Open House: We will be hosting a virtual Open House on Wednesday, May 20th to reflect on the memories made this school year. Visit westlakecharter.com anytime after 4pm to digitally visit classrooms across campus. We look forward to this opportunity to walk down memory lane as a school wide community!

8th Grade Promotion: Our digital 8th Grade Promotion on Wednesday, May 27th at 4:00 PM. Please save the date to witness this important event for our 8th-grade students. We will provide information about how to log into the digital event.  

Chromebook Return: Students who are continuing at Westlake for the 2020-2021 school year will have the option to keep their borrowed chromebook to continue optional learning through the summer. We ask that all students who are not returning, including current 8th grade students, return their chromebooks on Thursday, May 28th or Friday, May 29th. Click HERE to let us know if you would like to continue to borrow your chromebook for summer learning, or to make an appointment to return your chromebook. 

Spirit Day – Beach Day: Friday, May 22nd is Beach Day! We are challenging our Explorer staff and Students to wear their favorite beach attire and post a picture using the hashtag #WCSspiritfriday on the WAVE Facebook group page and all of your social media platforms! Please follow the spirit day guidelines: 

1. Clothes must be free of inappropriate wording and images
2. All shirts must have sleeves, no sleeveless shirts.
3. All clothing must be free of rips and tears
4. All clothing must fit properly. Pants around the natural waist, tops completely covering the torso area

Field Day: Our Distance Learning Field Day will launch on Wednesday, May 27th at 9:00 AM. Each grade level has been assigned a color for the day to show grade-level spirit. Remember to Click HERE to make an appointment to pick up student work, which will include a goodie bag for Field Day. 

 Grade Level Field Day Colors:

In Case You Missed It

Student Work Pick Up/Book Return May 21 and 22: Click HERE to make an appointment to pick up your student’s work. One appointment time slot per family. Families will have the opportunity to pick up their student’s work on Thursday, May 21st and Friday, May 22nd, as well as return any library books or other school resources. Student work will be available in flex rooms, with the exception of kindergarten, which will be available in the cafeteria. Only one family at a time will be able to enter each flex room. Please wait on the designated spot until it is your turn to enter the room. Any work not picked up will be saved until the fall. 8th grade families do not need to sign up – they can plan to attend the 8th Grade Pick Up Parade on May 21st.

Planning for the Fall of 2020

As we look forward to the future, our team is working hard to consider every possible scenario. While we do not yet have plans to share, we do want you to know that this work has begun. The areas listed below are just a sampling of the thinking our staff is engaged in at this time. We promise, as we begin to solidify plans, we will be engaging our community and seeking your feedback.

Health and Safety

First and foremost, our team is focused on the health and safety of our students, staff and community. In order to properly address health concerns, we are considering logistics and protocols for reopening school, including BASE, under multiple different scenarios including factors such as:

• How to address regular hand washing
• How to health screen students and staff
• How will personal protective equipment be used on campus if needed
• How can we organize social distancing entering and exiting campus
• How can we organize social distancing while on campus
• How our cleaning team can best support our school

Social Distancing Guidelines

Depending on the recommendations of local and state authorities, the guidelines for social distancing will need to be considered in the fall.These recommendations could affect all social gatherings, large or small. For example:

• Lunch, recess, and morning line-up may be affected if gatherings are limited to less than 50
• Classrooms routines, as well as class sizes and schedules, may be affected if social gatherings are limited to less than 25 or have specific spatial social distancing requirements 

Normalizing Learning

Westlake is committed to the academic and social-emotional readiness of all our students. We spend incredible energy organizing our learning to meet the diverse needs of our amazing students. In the fall we must consider:

• How can we address lost learning due to the current school closure 
• How will social distancing impact classroom routines and culture
• How will Westlake continue to provide high quality learning if students are home ill or in a home quarantine
• What independent studies options could be available for families who want to stay a part of the Westlake community but are not able to return in the fall
• How can we be best prepared should we need to close again

While each of the above considerations are condensed into short bullet points, the truth is that hours of thought are being poured into each item. Preliminary plans are being drafted to respond to each of these items and we intend to craft a communication in the coming weeks that will help our community consider how to best prepare for potential  impacts this fall. 

May is Bike Month: Wow, Westlake students have already logged 1,000 trips so far! Want to join in the fun? Simply create an account HERE and start logging your student’s bike trips today. Every 10 minutes of riding equals 1 trip. The purpose of this challenge is to have fun and create healthy habits but there are leaderboards divided by school and grade if you are looking for some extra competition. We hope to see you out on the trails, Explorers! 

Volunteer Hours: Families, please take a moment to log all of your volunteer hours for the 19/20 school year by clicking HERE. You can quickly log all hours combined and receive an email confirmation. Thank you! 

Staff Appreciation Week: Westlake Families did a fantastic job of celebrating and appreciating our staff last week. We had over 2,000 notes via the Google Form and 1,000 Flipgrid videos! Thank you for helping make the first virtual Staff Appreciation Week a huge success!

WAVE Feedback: The WAVE Board is looking for ideas for next year and beyond. Do you have an idea to improve an event? Do you have an idea for a new event? Are you interested in joining a committee? Please click HERE to share your ideas today! 

Kudos: Mrs. Battin has been the incredible Principal of Westlake Charter School for the past 7 years. She is the voice of our school and the person students look for each and every day. Mrs. Battin puts an enormous amount of thought and care into everything relating to our students, staff and families. She has been an amazing partner for WAVE and supports our community in more ways than we can list. She will truly be missed but we know she is the best person to lead our new High School. We appreciate you, Mrs. Battin!