Blue & White Newsletter - 5/24/24

The Class of 2024 enjoyed a beautiful, heartfelt celebration of their achievements as they transitioned from students to alumni! We wish them all the best as they step into their future endeavors.

Thank you to everyone who assisted in the preparations, set up, and breakdown of our ceremony venue. A Big Bulldog Bark to Steve at Stauffers of Kissel Hill in Dover for helping us set the stage for graduation this year! They provided beautiful trees, shrubs, and flowers for our graduation stage this year!

On Wednesday, the Class of 2024 took part in the WY tradition of Grad Walk! Each year, our graduates travel from the High School and visit each of the other WY schools, in their caps and gowns. They process through the schools as the students, faculty and staff line the hallways to cheer for the graduates and shower them with congratulations signs, applause, high-fives, and looks of awe in the eyes of our youngest Bulldogs! Several K-8 teachers received hugs from graduates that they had taught in their early school years. At Trimmer Elementary, the band played as the graduates transitioned from one end of the Trimmer building outside to enter the other end to complete their round through Trimmer's halls. Well done, graduates!

Wednesday was the last Bulldog Pantry distribution day for this school year. Our families who come to our distribution days are incredibly grateful for the support the Pantry provides them. This project is the result of a vision from Ms. Amanda Burt, Life Skills Teacher, to extend the Bulldog Boutique that provides clothing for high school students, to include non-perishable food items.

In addition to helping the community, the Bulldog Pantry assists students in our Life Skills Support (LSS) classes learn on-the-job skills in preparation for competitive employment opportunities. They maintain the Bulldog Pantry, inventory items, check expiration dates, stock shelves, and bag items. The students are scored on a rubric each time they work in the pantry, including the following areas: attitude, initiative, quality of work, pace, and following directions. This evaluation helps the LSS staff determine the skills the students need to improve.

While LSS students work in the Pantry during the school day as part of their classes, they can also volunteer on pantry distribution nights. Additionally, they volunteer weekly at St. Matthews Pantry, which provides some donations to our pantry.

The needs of our community continue to increase and now, more than ever, we count on the generosity of our district families to keep our pantry full. We accept donations year round. If you would like to donate non-perishable food items over the summer, please email Ms. Amanda Burt at amburt@wyasd.org to make arrangements to drop off your donations. Our first Bulldog Pantry distribution day for the 2024-2025 school year will be here before we know it!

The dates for next year's distribution dates will be published in August.

Ms. Emma Geiger's class at Trimmer Elementary performed their plays based on the scripts they wrote over the last month. The four plays were The Mean Girls, The Snowy Mountain, Spongebob and Patrick Go to Jail for the First Time, and The Universe War. The students enjoyed popcorn and putting on a great show for their parents, peers, and staff members! Bravo and wonderful job!

Wednesday evening, the Middle School auditorium was filled with amazing sounds of our various Middle School bands, lead by Band Director, Ms. Laurie Kumontis, featuring songs from Queen, Taylor Swift and ABBA!

Our Sixth Grade Band took on a medley of Taylor Swift: Eras songs and "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" from Queen. The Leader in Me Select Ensemble showed their talents with Queen's "The Show Must Go On" and "Killer Queen." Those in attendance also enjoyed a selection of Queen songs performed by the Middle School Jazz Band. The Seventh and Eighth Grade Band performed "Bohemian Rhapsody," "Dancing Queen," and "Don't Stop Me Now" that included an Alto Sax solo by Savannah Morgan.

The concert concluded with the collective talents of all of the above bands sharing the stage to perform a medley of Queen songs including "We Are the Champions" and "We Will Rock You."

The evening wrapped up with a Thank You! to Ms. Kaytlyn Weaver, student teacher from Messiah College, and acknowledgment of the 8th grade band members who will be moving on to the High School next year.

Students in Ms. Amy Versailles class at Lincolnway Elementary enjoyed a camping-themed day last week! They read camping stories, practiced opinion writing, played camp partner games in math, and read with finger flashlights under their table tents! What a fun way to engage in learning! More camping days, please!

Gem English Learners in Ms. Shanda Goodwin's class at Trimmer Elementary completed oral history projects this spring. They interviewed a family member about life in another country, coming to America, or surviving a natural disaster. All students learned more about their family history, their home country, and their heritage. They wrote short biographies and created 3-D illustrations to remember their interviews.

Four of Ms. Shanda Goodwin's fourth grade Gems from Trimmer Elementary prepared for the third and fourth grade Envirothon competition held on Thursday, May 16th, during their English as a Second Language support time. Juyle Bermudez-Miranda, Jose Jimenez-Mejia, Rashdan Nadvi, and Keyshlian Santiago-Rivera learned about forestry, aquatics, and wildlife this year with a variety of activities while building their language. They worked on study skills and teamwork as well. Their studies led them to learn about brook trout from Mrs. Tonia Sallaway's class, who participated in the Trout in the Classroom program. The four Gems had the opportunity to join Mrs. Sallaway's class during their trout release as well. Their hard work and learning will take them places!

Students in Mrs. Kelly Murphy's first grade class practiced making compound words using PVC pipes, Legos, blocks, and puzzles.

Summer is here, and so is the vibrant garden at Trimmer Elementary! This year our students at Trimmer Elementary planted strawberries, beef tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, potatoes, cucumbers, bush and pole beans, sweet peppers, lettuce, spinach, red beets, and carrots! Thanks to the plentiful rain, our garden is thriving!

We'd like our vegetables to continue to be successful, and we'd love to share them with the community! If you'd like to help water and harvest them, please sign up for a date/time by clicking the link bar below. This year, we're also going to try something different. Every Wednesday will be a "Weeding Wednesday." We're hoping to get a group of people on Wednesday mornings to work together and pull some weeds. Last year, things got really overgrown and we lost our blueberry plants to the weeds. This summer, we'd like to stay more on top of them.

Thank you for your interest, and Ms. Megan Eckbold and Mr. Glen Medice hope to see you out there!

Calia Mullins, a third grade student in Mrs. Allison Godfrey's class at Lincolnway Elementary, worked for over a year to create and publish her very own nonfiction book about hedgehogs! The book includes photographs, illustrations, and interesting facts and information about hedgehogs. Calia created the book in Google Slides and put it all together in a published format with the help of Mrs. Shelly Geller. There will be a copy in Lincolnway Elementary's school library for future students to check out, and Calia also dedicated a copy to her teacher. Congratulations, Calia!

We will wrap up the 2023-2024 school year with the May 31st issue of the Blue & White. During the summer, the Blue & White will be published every three weeks in June and July. We will resume weekly newsletters beginning with the August 2nd issue.

During the summer, share your fun summer activities with us! Send pictures and a description of the activity/event to BullDogMail@wyasd.org. We will have a Bulldog Summer Fun section in each of the June and July issues. So, whether you are spending time at the beach or local pool, enjoying a backyard staycation, taking in some sightseeing, or another fun summer activity/trip, we would love to share your pictures!

May 24, 2024

9th - 10th Grade

Logan Claycome

For being so kind to get me a soda from the Cafeteria!

11th - 12th Grade

Ava King

For your extra work for the competition!

Staff Member

Mrs. Michele Lam

For helping out a fellow teacher!

If you missed the text/email communication that went out Thursday evening, please click the bar below. This communication is to let you know that student Chromebooks will be collected next week and will spend the summer in the loving hands our our Tech Department.

We are happy to share that again this summer, we will be offering our Summer Activities Program in conjunction with the Summer Bulldog Bistro Free Lunch Program!

Join us for a lot of fun activities! Each day will have a specific topic, theme, or activity facilitated by a West York teacher or employee. One day of each week will be the always popular Bingo Day, complete with prizes! We are also excited to confirm that Reptile Invasion will again fill our MS auditorium with their amazing little, and not so little, creatures on one of our days!

Each week, the District website's home page will provide the upcoming week's activities/themes. See the image below for more details. If you have any questions, please email Ginny Carter at vrcarter@wyasd.org.

Come join us at West York Area High School for a fun-filled day of running and getting splattered with vibrant colors all for a great cause! We are running to support the children and families who are fighting against childhood cancer. All monies raised will go toward our Four Diamonds fund. This will add to other money raised and will be revealed with our final total in March of 2025 at our mini-THON. This in-person event is perfect for all ages and fitness levels. Lace up your shoes and get ready to dash through the colorful course which will lead to the completion of a 5K. The event will take place at the High School at 1800 Bannister Street, with the food trucks in the athletic parking lot and registration and start and finish down below. Don't miss out on this exciting opportunity to get active and have a blast with friends and family while helping West York Area High School raise funds for Four Diamonds. See you there!

To see route details and to register, click the image to the left.

All questions can be sent to arhedgcock@wyasd.org

Be sure to Like/Follow us so you don't experience FOMO - Fear of Missing Out!

Click each social media image below to Like and Follow us!

At the February 20th Board Meeting, the 2024-2025 District Calendar was approved and you can access it from our website by clicking the bar below.

• Monday, May 27, Memorial Day - Offices and Schools Closed
  

• Monday, June 3, Summer Lunch Program Begins (11:00 a.m.)
• Tuesday, June 11, Cocurricular Committee Meeting (5:30 p.m.)
• Tuesday, June 11, Board Work Session (7:00 p.m.)
• Friday, June 14, All Buildings & Grounds Closed
• Tuesday, June 18, Board Voting Meeting (6:30 p.m.)
• Friday, June 21, All Buildings & Grounds Closed
• Friday, June 28, All Buildings & Grounds Closed

Check out this week's issue of the Bulldog Breakdown, a weekly recap of the prior week's athletic accomplishments and lists the upcoming sporting events.

Don't miss important information on the PIAA postseason events, brackets, schedules, and how to purchase tickets! Simply click the Bulldog image to view the latest issue!

Kindergarten registration for the 2024-2025 school year is now open. We encourage families to register early. Simply click the image to the right and click on Create A New Account. Even if you already have students in West York, you will use the Create A New Account to begin the registration process for your incoming kindergarten student. Children need to be five years of age by September 1, 2024, to be eligible for kindergarten.

If you have any questions, please contact our Registration Office at 717-792-2796 extension 1216.

Check out the Kids Bowl Free Program! This program is designed by bowling centers to give back to the community. We have three bowling centers in our area that are participating:

• Colony Park Lanes
• Laser Alleys
• Suburban Bowlerama

Step 1: Go to https://www.kidsbowlfree.com/all_centers.php#PA and find a center near you.

Step 2: Create an account for your family.

Step 3: Enjoy an entire summer of bowling FUN!

The Community Corner of our website offers families many helpful links to organizations or flyers about upcoming or ongoing community activities, clubs, and events. The information on this webpage changes frequently and those changes will be highlighted here as they occur. The latest updates are pictured below.

From our Home webpage, click on Community to access links to various organizations/community events.

Newly Added:

• Belmont Summer Academy - Theatre Summer Camps
• YWCA FREE Synchronize Swimming Clinic - June 22nd

Here are just some examples:

• Cub Scouts (Boys & Girls ages 5-12)
• Girl Scouts
• West York Boys Club
• YMCA of York
  
• YWCA of York

Community Resources such as:

• United Way
• Community Progress Council
• Dream Wrights Center for Community Arts
• Belmont Summer Academy - Theatre Summer Camps