Friday
April 4
Spirit Week
Assembly
9:30am
Pizza Day
Monday - Friday
April 7-11
Spring Break!
No School
Monday
April 14
Field Trip for 2nd,
3rd, 4th and 5th
grades to Children
& Youth Day
at Key Arena
Friday
April 18
Spirit/Pizza Day!
Monday-Friday
April 21-15
ERB Testing
Friday
April 25
Parent Appreciation Breakfast
Friday
May 2
Assembly 9:30am
Spirit/Pizza Day
April 3, 2008
We have SPIRIT!
Parent Appreciation Breakfast - Save the Date!
SPIRIT Wrap-Up
From Jo Ann - Parent Survey
We have SPIRIT!
By Denise Tabbutt, President, Board of Trustees
Thank you for your incredible show of SPIRIT this Saturday, at our 19th annual auction. Once again, the strength and commitment of our community shined. Thank you for making the event such a huge success!
We count on fund raising to cover the ‘gap’ between tuition and operating expenses. This years’ success reinforces the stability of our school and provides the resources to maintain our high academic and teaching standards.
Together, we raised $67,000 for tuition assistance. Our community is committed to assisting those who need it and to keeping our school affordable. This show of support is beyond anything we have seen so far.
Our auction also helps sustain the school and campus into the future. We raised $50,000 for campus improvements, helping defray the costs of updating our existing portables and bringing in the new one. Thank you for such a great start!
The Westside Board is looking forward to working together with our community as we build the future of our school. We would like to share our plans and hear your thoughts at a town meeting on Tuesday, May 6th, at 6:30pm. We hope to see you all there
Save the Date!
Parent Appreciation Breakfast
Friday, April 25, After Drop-Off in the Gym
Parents, thank you for all you do! From volunteering in the classroom and around the school to supporting annual giving and the auction and everything in between, Westside School thanks you for creating this amazing community. Please join us for a Parent Appreciation Breakfast and Latte’s on Friday, April 25th in the gym.
SPIRIT Wrap-Up
Thank you auction committee members for all your hard work these past few months! And thank you auction chair Mary Harrelson and co-chair Celesta Bjornson for running such a smooth - and amazing!!! event. We raised more than ever before, and it’s very exciting to have such tremendous support from our community.
Auction receipts should be in your parent folder. If you have any questions, please contact Jana R. Also, some of you still have items to pick up. Right now, these items are down at the admin house. Feel free to stop by and see what you can find, or ask to have it brought up to the main building.
Thanks again for being a strong and supportive community!
From Jo Ann
Parent Survey 2007-2008 Results
This year, 98 people shared their opinions by participating in the Westside School survey. Thank you to everyone who took the time to give their thoughtful responses. I, the admin team and the board appreciate hearing what is important to you and what we can do to be even better. This community is experiencing unparalleled success, perhaps most demonstrated by this response to “I am proud to be a part of Westside School.”
Strongly agree/agree 98%
Neutral 1%
Strongly disagree/disagree 1%
The survey questions focused on our educational program, the classroom environment, communication, tuition and other areas of the school. Of the curriculum areas, Language Arts received the highest marks, with Spanish and technology receiving the lowest. The most important things to the participants were small class size, academics and quality of teachers. All these received 100%. Parent volunteer opportunities ranked as the least important, which participants rated 57% as important, 28% as somewhat important and 15% as neutral or not important.
Here is some of the data:
Our school is doing a good job preparing students to continue their education at the next level of schooling.
Strongly agree/agree 90%
Neutral 7%
Strongly disagree/disagree 3%
My child is challenged by the school’s curriculum.
Strongly agree/agree 73%
Neutral 16%
Strongly disagree/disagree 11%
Westside provides opportunities to learn about other cultures and appreciate differences.
Strongly agree/agree 94%
Neutral 4%
Strongly disagree/disagree 2%
I am informed of volunteer and parent activities and opportunities.
Strongly agree/agree 90%
Neutral 9%
Strongly disagree/disagree 1%
Westside is a good value.
Strongly agree/agree 90%
Neutral 10%
Strongly disagree/disagree 0%
Comments to “What do you like most?”
- Teachers, environment, leadership, focus on arts, kindness, excellence, fun
- The approach to teaching. How well my student is learning there. The family and the friends that we have met there. How they are so communicative about everything. That my student is happy there.
- Adult (teacher) child interactions. Class size.
- I really appreciate the sense of community at Westside. I feel so comfortable bringing my children to school each morning and we look forward to events where we get to socialize with our Westside friends. I also appreciate the exceptional teaching staff, small student/teacher ratio and the well-rounded education provided through enrichment classes.
- We like the small, friendly, and positive environment. Families take a strong interest in the school and the children are friendly and respectful. Joyful learning really does happen at Westside and our child is very happy there. I love the quality of instruction, the class size, the careful curation of students and the emphasis on empathy and other “whole person” skills. I was impressed by the quality of the Holiday music program and the deep, authentic interest the instructors seem to take in their students and their successes in addition to their areas for improvement.
- They are as interested in building a caring community as in academic achievement. They are developing well-rounded children. Blue Plate hot lunch program is terrific. The teachers and staff are smart, kind and engaging. You really get the sense that they are fully invested in the school and the children. You feel the commitment to diversity, even though it isn’t a very diverse student body.
Comments to “What would you like to see changed at Westside?”
- More diversity, more growth
- Nothing!
- Better outside facility, better playfield, better parking
- Defined school teaching philosophy, increased ability to serve kids on both ends of the learning spectrum
- Opportunities to be more involved. Working full time I feel like I’m not as involved as I should be and that I am missing something. More evening and weekend opportunities to volunteer. Explanations of changes - like what happened to Spanish class? Less Time Off of School. Seems like I’m always scrambling for childcare because school is closed for one reason or another. More extracurricular activities, clubs and sports time.
- Very aggressive way the school seeks donation. Some of us have sacrificed about everything else in our lives to be able to give a child this education, then we are made to feel very bad for not being able to contribute more.
- Elitist attitude among parents.
- More individualized teaching.
- Better communication from board.
- More diversity. An actual campus.
- I think more diversity in our student population is ideal is we are trying to raise our children within a Global Community.
- I feel our concerns have been addressed.
- Facility enlarged to house increased enrollment, better communication about curriculum.