I was raised to treat the janitor with the same respect as the CEO. ~ Anonymous

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#WeAreWestFel

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UPCOMING EVENTS: 

Thanksgiving Holiday ~ November 19-23

School Board Meeting ~ 

November 27

Reflecting on Last Week 

• Hard Work Pays Off!  WFHS students score an overall 20.7 composite on the 2018 ACT Exam.  All of our students take ACT and this is the 5th highest score in our school district's long history of academic achievement.  We ranked 5th overall in the state! Our students identified as economically disadvantaged ranked 8th in the state!

Juniors and Seniors prepare for the October ACT by attending the ACT prep class.

Jack Hosford and Dylan Weaver

Parker Varnedoe and Khiry Morrison

• Channel 33, WVLA, will be highlighting our STEM programs at Bains Lower and WFMS.  A special thanks goes to meteorologist, Danielle Uliano, who spent several hours with our schools.  Both stories aired on last Sunday evening after Sunday Night Football on NBC.  In case you missed it, please click here.

• One of the best things that we do as a school system is to allow our students to take on leadership roles such as leading the morning announcements.

WFMS students Taylar Seymore and Jomira Williams

Bains Lower students, Emmerson Brouillette, Kaitlyn Gore, Delilah Gillis, Jayce Gibson, and Dakota Gilmore, not only lead the announcements but help raise the flag.

• Students build villages and forts in Ms. Matthews's 4th grade class to learn about colonists in early America.

Sadie Aitken, Ja'Mia Beauchamp, Joli Blackard, Alexis Freeman, Marley Malory, Mia McFarland, and Mic Michaelson

Keondre' Bibbins, Cole Bohannon, Buddy Floyd, Maxx Garrett, Jayden Johnson, Jason Landry, Taylor Triche, and Kaylyn Whetstone

Anya Barton, Noah Blankenship, Joshua Dorsey, Xiamya Harris, and Jermyrian Jackson

• Mr. Albert Hindrich visits Ms. King and Ms. Myer's classes to teach students about erosion.

• WFHS Cheerleaders provided their time and talents to help the West Feliciana Parish Hospital with it's annual Breast Cancer Benefit. 

• Alyson Coates from Entergy is giving Mrs. Reeds STEM class an overview of the nuclear power process for Nuclear Science Week. 

• Game Balls are a nice way to recognize students and employees!

Ms. Betti Dooley receives a game ball for identifying a student who fell asleep on her bus.  She found the students before leaving her bus which can be a lifesaver.  

Tommy Lastrapes receives a game ball because he was the first student to make the AR 30 Point Club!

Two of our all star student athletes at WFMS, Delvin Whitaker and Jontre' Cummings, receive a WFHS Game ball because of their hard work on and off the field at WFMS.

• We were honored on Tuesday by a visit from Mr. Barry Erwin, Executive Director of the Council on A Better Louisiana (CABL). We visited our STEM program at Bains Lower and our zSpace virtual reality lab at WFMS.

Mr. Barry Erwin, Katie Alberty and April Blanchard

• WFMS students, Riley Vollmer and Lillie Lynch prepare for school announcements using digital tools.

• The next Drew Brees, Patrick Mahomes, or Tom Brady could come from West Fel. Our 5th grade boys receive proper throwing technique from Coach Preston King and Coach Paul Sirchia.

Cade Bush

Luke Perdue

Blake Landry

Tim Lindsey

• Mrs. Michelle Grissett leads a discussion with her students about finding Key Details that support the Main Topic in the story "Me...Jane."

• Mrs. Carter's Class really enjoyed Art class with Mrs. Laura Lindsey.  They painted fall trees with their hands!!!

• Ms. Malone loves working with some of her Star Pupils!!

• Ms. Megan Viguerie assists a student with identifying Key Details from the book "Me...Jane."

La'Dayshia Sullivan and Kalijah Lewis

• Ms. Linda Holmes during Library.  She had the Pre-K students participate in a discussion about the letter Uu and the sound it makes.  She also read the book "Officer Buckle" and had the students give examples of people who wear uniforms.

• Congratulations go to Kolby!  Kolby is in Ms. McDonald and Ms. Franklin's Head Start Class and he can already spell his name!

• Reading at Bains before school is cool!

Jamison Parker

Oryanna Walker and Savannah Worle

Aubrey Honeycutt

Isiah Walker

Natalie Oliveaux and Kimberly Matta Juarez

• Congratulations go to the Leaders of the Week at Bains Lower!

Chase Baker, Bains Lower 1st grader

Bryson Cummings, Bains Lower 1st Grader

• WFHS Sophomores Dylan George, Claire Phenald, Bennett Clement, Jenna Burke, and Brett Dillon identify good and bad bacteria in the body as a part of Ms. Williams' Biology Class.

• WFHS cheerleaders paint student faces and get students pumped up for the big district volleyball match on Monday night.

• Don't count your chickens until they hatch!  Noah Morrow, Brayden Parker, & Ty Hong are engaging with baby chickens that the class hatched in Mrs. Hurst's science class.

• Ms. Funderburk took advantage of the fall weather to teach her ELA class outside.  

• Elstron Longs, Blake George, and Brody Messer read during Ms. McMillan's class.

• Great to see so many of our students and employees in the news!

• Bains Lower students line up to check out books before school begins.  

• First Lady Donna Edwards read via skype to Ms. Megan Viguerie's class.  She read, "Louisiana:  The Jewel of the Deep South."  And her dog, "Lady", spent some quality time with the class.

Looking Ahead

• The WFMS Tennis Team won their match this week against City Park Aces. The team is now 3-1 on the season. Many thanks goes to all of  volunteer coaches and Mr. Ojo Thompson (pictured below) who have worked with our kids to improve their tennis skills. Our last match is Wednesday at 4:30pm at the sports park. Please come out and support the WFMS Team!

Ojo Johnson and Charles Fox-Smith

 Lillie Lynch and Lilly Higgins

Makhil Tate and Evie Perdue

Food for Thought

As a part of our strategic planning, we are working to address three issues that are interconnected.  The three issues are: 

1) Traffic congestion on Bains Road; 

2) Student enrollment increases; 

3) Safety and modernization of our schools.

In our data gathering process, we have completed a facility assessment of Bains Elementary.  Bains is nearing 60 years old.  It would take a major renovation to modernize the building with an enclosure for safety and would require an additional wing to meet the student growth needs that are approximately two years away.  Our third party independent assessment came back at an estimated $15 million dollars.  There are four challenges that renovation would not solve: 

1) Traffic congestion; 

2) Lack of parking space; 

3) Extensive renovation would be very difficult to complete while students are in school;

4) Lack of space for future growth. 

Our preliminary demographic assessment using an independent demographer suggests that Bains Lower would be at full capacity by 2021. It is likely that when the assessment also addresses external factors, such as the two new residential developments (Hwy 61 and town development), full capacity would be reached by 2020.

According to our traffic engineer, the only way to reduce traffic is to relocate one of our schools.  Traffic has become very congested each morning and afternoon.  A growing student population will further compound the current traffic problem.  

These data points have helped us to come up with solutions that we believe will help us move our school system forward.  We call our plan, Vision 2030, as we are looking out at the immediate future and also stepping back to see the larger trends and what we must do to best serve our children who are just entering our schools.

Next month, we will present Vision 2030 at our school board meeting and then present at various events into the spring.

One possibility is a new Bains Elementary located near our current properties or within 10 minutes of our property. This would allow us to continue to educate our students at Bains while the new school is built. Once built, our traffic flow will be reduced on Bains Road, and therefore congestion will be minimized. The new school will consist of grades 1st through 5th which will alleviate pressure from Bains Lower and our current Bains school.  The new facility will accommodate 21st century learning, address safety, be a school that students will enjoy and a source of pride for the community.

All throughout our town and parish, we can see growth and investment being made.  The school system would like to adapt to the growth, bring new opportunities for our students, and make the investments in our facilities that will modernize them and make our community proud.  We look forward to dialogue and input to make Vision 2030 a reality.

#wearewestfel