SAVE THE DATE
Bottle Drive
Saturday, January 7th
Adult and student volunteers still needed. 100% of the proceeds go towards our Washington DC trip. Please click here to sign up.
8th Graders- Registration for CVU
Friday, January 20th @ 1:45
CVU School Counselors will be at WCS to speak to our 8th graders. Students will receive registration forms for CVU that day.
Swift Open House
Thursday, January 26th @ 6:30 pm
All Swift students will have a project to present at our Open House. Students attendance is required and they thrive off of your presence as their audience!
Marko the Magician
Friday, January 27th @ 6:30 pm
Please: Attend/Volunteer/Hang signs/Sell tickets! All proceeds go towards our Washington DC trip. It's also a great show.
Thank You from the Polar Express
Swift House Elves with our dear Santa, former Swift teacher, Gary Howard
Swift Facilitator Elves
You can find more photos on our Shutterfly site (password = flyforever).
Independent Projects
Independent Projects We will begin Independent Projects after vacation. Each student will select a topic to research related to their fall science and social studies classes. They will create focus questions, find resources, create an outline, take notes, write a report and present a visual over the month of January. Brainstorm potential topics with your son or daughter over vacation so they have some ideas about what they might want to study when they return! Eighth graders will continue on with their 8th grade challenge projects.Student Work
Students reading Bud, Not Buddy made some connections to the book by researching a famous jazz musician and creating a WeVideo about the information they learned.Nat King Cole, by Wyatt W
Louis Armstrong, by Stephen Z
Jelly Roll Morton, by Oliver C
Nora and Claire created a movie trailer for the book A Long Walk to Water.
Nora, Claire, Bene and Maggie created a project about emigrating to Costa Rica. Click on the image above to view.
Amelia and Aria created a project about emigrating to the United Kingdom. Click on the image above to view.
The 7th and 8th grade Engineering Challenge is available to watch on the RETN website. The videos are organized by competition. Click on the image above to watch.
FAPAC December 2016 Meeting Highlights Information
The FAP Advisory Council held its monthly meeting on December 8th. FAP is Williston's equivalent of a parent-teacher organization. We meet each month, our meetings our open to all, and you will receive an email like this every month with highlights of the meeting and a link to the FAP website for the full minutes. Check the full minutes in a PDF format by clicking here.
You can now follow us on Facebook and Twitter (@FAP_Williston)!
Below are the meeting highlights:
FAPAC Meeting Recording
The November FAPAC meeting was recorded and is available at this link online.
FAP Annual Fund
We are in the final month for online Annual Fund. After December 31, checks and/or cash are still welcome. All donations are tax deductible. We are currently down from last year at this time. A reminder that the Annual Fund directly funds house accounts for field trips, guest speakers and other activities your child participates in. EVERY student, in EVERY grade receives a direct benefit from the Annual Fund!
The link to donate to the Annual Fund can be found here. Online donations will be closing at the end of December. AfterDecember 31, checks and/or cash are still welcome.
Upcoming Events
Speaker Series: “Mindful Self-Care & Stress Reduction for Parents & Caregivers”January 30th, 6:30 – 8:30 @ WCS Dining Room
This series will be led by Williston-based therapist, Angie Ferenc, MA LCMHC. While parenting can be full of joy, it can also leave us feeling stressed, anxious, overwhelmed and spread thin. In this 2 hr workshop we will explore the role of stress in our lives and the negative impact it has on the mind and body.
Big Basket Raffle: March 25th @ WCS
Williston Runs for Education: May 20th
The committee is actively seeking additional people to help plan the event. Please contact K Olsen for more info.
The committee is actively seeking additional people to help plan the event. Please contact K Olsen for more info.
New FAPAC Chair Search
The FAP is searching for a new chair or co-chair at the end of this year. Ideally the person would start “unofficially” in the next couple of months so they can attend a few meetings to see how things are run. Stay tuned for a list of duties that the position entails.
Lake Monsters Committee Chair Search
The Lake Monsters Event is looking for a new chair. The position involves coordinating with the Lake Monsters, getting the word out about the game, and coordinating the sales of 50/50 raffle tickets. Please contact Shani Varricchione if you are interested.
Administration Update
Decision Packets: 4 groups voted on the decision packets that were received; the Program Council, FAPAC, WSD Board members, and WSD Administration. The administration has sent forward 5 decision packets to the school board for budget purposes.
SBAC: The FAP reviewed the SBAC results. One area of concern indicated by the results is a gap in the achievement between boys and girls, especially in the 3rd grade ELA. There were also gaps with students on IEPs and socio-economically challenged students. The administration and data teams are looking at what other measures could explain these gaps. Our job is to shrink the performance gaps by accelerating the progress of students who are not performing as well as their peers.
#FAPAnnualFund - We want to make the Annual Fund more visible. When Tweeting about a trip covered by this fund, please use the hashtag #FAPAnnualFund to get more visibility.
