Winchester Public Schools

September 25, 2017
School Board Meeting

September 30, 2017
Handley Chorus Bingo

October 2, 2017
Parent Advisory Committee

October 4, 2017
School Board Visits to DMMS &
Alt Ed Program

October 9, 2017
School Board Work Session

October 12, 2017
End of 1st Grading Period
Systemwide Musical

October 13, 2017
Teacher Work Day
Parent/Teacher Confs-DMMS
Systemwide Musical

October 14, 2017
Systemwide Musical

October 15, 2017
Systemwide Musical

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WPS HIGHLIGHTS

Apple Icon IN THE NEWS

September Student Spotlight

JHHS Earns 2016-17 Blue Star School Honor

Congratulations to JHHS for being named a Blue Star School for the 2016-17 school year. To earn this honor, a school, testing more than ten students, must have achieved a 80% passing rate on the Financial Literacy Certification Test and have either a majority of students on a given grade level take the Test or have the students who took it achieve an average score of 85% or higher. Not one of our seniors was held back due to not having a credential.
All Blue Star schools will be honored at w!se’s annual Money POWER Conference for Financial Literacy to be held in New York City on November 7th and receive the Blue Star Banner award.
Great job to our teachers for all your hard work in helping to improve the financial literacy of our young people! Because of your dedicated and tireless commitment, you have given them vital knowledge about their personal finances and provided them with the tools they need to become financially capable young adults.

The Winchester Star (9/18/17) – Anyone familiar with Winchester knows about the awe-inspiring Handley High School. Now, the city’s only high school is getting national attention for its stunning Neoclassical Revival architecture, having been named the most beautiful public high school in Virginia by Architectural Digest...
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CPR Training for WPS Employees

Effective September 1, 2017, all license holders will be required to complete hands-on CPR training in order to obtain an initial license or renew a license. As you may recall, the Virginia General Assembly passed a bill in 2013 requiring license holders to complete a one-time certification or training in Emergency First Aid, CPR and use of AEDs. If your initial CPR training did not include a hands-on component, you will now need to complete this new requirement prior to your next license renewal.
WPS will be offering in-house training options over the coming years to assist Virginia-licensed employees in meeting the requirement. The first opportunity, CPR/AED Certification Training, will be held September 26, 3:30-5:30pm at DMMS. The deadline for registration is September 22. This training will result in full CPR/AED Certification.
For complete training session and registration information, please reference the September 14 email sent by Kristen Campbell to all WPS staff. Questions regarding the training should be directed to Shannon Spencer.

September is Attendance Awareness Month!

Too often, parents, students and sometimes teachers don’t realize how quickly absences, excused as well as unexcused, can add up to academic trouble. Research shows that missing as little as 2-3 days every month is considered chronic absence, and can translate into third graders unable to master reading, sixth graders failing courses and ultimately, teens dropping out of high school.
Everybody plays a role in ensuring children attend school regularly. Parents and families are essential partners in promoting good attendance because they have the bottom-line responsibility for making sure their children get to school every day. School personnel can build a culture of attendance and maintain it throughout the school year, intervening with students who are missing too much school. School Board members can make a big impact on increasing student achievement by addressing chronic absence in schools. Quality mentoring can also have a significant impact on improving school attendance and student success.
To learn more about how you can help instill good attendance habits, visit these links:
– Elementary School: | ENGLISH | ESPAÑOL |
– Middle/High School: | ENGLISH | ESPAÑOL |

The Winchester Star (9/13/17) – The Handley High School volleyball team is participating in its 6th annual Dig Pink fundraiser for breast cancer awareness. Proceeds will benefit Blue Ridge Hospice and Valley Health Cancer Center’s Angel Fund...
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2017 One Book One Community

Plans are underway to celebrate Winchester's 2017 One Book One Community selection, Dishing Up® Virginia by Patrick Evans-Hylton. The events include:

September 27 (7:00pm) - Hear from the author, Patrick Evans-Hylton, at John Kerr Elementary School! Free.

Copies of the book are available to buy at local bookstores or to check out from the Handley Regional Library. Come out and enjoy these literary/culinary events and pass on to those whom you feel would enjoy these events also!

Winchester Public Schools Aims to Increase Teacher Retention

The Winchester Star (9/11/17) – In spite of national and local teacher shortages, the city public school division is working to increase teacher retention. By 2018 there will be a nationwide teacher shortage of 112,000...
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Welcome to the 2017-18 School Year!

Welcome to the start of a new school year! Please check out our Master Calendar for important upcoming dates and events as we prepare for the return of our students on August 10.
Also, take some time to read Dr. Jason Van Heukelum's Letter to Parents for some of the exciting changes coming up for our WPS community: | English | Español |
Again, welcome! We look forward to our teachers, parents and members of the community coming together to provide a high-quality education for our students.

BUS DRIVERS NEEDED - APPLY NOW!

It's not too late to sign up! This year, WPS will be offering a Spanish immersion program for our preschool children. Through this program, your child will receive instruction half of the day in English and half of the the day in Spanish. The program will provide literacy and content instruction through two languages to promote bilingualism and biliteracy, pre-school academic achievement, improved critical thinking skills, and multicultural competence.
Tuition is $450 a month for City and Winchester Public Schools employees and $595 for non-city employees. The program will be held at Frederick Douglass Elementary School from 7:30am-2:30pm. Transportation to The Hive, the Winchester Parks and Rec after-school program, will be provided if your child is enrolled there for after-school care.
If you are interested in having your child be a part of this dual-immersion program, please complete the following form.
| INTEREST FORM |
For more information on the program, please read the following flyer
| INFORMATIONAL FLYER |

Get the App. Get Connected. GO WPS!

Having a hard time keeping up with everything happening at your school? Want to be more "in the know" of what's going on across the division? Would you like an easy to navigate single point for lots of student, parent, and staff resources? You're in luck, there's an app for that! Head over to your smart devices app store and download the GO WPS! mobile app - a simple to use, single location for news and events and lots of useful resources. It's a great resource to help our school community stay in the loop on what's happening at WPS. We encourage each of you to promote the GO WPS! app every opportunity you have. Help everyone Get Connected!