Worthington Kilbourne High School, September 2015 Newsletter
Thanks to our entire school community for a great start to the 2015-16 school year! It's amazing how much goes into opening our doors for the first day of school. It takes much collaboration among our PTO, counselors, staff, administrators, teachers, secretaries, custodians and our school nurse to plan for Schedule Pick-Up including the completion of schedules, school fees, medical forms, set up and much more. Thanks to our District Administration, Facility Management and school community, we have a resurfaced gym floor, a new turf field, a victory plaza, updated paint in the school commons and stairwells, exterior signs and a redesigned school and community lecture hall that will enable our students to present their learning to larger audience. In summary, it is a crazy-busy time but because we all work together so well, we are able to have fun and make it all happen.
Once again, our Link Crew provided a positive and heartfelt welcome for our incoming freshmen and new students. The success of this program is based on the three teacher mentors (Mrs. Clark, Mrs. Glaros and Mrs. Smith) and the process of selecting students who will step up to not only support our incoming freshmen but also act as mentors and take the lead in maintaining our positive school climate. This year, we have 80 plus absolutely fantastic leaders who dedicated time during the summer for leadership training. They then spent an entire day with our freshmen students before school ever started. It is important to our 'Kilbourne Family' that our freshmen students feel connected immediately. WKHS is now a school they are no longer visiting; they own it and as soon as they feel connected and get involved the better. Our goal is to make this happen on day one!
Our principals, teachers, students and staff had the opportunity to meet all of the freshmen in the auditorium on August 19 where our Student Council spoke and our teachers presented skits to help them better understand our school expectations. (A few of our staff should probably sign up for Ms. Thompson's Theatre class, including myself). The skits for the "Top 10 Expectations" or points of advice shared by our Student Council included;
#1 Get Sleep
#2 Keep it "Klassy" Kilbourne
#3 Take Care of Each Other
#4 The Lunch Line
#5 Seek Help
#6 Study Habits
#7 Be Organized - Use Your Plan Book
#8 Use Technology Appropriately
#9 Get Involved
#10 Be Happy!
We will also be celebrating our 25th year of service. Be sure to purchase a t-shirt with this logo from our PTO. Members of our IB program are planning to create a small museum that includes our school history and artifacts from the last 25 years. This will be open throughout the school day and events will be planned to welcome the community. We will keep you posted on our progress and hope that you take the time to observe the work of our students as we celebrate our school history.
As I write this, we are just 8 days into the new school year, but I cannot thank you enough for your efforts in helping to get our school ready for the new year. I am thankful each and everyday for the opportunity to work with the students, the parents, and the staff of Worthington Kilbourne High School.
We are "Stronger Together"!
-Principal Adrean