Westlake Weekly – August 25, 2017

Ways to Westlake: 

Let’s start with some celebrations: First, we have seen over 200 students a day walking on the daily walking school bus! Next, we have seen hundreds of families picking up on campus and we love the community that this builds. Finally, we are excited to announce that with our organized parking lot, we have had incredibly smooth drop offs, and, our pick up line on Friday cleared over 80 cars in just under 16 minutes after the bell. Great collaboration Explorers!

Now that we have observed two weeks of school, we have a consistent plan that can be understood in 3 Easy Points:

1. Log into School Dismissal Manager to direct the school how you will be dismissing your student from school.

2. If you are going to stay in your car, for drop off or pick up, either come to the parking lot or ask your student to safely walk at least two blocks. For example, if you have used School Dismissal Manager to dismiss your student as an independent walker, exiting either our Maybrook or Valley Oak Gates, please have them walk at least two blocks away before picking them up. Great pick up options include Elderberry Park, Burberry Park, Wild Rose Park, Rose Bud Park or the South Side of the Valley Oak Dog park by parking on Portage Way. Please do not pick up your student on Mabry: stopping on Mabry interferes with our Parking Lot Line.

3. We love having parents on campus! If you would like to park and walk onto campus for drop off or pick up: please park in a green zone, as indicated on our parking map at WaysToWestlake.com website, and use the crosswalks that lead to either our Maybrook or Valley Oak Gates.

Dismissal Manager: Thank you families, we have seen over 700 families now logged into School Dismissal Manager. This system is one tool we use to ensure the safety of all our students during dismissal. Please, make sure you have logged in and have selected your default preference for each of your students.

Click Here for a quick video tutorial on School Dismissal Manager.

Click Here to request login information for School Dismissal Manager or a new Car Placard to enable you to pick up your student in the parking lot, or you may email [email protected] for support.

WAVE Coffee Talk: Please join us on Friday, September 1st at 8:35am for the first Coffee Talk of the year. Our WCS Admin Team and members of the WAVE board will be available to answer questions, talk about upcoming events and more. We will meet at the flagpole near the office and will have coffee and treats for all to enjoy. We look forward to seeing you there!

Sign Up to Run an After School Club: Our WAVE Team is partnering with the school to create the After School LIVE (Locally Inspired Vibrant Explorers) Program! After School LIVE will launch the first six week session soon, so now is the time to sign up to run a club! Click HERE to view the Volunteer Flyer.

Core Values Launch: Each month we will teach and celebrate one of our ten Westlake Charter School Core Values. Westlake students will star in our weekly videos promoting each core value, and we will place those videos here in the Westlake Weekly. If you would like to celebrate any of our core values along with us, feel free to shout out your celebrations on social media using the hashtag for that core value. This month we will be launching #WCSRespect and catching student modeling this core value everywhere on campus! We hope you’ll join in the fun!

Facebook Parents Group: Did you know that WAVE has a Facebook page specifically for families to connect and communicate regarding school and community events? If you haven’t already, please be sure to join the group by clicking HERE. Just a reminder, the page is not for communicating with WCS Administration or staff.

Logging Volunteer Hours: We listened to your feedback and created an easy, one click way to log parent volunteer hours! You should have received the instruction sheet with your Family Name which will be used to log and track your hours. It is that simple. Please contact [email protected] with any questions or changes. Please Click HERE to visit the new form to log your hours!

Spirit Store: The Westlake Charter Spirit Store is open! We have a wide variety of items available including t-shirts, polos, outerwear and bags.  Just Click HERE to browse our selection of WCS gear and place your order today.  The deadline to submit an order is August 28th at noon and items are scheduled to arrive in mid-September. Don’t delay, the next order won’t be made until Spring 2018.

WAVE Calendar of Events: WAVE has a full calendar of events planned for the upcoming school year and we are excited to share it with you. Please Click HERE to learn more about WAVE and access the full schedule of events, meetings, coffee talks and more. Many events are still in need of leads and volunteers so please contact Amber Hustead, WAVE President, at [email protected] for more information or to start getting involved today. These incredible events cannot happen without your support.