District in Pictures

On Friday, August 11, all WFISD staff members gathered at First Baptist Church to kick off the school year with the annual convocation event. This is the only time of the school year when all staff WFISD staff members are all together. There is absolutely no denying that "WFISD has talent" and it was on full display from both students and staff members. Convocation kicked off with a performance from a drum line featuring Hirschi, Rider and WFHS students. The National Anthem was also performed by A Capella choir students from Hirschi, Rider and WFHS along with Cunningham Elementary Deaf Ed teacher, Sadie Girouard as the sign language interpreter. A special thanks to our extremely talented student performers: Sylvia Zarate, Cady Bailey, Gavin McCurdy, Isaac Hawkins, Jun Park, Carson Minniear, Rosalie Alfert and Ellie Beck. WFISD staff members were able to hear the inspirational stories from the Elementary and Secondary Teachers of the Year, Shelly Hutchins and Elizabeth Burkham along with a motivational message from superintendent, Dr. Donny Lee. WFISD convocation would not be complete without our awesome emcee and performer, Ward Roberts. Thank you to the staff of First Baptist Church for their assistance with this event and for opening their doors and letting us use their facility. It's going to be a great year, WFISD! #wearewfisd

WFISD was excited to be a part of the 2023 Project Back To School Roundup! Community members from all over Wichita Falls came together to make this event happen. Local businesses, foundations and organizations came together to provide students with all of the necessary supplies for heading back to school! Project Back to School is a community program created to provide disadvantaged children with school supplies, backpacks and more to prepare them for the new school year.

On Wednesday, August 16, WFISD teachers and staff members were excited to open their doors to welcome their students on their first day of school! Pictured below are a few students from across the district on their first day of school.

Need a new WFISD t-shirt, hoodie, or tumbler? Well you're in luck! The WFISD apparel store is open with plenty of different options available (short sleeve, long sleeve, various colors). Click here to place your order.

Please note: Campus pick up is available for WFISD staff only. Shirts will be delivered to your campus if you selected that option. To add that option, click on the very first image in the store that says "STAFF" and then choose your campus. Otherwise, you can pick your items up from BroCro Creative at 607 E Scott Ave or pay to have you order shipped to your home or school.

Important: After you order, please keep a copy or your receipt. There is no way for the district to look up individual orders for staff after they have been placed.

Orders must be placed by the end of the day on Sunday, August 27. Orders will be shipped or ready to pick up at BroCro Creative by September 14.

The Career Education Center TAFE chapter wanted to do something special for the staff members of Rider High School in honor of surviving the first day of school with students. The students provided water bottles with custom labels on them along with flavoring packets. What is TAFE, you ask? TAFE (pronounced "taffy") is a co-curricular statewide non-profit student organization created to allow young men and women an opportunity to explore the teaching profession. If you would like to keep up with the TAFE chapter, follow them on Instagram at @wfisd_TAFE.

Southern Hills Elementary welcomed their students back in 80's style! "Staff had a tubular day making the first day of school totally RAD for our students," said Southern Hills principal Amanda Garcia.

Franklin Elementary principal and assistant principal, Ashley Murdock and Rebecca Alfert, wanted to do something special for their staff to kick off the school year and decided that an outing to Chooch Axe Throwing was just what they needed! "It was a great time for new and returning staff members to get to know each other or reconnect after summer break," said Laura Garcia.

At the end of the 2022-2023 school year, the Rider High School graduating class on 1966 graciously made a donation to Rider High School to cover the cost of unpaid cafeteria fines for all Rider students.

Today was a special day at Jefferson Elementary school. The campus held their 2nd annual Student Team Building Day! This gives the students an opportunity to make new friends and build strong relationships with their teachers right at the start of the school year. "I think it's the most important thing we will do the entire school year," said Jefferson teacher, Sarah Reeder. "If they can build relationships early on in the school year, it helps them understand we're all here working toward the same goal!"

During the summer break, Sheppard Air Force Base volunteers leant a helping hand to Sheppard Elementary to help finish a few paint projects and helped the campus get ready for the new school year. The volunteers are made up of AIT's, Permanent Party and Sheppard Elementary parents.

Special thanks to the summer work crew and our WFISD maintenance and warehouse employees. While many people were enjoying time off this summer, these individuals were hard at work cleaning, painting, moving classrooms, digging trenches, assembling portables and doing many other tasks to make sure each campus was ready to welcome students this week!

Pizza Hut on Seymour Highway graciously donated pizzas to the WFISD summer paint crew. This group of students worked hard all summer painting schools across the district. They not only painted inside, but painted outside in the unbearable heat. "I am tremendously grateful and proud of the work they have put in," said Maintenance Supervisor Jimmy Medlinger.

During the last week of school, the Jefferson Elementary Student Council sponsored a Toiletry Drive to benefit the Children's Aid Society. Grade levels competed against each other to see which homeroom could bring the most items. The winning classes won ice cream parties. In all, 800 items were collected! After the last week of school, Student Council co-sponsor Sarah Reeder, along with her two children Gibson and Parker Reeder, loaded up all of the items and delivered them. The Children's Aid Society was thrilled to accept the donation and stated that toiletry items are always needed and costly for the organization. "Student Council cannot wait to sponsor another such drive to benefit such an important community organization," said Mrs. Reeder.

WFISD has teamed up with Work Services Corporation to take care of all of our landscaping needs. Each month, WSC will be choosing a "Yard of the Month" and a sign will be provided that can be displayed on the campus. This month, Fowler Elementary was chosen by WSC's Vice President of Operations, Ben Ezzell, as the "Yard of the Month."

Ms. Francis Lowe, a former Franklin Elementary librarian, paid a visit to Mrs. Missy McCartney, the current Franklin librarian, on August 9. Ms. Lowe shared many stories of her time at Franklin Elementary and talked about what it was like to have card catalogs and then transition to using computers.

Franklin Elementary faculty and staff got a huge helping hand from the PTA and families as they all came together to brighten the hallways and prepare the entire campus for students to return. On Saturday, August 12, hallways were touched up with paint and given fresh decorations. The outside grounds were also given a good clean up. A special thank you to Franklin parents, Janell Stewart and Audrey Leach, as well as the other PTA and staff volunteers. If you would like to find out more about Franklin PTA click here.

On Memorial Day, a handful of Rider Band and Orchestra students medaled at the UIL State Solo and Ensemble Contest in Austin. Jun Park, a junior at Rider High School, was named Outstanding Performer for the UIL State Event for the second year. The UIL Band and Orchestra students were under the direction of Loy Studer, Michael Walta and Thomas Borgman.

District in Pictures is a weekly publication developed by the WFISD Community Relations department. If you have events, recognitions or classroom activities taking place on your campus that you would like us to feature, please let us know by completing the form at the following link: www.wfisd.net/dip. We would love to include you in our weekly district news.