Notes from the WGIS Principal

This page provides thoughts and commentary from Dan MacCollum, the Principal of West Genesee Intermediate School in the West Genesee Central School District.

Dear WGIS Families,

This week we were able to get in 4 Evacuation/Fire Drills and the students did a great job staying calm and quiet so they could hear important information from their teachers. It was a perfect week with the weather we have been enjoying but also with our Positivity Paws trait of the week - Safety!

We had a great first meeting with the PTA this week as well. I encourage everyone to join and participate in this great organization who are focused on making every students 2 years here at WGIS the best they can be. At the meeting, I discussed briefly some of the school safety topics that have come up lately. It is important that we do all we can to keep our students safe and that includes teaching them about the importance of their words. We will continue to discuss this issue in the school building but also encourage all of our families and student support systems to talk to their children about how important it is to say something if they see something.

Coming up this next week is our WGIS picture day(s) on September 25 and 26. 5th grade students will have their picture day on 9/25 and 6th grade students will be on 9/26.

As always, thank you for your continued partnership with our school to make sure all of our students find success at WGIS.

Be Kind-Work Hard-Think BIG!

It's a great day to be a wildcat!

Mr. MacCollum

We had a wonderful first PTA meeting. The next meeting will be in the WGIS library on October 9.

Information was also shared about the West Genesee Special Education PTSA. More information about this parent group can be found here!

Please feel free to reach out to the PTA (cboverton@gmail.com or WGISPTA@gmail.com) with any questions!

This year, we will be using Second Step to promote positive character traits in our students here at WGIS. Each week, we will focus on a new character trait. Students who exemplify the character trait of the week will have an opportunity to be recognized on the Friday announcements and be featured in our weekly e-news.

This week, we recognized students that exemplified safe behaviors throughout the school day. Next week, we will focus on respect. We will be on the lookout for students showing respect in how they interact with each other, their teachers and our school.

This week, we recognized students who went out of their way to show safe behaviors . Congratulations to our Positivity Paw winners; Riley, Maxim, Ja'Zariah and Avery!

Safety is a top priority at WGIS. Please continue to use caution during student drop-off and pick-up times. We appreciate everyone's patience and understanding that we need to ensure the safety of all students.

Teaching students about the importance of their words:

We use the phrase "When you see something, say something" to teach our students the importance of keeping themselves and our school community safe. When we ask students to say something, we are asking students to tell an adult. Sometimes, students are unsure and might talk about something amongst themselves which can lead to misinformation. I ask that we all send a consistent message to our WGIS students that if they hear or see anything that makes them uncomfortable, that they immediately tell an adult so we can insure the safety of our community.

As a reminder to everyone, threats of any kind that are made towards another student or our school community are taken seriously and have consequences. We cannot leave any room for reasons such as "joking around" or attempting to assess whether or not someone would follow through on a threat. Our commitment to safety means we have to investigate all reports and take them seriously.

Picture Day at WGIS will be 2 days this year! Photographers from Upstate Images will be in the building on September 25 and 26.

5th Grade Pictures will be taken on Wednesday, September 25.
6th Grade Pictures will be taken on Thursday, September 26.

If your child was absent from school this week, you should have received a message through ParentSquare. This new form of communicating student absences also allows you to respond with the reason for the student absence. Please use this method of reporting student absences and not directly messaging classroom teachers to announce an absence.

• September 25 - WGIS Picture Day for 5th grade

• September 26 - WGIS Picture Day for 6th grade

• October 9 - WGIS PTA Meeting 6pm

• October 14 - No School Columbus/Indigenous Peoples Day