October 26, 2009

Dear Middle School Parents,

It is hard to believe that we are already in the last week of October. It has been a very full month of activities for all students at WCS. Hopefully you were able to make it out to the homecoming game this past Saturday. It was a great illustration of the connectedness of our school from Preschool through High School. While we had Preschool families in attendance, we also had Elementary and Middle School students participating as cheerleaders, water boys and ball boys for the game. Our High School students put together some wonderful floats and our football team came together and won their game 43-26 for their first win of the season. As I have my daily interactions with our Elementary students, I cant help but picture them in five to ten years participating in their own homecomings at the High School. I know I speak for the staff when I say that we feel blessed to be a part of their growth and thankful to provide them with great experiences at their school.

Please remember that this week ends for students on Wednesday as our teaching staff heads to Sacramento to participate in the ACSI Convention. Our staff will gain valuable insight and instruction that will help them continue to be the best teachers around. The school office will be open Thursday and Friday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. for your convenience. If you have any school business that you would like to take care of, we will be here to assist you. Please visit www.acsi.org for more information on their organization and for a full listing of the seminars and activities our teachers will be participating in.

This week marks the final week of Middle School flag football. We will be hosting Vacaville Christian tomorrow afternoon at 4:00 p.m. on the Upper Cardinal Field and then Holy Rosary will be travelling across town for a 4:00 p.m. showdown on Wednesday. The boys look to avenge their only loss of the season against Holy Rosary. Our Middle School girls volleyball team will host Vacaville Christian this Thursday at 3:30 p.m. at The Nest (our home gym). The volleyball team has one more week of action and will conclude their season with a league championship tournament Saturday, November 7th. I am very proud of the MS athletes for their hard work and commitment to their teams. It has been a great season of sports for them.

With the end of our fall sports seasons upon us, it is time to take a look at winter sports. We will be competing in the CCL (Central Christian League) for both girls and boys basketball which will take us east to Sacramento and west to Vacaville. League play will not begin until after our students return from Christmas break, but practices will start at the beginning of December to prepare for the season. Attached you will find our new MS sports participation policy. A couple of issues arose during our fall seasons that we wish to address to make everyones athletic experience the best it can be at WCS. In the policy you will notice that sign-ups for sports teams will now take place well in advance of the season. This will allow us to find another coach if we have enough players to field multiple teams. We want to make sure that everyone is able to participate. Also, there is a provision for home school students and private school students without sports to participate in our program. We believe this will help build fellowship with those communities and be a benefit to our students, as well. They will be required to register with WCS and pay all fees associated with registration and sports participation. We look forward to a great basketball season.

Last Friday our Middle School students were awarded free dress. I want to thank you, parents, for supporting our dress code policy and helping your child to make appropriate decisions. They received this reward for keeping their locker area, picnic tables and lunch room clean. The students are showing a genuine concern for the appearance of their school and are starting to take pride in being good stewards of our campus. It has been great to see! We are challenging them to help out with the HS locker sections now and hopefully our older students will join with the Middle School in making our campus look great.

Our CANstruction drive came to an end last Friday. WCS as a whole brought in well over 3,000 cans! Our Middle School alone brought in over 500 cans by themselves. Mr. Smiths class ended up being the winners for the drive and helped the Middle School earn the donut and juice party. We will celebrate after the next chapel. The drive was a lot of fun and it was great to see our students sacrifice of themselves to meet the needs of others. We will be coming up with our next outreach activity shortly. If you are interested in being a part of the outreach committee, please contact the school office and they will get you in touch with Kim Rodegerdts, our committee chair.

A few announcements before closing:

1) Make-Up pictures are this Wednesday, October 28th. Students taking pictures will be allowed to wear free dress.
2) Student of the Week information sheets are needed back. We want to start honoring two students per week and need the information sheets returned to do so. We will be requesting a 5 x 7 picture to use in the office for the week that they are honored.
3) The next Parent Information Night will be Thursday, November 10th at 7:00 p.m. in room A-5 on the Matmor campus.

We have been studying the book of 1 John at our church and one of the messages from yesterdays sermon dealt with our opportunity as leaders in our families or work environments to speak life and love into the lives of those around us. What a difference our choice of words and spirit can make when communicating with everyone in our sphere of influence. No where is this more evident than with children. As a school staff, we are committed to partnering with you in speaking words of affirmation and love into the life of your child. Have a wonderful week and enjoy the four day weekend.

Thank You,

Justin Smith
K-8 Administrator

Attachments
Middle School Athletics Participation Policy.pdf