News and Notes: Volume 2, Number 19

The Status of Our Charter
For the past several months the WLPS Board of Education has been researching, reviewing, discussing and, eventually, authorizing a contract to develop a cyber charter academy. The idea itself was the result of discussions on how to find unique forms of revenue, expanding beyond our borders to meet the needs of students in this region, all the while looking at different delivery systems for education. Getting from the "idea" phase to the "contract" phase, though, is more about meeting the requirements spelled out in pages and pages of law.

In August of 2015, our board locked in and decided the law would permit WLPS to look for an organization to deliver education with online components. An important caveat of this law is that the organization/school cannot be located within our district boundaries; however, the organization must have an office within the district boundaries. Figuring those two criteria could be met, our board reviewed a draft of a potential contract that identified WLPS as a fiscal agent for a charter organization. If enrollment projections are accurate, the revenue in year one of this project will be in the range of $70,000 to $80,000. The board decided to forge ahead.

Throughout November applications were accepted. In December the board reviewed the potential of working with an organization called Livingston Classical Cyber Academy (LCCA), not to be confused with Livingston Christian School, which we currently have a lease agreement with to use portions of our middle school building. These are two completely different entities. A careful analysis of associated liabilities was conducted by district attorneys; subsequently, the board authorized the contract and a resolution to appoint a board of directors for LCCA in January.

So, what is the status now? Our contracts and documents (a pile of papers almost two feet high) go to the Michigan Department of Education. We expect the state superintendent to endorse the school within the next few months. In the meantime, WLPS has leased office space to LCCA and is working on consultation agreements with them to train their administrators. LCCA must secure a building outside the WLPS district boundaries and hire teaching staff and train them. Lots of work still lies ahead, but it is unique and serves as another example of WLPS doing something few school districts have even thought about...yet another reason why today is a great day to be a Trojan.

FAFSA: Easy as Pie
When one thinks of the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) you might not immediately think cherry pie--maybe apple, coconut crème or french silk falls more in line with your vision. But thanks to the WLHS Counseling Office, WLHS Post-Secondary Advisory Council (PAC) and Cleary University, when you think FAFSA, you'll think "easy as pie!"

On Wednesday, February 24, from 6:30 p.m.-8:30 p.m., seniors and their parents are invited to join our counseling staff and representatives from Cleary University for FAFSA: Easy as Pie event where parents and/or students complete the FAFSA with assistance from Cleary financial aid officers all while enjoying a delicious piece of pie. 

The WLHS goal this year is to have 85% of the Class of 2016 fill out the FAFSA by the March 1 deadline. By filling out the FAFSA, students qualify for financial aid to help further their education. Additionally, each student will receive a certificate for 8 free boneless wings from our friends at Buffalo Wild Wings and be entered in a raffle to win a variety of prizes. Furthermore, if the district goal is reached, each senior who fills out the FAFSA will get to throw a pie in the face of the WLPS staff member of his/her choice at the school-wide celebration assembly on Pi-Day, March 14. (I'm starting a #smackthemack campaign on twitter against our Athletic Coordinator, Brad McCormack, in hopes of avoiding all 60 pies in my face and sending some his way. Do me a favor, and spread the word.)

All this is made possible by the Reach Higher Grant WLHS Counselor Kathy DeKeyser was awarded by the Michigan College Access Network, securing $5,000 this year and $5,000 for next year to help increase and maintain a college-going culture across the whole district, K-12. As part of the grant, WLHS must participate in three annual events: College Application Week, which takes place in the fall; College Cash Campaign, which kicks off February 1; and Decision Day, which will take place in the spring. College is defined as post-secondary credentials beyond high school, including professional/technical certificates and academic degrees. As part of the grant, the PAC was created to support these efforts and is made up of WLPS staff, students, parents and community members. Currently, the PAC includes Carrie Betz, Maria Carter-Ewald, Kathy DeKeyser, Alivia Foster, Trisha Fountain, Jill Henry, Kelly Klump and myself.

I look forward to seeing the exciting opportunities available to all our students thanks to the Reach Higher Grant, the effort of our WLHS Counseling Office and the members of the PAC, and the impact it has on our students' outlook on their plans once they graduate from WLHS.

To fill out the FAFSA, click HERE.

And for common myths about FAFSA and Financial Aid, check out the following articles:https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/loans/student-loans/top-10-fafsa-myths-debunked/
https://www.pointpark.edu/Admissions/CostsandFinancialAid/FinancialAidMyths
http://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/student-loan-ranger/2015/02/05/5-myths-about-parent-information-on-the-fafsa
http://www.fastweb.com/financial-aid/articles/the-5-myths-about-financial-aid

Firsthand learning in First Grade
WLES first-graders will be heading to Potter Park Zoo in Lansing early June thanks to Target's Field Trip Grant and resourceful WLES teacher Mrs. Gustafson. Mrs. Gustafson learned of the grant in early September and decided to give it a try. She was surprised to receive the full amount she requested, $400, which will cover admission and transportation to and from the zoo for both her class and Mrs. Semrau's first-grade class.

Her determination to provide valuable outside classroom learning experiences did not end there. Mrs. Gustafson also applied for a scholarship for the first grade to attend a planetarium show at the University of Michigan Museum of Natural History and was awarded a half-off rate of admission for all students. I can't think of a better place to kick off their sun, moon and stars unit! Can you?

Having been teaching in WLPS since January of 1992, teaching preschool, kindergarten and first grade, Mrs. Gustafson's passion for teaching our young students is apparent, providing them with every opportunity for exceptional, personalized education while also lightening the burden we often place on parents to either contribute or fundraise to make these type of programs possible for our students. Join me in sending some kudos her way!

News and Notes: Volume 2, Number 18

WLPS: We're Kind of a Big Deal
Our school newspaper, The Trojournal, has just completed its campaign soliciting response to the question "If you were principal for a day, what would do?" I was in charge of picking the winner (congratulations to Trey Cucuro), which I did in front of the newspaper class. Afterward, I started thinking about what things I should immediately highlight about our district for our upcoming principal. Two things quickly popped into my head. And they made me quickly realize WLPS is kind of a big deal.

I know Trey well. He is a good student, a good athlete and has a good handle on the ins and outs of high school life. But I bet he didn't know that for almost two weeks we took a whole host of exam study tips from our teaching staff and put them on Twitter to help our students prepare (https://twitter.com/wlschools). I thought it was well done. There were videos, links to our Pinterest boards and even some final exam humor. If you ever needed advice on how to prepare for school, it was there. But what made it really special was that our tips went international! It wasn't just WL students and parents sharing the tweets; it was people from as far away as India. You read that right, a school in India started retweeting our study tips. Pretty big deal.

Speaking of big deals, our Early Childhood Center earned another accreditation from the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). To make sure Trey understands why this is important, I plan on sharing with him that only about 10% of early child centers earn this distinction in Michigan. The NAEYC is a mark of quality, and it ensures our programs benefit children with greater readiness for success in their K-12 education. I am proud of our director, Sue Wanamaker, the entire staff and the work they do. I am certain Trey will be proud as well. I'm also certain he will know that its a great day to be a Trojan AND that we are a big deal!

Smoothies
Our resourceful and creative Food Service department is always looking for additional ways to inspire our students to develop healthy eating habits. The focus for the next month? Healthy breakfast choices. From now until February 19, thanks to a grant from the United Dairy Industry, WLHS students will get a ticket every day they purchase a smoothie for breakfast. Then every Friday from now until February 19, two tickets will be drawn for Amazon gift cards. To add to our Chromebook craze here at WLPS, names from each week will be saved, and then on February 19, there will be a grand-prize drawing for one winner to receive his/her very own Chromebook!

The 20-ounce smoothies, made up of 8 ounces milk, 4 ounces yogurt and one cup of fruit, come with two packets of graham crackers. They are $2.50 for a full pay student, $.30 for students on the reduced breakfast plan and free for students on the free meal program. With a different flavor each day, students can try strawberry, strawberry banana, blueberry banana, strawberry mango and triple berry.

I commend our Food Service Director, Diane Tomakowski, for her diligence in pursuing grants like the MI Breakfast: The Smoothie Way to provide the very best for our students. For menus and details on our breakfast and lunch programs, check out the Food Service website here:

Mysteries Come Alive
Last week to kick off their mystery reading unit in a fun and unique way, our third graders became detectives right out of a Sherlock Holmes novel.

The crime? Someone borrowed another person's stuffed animal. With Mrs...excuse me I mean Chief Otterman and Chief Withers assisting their detectives as they explored their classroom...I mean crime scene, the case was bound to be solved!  Throughout the week, students checked for fingerprints, observed different types of footprints, compared clothing materials, checked acidity of a soft drink, along with other investigation tactics, with anticipation to solve the mystery. By the end of the week, the mystery had been solved, and our students were super sleuths-- we are talking Sherlock Holmes status.

"The imaginations were running wild! Why is there a can of pop? An ice tray? When they got their own mystery books, they dove right into them---you could hear a pin drop in the class they were so focused on reading, just eating those books up," said Mrs. Otterman.

Our staff do a fantastic job of  stepping out of the obvious and finding unique, creative and personalized ways to engage our students and get them excited about learning.

The Chiefs wanted to give a shout out to high school students Alexis Dancik, Megan Wilson, Ava Dancik and 4th grader James Dancik for helping with the set-up of the crime scene. 
 

News and Notes: Volume 2, Number 17

Dedication to Whitmore Lake's Children
The last few nights of this week have been spent organizing our Board of Education committees with the president, Ken Dignan. He stays up late after his job is done, and we communicate back and forth about how to get the most out of the district we both care so deeply about. This week, more than others, I am reminded of how much dedication being a board member takes. Therefore, I want to remind all of you that January is School Board Recognition month.

Members of the WLPS Board of Education have diverse backgrounds, but we all work together toward one end goal--making the lives of the children in our community better each day they enter through our school doors. Collectively, thousands of hours get spent making sure that goal is reached. It is a sacrifice with little reward outside the personal satisfaction of knowing you are making a difference. This is the month to thank each of them: Ken Dignan, president; Lisa McCully, vice president; Bob Henry, treasurer; Rita LaForest, secretary; Shelli Kritzman, trustee; and Lynn Slagle, trustee.

Lastly, I would like to thank Jeff Vega for his five years of service to our schools. Mr. Vega formally resigned this week, and I am sure he is looking forward to spending more time with his family. WLPS will be accepting applications for new members until February 1. The application is available on our website.

To all our board members, past and present: thank you for keeping public education alive and well in Whitmore Lake where it is always a great day to be a Trojan.

MSTEP
Results from last year's state test were mailed out to parents this week. They should be arriving today or tomorrow.

Last spring students in grades 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 11 took new online tests from the state of Michigan called the MSTEP. The move from paper and pencil tests to online tests was, among other things, going to provide us with prompt feedback on multiple measures of our curriculum implementation. Unfortunately these results just arrived this week. Staff members will be using these results as a benchmark to improve upon in coming years. If you have questions about the test results, please don't hesitate to contact your child's school.

Varsity Competitive Cheer Aims at Three-Peat

This season our varsity competitive cheer team (pictured on the left) kicked off the season with one goal in mind: defend its back-to-back District championships to make it a three-peat in 2016. With its first competition just three weeks after the season began, the teams started the season focused on intense conditioning, mastering their new material and acquiring new skills. Their off-season work on gymnastics and conditioning made this much easier.  

 

With the team's reputation of very clean rounds, head coach Ashley Guastella, WLHS alumna, has challenged them with competing at a higher difficulty level, debuting new stunts, and showcasing their new gymnastic skills while also maintaining their clean rounds. With JV coach Alexandria DeLuca and Middle School coach, Chelsea Truhn, both WLHS alumnae, on board to help the teams reach that goal, the season looks bright. 

To see our teams in action, come out to WLHS next Tuesday, January 19, at 5:30 p.m. for our home Cheer Invitational.

WLPS Robotics

The Whitmore Lake High School robotics team, the TroBots, went to the University of Michigan last weekend to kick off a new season. The team, made up of 11 9th-12th graders, heard from a female professor who shared her inspiring work in kinesthetic robotics designing power-assisted leg replacements for amputees. They then watched the worldwide broadcast breaking down the new game for this year before heading back to Whitmore Lake where they worked for four hours on Saturday and four hours on Sunday strategizing for the season and designing the robot for this year. Over the next six weeks, the team will work to make those plans come to fruition. They will unveil this year's robot at Whitmore Lake Community Recreation's 2nd Annual Cabin Fever Extravaganza, a family event on February 27 from 3:30 p.m.-6:30 p.m. at Whitmore Lake High School, giving everyone a chance to get out of the cold and into the fun! They will head to Southfield for their first competition March 4 and March 5.

Coming off an extremely successful season where the team made it to the world competition, team mentor, Lynne Mead, is excited for the upperclassmen to demonstrate their ability to analyze and design with very little input from the mentors. We all look forward to another exciting and interesting robotics season!

As our high school robotics team, the TroBots, gear up for a new season, our middle school team, the Titanium Trojans, wrapped up a strong season. This season our 5th-8th graders had to build and operate a robot that would rescue stranded mountain climbers and clear avalanche debris.

At the Canton tournament, the TT went 3-2 in match play and placed a very respectable 6th place out of 24 teams, losing best of three in the semi-finals. They went onto the Howell tournament, where they finished 5-0 in match play and won best of three in the semi-finals, but ultimately lost a best of three in the finals to wrap up the season.

The team is actively looking for new members and adult mentors for the 2016 school year to kick off the season in September. If you would like more information or would like to be added to their list, contact Jeff Schwennesen at xjschwen@gmail.com.

 

Donated Guitars
Thanks to two Whitmore Lake families, our 5th and 6th graders have five new guitars and cases to use in class. Our students are loving the new guitars and putting them to good use. We still have a need for additional guitars and new cases. If you are interested in donating toward this cause, contact Lisa Shanks at lisa.shanks@wlps.net.

 

News and Notes: Volume 2, Number 16

A Perfect Fleet

Congratulations to the WLPS Transportation Department for earning another perfect inspection this year from Michigan's State Police. This is their 12h perfect inspection in a row.

I gave an award a few years back to a graduating senior who was an excellent student but also a devoted backstage assistant for our Drama Club productions. The award the student received was a scholarship, awarded by members of the WLPS Transportation department--they do fundraisers annually in order to offer the scholarship. I made a correlation to the student's hard work as a production assistant and the hard work of our bus drivers. More specifically, I mentioned that what you see on the stage are the stars of the show, and the stars of the show are important; but without the people running the lights, sound, building sets, the actors would never make it on the stage. Without our buses, many of our stars would never make into the classroom. 

Safe transportation to school delivered by caring drivers is so critical to our success. I want to thank them, and, in particular, I want to thank Steve Wolk who maintains our fleet of buses. Steve is so well respected in our region for his skills in maintaining these vehicles, that the Michigan State Police often recommends area schools contact our facility to make needed repairs. I am proud of the entire department! Today is a great day to be a Trojan, and a great day to ride a WLPS bus.

Getting to Know Shelli Kritzman

Shelli Kritzman, the newest member of the WLPS Board of Education, was sworn in last month after being selected to replace Jim Vibbart after he resigned late fall of last year. Please join me in welcoming Shelli to the BOE and take some time to read her interview below to learn a little bit more about her, her family and motivation for serving on the WLPS BOE.

Q: What is your educational background?
A: I graduated from Atherton High School in 1989. After high school, I attended Central Michigan University for two years before transferring to Ferris State University. I obtained a Bachelor of Science in Nuclear Medicine Technology in 1993. This included a one year internship at the University of Michigan Medical Center from 1992-1993. In 2000, I completed my Master of Science in Radiological Physics from Wayne State University.

Q: What do you do professionally?
A: I am employed at Medical Physics Consultants in Ann Arbor as a Nuclear Medical Physicist. I have held this position for over 20 years. Radiation safety is extremely important in this field. I serve as the Radiation Safety Officer at multiple sites, educating patients and staff on the effects of radiation and the methods to reduce exposure. My work also entails traveling to hospitals and clinics around the state testing the nuclear medicine equipment for quality assurance and reviewing records to help maintain compliance with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Q: What other roles you do hold in the community or are there any other organizations in which you are involved?
A: I have been the Whitmore Lake representative on the Parent Advisory Committee (PAC) at the WISD for over seven years. The PAC is made up of parents whose children have special needs. This position is extremely important to me because my oldest son Mark has cerebral palsy. There is currently one open position for our district on this committee.

Q: Tell us more about your family.
A: Jim and I have been married 18 years. We have three children: Mark (14 years old in 8th grade); Luke (11 years old in 6th grade) and Joey (5 years old in Kindergarten). Mark played in the marching band this year. It was great listening to the pep band at the football games. Mark is also my running buddy. We have completed multiple half marathons together, and in 2013 we completed our first marathon! You may see us training for another one in the future. Luke just completed the MS drama club’s production of "Princess Tabasco Saves the Universe." He also participates in the community recreation spring and fall soccer league. Joey is busy in Kindergarten learning everything he can! He participates in spring and fall soccer as well.

Q: How long have you lived in Whitmore Lake? What brought you to the area?
A: We moved into the area in 1996 and built our current home in 1998. Since I grew up in a small school district, I wanted that same experience for my children. I have heard many stories of children that get lost in the system of larger public schools. That is not the case in Whitmore Lake. The quality of our teaching and support staff has given all of our children a great educational experience.

Q: What motivated you to apply to fill the vacant spot on the WLPS BOE?
A: I had already decided that I would be running for one of the seats on the BOE this fall. This gave me the opportunity to come into the election with experience.

Q: What are you looking forward to the most about serving the Whitmore Lake community? Anything you are nervous or anxious about?
A: I’m looking forward to maintaining high academic standards and opportunities for extracurricular activity for all grade levels. This is a great community, and I am excited to play a role in this important responsibility. I am enthusiastic to work with the current board and Mr. DeKeyser to continue to move our district forward on a positive path. As far as being nervous, I wasn’t overly nervous until I received the first board book with 175 pages of policies! As I have learned in my career, with experience comes knowledge, so I look forward to learning the policies and procedures for our Board.

Trojans are on the Lion Chaser Team: New Strength/Conditioning Program with Blue Lion Fitness
Our Athletic Department, with support of the Touchdown Club and the Whitmore Lake Athletic Association, are helping Trojan student-athletes kick off the new year right, with a brand-new strength and conditioning program in partnership with Blue Lion Fitness.

Starting January 11 through the end of June, trainers from BLF will meet with in-season and out-of-season athletes three days a week at the WLHS weight room facilities. As part of the program, athletes will learn proper form and techniques for weightlifting and sprinting and will be challenged to improve overall strength, explosiveness and physical conditioning. Outside of strength and conditioning, the trainers will work on team building exercises to develop teamwork, inspire leadership and test mental toughness with our athletes.

We are excited to be "lion chasers," to invest in our athletes and to explore the potential the partnership with BLF brings.

Parents and community members interested in experiencing a Blue Lion Fitness workout, watch for information on fitness classes to start later this month/early February through Whitmore Lake Community Recreation. E-mail brad.mccormack@wlps.net to be added to the interest list.

In addition to the partnership with WLPS and WLCR, this Ann Arbor-based company founded by Daniel Roth and Ryan Van Bergen, provides personal training, fitness classes and memberships at their facility in Ann Arbor. You can find out more about them on their website www.bluelionfitness.com or by following them on Facebook, www.facebook.com/bluelionfitness.