As part of the Westlake High School experience, we offer a true Back to School Night. All of our parents are invited to attend their child’s classes as they follow their schedule for the evening. We have moved the evening to an earlier start time while also adding a few minutes to each class period - that may help with some of our students for the night who may be tardy! It is a good night for our community, and we look forward to your visit. As you walk the building next Wednesday evening, you will notice some improvements on our campus. As you walk, please notice our new flooring in the main building and new paint throughout the campus. We have removed some lockers to make our hallways more walkable. We also soon be unveiling a new opening between the two libraries to ease traffic flow as well. We have added a few courses over the last few years that have new areas. We have our Design Lab where we have our AP Computer Science classes and our new Swift Coding class are being taught. We have made a few upgrades to our class kitchen area for our Epicure Academy-culinary arts program. We have begun instruction in our new Physical Education class called Outdoor Recreation. We hope you have a wonderful three-day weekend. We hope you can spend some time with your students/children over the break. One night this week I caught the end of the movie, "The Pursuit of Happyness". You might remember this Will Smith movie based upon the life of Chris Gardner as he struggles as a single dad in San Francisco. The interesting item I noticed this time watching was the deliberate action the father took many times when things were the bleakest. He took the time to directly interact with his son. That became his solace and temporary relief from his strained life. While it is much easier to engage with a five-year-old than a teenager, I thought of how much time I make a clear intention to talk and visit with my kids as they have gotten older. I really thought of how my girls would answer this question: when issues arise in my life, do I turn towards them or turn away?
Enjoy the time with your family, friends and pets as we hit the traditional marker for the end of Summer-Labor Day.
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Every year it seems we have a little change in our calendar. This year we have several - including a week long Thanksgiving Break, a conclusion of the year after Memorial Day, and a Wednesday start day. The state, around fifteen years ago, enacted a law that all schools could start as early as the last Monday in August. Eanes ISD chose to become a District of Innovation in which one of the provisions would be the ability to begin school on a date that the district desired. As with many districts in Central Texas who are also Districts of Innovation, we chose a Wednesday start date. If you ask the students and staff at Westlake High School if this was a good move, I believe you would receive a very loud yes! There is a nice transition to a new year when you have the first day excitement followed by day two where one can already sense the first Friday and weekend. The third day is also the first true day that the new year routine is going to last a long time-May seems a million days away. The third day is usually also the first day of the grumpiness of the reality of the fatigue from getting up and going through a full day. I think everyone may be feeling that along with few extremely warm days may make this a truly welcomed weekend. Our students are already talking about the Labor Day weekend which is only seven days away…… The Class of 2019 is off to a solid start with a spirited welcome to the new school year. We look forward to the leadership and impact of this class on our campus and community. We hope you have a fabulous first weekend of the 2018-2019 school year!
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Steve Ramsey: WHS Principal BlogPrincipal's Weekly Reflections Archives
May 2019
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