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The Weekly Memo

The Weekly Memo

Greetings

We're excited to share that the 2024-2025 school year is off to a fantastic start here at Western Christian High School! The energy and enthusiasm among students, staff, and faculty have been truly inspiring as we settle into a new academic year.


We are particularly proud of our students for their positive participation in implementing the new smartphone policy. This significant change has been embraced with maturity and understanding, demonstrating our students' commitment to creating a focused and respectful learning environment. We recognize that this adjustment may have been challenging for some, and we're grateful for the way our students have stepped up to the challenge with grace and a positive attitude. We truly have the best students at WC -- makes this administrator proud! :)


Many of you may be wondering who answered the phone when you called the office this week (someone other than Kathy!): Haley Jager has joined our office team! Haley, who holds a master's degree in Business Administration and Organizational Leadership (MBA) from the University of Sioux Falls, brings a wide variety of expertise to her new and dynamic role at Western Christian. She will be on campus part-time during the week for front office support, and a significant portion of her responsibilities will be behind the scenes as Director of Marketing and Communications.


Starting next week Thursday, The Weekly Memo will be called something entirely new! Stay tuned to learn more. We'll also have The Weekly Memo made available on the website so you don't need to keep digging through your email inbox to find the updates.


Praying you have a wonderful weekend, making sabbath rest a priority.

Mr. Brian Verwolf

Head Administrator

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The Weekly Memo serves as a weekly communication to our parent community. We'll send it to your inbox each Thursday during the school year. If you would like the newsletter to be sent to an additional account, let us know! Grandparents & supporters may request to receive the communication, too. Please email Mrs. Kathy Mouw with contact information: Kathy.Mouw@westernchristianhs.com

With the first full week of school, we will hold our first chapel of the year. Chapels occur on Thursdays, consisting of three opportunities for worship: music, message, and Faithpacks (our small groups). Mr. Andrew Hoekstra will be leading the way with the music, I select our guest speakers for chapel messages, and an overview of ideas is provided to each Faithpack leader to make their time meaningful for each group.


I will be sharing an interactive (hopefully memorable) message with the students today in chapel. I hope to tie some big ideas from our theme verses for the year to our day-to-day life at Western. Please pray that our chapels will be God-glorifying, community building, and faith nurturing! (If you need a conversation starter with your teen, ask why there was a dinner table set up in the Event Center today.)


Our theme verses for the year are from Ephesians 2:19-22; the freshmen are working on having it memorized by next week Friday. Please join us in memorizing it!


Please consider joining us for chapel by subscribing to Western Christian High School Livestreams on YouTube.


Mrs. Karen Christians

Director of Discipleship

A New Role

If you’ve been connected to Western Christian in some capacity over the last decade plus, you’ve likely known me (Justin Negen) as a History Teacher, Coach, Dean of Students, or Assistant Principal. This year, I am excited to serve Western in a new role, that of CFO - Chief of Finance and Operations.


A word that has been on my mind lately is "Stewardship". How do we as Christian individuals and institutions act in a stewardly manner with the gifts God has given us? I am excited to partner with Western’s families, supporters, leadership team, finance committee and others as we seek to live out our mission in this sphere.


Continuing forward, Mrs. Connie Grevengoed continues to serve as our Business Manager; however, she will work remotely. Please feel free to stop in the front office and visit with me if you ever have any questions that you may have discussed with Connie in the past. As always, she can be reached via email at connie.grevengoed@westernchristianhs.com.


Mr. Justin Negen

CFO

Here's a look at the schedule for September 2-6:

Monday, September 2 | No School-Labor Day

Tuesday, September 3 | Regular Schedule

Wednesday, September 4 | Odd Block Schedule (9:25am Start)

Thursday, September 5 | Even Block Schedule/Chapel

Friday, September 6 | Regular Schedule

View the Full Activity Calendar on BOUND Below:

Fall Sports Apparel Ready for Pick-up!

Football, Volleyball, & Fine Arts apparel will be ready to be picked up in the student lounge on Wednesday afternoon. Dance, Cheer and Cross Country coming soon!

Reminders & Updates

Athletics: BOUND Season Activity Passes

Here is the link to download Season Activity Passes along with tickets for away games throughout the season. Click here for TICKETS. To stay up to date on athletic schedules, school events, cancellations or changes, we encourage students and fans to download the BOUND app. The icon for this app is located on the right.


This Friday, we play BHRV at Hesla Field in Hull. We will be considered the "Away" team for this game. We will be utilizing the South end of the field, and the south bleachers for students/fans. BHRV is asking that tickets are purchased prior to the game. Please have the tickets pulled up prior to arriving at the field to speed the entry process. These tickets can be found at the same link listed above.

Educational Savings Accounts, the Church, and the Christian School: Save the date!

On Saturday, September 7, from 9 AM-12 PM, Dordt University and the Center for the Advancement of Christian Education (CACE) will host a morning seminar to help encourage and equip leaders in our churches and Christian schools. Parents and families that support Christian education are also encouraged to attend. During this time, speakers will reaffirm our covenant commitment for Christian education, as well as provide best practices and ideas for parents, churches, and Christian schools during this new era of Educational Savings Accounts. Please use this link to register. This includes the morning's schedule as well as an option to view via Zoom. A recording of the event to view at your convenience is being planned as well.

Welcoming Dutch Students

We are searching for several families to host Dutch students (Boy or Girl) for 3 weeks from October 25-November 15. These students range from 15-17 years olds with a wide variety of interests looking to experience life in Iowa, in whichever way that looks like for each family. In return, these families will host our Western Christian students in the Spring. For families to participate in this unique opportunity, families are asked to have a current student attending Western Christian. If you are interested in serving in this unique opportunity or for more information, please contact Carey Van Donselaar at Carey.VanDonselaar@westernchristianhs.com, or 712-449-5923.

Support Services

Student Schedules

We are pleased to announce that student schedules are now available on JMC via both the Family and Student portals. In the Family portal, schedules can be accessed under Academics > Schedule.


Students are getting back into the routine of school and adjusting well to their schedules. The deadline to add a class to their schedule is Friday, August 30. Students will be required to make up any missed work from the first days of class as determined by the teacher. Students have until Friday, September 6 to drop a class. They must maintain six Western classes in their schedule.


For any schedule change requests, please contact Mrs. de Boom: karinda.deboom@westernchristianhs.com.

Student Support

At Western Christian High School, we recognize our students’ unique creation and the variety of God-given talents and skills. We know that each student presents a unique combination of such strengths. We believe it is our responsibility to meet students where they are at in their journey and equip them with the tools and resources required to exceed their potential. To meet the need, we have a Student Support Team with a variety of resources. Go here to learn more about who to connect with!

Mission Advancement

We Are a Learning Community

Parent, Meet Your Teen

We need a biblical understanding of teenagers, but there’s a problem: the Bible doesn’t say anything about teens. If you looked for verses on teenagers, you’d find none. Adolescence is a recent invention. But Scripture does contain descriptions of the tendencies of youth. Many of these are found in Proverbs.


Check it out!

The Western Witness | Spring 2024

The Western Witness is a seasonal publication that we distribute to our broader learning community. We share physical copies at the time of publication, and we also have a hub on our website where we archive past editions.


Here are links to our most recent publications:

Pessimistic Parents and Cell Phone Bans

Now that we’re halfway into 2024, six months of polls on K–12 education make one thing clear: parents and Americans think school is off to a rocky start this year. And how about this data: "Most school parents want cell phones in schools—teachers disagree." What do you think?


This is an interesting article from EdChoice!

Non-Discrimination Policy

Western Christian High School does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, or national or ethnic origin in the administration of its educational policies, admission policies, scholarship and loan programs (if any exist), and athletic or other school administered programs.

Western Christian