Week of May 28

Wow. This Friday brings us to our last day of school. We have lots of fun and engaging activities for our students planned this week. You can find this information below.  I want to thank you all for being a supportive group of parents this year.  I wish you the best of luck as your child and family moves forward in your journey here in West Des Moines. For families moving or changing school districts this coming fall, best of luck in all you do. It was great serving each of you!

Thursday:

• Talent Show
• Barbecue

Friday

• Recognition Assembly
• Field Day

Week of May 13

I hope everyone had a wonderful Mother’s Day!  I wish Mother Nature would get our weekends straighten out!  As we look ahead to the last few weeks of the school year, we are going to try and help motivate our students to get their grades up and all missing work turned in.  So, starting today, Monday, May 13th:

Anyone who is failing a class by May 28th, will not be able to attend the talent show.

Here are the steps that need to be taken.

Step 1:  We will communicate with student if they are endanger of or going to fail our class.

Step 2:  Fill out a  contract with the student and make a phone call home to share the terms of the contract

Step 3:  Update grades throughout the two weeks

Step 4:  Teacher and students collaborate to ensure students have the resources they need to get the work completed

Again, this is an attempt to encourage all students to get their work turned in and finish strong!  Have a great week!

Week April 29

As I write this post, it sure doesn’t feel like spring or that we are about to start our last month of the school year!  It is amazing how quickly a year can fly by!

On Friday, we hit our final mid-term of the year.  We are at the half way point of the final quarter.  We sent out notifications to families if students are currently getting a D or below.  There is time for students to improve their grades, so please encourage your child to communicate with their teachers to develop a plan to raise their grades.  There a couple ways to improve grades:

• Set a time to Re-assess a quiz or test
• Turn in missing work

If you have questions remember you can contact teachers directly or use the team email.  An example of the team email address is:  stjh__@wdmcs.org.  The blank would be filled with the letter of the team your student is on.  We look forward to partnering with you to ensure a strong end to the school year!!!

Week of April 1

No joke!  We are in the final quarter of the school year.  I hope everyone had a chance to get some rest and recover after returning from break.  The last quarter of the year is always busy with performances, athletics and wrapping up the end of the year.

April will be our month for administering the ISASP (Iowa Statewide Assessment of Student Progress).  The dates we will being administering standardized test will be the week of April 22.  During our assessment time, we will also be asking students to participate in the Conditions of Learning survey, which is a state requirement.  The Conditions of Learning survey, is an opportunity for students to share how they feel about the culture and climate of our school and teachers.

On top of state assessments, we have many activities coming in the next couple of weeks:

• Tuesday, April 9 – PAC meeting at noon
• Thursday, April 11 – Career Day
• Friday, April 12 – Vocal Variety Show

It should be a fun busy month!  Have a great week!

Week of February 25

I apologize for the absence of post over the last month, but I have been in my driveway digging out of this relentless winter.  Even if the weather doesn’t lead us to believe Spring is around the corner the calendar says we are 3 weeks away from Spring Break.  SO, that being said we have a busy finish to February.

A reminder we have Spring Conferences this week.  Our teams are trying some different approaches to conferences to see if we can increase attendance and make your time with us as meaningful as possible.  If you have not signed up, please contact Ann Stover or Cathy Thompson.  Our conferences this week are:

• Tuesday, February 26th – 3:15-7:00
• Wednesday, February 27th – 2:00-3:15
• Thursday, February 28th – 3:15-7:00

Make sure while you are at conferences you stop by the Media Center for the Book Fair.  Mrs. Frey has put together a great display and collection of books for your purchase.  Your child can visit the book fair during the school day as well.  The store will close on March 4th.

Huge shout out to Mrs. Woods, Mr. Hunt, and Mr. Robinson and the cast and crew for the AMAZING Mimes shows this past Thursday and Friday!  Bravo!

Congratulations to all of the archers for your performance over the weekend!  It was a great showing by all and a wonderful setting!

Have a great week!

Week of January 28

Well the weather outside is frightful!  It has been an interesting start to 2019.  Reminder tomorrow, January 31st, is a 2 hour late start.  Please make sure your child leaves the house equipped for the elements.

Mr. Johnson will be working with our 7th graders this Thursday going over course request forms and previewing what offerings are available to students as they prepare for 8th grade.  Please be on the look out for this form.

We have our 7th to 8th parent night on February 7th at 7:00 pm in the Stilwell Auditorium.  We will have an overview of everything 8th grade and answer any questions parents may have about course offerings and athletics.

Our 6th to 7th grade parent meeting will February 12 at 7 pm in the Stilwell Auditorium.  This meeting will be an overview of course offerings and ways for 7th graders to get involved at Stilwell.

Finally, Stilwell will host the 3rd Annual Science Bowl this Saturday at Stilwell.  The competition starts at 9 and runs until there is one team standing.  The championship round usually starts a little after lunch.  I encourage you to come on out and support both Indian Hills and Stilwell students as they showcase their Science knowledge!

I hope you have a great week!  Please stay safe and warm!

Week of January 14

I hope everyone had a great weekend!  If you love snow, I hope you found nothing but joy as it fell on Saturday.  As for me, it is a reminder we have a long way to go before we are done with winter.  As we start second semester, I have a few things to highlight:

• Students should have gotten new schedules on Friday.  For most students nothing change for others it would be a slight change to block classes or electives.
• We have our Parent Advisory Council meeting tomorrow at noon in the Stilwell Media Center.  We are trying something new and going to do a Facebook Live event in case you can’t attend.
• We have our 2nd Quarter Recognition Assembly during Tiger Time on Friday.  This a celebration of students in variety of activities and athletics.
• Boys Basketball has their first basketball game at Timberline in Waukee on Tuesday, January 15th at 4:00.

Finally, we will communicate when are grades are final via campus messenger.  It is amazing to think we are at the half way point!  I don’t know about you, but time sure flies when you are having fun!  Have a great week!

Week January 7

I hope everyone had a great start to the new year!  I know the first three days back from break flew by!  It was great to have the student and staff back bringing tons of energy and excitement for hopes of a great 2019!!  As we start a new year we are about to wrap up our first semester.  Here are a few things to note about the end and start of second semester:

• First Semester ends January 11 – students should be checking grades and touching base with teachers to complete any missing work
• No School on January 14th
• Second Semester starts January 15th – students may have some slight changes to their schedules based on selected electives.  Students will get a print out of their new schedules during TT.
• Grades should be completed and posted with in the week of the 15th.  An announcement will go out to notify families of final grades.

It’s amazing we are already talking about the end of a semester!!  Time flies when you are having fun!  Have a great week!

Week of December 17

I hope everyone had a chance to get out and enjoy the Spring like weather!  Just a couple of reminders as we inch closer to Winter break and the end of first semester.

• Our last day of school prior to the new year is Friday, December 21st. If your child/family is leaving for break prior to December 21st, please notify Ann Stover, our attendance secretary so she can mark accordingly and not bug you on your break.
• Our second semester starts January 15th.  Students have a couple more weeks to tie up any loose ends in regards to their grades.  If your child is missing work, please encourage them to make contact with their teachers about the work that needs to be completed.

On Friday, December 21 Stilwell will be having a PBIS celebration.  As you may know, this year Stilwell has started the PBIS program. Part of being a PBIS school is having whole school celebrations throughout the year.  

On Friday, we will have our first celebration of the year.  On that day we will run a condensed schedule, with classes being 33 minutes long.  At 1:30 we will begin our celebration time. During this time students, will have the option of playing dodgeball with teachers, watching a movie in the auditorium, or playing board and card games in the cafeteria.   

This time is meant as a celebration of the students’ hard work for first semester. With that in mind we will also be advising some student to use this time to get caught up on late and missing school work to improve their grade before the semester ends.  Students with excessive late or missing work have been informed that they may miss part of or all of the celebration to get caught back up. If a student makes up their work prior to the 21st, they will be allowed to participate.

We are so thankful for such a great start to the year with this group of students, and are excited to share that gratitude with students during our celebration on Friday!  It will be a great way to end 2018!

Happy Holidays!!

Week of December 3

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving break!  Amazingly, we have arrived to December.  On November 28th, we hit midterm for second quarter.  Students with failing grades had letters sent out at the end of the week to communicate current struggles.  If your child received this letter, I encourage you to reach out to your child’s teacher to problem solve solutions.  The end of the semester is January 11th.  There is still time to turn things around!

As we look to the next three weeks we have a lot of activities to finish out 2018!

• Orchestra Concert on December 3rd at 6:00 at the Performing Arts Center at Valley
• Girls Basketball has three more home games. Those dates are December 4th, 6th, and 11th
• Wrestling will host home events on December 10th and 17th
• Vocal music performances will be December 10th at the Performing Arts Center with 7th grade starting at 6:00 and 8th grade 8:00

It is a busy three weeks leading up to Winter break on December 21st.  I hope the weather cooperates and we can finish 2018 strong!  Have a great week!