Westwood Junior High

We are delighted to share that 2025 is off to a fantastic start at Westwood Junior High! We trust that you continue to find the Westwood Wire a proactive, timely, relevant, and concise resource for staying connected with our school community. You can expect this newsletter every three weeks via email, our school website, the Westwood Twitter page, and PTA platforms.

Each issue will include updates from me and highlight topics such as campus news, academics, athletics, counseling, fine arts, and the library. Our goal is to create meaningful communication that fosters engagement and collaboration as we celebrate the incredible work happening at Westwood Junior High.

We also want to express our deep gratitude to our PTA, especially our President, Mrs. Borne. The unwavering support from our PTA community is truly appreciated by our faculty, staff, and students. Thank you for the wonderful treats provided to the staff before the break and for all you do to make Westwood such a special place!

In closing, a few updates and reminders:

• We are celebrating our School Board this month as part of National School Board Appreciation Month and updated our marquee to include our message of thanks.
• Last chance to buy a Westwood Yearbook is January 31st, see announcement below.
• Next, Monday January 27th, you will receive an electronic progress report from your student’s Wolf Den teacher. Please look this over with your student and if you have any questions, please reach out to teachers.
• Your child’s NWEA MAP report can be accessed through FOCUS beginning next week.

• Click My Child - Click Child Info - Click Assessment Rpt Cards - Download the file in NWEA MAP Reports
• To learn more about NWEA MAP in RISD, please click https://web.risd.org/mtss/map/.
• Join us for the 2nd Annual Westwood Growth Camp on February 5th at 6pm. We will begin in the small gym with a presentation about student growth and Schoology. Families will then be able to chose up to three subjects to visit to learn more about what growth looks like in the course and how you can help your child at home. Every course presentation will be uploaded to our website as well.

Thank you all for your continued support and collaboration as we work to build strong relationships with all members of Westwood Junior High to ensure a sense of belonging, acceptance and responsibility for maintaining our collective safety and high quality learning environments.

Sincerely,

Katie Mottram

Principal

kathryn.mottram@risd.org

• January 31: LAST DAY to purchase your yearbook!
• February 3-7: National School Counseling Week
• February 4: Westwood Walks at 6 PM (Incoming 7th grade families)
• February 5: Family Growth Camp at 6 PM
• February 26: Reading Interiim Testing
• February 27: Math Interim Testing

We are thrilled to announce that Ms. Neese is our 2024 - 2025 Teacher of the Year!

We want to give a special shout-out to our amazing PTA! They treated our staff with a delicious lunch. Thank you to our PTA for their generosity and for always supporting our school community. If you have not already, please become a member of our wonderful PTA; the link is below.

Richardson ISD has a Focus Parent Portal, which lets parents view their student's grade and attendance information online. Report cards will now be published to the Focus Parent Portal.

To access Focus Parent Portal, parents must request an account, which can be done via an easy online sign-up process by visiting https://web.risd.org/focus/.

Send in your best photos of athletes, cheerleaders, or any great moments to include in the 24-25 yearbook.📸 Email or share your pictures with hgodinez@g.risd.org.

Thank you,

Heriberto Godinez

To the Westwood Junior High School community:

We don’t want to leave anyone out, so if you already purchased your yearbook, Thank you. If not, this is your LAST CHANCE to get one.

The LAST DAY to purchase your student’s 2025 yearbook is Friday 1-31 at midnight. You can purchase in minutes by clicking on the below link.

(When purchasing online you have the option to pay in 3 INSTALLMENTS!)

Thank you for your support of the Westwood yearbook!

You may be asking yourself, “Did I already buy?” – There’s now an easy way to verify this yourself.

If you feel you may have already purchased this year’s book online please log in here https://www.jostens.com/apps/profile/signin.mvc to MAKE 100% SURE your order was counted. If not, you can use the link above to order.

Note: If you can’t remember your password, just click “forgot password” to reset it.

If you did buy this year’s book online, it will be toward the top of the list. Please verify the school name is correct as well. Note: the 2024-2025 yearbook purchase will have a date sometime AFTER July 2024.

We just want to make sure that everyone who wants this year’s yearbook will get one and hope this new verification tool will be a great convenience to you.

With appreciation,

The Westwood yearbook staff.

Hello 8th grade Westwood Wolves,

As we bring the summer to a close and homework is piling up and sports and fine arts events are starting to populate our calendars, we wanted to remind every one of the great opportunities to explore, in the safety of group school travel, one of the most dynamic, energetic and historical cities in the world - London, England.

Spring break offers us the opportunity to visit Stonehenge, Oxford, the Tower of London, travel the London Eye, enjoy a Westend Musical, perform in a workshop with trained Shakespearean actors, visit and learn at London museums, try new foods and snacks, and experience a new city, culture and country. All with friends from school.

Last year's trip was an overwhelming success, and you have an opportunity to join us this year. Do you have a friend that you want to travel with? If so, share this email, pass along the website and sign-up information and help build out the trip.

To sign-up, visit our website: CLICK HERE

To view last year’s itinerary: CLICK HERE (we have added Stonehenge this year)

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to Coach Lockett (beverly.lockett@risd.org).

Travel expands the educational understanding of the world and hits directly the goal of RISD to develop global thinkers across their schools. Westwood happens to get a head start on this.

TENNIS:
Tennis teams began practices on January 8th and will begin its 2025 season on Wednesday, January 22nd. Westwood girls will play Parkhill JH at Pearce High School Tennis Courts. Westwood boys will host Parkhill JH at Richardson High School Tennis Courts and Liberty JH on January 29th. On January 29th, Westwood girls will play Liberty JH at Berkner High School Tennis Court and will host Richardson West JH on February 5th at Richardson High School Tennis Courts. All matches will begin at 4:30 PM.

TRACK & FIELD:
Track practices will begin Tuesday, February 18th at the conclusion of basketball season. DEN TIME informational sessions are being held to provide introductory information along with expectations and procedures. See Coach Shelmon or Coach Cervantes for more information.

3-Week Grade Check:
UIL eligibility grade check will take place on January 24th at the end of the school day. This checkpoint will provide an opportunity for those students who were unsuccessful at the 9-week check to regain eligibility status on January 31st.

Reminder: Eligibility Requirements for all Athletics
All students must have a current physical and updated UIL Rank One paperwork prior to participating in any tryouts, practices, or games. All UIL information can be found on the Westwood, RHS, and RISD Athletics websites.

Tickets:
Tickets for all RISD Athletic Events can be purchased at the gate or by visiting the link below: https://richardsonisd.brushfire.com/

Book Club is meeting Wednesday, January during students’ lunch period.

Bookmark Contest!

Calling all artists!! To celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. we are having a bookmark decorating contest. The form is attached (see below) with the information and where to create the bookmark. All entries are due by Friday, January 24th. See Ms. Moore for any questions.

TexQuest is January’s Database of the Month. This database has so much FREE helpful information! There are ACT, SAT, PSAT tutorials, Keyboarding Modules, Career Match quizzes, STAR practice tests, and so many tutorials for Algebra, Geometry, Pre-Cal, Chemistry, Physics and more! Ms. Moore is previewing how to use this database on your student’s library visit this month. Ask your child to show you all the resources! Remember with the databases, the library is always open!

Want to support the library? Check out our Amazon Wishlist of items we need to pull off these library events. Thank you so much to those who have already granted some of our wishes!

Thanks so much for your support!

We have met 65% of our fundraising goal and need your financial support to get to the finish line. Your donations allow all the fun things for our students and staff – parties and treats for our teachers, quarterly student award gifts, teacher of the month awards, school dances (PAR-TAY!), and the end of school luncheon for teachers, we would greatly appreciate it. Donate online here.

RISD is seeking parents and community members interested in serving on three new committees that will begin meeting this semester. Learn more about serving here.

In this session, parents will gain an understanding of the brain as it relates to behavior and be equipped with strategies for supporting their children when they are experiencing “big feelings/emotions” both at home and school. If you're having trouble registering, please contact us at (469) 593-0334.

RISD recognizes the work our teachers perform to support every child, every day. And we believe there is an opportunity EVERY day to show our appreciation for all they do to ensure student success. Click here to learn more about the Thank a Teacher program and how to sign up, and we will connect you with a campus.