Warrior Word - Holiday Edition

It’s hard to believe that the holidays are nearly here, and 2022 is just over a month away! I’m extremely excited for our students, staff & parents that will have an opportunity to experience some of the more traditional holiday activities here at Wahluke (after missing last year while in Distance Learning).

I wanted to thank everyone that helped honor our Veterans last week — participating in assemblies, writing letters, and creating videos! Also, a very special shout out to Betty Palmer, CTE Director, and the Maintenance Department for the Fallen Hero Banners along Boundary and the WHS campus — this was absolutely impressive! 👏🇺🇸

A few things we are currently working on during November-December include a Professional Development Retreat with our Cabinet & Board of Directors, planning a new Learning Academy for some of our most in need behavior students, and preparing for our Comprehensive Program Review (CPR) in January and running a Replacement Educational Programs & Operation Levy in February.

I want to wish all of you a restful & relaxing Thanksgiving Break and as always, go Warriors!

Our first campus visit to Columbia Basin College was a complete success. On November 15th, 35 students had the opportunity to get a tour of the campus, learn about running start, admissions, financial aid and scholarships. Special Thank you to Mr. Hjelm, Mrs. Negrete and Ms. Sandoval for chaperoning!

GEAR UP staff is working on coordinating more campus visits to Perry Tech, WSU Tri-Cities and CWU. We encourage and welcome parents to join us for campus visits/educational excursions. If you’re interested in participating in any of these, please reach out to GEAR UP staff via email at gearup@wahluke.net or via phone at (509)932-1908.

The GEAR UP Team wishes you safe and happy holidays! 🎉🦃🎄

This year, it has taken additional time to get the start of the school year commotion and processes behind us. Our new employees are all “on board.” And we are excited to have our district filled with new staff that will help our students succeed. We have worked with our staff to ensure compliance with the State COVID vaccination mandate. We will now be able to assess and assign HR functions among the HR department to streamline our processes to meet requirements and to serve our staff.

November and December will provide many opportunities to be reminded of what is important to us. There is also some free time to enjoy what you love to do. There are many scheduled student activities and events during this holiday season, on behalf of WSD I invite you all to - go enjoy!

Liz Leitz

WSD HR Department Director

We continue to build an incredible special education department and recently have added the following employees: Maria Zamarano- JH Resource Para, Brenda Alarcon-SME Lifeskills Para, Gabrielle Tibbitts- Speech Language Pathologist, and Kathy Blevins-transportation.

Recently, we were able to celebrate our School Psychologist, Dr. Cole, Kate Campbell, and Pat Byrnes, for the outstanding services they are providing our students, staff, and families. During School Psychologist week November 8th-19th. As part of their commitment to our districts, they attended the Washington State School Psychologists Convention. During these sessions, they were able to take many courses that increased their ability to serve our schools, including a detailed course on dyslexia.

Our department is also very excited to announce we have been working with the elementary schools to establish a new learning academy. Our focus is to provide a program that services the whole student, providing academic support, social-emotional learning, and positive behaviors.

If you have any questions about how we can help families with intervention strategies with academics or behaviors, please feel free to reach out to us for support.

LaDonna Fogle

Special Education Department Director

As you may have noticed, we have started sending out a M2 Monday Update every week. This little newsletter is just our way of highlighting our department and bringing resources to you to help you better support our students and their families. If there is ever a topic that you would like to see covered or a resource you would like to have us share with others, please send it our way!

Last week district and building staff attended La Cosecha dual-language conference. We are excited to bring back what we’ve learned about supporting our multilingual learners and leveraging their primary languages in the classroom to support content learning. Speaking of dual language, we are in the process of creating a Dual Language Advisory Committee to look deeper into the Guiding Principles of Dual Language and our district’s master plan. Dr. Barbara Kennedy will be facilitating this work over six evening meetings from December through May. If you are interested in being a part of this process, please let Norma Ramirez (509-932-4565) know as we are working to create a team that represents the different buildings, roles and perspectives in our district.

Last but not least, we would like to take this time to remind you that ELPA21 is no longer the annual language assessment that our students receiving academic language supports take. The new test is called the ACCESS for ELLs. If you would like to take a look at sample items and the practice test, you can do so here. The testing window is January 31-March 25, 2022. There will be more information on this coming to your buildings soon.

Bethany Martínez

Multilingual & Multicultural Services Director

We had 30 families attend this month's Parent Night. During this parent night we had different programs like PBIS, OIC of Washington, McKinney Vento, WHS Counselors and Student Assistance Professional present.

Multilingual & Multicultural Services would also like to give a huge Shoutout to DRIP Barbershop for donating three free haircuts for our Migrant/Bilingual families.

The winners were: Edith Quiroz, Lorencia Nolasco Gaspar and Sanahi Gatica.

October was a busy month for us! We prepared morning and afternoon snacks for all grade levels to help our students perform well in their classes and after school programs. This month, some of the yummy offerings from the Fresh Fruit and Veggie Program included seckel pears, figs, bell pepper strips, and radish coins. In October, we featured several new menu items: Chicken Bruschetta Pasta, Mac and Cheese, and Taco Joe, which were all well-received by most of our students. We also served student favorites this month, such as Chicken Alfredo, Nachos, and Spaghetti with Meat Sauce.

Did you know that we make scratch meals on Tuesdays and Thursdays at the Mattawa Elementary and High School Kitchens? After we prepare those special kettle meals for our students, our Freight and Transport Specialist Rodimiro works quickly to get hot meals delivered to our other kitchens so we can serve freshly-made scratch-cooked meals to our students at lunchtime.

This month we collected student feedback about our meal program from members of the High School ASB. Our upcoming November menu includes a few of their suggestions, which have also been shared with Gladis, our Kitchen Lead at the High School.

Throughout November, we will send out surveys and continue to meet with students to collect more information about the meal preferences of our student population. If you have any ideas you’d like to share with Jennie, our Director of Child Nutrition, please email her at jnorton@wahluke.net or call her at extension 3492.

Thank you for supporting our School Meal Program!

Jennie Norton

Child Nutrition Department Director

We have started an indoor soccer league. ⚽️ Each Elementary school has four teams. The teams are grouped 1st-3rd and 4th-5th grade. All the students are representing their schools very well. Each school has 40 students participating and having a good time competing. Indoor soccer will run until December 17th. ⚽️

Joe Wirtzberger

Intramural Sports Director

Howdy All,

Looks like the end of fall sports has concluded and we are now rolling into the winter sports seasons for both Wahluke High School (WHS) and Wahluke Junior High (WJHS). First starting off with WJHS winter sports offering Boys Basketball, Girls Basketball and co-ed Wrestling. First, WJHS Boys Basketball started on November 1st 2021 has four (4) teams with more than 55 student-athletes turning out! December 3,2021, is when girls basketball and co-ed wrestling registrations open!

Wahluke High School (WHS) athletics just started this past Monday, November 15th 2021 it's off to a great start! We are working with our student-athletes on how to register again and reminding them about the COVID-19 rapid test dates.

A huge shout-out to our nursing staff Carrie Harris, Dan Fox and Stacey Robinson for doing a tremendous job with communication to all student-athletes, coaches, and parents. WHS athletic numbers are the following: Boys basketball will have three (3) teams with more than 35+ student-athletes, girls basketball will have three (3) teams with more than 25+ student-athletes, boys wrestling has 26 student-athletes, girls wrestling has 13 student-athletes, and rounding off the list is cheer with 9 student-athletes!

Wahluke Athletics Department is still searching for volunteer officials for junior high basketball games. Also our athletic department is in search of some coaching positions for winter sports and spring sports. We are in search for a WHS girls basketball C-team coach, interim WJHS girls basketball D-team coach, WJHS head co-ed wrestling coach, WJHS two (2) track and field coaches and WHS head softball coach.

Wahluke's Student Support Services and Wahluke's Athletics Department are planning on hosting a Athletics Sports Summit that entails all aspects of athletics for Wahluke School District. From cheering student-sections, upgrading potentially district athletic facilities, and some much more!

Look out in the up and coming weeks for some more information as to when and where this event will take place!

#GoWarriors

Jackson Haak

WSD Athletic Director & Title IX Coordinator

21st Century Program has filled both Site Coordinator positions at SME with Maria Cardoso and MSSE with Stacey Sprinkle!

The after school program has been running at MES since September 27th, supporting 1st and 2nd-grade students in Literacy. The after-school Robotics program for SME will begin on October 4th, supporting 4th and 5th-grade students. We are also in the early planning stage of providing academic support in the 1st and 2nd grade level in Literacy. The plan is to begin sometime in early November.

After school Robotics program for MSSES start date is TBD, but we are anticipating mid-October. We will be supporting 4th and 5th-grade students.

We will continue to have more after-school opportunities as the school year unfolds for WSD Elementary Students.

David Orozco

21st Century Program Director

The Wahluke Coalition has a new website! take a few minutes to look through it. There you will be able to find anything that is coalition related like upcoming events, programs for students and community members, as well as where to find help and who to contact. wahlukecommunitycoalition.org

Hope Squad

The School district was given the opportunity to implement Hope Squad. This will be a peer to peer program in the Jr. High and high schools. The purpose of Hope Squad is to provide training to elected students with the hope of them being able to recognize the signs of depression and suicide so that they can report it to the right adults in their building or community. Oscar Herrera and Lino Sanchez will be the lead advisors. Contact us if you are interested in helping.

Hidden in Plain Sight

Make sure to save the date on November 30th, 2021. Starting at 7pm at the Wahluke High School auditorium the coalition will be organizing Hidden In Plain sight. Come and learn about the current trends that teenagers are doing and how to spot the red flags about substance abuse. We will also be going over how to talk to teens about the dangers of substance abuse and where to find help within the community.

Join Our first Hybrid Coalition Meeting

We will be having our monthly coalition meeting on December 8th from 1-2 at the admin meeting room. There will be lunch provided for those who can attend. If you cannot make it we will be streaming it through zoom here https://wahluke.zoom.us/j/81944705409?pwd=RVRpdGkybitjbzNJeThOR0tPR0oyUT09 At the Wahluke Junior High

Briseida Gonzales, our prevention assistant, continues to teach 7th graders with Lion Quest and LifeSkills curriculum. Teaching them how to make smart decisions, how to improve their social skills and how to live a healthy lifestyle that is drug free.

Our SAP

Oscar Herrera, the student assistant professional works with students at both the Jr. High and the High School works with students who may be at risk of using substances. Meeting with them regularly and referring them to professionals when needed.

November started with the Washington Department of Agriculture presenting a WISHA training course for Wahluke students. Those who attended the two-day program last week learned about safe work practices and how to minimize accidents in agricultural workplaces. The students also earned an Industry Recognized Credential (IRC) that will be good for 5 years, will help students secure employment, and will hopefully support students to learn how they can benefit from earning credentials in any field of work.

Thank you to the Grant County District 8 Fire department for opening your new space for a classroom and to Safety & Health Specialists Alejandro D. and Christian R. from L & I for this opportunity. Wahluke was the first school in the state to participate in this new program.

Betty Palmer

CTE Department Director

November is here! The Safety and Security Department has been very busy overseeing many different safety aspects around the Wahluke School District. We wrapped up the volleyball and football seasons with our event staff that oversaw safety and also used their customer service to help with community enjoyment at those venues. The Event Staff will now focus on indoor sports such as basketball and wrestling at both the junior high and high school levels. The Safety and Security Department is also helping teachers and paraprofessionals learn the basic techniques of Right Response. Right Response helps with interventions, respect, and safety in dealing with people and the environment.

With December quickly approaching, the Safety and Security Department would like to take this time to remind everyone to allow more time when doing things such as picking up students from school and driving to and from work. The Event Staff will be holding another working dinner where they will be trained on de-escalation techniques, zones of control, and customer service protocols. The Event Staff will also help with supervision in the upcoming Wahluke Winter Wonderland event held by the Mattawa Desert Air Lions Club at the Wahluke High School that will feature a special guest!...SANTA CLAUS! 🎅🏼

Thank you all for the support. Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!

JJ Calzadillas

Safety & Security Coordinator

The Business Office, as usual, has been very busy. Thanks to Malisa Fox for making visits to the buildings and departments to help with open enrollment. Remember that November 23, 2021, is the very last day to make changes to your SEBB benefits - after that, open enrollment is closed. As we started a new school year there were some hiccups, but the Business Office team quickly solved them. Thanks to Gabby Chacon for bringing all of the grants budgets and billings up to date and developing a system to keep on top of the monthly billing.

Did you know that the Wahluke School District has more than 40 grants, ranging from $2.2 million to $5,000? It’s a big job keeping track of these, and Gabby has developed a great system. Thanks to Alicia O’Neel for training new staff to use the requisition/PO system and for training staff to use the Treeno paperless invoice payment system. Alicia also helped a lot with the year end closing and reporting to OSPI. Jessica Rivera started with the WSD in August and is doing well learning the duties of her job, which include purchasing for Maintenance and Food Service, reconciling and posting cash receipts, and uploading invoices into Treeno.

As the District continues to grow and as payroll and benefits continue to grow more complex, we have added a position to the Business Office. Please stay tuned for details! Finally, did you know that the Business Office has a Notary Public that will notarize most documents - for free to employees and community members. Be sure to call ahead to see if Tracy Plouse is available before you head down to the Business Office, located at the Port of Mattawa next to Sentinel Tech.

We wish everyone a wonderful holiday season filled with joy and peace.

Tracy L. Plouse

Director of Finance and Operations

The Department of Teaching and Learning is busy gathering and uploading evidence for the Consolidated Program Review(CPR) performed by the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction(OSPI). CPR monitors multiple federally funded programs under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act(ESEA). We will have a desk review this year completed by a team from OSPI. They will focus on our efforts and implementation of critical requirements for the resources that we have available.

Fall state testing finished on November 10th.

Staff shoutout - Angelica Spreen has been instrumental in securing grant funding for our high school library. Starting in the 2020-2021 school year she began a makeover for the high school library. We were just notified that with her work that we were awarded another grant that will help update the remaining libraries throughout the district. Nice work Angelica!

Amy Marlow

Director of Teaching & Learning

Thanks to a two-year IMLS grant, we proudly present the new C3 Hub at Wahluke High School. This space promotes communication, collaboration, and creativity. We hope this space provides students with books, resources, and skills to make them successful beyond their time at Wahluke. Last year it was all about creating this new space, and we look forward to working on creating programs that will hold the C3 Hub over the years to come.

Video (Spanish): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bE7fKjVZ0_8

Video (English): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ev1AciBwYyI&t=4s

In addition to our original IMLS grant, in October. 26th, Wahluke School District was awarded the IMLS American Rescue Plan Grant! Our grant is called "We are Readers/Somos Lectores: Rescuing School Libraries to Support Literacy Agency for Diverse Learners". This is a $50,000 grant that will update the book collections in the three elementary schools, the junior high and the preschool. We also have money to purchase ebooks on Sora by Overdrive and professional development on how the school libraries can support literacy in the classroom. This means that by the end of this year all 6 school's libraries will be fully updated.

Angelica Spreen

WSD Technology Integration TOSA

It has been a couple of months now that students and teachers have been back to school at Morris Schott STEAM Elementary - and we are starting to feel a hint of what we remember loving about school again! The last few months have been a lot of hard work, with teachers and students practicing and remembering what it is like to learn in a classroom for seven hours a day, and it is starting to pay off!

MSSE has started to have a little fun again! As a PBIS school, our House Points, Individual Points, and Rewards are an essential part of what we do. As students adhere to and practice the Warrior Hero Code - Responsible, Respectful, Safe students - they earn points. Each week there is a reward event students can "buy" entrance into with their points. Recently, a DODGEBALL tournament was held outside for all students with 100 points to buy into! It was a great fun time, and it was great to see kids excited and having fun together!

And we've been having fun learning as well! Our District's resident Science and Sustainability teacher Jonathan Betz has been helping teachers with exciting, engaging lessons - and connecting with the students in the process - I caught him jumping in to play "gaga ball" with a group out at recess last week :).

After a visit from Mr. Betz, 2nd-grade teacher Christina Kavanaugh said, "He was super engaging and fun. Everything was well prepared and hands-on, and he connected with the kids, and they learned something. We can't wait to see him again!"

Karl Edie Morris Schott STEAM

Elementary Principal

Saddle Mountain Elementary would like to highlight the Building Leadership Team (BLT) which include Danyka Martin (Gutierrez), Felicia Mayr, Elizabeth Tapia, Marion Javier, Michelle Peralta, and Brenda Aguilar who are leading the work on three main school goals. The three goals include the areas of reading, math, and family engagement. The staff is working hard to improve our students' reading and math abilities through focused reading groups in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grades with the goal that our students leave 3rd grade with the ability to read at grade level. There’s intentional focus on the essential skills necessary for achievement of grade level math concepts. Saddle Mountain Elementary is also hosting invited parents to attend Latino Literacy Family nights to help encourage parents and students to establish reading routines at home. Special thank you to Irene Longmire, Elizabeth Tapia, and Alicia Cervantes who are the staff leading the Latino Literacy Family nights sessions!

SME has a Student Leadership Team for the 2021-22 school year. They worked hard on their campaigns and their grade level peers voted for them. They are: Harper Hubbard, Melanie Campos, Rihanna Cruz, Donovan Arroyo, Lizbeth Gomez, Kairavi Gomez Ledezman.

Saddle Mountain Elementary staff and students are hoping to make Thanksgiving a little bit brighter for several families in our community. During the dates of November 8th through the 19th SME has challenged staff and students to give back and participate in our annual canned food drive. Up to date, over 533 items have been collected! It has truly been exciting to see the mass of food growing in the display case in the entrance hallway, where students, parents and staff can see what they have given will be helping others in the community. The last day for collecting canned items is set for Friday the 19th and families will be contacted early next week to pick up their boxed meal, just in time for the holiday!

• REMINDER - SME has picture retakes November 30th.

Saddle Mountain Elementary

Kurt Hoffman, Principal and Niki Swanson, Assistant Principal

Mattawa Elementary wants to thank all the hard work of our parents, teachers, students and staff. Your dedication and support to our community has lifted many hearts and minds.

A huge shout-out to Mrs. Aldrich and Ms. Aldrich, a mother and daughter duo who works at M.E, for their dedication and commitment to providing our school with an amazing presentation for Veterans Day.

We want to share a couple of pictures of some fun memories we shared with our students.

GO WARRIORS!!

Mattawa Elementary School
Art Lopez, Principal

Anthony Voelker, Assistant Principal

Please come and join us for Boys Basketball at the Junior High! We have 7th and 8th grade students playing weekly on four different teams! Look for Girls Basketball and Wrestling to start in January 2022. Check the schedule on our website or call us to find out more!

Friday, December 3, 2021 students will be participating in what is called a Mini Gauntlet! This is an activity that students prepare for all year long. They are taught to interact with adults using eye contact, engaging conversation and the ability to think on their feet. We are always looking for volunteers so if you are available, please call us and let us know!

The Junior High will be a part of the Wahluke Winter Wonderland festivities on Dec 4, 2021 at the High School from 4:00 - 8:00 PM. Come and decorate Christmas cookies at our tent before you go to visit Santa!

The Junior High will also be hosting a Band concert on Dec 7, 2021 at 6:30 PM in the High School Auditorium. Please come and celebrate the season and our Band program! Our students have worked hard in preparation for this event so please plan to attend!

Wahluke Junior High

Amy Johnson, Principal

John Muchlinski, Assistant Principal

We had a great fall sports season with all of our girls teams advancing to post-season play! Girls Soccer placed 3rd at Districts and qualified for the state tournament for back-to-back appearances! Our Girls Cross Country Team placed 3rd at Districts 11th overall at State! Volleyball qualified and competed at the district tournament again this year. Football competed and did well but came up short this year for post season. Boys Cross country also did well with a great turn out and Angel Vasquez placed 21st overall at State! Our Cheer team did an amazing job again this year at all of the Football games. Overall a successful Fall Sports Seaon, thank you to all the coaches, parents, community members and athletes for the great memories this fall!

WHS Band had their first performance in two years after battling the Covid protocols around playing instruments. They did a great job at their concert and we are all looking forward to the Winter Concert on Friday December 17th at 6:00pm. Our Pep band had another successful season playing at the Football games! We look forward to listening to them during Basketball Games!

Wahluke High School

Cody Marlow, Principal

Cori Kane, Assistant Principal

The Wahluke School District uses ParentSquare for school communication, primarily with email, text, and app notifications. ParentSquare automatically generates an account for each parent, using their preferred email address and phone number.

We encourage parents to access their accounts to stay involved with their student's learning and activities at school and district from anywhere by downloading the mobile app and updating their preferences on when and how they are notified.

The WSD Communications and Technology and Information Departments will be at the Wahluke Winter Wonderland event to help register parents to ParentSquare. These departments are also planning to have upcoming Communication Nights where Wahluke Families will have the opportunity to learn about how schools, programs, and the district will be communicating information.

Learn more about ParentSquare by visiting this link.

District Calendar

• MONDAY, NOVEMBER, 22nd: No Late Start Monday
• WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER, 24TH: Early Release/Thanksgiving
  
• NOVEMBER 25TH-26TH: No School/Thanksgiving
  
• MONDAY, NOVEMBER, 29TH: Late Start
  
• DECEMBER 4: Wahluke Wonderland Event - DA Lions Club
  
• MONDAY, DECEMBER 6TH: Late Start
  
• FRIDAY, DECEMBER 10TH: Christmas in the Park - City of Mattawa Event
  
• MONDAY, DECEMBER 13TH: Late Start
  
• DECEMBER 20-31: No School/Winter Break
  
• DECEMBER 24: Christmas Eve
  
• DECEMBER 27: Christmas Day Observed
  
• TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 30TH: Hidden In Plain Sight - Wahluke Community Coalition Event
• MONDAY, DECEMBER, 6TH: Late Start
• MONDAY, DECEMBER, 13TH: Late Start
• DECEMBER 20-31: No School/Winter Break

Email: information@whaluk.net
Website: https://www.wahluke.net/
Phone: (509)932-4562