WJHS Highlights

Dear WJHS Families,

Over the past couple of months you may have heard your child come home and mention something about the bathrooms being closed. Every year we have issues with students putting paper towels and/or feminine products into the toilets which then causes a plumbing back-up and safety issues. This often requires us to close the restrooms for the day or sometimes several days, as our custodial staff and the district plumbing staff work to fix the problem. We would love your partnership in explaining to your children that you, as tax payers, help keep schools running safely. Thank you!

A year ago D39 moved to providing IAR and MAP scores to you through PowerSchool. To learn more about how to access your IAR and MAP scores, please follow these instructions. If you'd like to learn more about the NWEA MAP assessment, you can learn more at our FAQ here.

Veterans Day is Monday, November 11, and we want to sincerely thank all of our veterans for their contributions to our national security. We thank you all for your service and sacrifice.

Best regards,

Kate, Jeff and Rob

New Trier placement testing begins this Saturday, November 9th. The second, separate testing date is scheduled for Saturday, November 16th. (As a reminder, students are only to attend one testing date.) Families should have received a confirmation email of their testing date directly from New Trier.

New Trier sent out, via email, specific testing instructions and reminders for those students who are testing tomorrow. Please review this information carefully. Below you will find a general summary of the information contained in their communication.

• Testing begins at 7:45 am sharp. Doors open at 7:15 am; students will enter through either door N16 or S2. Students will need to head to the third floor of the Winnetka campus to find their testing room location.
• Students will be using their school-issued iPad to complete the placement test. Please ensure your student's iPad is completely charged to be ready for testing. D39 will be providing an IT technician on-site in the event any student encounters technical issues on the day of testing.
• Students should bring with them a water bottle, snack, and a few pencils. The writing portion of the test is completed using pencil and paper.
• If you have any questions, please reach out to testing@nths.net

For additional information about New Trier and important dates, please see New Trier's incoming freshman website, linked here.

We are wishing our students good luck on their placement testing! You've all got this!

This year, we will use the Scripps National Spelling Bee’s online testing platform to hold our grade-level spelling bee via an online spelling test.

The first step to spelling bee participation is registering for the online testing platform by visiting https://online-test.spellingbee.com.

Here is a video tutorial that will walk you through the registration process: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ThKRsffiFc

Tests can be taken on any device with a web browser, including desktop computers, laptops, tablets and smart phones. Chrome, Firefox and Microsoft Edge are our preferred browsers. We do not support Safari for desktop or Internet Explorer.

The students from each grade with the highest scores will move on to compete in the district bee. This year, our school-level competition will be administered via an in-person bee at WJHS in January 2025

Our district champion will then move on to represent Wilmette District 39 in the next level of the regional spelling bee program, which may include online tests instead of in-person spelling bee events.

Remember, the first step to participating in the spelling bee is to register at online-test.spellingbee.com. Please register your student as soon as possible, as I will begin assigning tests soon. If you have already registered another child in the online testing platform, you can log in to your account and add an additional child to that same parent account. There is no need to register a different email address for each child in your household.

Please reach out to me if you have any questions about our school spelling bee program.

Mary Kate Lubawski - Lubawskm@wilmette39.org

Wilmette Junior High School

Parent/Teacher Conferences are scheduled for November 20-22 (Wednesday-Friday). Families received an email from the district with their login credentials on Friday, November 1st. If you didn't receive an email, please check your Junk or Spam folders before reaching out to the office. Sign-up for families began on Monday, November 4 at 9:00 AM and ends on Monday, November 18 at 11:59 pm.

Highcrest Middle School and Wilmette Junior High School conferences will be done by video call using the Meet the Teacher platform. All video conferences will be conducted via the built-in video conferencing software inside Meet the Teacher and not via Zoom. No special software or app is needed, as the video runs in your web browser. A video link will be sent to you with your appointment confirmation. Meet the Teacher has a support page with detailed information should you need it.

Please visit our webpage with instructions on how to book your appointment.

• In order to access the system, you will need the login code that will be sent on Friday, November 1 as well as the date of birth of one of your children.

• If multiple parents are attending the conference, please only sign up once, so as not to clutter your teacher’s schedule. Once scheduled, you may invite another parent/guardian to join your appointments.

• If you have any trouble using the system, please contact your school secretary for scheduling questions or enter a support ticket for technical questions.

As we look to November we look forward to the many holidays that occur during this upcoming season. Monday, November 1 begins the Indian holiday of Diwali, the Festival of Lights. It celebrates the triumph of light over darkness and good over evil. Happy Diwali to all of our families celebrating.

Thanksgiving, which occurs later this month, is a wonderful time to celebrate our families. The Theme that we observe across the district is “Our Families are Important.” We encourage our students to share about their families, their family traditions, and what makes their family special to them.

Families and the community are also a crucial part of the social-emotional development of our students. While we have lessons about understanding our emotions, building relationships, understanding others’ perspectives, and making good choices and decisions, these lessons at school alone, are not as effective as they are when supported at home by the families that surround our children. Spend time as a family over this month celebrating one another, and engaging in activities that are fun! The Wilmette Public Library has regular events for families, and check out this list of opportunities to spend time together by catching a show, apple or pumpkin picking, heading to a museum and more!

Email: office-wjhs@wilmette39.org
Website: http://wjhs.wilmette39.org/
Location: 620 Locust Rd, Wilmette, IL, USA
Phone: 847-512-6600
Instagram: @wjhswolves39
Twitter: @hawkwolf39