April 2023 e-News

We are excited to focus on COURAGE this month! One way to think about Courage is “choosing what is helpful, right, and kind even when it is hard or scary.” We have all demonstrated courage in our lives. Many of us have seen people practice courage in ways that have inspired us. We hope this month inspires discussions with your family about what it means to show courage. For additional information regarding CharacterStrong, including our middle school monthly traits, please visit our CharacterStrong & Social Emotional Learning website.

This month supports social acceptance of Autism and raising awareness of the need for appropriate supports to enable our friends with autism to lead full and meaningful lives.

It is important to remember that diversity is more than race. It includes ethnic, socioeconomic, religious, and cultural backgrounds and various lifestyles, experiences, abilities, and interests. We encourage our school community to join us in celebrating our differences.

• April 1-30 - Arab Heritage Month, Bilingual/Multilingual Learner Advocacy Month, Occupational Therapy Month, National Poetry Month, and Child Abuse Prevention Month

• April 4 - National School Librarian Day

• April 4-7 - National Assistant Principals Week
  

• April 5 - Paraprofessional Appreciation Day

• April 17-21 - Public School Volunteer Recognition Week

• April 19 - Purple Up Day - On this day, everyone is invited to wear purple as a sign of support for our military-connected families and in celebration of the Month of the Military Child

• April 23-29 - National Library Week

• April 26 - Administrative Professionals’ Day

NO SCHOOL

Friday, April 7 and Monday, April 10

We do not need to use April 10th as a make-up day since we have been utilizing weather-related remote learning days. Students will not have school.

THIRD MARKING PERIOD GRADES AVAILABLE FOR GRADES 6-12

Wednesday, April 12
Report card information for grades 6-12 will be available no later than April 12, in PowerSchool. To view and print grades in the traditional report card style, please click the "Report Cards" tab on the left after logging into the PowerSchool website (not available in the app).

WEST SHORE HONORS CHORAL FESTIVAL

Tuesday, April 4, Hosted by Red Land High School

Festival will take place throughout the day with a free concert at 4 p.m.

ANTI-RACISM AND DIVERSITY ART GALLERY

Thursday, April 6, 5-8 p.m., Cedar Cliff High School

Members of Cedar Cliff High School’s Colts Anti-Racist Alliance (C.A.R.A.) are organizing this special event to showcase and amplify diverse student voices through art, poetry, and photography. All are welcome to attend and participate in the silent auction.

TITLE I, II, AND IV DAC MEETING AND STUDENT SHOWCASE

Tuesday, April 18, 6 p.m., Hosted by Highland Elementary

The District's Stronger Together Committee is excited to present a district-wide event for students in sixth to eighth grade. During the event students will be assigned to teams made up of students from each of the three middle schools and rotate through a variety of stations. For details and sign up information, please click here.

NATIONAL PRESCRIPTION TAKE BACK DAY

Saturday, April 22, 10 a.m.-2 p.m., Crossroads Middle School

The District is partnering with the York Opioid Collaborative and Fairview Township Police Department to host this drive thru event. All varieties of medication (tablets, capsules, liquids, creams, inhalants, etc.) will be accepted for disposal.

COMMUNITY SUPPORTS EXPO 2023

Thursday, April 26, 6:30-8 p.m., Administration Center

Childcare will be Available
The District's Special Education Department is hosting a Community Supports Expo for parents with students attending West Shore, Cumberland Valley, East Pennsboro, and Camp Hill School Districts. Come speak with representatives from Arc of Cumberland & Perry Counties, Arc of York County, Easterseals, Include Me, Office of Vocational Rehabilitation, TNS Programs, and other organizations. Please click here to register if you plan to attend.

WEST SHORE SPECIAL OLYMPICS

Friday, April 28 at the West Shore Stadium

This is always such an awesome day for our District! We look forward to cheering on our Special Olympic athletes alongside their families. More details will be shared with participants prior to the event.

CEDAR CLIFF RELAYS

Saturday, April 29, 9 a.m. - 5 p.m., West Shore Stadium

HIGH SCHOOL PROMS

Cedar Cliff High School - Saturday, May 13, 6:30-10:30 p.m., Penn Harris Hotel, Camp Hill

Red Land High School - Saturday, May 20, 6-10 p.m., Sheraton Hotel, Harrisburg

Thanks to an incredible outpouring of generosity from our community, each high school has free gowns and some formal attire available for students. Please contact your child's school for details about their prom boutiques.

HIGHMARK WALK FOR A HEALTHY COMMUNITY

Saturday, May 20, 8:30 a.m., Harrisburg Area Community College
Highmark Walk for a Healthy Community is an annual fundraising walk that benefits local health and human service agencies. Again, this year, the West Shore Foundation is a beneficiary and will receive 100% of your support. If interested in joining us or making a donation, please click here for more details.

GRADUATION CEREMONIES FOR THE CLASS OF 2023

Saturday, June 3, Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex

Red Land High School - 10 a.m.
Cedar Cliff High School - 1:30 p.m.
Parking is free and all are welcome to join us. We will also broadcast both ceremonies live. Details about the live stream, including links and system requirements, will be available on our website closer to graduation.

School Board and Board Committee Meetings are held at the Administration Center and are open to the public.

Committee Meetings

Finance - Thursday, April 13, 4:30 p.m.

Facilities - Wednesday, April 26, 4:30 p.m.

School Board Meetings

Thursday, April 13, 6:30 p.m.

Thursday, April 20, 6:30 p.m.

• In Person and Electronic Public Comment Guidelines
• Watch Board Meetings Online - Board meetings are streamed live and archived for viewing after the meeting.
• Board Agendas - published 24 hours before the meeting
  
• Board Minutes - posted after Board approval

What an incredible season of basketball for our Lady Colts. 2022-2023 season highlights include:

• Undefeated regular season for Varsity and JV
  
• Keystone Division Champions
• Mid Penn Conference Champions: Second time in school history
• District III 6A Champions: First time in school history
• PIAA 6A State Playoffs: Earned a silver medal, the farthest in school history
• Final Season Record: 30-1: Bringing home the most wins in school history

On March 12, Red Land revealed that its mini-THON efforts for this year raised $44,388.13 for Four Diamonds! Shout out to the sponsors, students, staff, and families who worked together to raise these funds to fight childhood cancer. #WestShoreCares

Cedar Cliff Junior Ian McCurdy, Red Land Senior Owen Swintosky, and Red Land Sophomore Olivia Magaro represented West Shore at the PMEA Region V Band Festival in March. After the regional festival, it was announced that Olivia advanced and will participate in PMEA All State Wind Ensemble! Congratulations, Liv!

Cedar Cliff High School brought home first and second place wins at the Academic WorldQuest competition sponsored by the World Affairs Council of Harrisburg. The first-place team (pictured) will now represent Pennsylvania at the national competition in Washington D.C. on April 28 and 29. Congratulations and best wishes to Rory Gannon, Caleb Masshardt (captain), Rayna Johnson, and Jackson Kane. This is the fourth time in the past eight years that Cedar Cliff has advanced to the national level in The World Affairs Councils of America competition.

Red Land students Chelsea Carpenter & Hannah Cline with Crossroads students Zach Schussler and Jackson Mehaffey, attended Bloomsburg University’s Dog Pound Competition in March. The competition is similar to Shark Tank and we are proud to share that out of 125+ teams Red Land's after school and summer camp program presentation placed 30th and Crossroads Por-Table pitch earned them 7th place! Congratulations.

Kudos to the cast, crew, directors, musicians, and volunteers who helped bring Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat and Beauty and the Beast to the stage!

At its meeting on February 16, the Board approved an academic calendar for the 2023-2024 school year with a start date for students of August 28, 2023 and an end date of June 7, 2024. To download the complete calendar, please click here.

Approximately 280 individuals participated in the 2023-2024 calendar development process this year with 70% of respondents liking the calendar draft. Thank you to each of you who submitted feedback and participated in the calendar development process.

With direction and support from the Pennsylvania Office of the Attorney General, the Safe2Say Something system is designed to help students, parents, and staff anonymously report situations when individuals may be in danger or a threat to themselves or others.

HOW IT WORKS:

• Submit an anonymous tip report through the Safe2SaySomething system.
• Crisis center reviews and sends to West Shore S.D. administration and/or law enforcement for intervention.
• District administration and, as needed, local law enforcement, intervene.

WAYS TO SUBMIT AN ANONYMOUS TIP:
Call the tipline: 1-844-SAF2SAY (1-844-723-2729)
Use the website: https://www.safe2saypa.org
Use the mobile app available in iOS and Android stores

It will take all of us working together to keep our children safe and healthy. Thank you for your partnership in these efforts.

Recently we have noticed an increase in the number of fraudulent comments on our social media sites, especially Facebook. Whether it be a professional looking ad for a fake streaming site to watch a sporting event or a post claiming to have tickets available for sale to a musical performance, we are saddened to see individuals using our students' success to try to deceive others. We will continue to remove inappropriate comments, but wanted to alert our school community to these scams and attempts to collect credit card information.

For those interested, Cedar Cliff and Red Land both utilize the NFHS Network (www.nfhsnetwork.com) to stream athletic events and, due to copyright limitations, our musical performances are rarely broadcast. If there is a service other than NFHS being utilized, fans will be notified by one of our official District social media accounts:

• Cedar Cliff Athletics
  Twitter @CedarCliff_AD
  Instagram @CedarCliff_AD
  
  
• Red Land Athletics
  Twitter @RedLand_AD
  Instagram @RedLand_Athletics

• District Accounts
  Twitter @WestShoreSD
  Instagram @WestShoreSD
  Facebook @WestShoreSD

West Shore is a great place to work with wonderful benefits including tuition reimbursement.

Openings include:

• High School English Teacher
  
• Middle School English Language Arts Teacher
• Middle School Social Studies Teacher
• Middle School Health and Physical Education Teacher
  
• Middle School Computer
  
• Technology Department Data Integration/Security Specialist
  
• Certified School Nurse
  
• Behavior Specialist
• Accounting Clerk
• Building Aides
• Special Education Paraprofessionals
• Food Service Team Members
• Substitute Teachers (through STS)

About our Tuition Reimbursement:

• Employees can request reimbursement for up to 12 credits each school year.
• Current PA State System of Higher Education rate is $319 per credit for undergraduate courses and $516 per credit for graduate courses.
• Many colleges offer deferment programs to assist in financing your tuition. Payment may often be made at the conclusion of the course after you have received reimbursement from the District.

Our application process is simple and can be done entirely online. For additional information, check out our employment page.

• Kindergarten Registration for August 2023 - The District is currently accepting kindergarten registrations for the 2023-2024 school year. If you have a child who will be five years old before October 1, please check our registration page for directions on how to complete their enrollment process online.

• Electronic Absence Submission - If your child will not be in school for the day due to illness or doctor/dentist appointment, you can submit their absence electronically through PowerSchool.
  

• Volunteer Clearance Policy & Procedures - Adults wishing to volunteer in our schools are required to complete the Volunteer Application Process before being approved to do so.
• Technology Help Center - Contains videos, resources, FAQs, and guides on using SeeSaw, Schoology, PowerSchool, iPads, Chromebooks, and more.
  

• Damage, Loss, Theft of District Technology Devices and Chargers - Information related to device expectations and repair costs.

• Primary (K-2) Math Parent Academy - Games and activities to help your child at home with their math development.

• Care Solace and Other Resources for Mental Health and Well-Being