Message from Scott Cole, Head Principal West High School :

Welcome to the 2017-2018 school year! This year brings many exciting things to our building.

We welcome two new administrators to West High. Rachelle Wiersma will work with our tenth grade students. She will be involved with professional development and curriculum and assessment. Allan Pace will be working in the freshmen house and will oversee special education and attendance.

Again this year students will be writing daily in all of their classes and will be completing an open response writing in each of their classes. This is the second year of this initiative and we are seeing improvements in students’ ability to communicate, critically think and express their thoughts. These are key skills for students to have as they leave high school and engage in future endeavors.

We are working with the Balanced Leadership Framework this school year. The building leadership team is working closely with administration in three specific areas which have been identified to help us achieve our building goal. The three areas we are focusing on this year are PLC (professional learning communities,) writing and instructional framework/lesson planning. Our building goal is to see 5% growth in 9th, 10th and 11th grade ELA scores on the Iowa State Assessment. The framework allows teachers on the leadership team to assume more leadership roles within each of the three identified areas. We are excited about this process and have seen a great deal of growth with the staff in a short period of time.

We are looking forward to a great year!!

We Are West!!