In Schools –
WHS Theater Department Delights with Musical: What a wonderful evening of theater I had last night for the opening night for the High School Drama department production of “Once Upon a Mattress”! Students sang, danced, acted, collaborated, created, and impressed the audience with both the action on stage and the action behind the scenes. The lead actors were exceptional and the supporting cast was convincing and creative. I was also impressed with the backstage aspect of running a production as I saw high expectations and outcomes from the “house management”, to the lighting design, to the scene changes, the costume designs, sound design, and the stage management! What made this even more impressive is that the directors of the show are two former WHS drama students who went on to study theater at the college level (Keira Stogin and Sydney Valaer; 2016). Yay for our graduates going on to bright futures and then returning to serve our community!!
**Show runs May 13-14 @ 7:00 p.m. and 2:00 p.m. on Saturday (May 14)
JMS Track and Field Teams Dominate: This week, our boys and girls track teams competed in the league meet and walked away with a 1st place for the girls and 2nd place for the boys out of 10 teams. We are the overall school winners for track and field in our league this season! WOW!!! Yay for our students, coaches, teachers, leaders, and parents for collectively supporting opportunities for our students to participate and shine!
In the Community –
Industry Hiring Fair Brings Community Together- Thank you to our CTE department for all of their work to help put on the annual Industry Hiring Fair. We partner with a few other districts to bring our workforce (including students) together with our local business and organizations to connect employment opportunities. I attended the event last night (held at Discovery High School in Camas) and was delighted to see so many of our local businesses on hand to chat with students and community members about future employment. The professional and successful event is another reason why we are an Educational Destination!
In the District Office –
Shout Out to Communications Team: Today is National School Communications Day! Thank you to all of our WSD communication team (led by Director of Technology and Communications, Les Brown) for your exceptional work! The last two years have certainly been filled with challenges and Les’ leadership has provided transparent, timely, consistent, and effective communication for all of our stakeholders, including parents, staff, students, and leaders! Well done!!!
On that note, the WSD Communications Team won yet another award this week. Our newly retired team member Rene’ Carroll won the WSPRA Award of Merit for writing for her story highlighting the Roots and Wings story at Jemtegaard Middle School. Rene’s passion for telling great stories and her ability to capture the magic happening in our schools and classrooms every day was recognized at the state level. Congrats Rene’, and thank you to our Communications Team!
Inspiration this week: The inspiration of the week goes to everyone who is “In Training” for the Washougal Schools Foundation STRIDE Run! Keep running, keep stretching, keep planning your race-day strategies! Templeton continues her training by getting ready to sing the National Anthem! I have been “cross-training” to prepare for Saturday, May 21. I have been running a few miles and then stopping to vocally warm up and “belt out” the National Anthem to nearby sports enthusiasts. Yay for having sweatbands….they not only look super cool, but they help you run AND sing better!
Here is the WSF STRIDE link to sign up for the fun!
I hope you have a great weekend!
Mary
