A Message from the Principal
 
Willow Springs Middle School Principal Newsletter - October 31, 2019

 
 
 
 
 
 









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Dear WSMS Parents and Guardians,

I know it is hard to believe, but we officially have six weeks left in the first semester with final exams beginning on Monday, December 16th.  Please see below for the final exam schedule under "Campus Information and Reminders."   In three weeks, our students will be on Thanksgiving break and will then return for three weeks prior to Winter break.  Please continue to work with your son or daughter to stay on top of their school responsibilities. This time of year is traditionally very busy for our students and families as we approach the holidays.  Let's work together to ensure that our students finish strong in their first semester of learning. Have a great weekend.  





Kent Messer
Principal
Willow Springs Middle School
1101 West Lucas Rd, Lucas 75002
Office: 469-742-8417
Mobile: 214-293-9938
@WSMSLovejoyISD
#wsmslovejoy


NEW! Student Holiday - Friday, November 1st
Friday, November 1st is a student holiday, however, our offices will be open from 8am - 5pm.


LAST CALL AT SALE PRICE! WSMS Yearbook Deadlines 
IMPORTANT YEARBOOK DEADLINE FRIDAY 11-1!!!
The last day to purchase your 2020 Willow Springs MS yearbook at the current price is Friday, November 1st at midnight. The price will go up after midnight.  You can purchase online at  jostensyearbooks.com or by clicking on the direct link below:  http://jostensyearbooks.com/?REF=A01101585
 
Important 8th grade Recognition ADS!!!
TO ALL 8TH GRADE Willow Springs MS PARENTS: FRIDAY 12-13 IS THE DEADLINE FOR THE 8THGRADE RECOGNITION ADS. 
 
All 8th grade recognition ads must be paid for and submitted online by Friday, December 13th via the  jostensyearbooks.com link.


Summer Educational Trip: Costa Rica Deadline NOVEMBER 4th
For the past three years, students at WSMS have been provided an opportunity to extend their science learning in 7th and 8th grade by participating in a summer trip to Costa Rica.  This trip is hosted by WorldStrides, a company with over 50 year's of experience with student travel working with middle schools across the country to provide summer learning experiences. This year's trip is Coastal Conservation. Students will zipline through the rainforest canopy, hike through a cloud forest, horseback ride through the rainforest and visit National Parks and Costa Rican beaches. Students will discover Costa Rica's rich culture and traditions, and experience incomparable learning moments. S ign up today at  worldstrides.com/signup using Trip ID 181112. If you have any questions, contact Jennifer Perez at jennifer_perez@lovejoyisd.net If you are interested in going, but need some more time than November 4th, please let Jennifer Perez know.


REMINDER! 7th Grade Hearing /Vision Screenings - November 4 and November 5
Monday, November 4th and Tuesday, November 5th, WSMS nurses will be performing the required State Hearing/Vision screenings on all 7th grade students. If your child wears glasses or contacts, please make sure they bring them to school on those dates.


WSMS Career Day 2019 
On Wednesday, November 6th, WSMS will hold our annual Career Day!  This event will give students the opportunity to visit with professionals from various professions to learn about potential career fields.  Students will visit FOUR career presentations - two they have selected, and two they will be assigned - perhaps a career field they didn't know existed! Career Day will be held 10am - 12:50pm.  The bell schedule will be different to accommodate Career Day, but students will visit each of their classes including athletics.


NJHS Service Project: ACO Thanksgiving Box Drive, November 8 - 21
It's that time of year when giving just a little can change a needy family's entire holiday season. Willow Springs Advisory classes are partnering with NJHS to hold a Thanksgiving Box Drive for Allen Community Outreach. NJHS students will be working with 7th and 8th grade Advisory classes to put together a Thanksgiving Box for needy families in our community. Each box will contain all of the items and non-perishable groceries needed to cook a traditional Thanksgiving meal. The food drive will begin on
 
Students will be asked to provide the following: $15 Walmart Gift Card (to purchase a turkey),  Bisquick, Cornmeal or Corn muffin mix, Flour, Sugar,  Pumpkin pie filling (canned), Fruit pie filling (canned), Box of pie crust mix, Box of Jell-O mix, Box of pudding mix, Canned vegetables (variety), Canned fruit (variety), Canned yams,  Marshmallows, Stuffing mix, Instant mashed potatoes, Canned gravy or gravy packets, Cranberry sauce, Chicken broth, Cream of chicken, Cream of mushroom, Evaporated milk,  1 container of salt (unopened), 1 container of pepper (unopened,) 2 to 3 casserole size foil baking pans (13x9), 3 foil pie pans


Shoe Collection & Arbor Day Opportunity    
You're invited to participate in two upcoming environmental events to help our community. 
 
First, WSMS will celebrate National Recycling Day (November 15) with a shoe collection. The PTA will be collecting your outgrown athletic shoes November 4-13 at WSMS. All sizes are needed and will be donated to those in need. The students will see collection bins in the main hallway for their donations. 
 
Second, the city of Lucas will host an Arbor Day celebration during its new Farmers Market on November 2 from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. Members of the local Legacy 4-H club will be giving away tree saplings and mulch. More information is available at:  Arbor Day Celebration - City of Lucas


WSMS Theatre - Save the Date! November 14, 15, and 16
The WSMS Performing Arts will be presenting ANNIE JR. Tickets will go on sale to the public on Monday, October 30th at 10am. 





WSMS Spelling Bee - Friday, November 15 
The WSMS Spelling Bee will be on November 15th from 9:30-11, in the cafeteria.  Parents are welcome to attend.  


NEW! WSMS Principals Coffee - Friday, November 15, at 9am
The topic on Thursday will be WSMS Mastery Learning & Preparing for Final Exams.  The meeting will begin at 9:00 a.m. in the WSMS Band Hall. The Principal's Coffee is a forum discussion for all 7th and 8th grade parents to visit with me about the safety and security over a cup of coffee. During the discussion, I will provide information about the safety and security procedures at Willow Springs and answer any questions you may have. Attending parents are encouraged to park in the front parking lot to enter and sign-in through the front office. 


UPDATE! Author Michael Patrick O'Neill to visit WSMS - November 19
On November 19th, our 7th graders will have a unique experience as they hear from Author/Photographer Michael Patrick O'Neill.

 


WSMS Turkey Trot for Dallas Tornado Relief - November 20th
WSMS will host a Turkey Trot on Wednesday, November 20th.   Each grade level will participate in a race around the WSMS campus. 

8 th Grade Race:  9:15 AM

7 th Grade Race:  10:20 AM

All students will participate in the Turkey Trot.  Students will have the option to run or walk. Medals for the top 5 male and female finishers in each grade level will be presented during lunches.  

As part of our community service project for the fall, we are asking students to raise funds for the City of Dallas Emergency Fund.  We are asking each student to donate anywhere from $5.00--$20.00 for this project. All proceeds will benefit the tornado victims from the October tornado that tore through north Dallas.  The donation drive will start Monday, November 11, 2019, and run through Wednesday, November 20. Students can donate cash or check through their advisory class or online through the LISD online payment system.  A link to the online payment system will be shared next week. The advisory class with the most donations will receive a pizza party for all their fundraising efforts.

Parents who are interested in running in the Turkey Trot will be able to register for $15 through our online payment system on November 11th  Parents must be on the District's cleared volunteer list to participate in the Turkey Trot. Parents will run with their students grade level.  If you need any additional information, please contact Leslee Cox at leslee_cox@lovejoyisd.net or Chase Crocker at chase_crocker@lovejoyisd.net  

We are looking forward to a great Turkey Trot on November 20th.  


NEW! WSMS Guardians of the Green - Every Monday Morning
Garden Club is meeting on Monday Mornings at 8am in the garden. Come and join Mrs. Perez and other students.  We will be weeding, making hoop houses and tending the garden. " The glory of gardening: hands in the dirt, head in the sun, heart with nature. 
 
To nurture a garden is to feed not just the body, but the soul. - Alfred Austin


UPDATED! Robotics Club - Every Tuesday and Thursday After School
Interested in Robotics....Join Us!  The WSMS Robotics Club will meet every Tuesday and Thursday after school.  Students should come to room C600, right after school, with pickup being 5pm.  Please sign up by joining the Robotics Club classroom. The code is ubltty5 If you have any questions, please contact Sylvia Woods at sylvia_woods@lovejoyisd.net.




Campus Information and Reminders
NEW! Safety Corner - Bus Transportation
With the continued growth of our community, bus ridership has also grown. The majority of our afternoon routes are at or near bus capacity. Therefore, transportation will not be able to accommodate students riding the bus home with other when the student is not assigned to the bus route. This would include sending your child home on another student's bus for play dates, sleep over's, group projects, sports practices, etc.

In the rare instance that you have a last minute emergency and need your child to ride the bus home with someone else, please call your child's school to get permission so the school can inform the bus driver of the change.


All Region Orchestra
This past Saturday our region hosted our Annual All Region Orchestra Contest at Allen High School. All Region is an individual competition where our students learn a packet of music that includes an etude and excerpts that they have to learn on their own. This music is difficult and stretches them as musicians. They compete against all other musicians from 6th-8th grade in our region. This includes Allen, Mckinney, Rockwall and Sherman. They are sent into the audition room in groups of 15-20 and have to perform small sections for a panel of judges in front of their peers. This is a very intense process and our students did very well!
Please congratulate the following students for going above and beyond and learning the all region music and auditioning:

Helena Heinrich-Barna
Clark Koons
Keaton Penn
Sofia Rodas
Edward Sutton
Chris Wang
James Wilkins
John Witherspoon
Liam Whittington
Helena Heinrich-Barna
Clark Koons
Sofia Rodas

Please congratulate the following students for making the All Region Orchestra:
Alissa Chang- 5th Chair Violin Brahms Orchestra
David Wang- 16th Chair Violin Brahms Orchestra
Niina Wheeler- 31st Chair Violin Brahms Orchestra
Thomas Clancy- 22nd Chair Violin Beethoven Orchestra
Hannah Mao- 9th Chair Viola Brahms Orchestra
Aarathi Devakumar- 31st Chair Violin Beethoven Orchestra
Alex Simpkins- 7th Chair Cello Brahms Orchestra
Jocelyn Kim- 12th Chair Cello Beethoven Orchestra




Perfect Attendance 1st Nine Weeks
During the first grading period, we had 309 students that had perfect attendance. This means these students were in class every period of every day during the first nine weeks. Let's continue to work together to encourage students to increase our perfect attendance. For a complete list of students who had perfect attendance, please click here.


Students feeling under the weather?
As you know, it is prime cold and flu season. To help best manage our students and to keep in line with the policy in the Student Handbook, if students are not feeling well at school, they need to be checked out through the school clinic. The student must be fever free (Temperature of 99.9 or less for 24 hours without the use of over the counter medications to keep the temperature down) and must NOT have vomited or had diarrhea in the last 24 hours. Thank you for your attention to this important matter.


ParentPortal Update - Please Complete
The PowerSchool ParentPortal is now open for you to complete the online Enrollment & Student Information Forms. Please   click here  access the  Parent Portal . Completion of these forms is required every year for every student. Please take a few minutes to update your Contact Information, FERPA Acknowledgments, General Waivers, and other information.  
As of today, there are 86 students whose forms have not been updated.

 
PLEASE NOTE: Regarding the Release of Directory Information for School Use:
In order for your child's picture to appear in the Yearbook, you should answer "YES".
 
IMPORTANT - Students and parents have a separate login/password for PowerSchool. Students should never have access to ParentPortal or use their parent login. If students were to access the ParentPortal on a school or public computer and not log out, family demographics as well as sibling's grades would be open for others to access. If you have any questions, you may contact Carol Vik at 469-742-8415.





PowerSchool App
The PowerSchool app is now available in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. You use the same PowerSchool online login. Enter the District code NJBC.


Reporting an Incident at WSMS
One of our top priorities at Willow Springs Middle School is to ensure the safety of all of our students.  Our most important asset in this is the eyes and ears our students can provide us on campus. We will begin using the Safe Schools Alert System this year for students and parents to report incidents they are aware of happening.  You can access the system by going to  www.lovejoyisd.net .  Under Quick Links click on "REPORT IT!"  You will have four ways to submit an incident.  Furthermore, you will receive an access code to follow the progression of how an incident is being handled.


LISD Calendar
Please go here for LISD calendars.



WSMS Twitter Feeds  #wsmslovejoy
@WSMSLovejoyISD (Campus Event Updates)
@sscwsms (Counseling updates) 
 
 

Athletics


Volleyball Results vs Rockwall Williams - October 24th
7th Grade
A Team - Loss
B Team - Won
C Team - Won
 
8th Grade
A Team - Win
B Team - Win
C Team - Loss

 
Football Results vs Rockwall Williams - October 29th
7th Grade
Red - Won
Black -Won
 
8th Grade
Red - Won
Black - Lost
 


Boys Basketball Tryouts for 7th and 8th Grade
Tryouts for 7th and 8th grade boys basketball will take place October 30th-November 4th.  This year the basketball team will have three teams for each grade with 10 players on each team.  Tryouts will take place at Willow Springs Middle school. The boys need to have turned in a physical and completed the online forms found at:  www.lovejoyathletics.com
 
If you have any questions, please contact Jeff Higgins at jeff_higgins@lovejoyisd.net or Andrew Blom at andrew_blom@lovejoyisd.net. 
 
The schedule for tryouts can be found below:
 
8th Grade:
October 30 - 8:00am through 1st period
October 31 - 7:00 am through 1st period
November 1 - No School for students
November 4 - 7:00 am through 1st period - pickup tryout letter after school
 
7th Grade:
October 30 - 7th period through 5:30
October 31 - 7th period through 5:30 
November 1 - No school for students
November 4 - 7th period through 5:30 - Decisions Made



 


WSMS PTA

WSMS PTA has released our online directory ! This is only for PTA members, if you did not receive the instructions or you are not getting monthly emails from us, we unfortunately do not have you listed as a PTA member. You can still join and have access to this directory by visiting our online registration .
 
Letter Writing Campaign
The 6th annual Lovejoy Letter Campaign for teachers and staff members is now underway. Our goal is to have our community write appreciation letters for each teacher and staff member in Lovejoy ISD before the Thanksgiving break. Each campus is accepting letters of kindness and thankfulness now through November 15th.
 
Last Week:
Lisa Wilkins, Environmental chair for the WSMS PTA organized  guest speaker Carol Clark, who is the past president of the Collin County chapter of the Native Plant Society of Texas, a certified Texas Master Naturalist, and a Conservation Specialist with Monarch Watch.  Mrs. Clark spoke to all the 8th grade science classes.
 
To support the continued programs your PTA brings to WSMS, you may donate to us here.


Sincerely-
Kasey Havens
WSMS PTA President 2018-2019
214-534-6200




District and Other News

District Communications
 
One of our Board Priorities is to develop stronger community connections and confidence through effective communication. We are continuing to strengthen our communications and have shared   best practices for communicating with the Board of Trustees and   best practices for staff communications with parents . Today we are sharing the following information regarding how best to communicate and handle concerns with teachers, coaches, directors, etc. For future reference you may find this information on the  Parent Resources page under District Communication.
 
Student and Parent Concerns/Grievances
The faculty and staff of Lovejoy ISD are committed to the service of our students and their parents by responding promptly and professionally to concerns or grievances which may arise.
 
Student and Parent Complaints/Grievances are governed by LISD Board Policies FNG (LEGAL) and FNG (LOCAL).
 
How Do You Resolve Parent Concerns?
If you, as the parent or guardian of a Lovejoy ISD student, have concerns regarding your child's education or performance, we want to talk with you. Sitting down and talking with the people who interact most often with your child on a daily basis - his/her teacher, counselor, coach or director- can remedy the majority of concerns.
 
Most concerns can be and usually are resolved at the classroom/activity/sports or campus level. However, if your concerns are not addressed by visiting with the teacher, campus counselor, coach or director, you may choose to follow the three-level process listed below:
 
Level One:
Within 15 business days of the incident causing the concern/complaint, you may request a meeting with the next level supervisor which could be the Athletic Director, Fine Arts Director or Campus Principal. The Level One form may be found   here .
 
Level Two:
If you are not satisfied with the outcome of the Level One process, within 10 business days of receipt of the Level One decision letter, you may request a meeting with the Assistant Superintendent of Operations (Athletics, Safety, Operations) or Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction (Teachers, Administrators, Student Discipline). The Level Two form may be found  here .
 
Level Three:
If you are not satisfied with the outcome of the Level Two process, within 10 business days of receipt of the Level Two decision letter, you may appeal the decision to the School Board by contacting the Superintendent. The Level Three form may be found  here .
 
 
Upcoming Events
 
 LHS Student Council Hosts Veterans for Banquet 
The Lovejoy High School Student Council is pleased to invite you to their annual Veterans Day Banquet:
 
November 11, 2019
5:30 PM
Lovejoy High School Commons
 
Dinner will be catered by Rudy's Barbecue. The student council would love for all veterans to attend as their guests.
 
Please RSVP to:
faoro_analaura@lovejoyisd.com


 

Safety and Security Training
Lovejoy ISD is offering "Stop the Bleed" and "Civilian Response to Active Shooter Events" trainings during the month of November. You are invited to join us for this training which is applicable and practical for all community members.
 
Stop the Bleed
November 19, 2019
6:30 PM - 8:00 PM
Lovejoy High School Lecture Hall
 
Civilian Response to Active Shooter Events
November 21, 2019
6:30 PM - 8:30 PM
Lovejoy High School Lecture Hall
 
For additional information, please visit our  Community News Page .



Community News
We are pleased to announce the   Lovejoy ISD Community News Page . This new addition to the Lovejoy ISD Webpage will share news from our schools, programs, booster clubs, student organizations, Foundation for Lovejoy Schools, community, and more. Check back often for up-to-date news on events and activities.

For more information on the following topics click the "Lovejoy ISD Community News Page" link above.


Senior Judges Needed!
 
Register Now! 10th Annual Turkey Chess Tournament
 
Varsity Football Tickets Available Through School Store
 
Parking Information for Home Football Games
 
Taste of Fairview Benefiting the Foundation for Lovejoy Schools
 
Red Ribbon Night at Allen Americans
 
Lovejoy Gifted Association Coding Event
 
Lovejoy Professional Network Charity Benefit Golf Tournament
 
Senior Project!  Boys Wrestling Camp
 
STEM Design Your World Conference for Girls
 
City of Lucas Farmers Market
 
Engage Collin County Music Festival
 
Buddy Walk
 
Senior Project! Girls Wrestling Camp
 
Lovejoy Student Council Veterans Day Banquet
 
Men's Tailgate Party and Cornhole Tournament
Benfiting the Foundation for Lovejoy Schools
 
Senior Project! Running Over Depression
 
Safety and Security Training
 
Leopard Baseball Buddy League
 
Lovejoy High School Cheer Fundraiser
Holiday Poinsettias for Sale
 
Arthritis Foundation Jingle Bell Run
 
Turn Lucas Green
 
News from Collin College

 
 
For the latest Athletic News, download the "Lovejoy Leopards Athletics" app.
 
For the latest Fine Arts News, follow @LovejoyArts on Twitter, or like them on Facebook at Lovejoy Arts.