Mission: The learning community of West Homer Elementary inspires and supports all students to be lifelong learners with the courage and confidence to make positive contributions to the world.

Vision: The mission of West Homer Elementary School is to build strong connections among community, families, staff, and students in a safe, healthy, nurturing environment that challenges each student.

Our School Community has a lot to look forward to as we roll into 2025! Students continue to build their reading, writing and math knoweldge and skills, and our after school opportunities continue to grow with the help of school staff and members of our community willing to share their talents. This semester we add the following new clubs: Math Club, Zumba, and an Art Club in addition to our many popular continuing clubs. See below for all the options and details.

Are you deciding whether or not to get your child a cell phone or other device? If your child already has a device, are you finding it challenging to help them transition off of it when it is time? Do you notice your child doing fewer and fewer real world activities in favor of virtual ones? Is it difficult to help your child find a healthy balance of screen time and other creative activities? Has the introduction of a digital device in your home had an effect on your child's mood? If you struggle with any or all of these, you are not alone! We recognize being a parent today is difficult, so our PTO is putting together a 4 part series titied "Parenting in the Digital Age." See below for more details about these practical, informative sessions starting this month.

Also, mark your calendar for the Tuesday, Janauary 7th PTO meeting 4:30 -6:00pm in the West Homer Library. We are excited Representative Vance will be attending to share information about the upcoming legislaterive session and to hear from you about our school community.

A huge thank you to Mrs. Moore for sharing her incredible talent and expertise in making our Winter Concerts such a success! We were all delighted by the 3rd and 4th grade performance of "Polar Express" and the 5th and 6th graders' energetic "Christmas Mallet Madness."

The student body met the schoolwide reading goal and will celebrate with book trivia at lunch in January! Keep on reading!

• January 7 - Back to School
• January 8 - Zumba starts
• January 10 - End of 2nd Quarter Schoolwide Assembly (families invited) 1:55 - 2:30pm
• Chess Club starts
• January 13 - Cross Country Skiing starts
• January 14 - D&D Program for 5th & 6th starts
• January 14 - Math Club starts
• January 17 - Early Release @ 1:20pm
  • Chess tournament @ WHE 1:30pm
• January 20 - Art Club starts
• January 22 - Yearbook Club starts
• January 22 - Trivia Night @ 5:30pm
• January 24 - Japanese Club starts

A huge thank you to the the Homer Foundation for the $5,000 award to upgrade our ski equipment for our cross country ski program. Our program typically serves 50-60 students each year, and we were able to purchase 20 sets of skis boots and poles to outfit students who otherwise would not be able to take part in this wonderful winter activity!

The Kenai Peninsula Borough School District requests input from staff, parents, and community members at the districtwide KPBSD budget development meeting, scheduled at the following locations:

• Homer Community – Tuesday, February 11, 2025 at 6:00 PM Homer High Library
• Central Peninsula - Wednesday, February 19, 2025 at 6:00 PM Kenai Central High Library
• Seward Community – Thursday, February 20, 2025 at 6:00 PM Seward High Library

As new budget information becomes available, it will be posted here: http://www.kpbsd.k12.ak.us/departments.aspx?id=38. If you have questions, please call Natalie Bates at 714-8888.

As you know, December 13, 2024, was a school closure day for our Southern Peninsula Schools. The make-up day for this closure has been scheduled for Monday, February 17, 2025 (President’s Day).

The schools impacted include:

• Chapman School
• Fireweed Academy Charter School
• Homer Flex
• Homer High School
• Homer Middle School
• K-Selo School
• McNeil Canyon Elementary School
• Nikolaevsk School
• Ninilchik School
• Paul Banks Elementary School
• Razdolna School
• Voznesenka School
• West Homer Elementary School

Family trips are important life events and don’t happen often. When your family chooses to be away from school, our goal is to support you and your child in keeping up with their academics so they don’t fall behind when they return. Our teachers are happy to put together meaningful activities to help them keep up with their learning. We ask that you follow our procedure well in advance (a week is good) so we can be well prepared.

• 5 -9 days – pre-arranged absence form completed
• 10 + days – pre- arranged absence form completed and meet with principal

Even if you don't think you qualify, still apply as it may result in federal dollars for our school.

West Homer PTO is for everyone!

You are invited to join us in being part of the PTO. We spend the year building community here at West by celebrating staff and students, fundraising, and hosting community events. All these activities remind us how much we can invest in our schools and the people who make West Homer a place to learn and building connections. Some of the things the PTO is involved with is The Penny Wars, Lunch and Play with Caregivers, Community Coffee once a quarter, the Talent Show, Staff Appreciation, End of Year BBQ, and much more!

We've been lucky to have several staff attend our PTO meetings so far this year. Please join us if you can! The PTO benefits greatly from the ideas and perspectives of staff. We will be meeting the first Tuesday of the month at 4:30 pm in the library. There will also be a Zoom option. The next meeting will be Dec 3rd.

Please reach out any time with ideas/feedback/questions.

Thanks,

Ahnie Litecky

For more information email us at: ptowesthomer@gmail.com