJH Commons

• May 25: Threat Assessment Training|12:30 to 4:30 PM

• May 25: MSSE Music Concert

• May 27: WJH GRIT Assembly Science

• May 30: No School/Memorial Day

• May 31: WJH Host La Chispa - The Spark

• June 2: SME Building-Wide Music Concert @ Football Field - 4:30-5:30 PM

• June 2: MSSE Carnival

• June 4: WHS Saturday Study Table

• June 6: Late Start | District/Building Directed | 7:30 - 8:45

• June 8: Senior Trip

• June 9: SME Music Concert

• June 10: Class of 2022 Graduation

• June 10: MSSE, ME,SME 5th Grade Move-Up Day @ Junior High

• June 10: MSSE, ME Kinder Graduation

• June 11: WHS Saturday Study Table

• June 14: MSSE, ME Field Day

• June 13: SME Kinder Park Field Trip - 9:15 AM - 2:30 PM

• June 14: SME Kinder Graduation - 1:30 PM

• June 15: SME Student Recognition Assembly/Fire Truck/Field Day

• June 15: MSSE 5th Grade Graduation

• June 16: Last Day of School

• June 20: Admin Meeting @ DA

• June 20-July 28: 21st Century Summer School (Monday-Thursday 9:00-2:00)

• June 24: WSLA, Spokane

• June 25: AWSP Pre-Conference, Spokane

• June 25, June 26: AWSP Conference, Spokane

• June 25 - July 28: AVID, Anaheim

• August 1- 11: Jumpstart

This edition will be our last newsletter for the 2021-2022 school year. It has been a pleasure to share and highlight our school district departments, schools, students, staff, families, and community. We are grateful to have had a special school year filled with new learnings, memories, and experiences.

WSD is grateful for all the support we get from our Wahluke families, community members, and stakeholders. We hope that you all have an amazing safe summer. There will be community and district events during the summer, and we hope to see you all there.

As always make sure to connect with Wahluke School District on all of our communication platforms to be up-to-date and receive all our updates and announcements.

If you have any comments, questions or suggestions over any of our communication platforms please contact the WSD Communication Team at information@wahluke.net .

Thank you!

Lucy Tapia

Communications Director

Thank you! Please visit our District website and communication channels for more information.

Email: information@whaluk.net
Website: https://www.wahluke.net/
Phone: (509)932-4562