WIS Weekly

• Who needs support at home, in school, and in the community? ... Every Child!
• Who needs our guidance, attention, and patience today and every day? ... Every Child!
• Who will shape the future of our world tomorrow and in the years to come? ... Every Child!

Dear WIS Family,

As Westchester begins the second semester, Door 8 will be utilized for all student medical issues, including student sign-outs, medication drop-offs, and general nursing contacts. Door 8 is located on the southwest side of Westchester. (See attached map.) In addition, please observe the following new procedures:

• When picking up your child, please enter Westchester through Door 8. The parent or guardian handling the pickup must have proper identification.

• For medication drop-offs or pick-ups, please use Door 8. Then, enter the nurse's station through the clinic door. Always contact the nursing station in advance of arrival.

• If your child is being sent home by a nurse, the nurse will contact you directly. After you arrive, your child will need to be signed out at the nurse's station prior to leaving. Students and their caregivers will exit through the clinic door.

• Students who wish to be picked up, but who have not involved a nurse or the nurse's station, must be signed out through the main office.

Thank you for your understanding and support as we transition to these updated protocols. Please reach out to us with any questions.

Mr. Longacre

slongacre@duneland.k12.in.us

WIS Family,

I am extremely proud to announce that Westchester Intermediate School has officially achieved the status of Project ADAM Heart Safe School. This designation is attained by schools that have successfully implemented a quality sudden cardiac arrest program with an emphasis on training in effective emergency response protocols. Project ADAM schools prioritize the importance of awareness regarding sudden cardiac events and strive to promote a Heart Safe environment for students, visitors, and staff. Being prepared means not only having appropriate equipment on site that is available for deployment, like automated external defibrillators (AED), but also maintaining professional staff who are certified in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). In addition, a Heart Safe school has a coordinated emergency plan in place that incorporates local emergency response personnel (i.e. fire, emt, police) and is practiced/reviewed at regularly scheduled intervals. Beyond the classroom learning, our commitment at Westchester Intermediate School always includes the safety and well-being of our students.

Respectfully,

Mr. Longacre

We are striving to achieve a 96% attendance rate this year at WIS.

5th Grade 93.4488%

6th Grade 93.0147%

When needing to report a student absence, parents/guardians should call (219-983-3710) or email (mkowalecki@duneland.k12.in.us) the attendance secretary in the WIS office by 9:00 am on the day of the absence. If the school sends a student home early, then no notification is required.

The Duneland School Corporation will continue to improve current facilities to enhance the student experience with the following capital improvements in 2025: playground replacements at Bailly, Brummitt, Jackson, and Liberty elementary schools and soccer stadium renovations and carpet replacement at Chesterton High School. This presentation below provides additional details on the scope of each project. Concept drawings and timelines regarding 2021-2025 capital improvement projects are available on the DSC website.

Dear Parent/Guardians,

Starting November 6, 2024 through the month of January 2025 the Health Services at WIMS will be conducting Vision Screenings of 5th grade students , according to Indiana Law are required to have their vision checked.

We are asking that if your student wears glasses that they have them on their person daily so that there will be no delay in getting their testing completed. If you have any questions, please contact WIS School Nurse, Tina Sosby, R.N. at 219-983-3710 or via email at

tsosby@duneland.K12.in.us.

Student report cards will be posted in the Skyward Family Access Portal on Tuesday, January 14th at 3:00 p.m.

We are excited to announce that this year’s yearbook will include both Westchester Intermediate School (WIS) and Westchester Middle School (WMS). Yearbooks are available for $30.00, and you can order directly through this link: Order Yearbooks Here.

Sixth grade students will have the opportunity to participate in both WIS intramural sports and Westchester Middle School athletics. If your child wants to participate in middle school sports, they must have a current physical on file, dated after 4/1/24. Sixth grade students can ONLY participate in Middle School Cross Country, Westling, and Track and Field. This fall, students can participate in Middle School Cross Country. Mr. Rich Gross rgross@duneland.k12.in.us is the athletic director for Westchester Campus. Please reach out to Mr. Gross with any questions.

Language Arts

• Last week, we started reading the novel City of Ember. This is an exciting novel that we will be working with throughout January. This week, we will also focus on non-fiction text with our IRA, Giant Squid, and our slides, The Mysterious Dark Day. Honors ELA - Last week, we started reading the novel Johnny Tremain. While following the Indiana High Ability curriculum, the novel dovetails nicely with our social studies unit as well. Please feel free to ask your student to summarize what's happening in the story, and how it relates to social studies and American history. Please feel free to ask your students about what we're doing in class!

Math

• Students will continue to practice decimal division. There will be a CSA on Friday.

Social Studies

• Last week, we started learning about the American Revolution. We dug into what happened in the colonies after the French and Indian War, and how those events set the stage for the colonies to declare independence.

Science

• Last week the students competed in another Engineering Design lab. The students were given the task to create a ball run that would allow a ping pong ball to take the longest time to travel the course. The challenging part was students were only allowed to use tape and paper. There were a lot of creative designs! This week we will work on customary and metric conversions before starting the space unit.

Language Arts

• Students came back from break ready to learn last week! So much was accomplished. We will continue to work on priority standard RC.8-Evaluating arguments. Next week is iLearn Checkpoint 2. Kids can keep practicing these skills in IXL.

Math

• This week in the wonderful world of numbers (and letters), we wrapped up our study of inequalities. Students have taken a CSA over both equations (before Christmas) and inequalities. Starting this week, students will be working with data. Our focus will be on dot plots, histograms, and box plots. We will also be working with measures of central tendency: mean, median, and mode. Range, quartiles, and interquartile range will also be introduced. LOTS OF NEW VOCABULARY to study.

Social Studies

• This week in Social Studies students will be taking a common formative assessment on the Middle Ages (Crusades and Black Death). Students will shift their focus to the Renaissance and identify some of the advances in European society during this time. A look into the Scientific Revolution and how it changed the way people looked at the world as well as the effects of the Enlightenment on modern governments will be areas of focus during this week and into the following week.

Science

• This week in science the students will be doing many different activities to help apply their knowledge of properties of waves to sound. The beginning of the week, students will be doing a google doc about sound waves. The middle of the week the student will design a city in GIZMO to help reduce noise pollution. The end of the week will be a sound lab with demonstrations and students creating noise to hear pitch (frequency) and loudness (amplitude). Standards are: MS-PS4-1, MS-PS4-2, & MS-PS4-3. Waves

PE

• This week in PE, we are continuing our basketball unit with basketball games. We will be playing 1 v 1, half court basketball, and full court basketball.

Art

• This week in art students will begin making the bases for their lightbulbs from paper, creating individual templates. Later in the week students will transfer their templates from paper to metal, learning how to engrave and emboss their metal lightbulb bases.

Music

• This week 5th grade students will continue on recorders. We will also be exploring the woodwind instrument family. 6th graders will continue their finger patterns, performing RH LH and Both. The first playing test is Wednesday. We will begin to talk about hand shifting in piano.

PLTW

• This week the 5th grade students will finish building their robots and complete their first challenge with it, as well as get more experience with computer coding on the VEX VR website. The 6th graders will be exploring different inputs with the Micro:bits and they will get more experience with computer coding on the Makecode Arcade website

Media

• This week classes will continue studying topics in digital citizenship and protecting identity, but we will end the week with a media study of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Our Trojan Cafe has a new look! We have a new serving area with 2 lines to serve our students. We will also have new trays available for our students to use during lunch.

Please help your student memorize their student identification number, as they will need to know this number in order to purchase their lunch.

Here are the meal prices for the 2024-25 school year.

Elementary Breakfast Price: $1.45

Elementary Lunch Price: $2.55

Intermediate/Middle/High Breakfast Price: $1.60

Intermediate/Middle/High lunch Price: $2.95

• iPads are the property of Duneland Schools. Students should keep the devices in operable condition.
• Students should refrain from downloading apps, pics, etc. that are not permitted under school and/or corporation policy.
  
• Students are required to bring their charged iPads to class.
• Our Intermediate curriculum is designed to utilize iPads for lessons, remediation, and enrichment activities.

5th and 6th grade students are not allowed to use their personal communication devices (cell phones and smart watches) during the instructional day. Items used for communication should be stored in lockers to be kept safe throughout the day. If students need to contact a parent/guardian during the day, they are welcome to do so from the office. Classrooms also have phone access. Similarly, students are not permitted to wear personal earbuds with bluetooth capabilities attached to their phones (e.g. Air Pods, etc.). Students will need to use their school-issued iPad earphones for Exact Path lessons and select ILEARN testing sessions. The only time audio ear pieces are permitted are for teacher-assigned classwork and medically-approved needs.

Westchester is committed to supporting students' use of technology. To get your problems solved as fast as possible, choose one of the following methods:

1. Open a new Incident IQ online:
   1. AV number is typically located on a sticker on the back/bottom of the device
2. Open a Incident IQ ticket by sending an email to: helpdesk@duneland.k12.in.us
   1. Please be sure to include email address, student or staff name, and a description of the problem
3. Contact Westchester's tech aide (Ms. Bennett) in WIS Library/Media at 219-983-3710 or fbennett@duneland.k12.in.us.

DUNELAND TRANSPORTATION

Information regarding student bus transportation for the 2024-2025 school year is available on DSC website under the Transportation Department.

TRACK STUDENT'S BUS WITH MYSTOP APP

The Duneland School Corporation Department of Transportation has now made My Stop available to our families.

My Stop is a web-based application which will allow parents to access live bus GPS information using a smartphone, tablet, or computer and securely view the current location of your child’s bus on routes. The system also provides the bus’s estimated time of arrival at your child’s bus stop.

Please read the attached letter to parents for more information on how to use My Stop to track your child's bus.

To make an appointment please call 219-763-8112. Let NorthShore know you are a Duneland School student or staff member and that you would like to make an appointment at the Duneland School Clinic located at the old CMS.

WIS Mission:

WIS provides a safe and engaging environment where students are empowered to explore their talents, build on their curiosity, embrace high expectations, and become responsible, caring citizens.

WIS Vision:

WIS inspires learners to become independent, critical thinkers collaborating in an environment where responsibility, adaptability, and reflection are modeled and developed.

Email: slongacre@duneland.k12.in.us
Website: https://www.duneland.k12.in.us/Domain/14
Location: 1050 South 5th Street, Chesterton, IN, USA
Phone: (219) 983-3710
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/westchesterintermediate/