The Howl

Welcome to the kick off of the 2024-2025 school year! If you are returning to the Wolf Pack: WELCOME BACK! We hope you had a wonderful summer. If you are joining the Wolf Pack for the first time WELCOME! We are excited to welcome you into our community. We need YOU! Your voice, your passion, your perspective as we continue to build and deepen our Wolf community as we head into Year 3.

This is the first Howl of the 24-25 school year! What is the Howl? It is a weekly Newsletter from SP West, but is also designed to be so much more than just a newsletter. The Howl includes information about our monthly cultural/heritage celebration months, educational information for topics facing our students and families (examples include: vaping, gel blasters, etc), updates regarding needs of our community and updates from the incredible things happening in and out of our classrooms. The Howl comes out weekly on Sunday afternoon/evening. It's your go to spot for upcoming dates, events, activities and to stay connected to what's happening in the community.

We need YOUR input too! Do you have an idea of something that should be included in the Howl? Your ideas are always welcome. Email our Admin Associate to the Principal, Jordain Blank at jnblank@sunprairieschools.org.

In the Howl this week:

• Greetings Wolf Pack!
• Upcoming Events
• One West. Our School. Our Future.
• Leaders of the Pack
• Registration
• Keys to Success
• Welcome Back Wolves Night
• Bell Schedule and A/B Day Schedule
• Fall Sports
• School Supplies
• Welcome New Staff
• Summer Highlights

August 6th- Football Practice starts (not too late to join)!

August 12th- Girls Golf Practice Begins

August 13th- Girls Tennis Practice Begins

August 13th- Girls Swim and Dive Practice Begins

August 17th- 8:00am- Community 5K - Sheehan Park

August 19th- Boys and Girls Cross Country Practice Begins

August 19th- Boys Soccer Practice Begins

August 19th- Boys and Girls Volleyball Practice Begins

August 19th and August 20th- 8:00am-12:00pm and 1:00pm-4:00pm- Registration for ALL students- SP West North Gym

August 21st-22nd- Jazz Kick Off! August 6:00-9:00pm at Sun Prairie EAST High School

August 22nd- 9am-11am- Keys to Success for Incoming 9th Grade and New to West students- SP West Performing Arts Center- enter Door 1

August 26th- Staff Returns!

August 28th- 6:00pm-8:00pm- Welcome Back Wolves Night! for ALL students and parent/caregivers- SP West

September 3rd- First Day of School!

September 4th and 5th- Musical Auditions- Seussical the Musical! ALL students welcome

September 17th- Picture Retakes/Make-Up (if picture not taken during registration)

Here we are at the beginning of year three and we couldn't be more proud of this community and excited for what is yet to come! We are committed to creating One West: Sun Prairie West High School is an intentional school community where students, staff, and families feel seen, valued, and heard. We work to: understand our own story and the story of others, identify and eliminate barriers; problem-solve solutions; build relationships; actively listen to and lift the voices of our students, in order to create equitable opportunities and outcomes so that outcomes are not predictable by demographic. Our community supports and empowers high expectations for all students and all staff so that all students are college, career, and community-ready.

As we enter year 3 we will focus on high expectations with high support for ALL students. We will have a specific, year long focus of students being in class, engaged in their learning communities from bell to bell.

We have spent the summer preparing for an incredible Year 3. Over the next several weeks of the Howl we will: introduce your Admin Team and Support Staff that are here to support you, share specifics of systems and structures to support students, staff and parents/caregivers, ground ourselves in universal expectations for the upcoming school year. Year 3! One West. Our School. Our Future.

Do YOU want to be a Leader of the Pack? Leaders of the Pack is open to any West Wolf that strives to embody PACK each and every day and is ready to step up as a leader for our community. Activities for leaders of the pack include: serving on Student Senate, volunteering at school wide events, giving school tours, being a buddy for new students and being a guide for our incoming 9th graders. Sign up today!

SP West Registration 24-25 will be held on August 19th and August 20th in SP West's North Gym from 8:00am-12:00pm and 1:00pm-4:00pm. This is the go to launch of the school year for ALL students, both new and returning. You will enter the building through Door 31, our Athletic Entrance (just to the West of the main entrance) and exit through Door 1 the main entrance. We can't wait to see you there. Here's all the things that you can look forward to at Registration:

Parking Permits:

• Parking Passes: Students will need to bring a valid ID to receive their parking pass. Please note that there will be no assigned parking spots this year; parking will be on a first-come, first-served basis.

• Prepayment: You can prepay for your parking pass via the Infinite Campus (IC) portal. We encourage you to complete this process before the start of school to streamline the registration. Click the link below to register. Once you enter your information, the fee will be added to your student's IC account in 72 hours or less.
• 24-25 Parking Permit Application
  

Bus Tags:

• Students who will be using the school bus should receive their bus tags during registration. These tags are essential for identifying and managing bus routes.

Lockers:

• Lockers will be assigned during registration if your student chooses to have one. If your student does not want a locker but then changes their mind once school starts, they can visit the front office to obtain a locker.

Clubs and Extracurricular Activities:

• Information about clubs and extracurricular activities will be available during registration. We encourage students to explore and join clubs that interest them.
• You will have the option to pay the $10 club fee.

Sporting Events:

• This year, we will be using GoFan for purchasing tickets to all sporting events. Please download the GoFan app or visit their website to stay updated on event schedules.

• Follow this link to get your student activity passes, family passes, or individual game tickets. High school students purchasing a student activity pass will need to enter their student I.D. number as the access code.

• Sun Prairie West is going cashless for all game tickets for the 2024-25 school year so please plan ahead and purchase your tickets through GoFan.

Student Services:

• Print your students schedule. Note: no changes to your schedule can be made during registration.
• Want to change your schedule? Click this link: Course Selection Change Form
• Make changes to your Parent Portal.

School Photo/ID

• Empire will be at registration both days to take school photos and print student ID's.
• If your student is not able to attend registration, we will be providing a picture make up day on Tuesday, September 17th.

Calling ALL incoming 9th graders and new students to SP West. Keys to Success will be held at West High School on Thursday, August 24th from 9:00am-11:00am at West High School. This is an opportunity for students to be welcomed into West, get to know the building and start created connections with staff and students. ALL new students and incoming 9th graders are welcome! We are excited to see you there!

Join us for a re-envisioned Back to School Night and Orientation. Introducing: Welcome Back Wolves Night! This evening held before school on August 28th from 6:00pm-8:00pm provides an opportunity for community building, meeting teachers, launch of expectations and vision for 2024-2025 school year. More details to come but mark your calendar for a fantastic night of community as we continue to build One West and prepare for our best year yet!

As we prepare for the 24-25 School Year here are two important documents for you to have handy. Our A/B Day Schedule and our Regular Bell Schedule. The A/B Day schedule is set for the year and will not change even if we have snow/cold days. Please note that Semester 1 starts and ends on an A Day and Semester 2 starts and ends on a B Day. This was unavoidable with other constraints so just a heads up.

We know that students who are involved in 2 or more activities outside of the classroom have in increased: sense of belonging, academic success and social-emotional well being. We are fortunate at West to offer MANY opportunities for ALL students. Don't see something that you are excited about? Connect with Mr. Nee (eanee@sunprairieschools.org) to work on creating something new. Fall sports have begun or are beginning very soon. It's not to late to sign up! Reach out to Mindy Ripp (mjripp@sunprairieschools.org) and/or Amber Beaver (albeave@sunprairieschools.org). Join TODAY!!!

At the High School level we do not have a standard school supply list. Many teachers will let your teachers know any specific materials they will need for class during the first couple of days. To start the year please have your student bring a notebook/s, pens/pencils and their Chromebook (more information on Chromebooks to come). Especially over the last couple of years Chromebooks have become our students most important school supply. Many students also benefit from having a binder/s

Over the next several weeks we will be welcoming our new Wolf staff here! Please take a moment to get to know these new members of our community and to send them a quick Wolf Welcome!!!

Sound of Sun Prairie, our Sun Prairie Marching Band, had a fantastic summer of music, friendships and memories.

Future Wolves got an experience of what is like to be a Wolf Athlete. The youth campers learned a ton & had a great time getting some work in with our high school players!

Congratulations to Asha Sundaram. Asha performed as a featured soloist and winner of the Clampitt Concerto Competition at Birch Creek's Rising Stars Concert on July 5th.

FBLA went to the FBLA National Leadership Conference last week! We had a great time exploring Orlando, going to Universal, and networking. Congratulations to Tea, Alanna, Sam, Pragnya, Shlok, Mouneeth, Sourya, and Rishab for successfully competing in their events. Sam Ebersole and Pragnya Vella placed top 15 in their events out of the 16,000 individuals at NLC! Pragnya was elected as a National Officer, which is a huge honor. We are so proud of our team's accomplishments and can't wait to see what the 2024 - 2025 FBLA year will bring us!

If you don't already, please follow SP West on Facebook!

STATEMENT OF NONDISCRIMINATION

No student may be unlawfully discriminated against in any school programs, activities or in facilities usage because of the student’s sex (gender identity, gender expressions, and non-conformity to gender role stereotypes), color, religion, profession, or demonstration of belief or non-belief, race, national origin (including limited English proficiency), ancestry, creed, pregnancy, marital or parental status, homelessness status, sexual orientation, age, or physical, mental, emotional or learning disability. Harassment is a form of discrimination and shall not be tolerated in the District. It is the responsibility of administrators, staff members and all students to ensure that student discrimination or harassment does not occur.

(SPASD District Policy JB)

If a student or parent/guardian would prefer to have this information translated into Spanish, please contact us at 608-834-6620. Si un estudiante, padre ó guardian prefiere tener esta información traducida en Español, por favor contactenos en el 608-834-6620.

If a student or parent/guardian would prefer to have this information translated into Hmong, please contact us at 608-834-6630. Yog tus me nyuam lub xiv los yog niam thiab txiv/tus neeg muaj cai saib xyuas tus me nyuam xav tau qhov ntawv ntawm no ua lus Hmoob, thov hais rau peb paub rau ntawm 608-834-6630.