Mustang Musings
April 2024
April showers bring May flowers is the old saying. While we perhaps got more snow showers than rain showers, April was a busy month in West Grand with all sorts of activities throughout the entire district. All of the hard work and learning will start to show and bloom!
Check out the Table of Contents for overall topics. If there is something you would like to see in the newsletter, let Mrs. Bauer know at bauere@wgsd.us.
Happy Reading!
Profile of a Learner -- Open Minded
Students and staff being recognized at the West Grand Board of Education April meeting for the profile trait "Open Minded."
Career Connected Learning
Post secondary exploration
Students at WGHS continue to explore and experience many different post-secondary options. Here are a few highlights of some of the things going on:
- Sophomore John Butler - Selected to Intern at "The Henderson Experience." John is visiting and studying in each department over a 9 week period.
- Freshman Jadyn Castillo - Selected to serve on US Congressional Representative Joe Neguse's Youth Advisory Council. Jadyn serves on the Education Committee, she is currently working on H.R. 3179 Supporting Apprenticeship Colleges Act
- West Grand Interns attended the 2024 Intern Celebration Event on April 11th at River Run in Granby
- West Grand Students went CU Boulder for a college exploratory field trip where they got to tour the campus and see what a day in the life at CU Boulder could be.
Intern & Community Partner Banquet
Jayden Castillo
John Butler at Henderson
WGHS Intern of the Month -- Mikayla Gifford
Mikayla Gifford was WGHS Intern of the Month. She is interning with our very own third grade teacher, Nellie Thomson!
Assessment Season - THANK YOU!
West Grand has finished up our state assessments for this year. We had some great messaging and atmosphere regarding testing this year. How we talk about testing is important and affects the students.
Here are some of the positive messaging that students saw during this time:
- Middle school students wrote letters of encouragement to elementary students and vice versa.
- Candy along with encouraging messages for all K-8 students, sponsored by Colorado Aerolab.
- K-8 students were greeted at the door by our Mustang Mascot!
- High school students were welcomed into school with donuts and Kindness Coffee
THANK YOU for being a part of the positive atmosphere and encouraging your student to do their best. What a great week!
EL Connection Newsletter
State Science Fair
WG middle and high school students got a proper send off as they headed to compete in the 2024 State Science Fair. The students who qualified for state included:
- Juniors (middle school): Kelly Carpenter, Devon Mahorney, Pake VanderLinden, Bailey Cook, and Esse Dominguez
- Seniors (high school): John Butler, Bayley Frazier, Hayden Eubanks, and Bianca Perez-Ramos
The students represented West Grand well and several came home with awards:
Little shop of physics award
Pake VanderLinden
Honorable mention
Certificate and science equipment
Dentistry and Forensic sciences by Dr. Carol and Robert Morrow
Hayden Eubanks
2nd place
$50
Biomedical and Health Sciences
Devon Mahorney
Honorable Mention
Congratulations, Mustangs! We are proud of you!
Devon Mahorney receiving her award
Pake VanderLinden posing with his board
Students who competed
Slime Time!
This year, the WG K-5 raised over $8000 for the American Heart Association through the Heart Challenge. This fundraising event was organized and coordinated through PE class and teacher Mrs. Bailey.
As a reward, students attended a Slime Time party and got the chance to slime several WG staff including: Mr. Hicks, Mrs. Bauer, Mrs. Nelson, and Mr. Holmes. Students were shrieking with laughter and fun!
Strategic Planning
As a part of our district improvement plan to help improve our WG Middle School state rating, we have been given an opportunity to partner with Colorado Education Initiative (CEI) through a grant funded by the state. We're excited about this process, and the positive impact the outcome will have on WGSD. As part of this work, it's very important to hear thoughts about our District from students, teachers, parents, and our community.
Earlier this month, members of the District Accountability Committee (DAC), WGSD staff, and additional families met to start our strategic planning process facilitated by CEI. One of our action items out to this initial meeting is to gather information and perspectives from our stakeholders. If you're not contacted by a DAC member, we encourage you to contact us and we can connect you. We want to hear from as many members of our community as we can during this process to gather as much data as possible.
If you are interested in being a part of this steering committee moving forward, you are still invited and welcome to join. Our next meeting will be Tuesday, May 28 at 6:00pm in the WG Board room.
Kindergarten Signing
Earlier this month, WGSD hosted Kindergarten Round-up for incoming kindergartners for the next school year. Families got to meet the teachers on Wednesday night and the students got to experience what a day in kindergarten would be like on Thursday.
Check out some of our students and their "signing" to be committed to be a Mustang, Class of 2037!
The Project
On April 24 the West Grand High School Band participated in "The Project". This began in 2011 when Soroco and West Grand HS bands saw a need to give all of our students a full band experience and combined the two bands to present a unified concert at West Grand High School. Over the years we have included Hayden High School and East Grand High School and have rotated the location each year. The last few years we have included Moffat County High School in Craig and this year, Moffat County hosted the event. It gives our band students the opportunity to play in a full size band with complete instrumentation, learn from other music educators and interact and perform with music students from other schools. This year, the bands from SOROCO, MCHS, and WGHS rehearsed 4 pieces of music separately for about a month, and then met together at Moffat County High School on April 24. The combined band rehearsed for about 5 hours, enjoyed lunch and a catered dinner together and then presented a concert at the MCHS Auditorium. Each band played a selection of their own and then the 4 selections that they had worked on together.
West Grand HS Band - More Than A Feeling by Boston
Soroco High School Band - Aventura by James Swearingen
Moffat County High School Band - Critical Mass by Todd Stalter
Combined Project 2024 Band:
"At The Crossroads" by Robert W. Smith, directed by Kelli Turnipseed, Soroco High School Band Director
"Be Still My Soul" (from Finlandia) by Jean Sibelius arranged for Project 2024 by Daniel Bowerly, directed by Daniel Bowerly, West Grand High School Band Director
"Electricity" by Brian Balmages, directed by Angelia Arnold, Moffat County High School Band Director
"Heartbreaker" by Pat Benetar arranged for Project 2024 by Daniel Bowerly, directed by Daniel Bowerly, West Grand High School Band Director
Colorado Legacy Award -- Coach Brown
WGHS Coach Chris Brown was honored on Monday, April 22 with the Legacy Award from the Colorado Chapter of the National Football Foundation. This was an award that was created specifically for Coach Brown who is one the winningest coaches in the state of Colorado for high school football.
He is seen pictured here at the awards banquet with his wife, Cheryl Brown, and daughters, Jessica and Shanda.
More Classroom Highlights
Prom
The WGHS Junior Class hosted prom on Saturday, April 27 in the WGHS gymnasium. Students and staff donned their formal apparel and danced the night away! Music was provided by Mr. Hicks at DJ and live music from students Orion Ilgner, Alejo Aguilar Pineiro, Will Parmenter and Damon Simmons. WGSD SRO, Sgt. Elthorp showed up to cut a rug as well!
Prom King was Jon Paul Manguso and Prom Queen was Wendy Eller.
After Prom -- THANK YOU
A big thank you to the parents, sponsors, and all involved in continuing the tradition of after-prom for our WGHS students. It's important to us that our students have a safe and fun activity after the dancing to participate in. The night/morning was full of food, games, and even bull-riding. Plus, the prizes were great!
Thank you again to all who made this possible!
Ag Adventure
WGHS FFA hosted an Ag Adventure Day for the district. We are happy that this year's Ag Adventure ran smoothly and was exciting for our younger attendees. Ag Adventure is one of a few ways our FFA chapter uses to reach youth throughout our community and teach career development opportunities within the agriculture industry. Agriculture is a base for everything we need and use daily, from food and clothing products to material goods and services. Because ag has such an extensive outreach or effect on our everyday lives, FFA strives to inform and educate students through a student-led organization.
This organization prioritizes leadership development, career preparation, and hands-on learning in all surrounding agriculture, but it is entirely applicable to any field and in various situations. In the past, Ag Adventure consisted of a petting zoo of livestock and poultry as its primary event, with its goal being to encourage questions regarding care, maintenance, and purpose and provide general knowledge about the present animals. We kept true to this tradition this year. Members of our school's WG FFA chapter provided the animals for the petting zoo and assistance during their class period. The K-8 students in attendance actively engaged in learning throughout this interactive event. We have learned so much from this experience that we hope to apply to continuing this event.
State FFA CDE
FBLA State Competition
WGHS FBLA had two students represent them at the state competition, Sylvia Manguso
Maddison Batchelder. These two young women did an outstanding job of presenting. FBLA sponsor, Mrs. Lott, also received an award for her legacy as a business teacher as she is retiring from teacher at the end of this year.
Congrats to all!
Sylvia Manguso receiving her award
Mrs. Lott with her sponsor award
FBLA students competing
1st Grade Mini-mall
First graders designed, planned, and created different vendors' booths for patrons to stop by, browse, and purchase their merchandise. The varying products and the creativity behind it was very creative! Students also got to practice with numbers and money.
3rd Grade Dictionaries!
The WG 3rd grade class would like to thank the Kremmling Rotary club for continuing to provide this great resource for our students. Each year the Rotary has donated a dictionary for every third grade student to have for themselves.
Touch-a-Truck
Thank you to all who supported this event!
Outstanding Student Award -- Orion Ilgner
WGHS student, Orion Ilgner, received the Colorado Outstanding Student Award from CU Boulder. He was nominated by WGHS staff. The Outstanding Student award recognizes a junior from each school in the state of Colorado who has exemplified academic excellence, leadership, and school and community service.
Orion is seen performing on the guitar, bass, voice and harmonica last night at a music fundraiser.
Orion has been selected to perform in the " JAS Street Horns" band, sponsored by the Jazz Aspen Snowmass music festival. He will rehearse every month for the next year with other outstanding musicians from NW Colorado. The band will also perform at many events in Colorado over the next twelve months, (including the famous Jazz Aspen Music Festival) culminating in a week-long performance trip to New Orleans in March of 2025.
Student art work
It's always inspiring walking in our hallways and seeing student work.
Sunsets by 4th Grade
Frozen Kaleidoscopes by Middle School
Franken-Crayons by Kindergarten
KFFR Youth Week
KFFR Radio is hosting Youth Week coming up and will be highlighting a few familiar faces around the district as well as going live in our very own West Grand High School. I hope you can tune in to hear about and from some West Grand students and staff!
Upcoming Events
Don't miss out on any of the great events happening here at West Grand. Check out our website google calendar!