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New school times for 2008-09 school year - 8:50 to 3:20:
Questions have arisen regarding the change in the start time at Westwood Elementary School for the 2008-2009 school year. The change in the start time was not done based on educational philosophy or any best practice model. This change was simply to save money for the classroom. It was determined that a balanced budget in 2008-2009 would require reductions in the total amount of approximately 1.5 million dollars.
The Superintendent directed Transportation and Business Services to plan for $500,000 in reductions in the transportation budget. This resulted in elimination of transportation services for secondary students living less than two miles from school. In order to reduce routes for the 1-2 mile secondary busing change, it required changing the Westwood school bell times. To complete the savings of eliminating a bus route, both tiers on a route needed to be eliminated, which moved Westwood’s start time to 8:50 a.m. instead of 7:45 a.m. The District is planning to have before school child care available.
Special Education was directed to reduce $500,000, which has resulted in a reduction of paraprofessionals and special education teachers across the District. Finally, the remaining $500,000 was reduced from the General Fund budget. The total budget adjustments for 2008-2009 in the amount of approximately 1.5 million dollars were approved by the Board of Education on March 27, 2008, and can be viewed at: http://www.isd742.org/0809Reductions/0809Reductions.pdf
The School District has determined that the Before-School Child Care at Westwood for next school year will be provided by Community Education. The goal is to provide a safe, enriching, educational and stimulating environment that encourages the development of positive social skills in elementary children. The program will be staffed by trained adults and will work closely with the school staff to provide the best care of each individual child. Each Westwood student will be bringing home a packet of information that will include an INFORMATION SHEET , HANDBOOK and ENROLLMENT FORM . These can be viewed by clicking on the link. The Before-School Care will open each school day at 6:30 a.m. QUESTIONS CAN BE DIRECTED TO COMMUNITY EDUCATION at (320) 529-6500 X6268 Kidstop will continue to provide the after-school care and the childcare on non-school days.
Thursday, June 5th, last day of school for students! Sixth grade graduation held in the gym at 9:00AM
Congratulations to these Westwood students for honors in WordMasters and Stock Market competitions:
A team of students representing St. Cloud's Westwood Elementary School recently won highest honors in the WordMasters Challenge - a national language arts competition entered by over 230,000 students annually, which consists of three separate meets held at intervals during the school year. Competing in the difficult Blue Division of the Challenge, the school's fifth graders placed sixth in the nation in the year-end cumulative standings among 725 school teams participating at this level and in this division. In addition, three of the school's students won highest honors for individual achievement in the year's final meet, held in April: Fifth graders John Dahlberg, Caysi Simpson, and Meghan Voight all earned perfect scores in this meet, while nationwide only 96 fifth graders did so.
This spring, sixth graders in Mr. Benson and Mrs. Lucia’s Westwood Wildcat Club class competed in the Stock Market Game. The Westwood team of Natalie Studer, Adrienne Vogt, and Allie Eddy finished 9th among 409 teams throughout the state of Minnesota.
Mark your calendars now for Fall Open House! Tuesday, August 26th from 5:00 to 7:00 PM - See you then!
The office at Westwood will close for the summer on Friday, June 6th and reopen Monday, August 4th.
Congratulations to the following students who are the Top 10 point earners for Accelerated Reader:
Grade 1: Alexander Lochen, Melissa Babic, Patrick Stalboeger, Claire Eiynk, Emilee Logeman, Erica Thell, Lucas Theisen, Ellie Shelstad, Kaytlyn Simmons, Kendra Bokelman.
Grade 2: Wil Eckhoff, Alemni Yiran, Ashley Moen, Lukas Nyberg, Rebecca Colgan, Jason Pham, Kaiser Duong, Abigail Kipka, Mohamed Omar, Tyler Tran.
Grade 3: Colbie Gratton, Mitchell Grelson, Andrew Timpane, Hunter Jongeward, Kelly Duong, Matthew Snyder, Evan Rau, Amy Peterson, Emily Christensen, Angel Nutter.
Grade 4: Zachary Miller, Isaac Logeman, Caitlin Berger, Thomas Pekarna, Kassidy Schneider, Katelyn Stalboerger, Laura Bruns, Alexandra Rauch, Tyler Scheerle, Alicia Ohlenkamp.
Grade 5: Rebecca O'Neil, Hayli Marquette, Cooper Gray, Megan Brennan, Lenora Haltom, Andrew Dahlberg, Hannah Weis, Ashley Block, Lauren Seibert, Remington Deyak.
Grade 6: Tyler Soltis, Jessica Lung, Patrick Dullinger, Matthew Briese, Katelyn Schneider, Ashley Gregerson, Alec Logeman, Ivy Gines, Kevin Duong, Isaac Nelson.
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