It is hard to believe that Sunday morning will mark the first day of fall.  The weeks we have been in school have literally “clipped” along.  This week, we handed out mid-term grades to students, did health screenings on kindergarten, first and third graders, and completed a significant amount of reading testing on our students.  I also want to congratulate the 3rd grade students and their families for a job well done on their community projects!  The projects were amazing!  It never ceases to amaze me how a project can be assigned with the same criteria and the results be so different and unique!  I know the students were very proud of these!  Don’t forget Homecoming tonight! If you have not been to a game and caught the Willard spirit, you should!!  The boys are playing some great football and the band is awesome!  Your Friday is only lacking this excitement!  GO TIGERS!

Rhonda Bishop

Willard North Prinicipal

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Willard East’s fall Book Fair kicked off today with Open House this coming Tuesday Sept. 25. Everyone is welcome to visit Willard East next week!

Chili Supper @ 5:30PM

Open House 6:00-7:00PM

Aug./Sept. Tiger Pride/School Picture/Spirit shirt day Thursday Sept.27 2:30Pm.

Calling all parents of birth to 5 year olds! Parents As Teachers is looking for more families to service. Check out their new website and enroll your student TODAY. For more information you can contact PAT at 742-5490.

No School – Friday September 28!!! Teacher Workday!!!

Homecoming.   What a wonderful time to celebrate and take pride in our school, traditions, friends and community.  When I started at Willard Central last year, I told many people that coming to Central felt like “coming home.”  This year, the sense of school pride, friends, and community has only deepened and I am so proud of the new staff members that call Willard and Central home.

This week I have been blessed to watch 4 new staff members to Central take kids under their wings and into their care during some difficult social and academic times.  These new teachers to our school have poured themselves into our students, their fellow staff members and our school community.  They have made Willard their home and will be a blessing to our district for years to come. 

As we continue to grow as a district, I am thankful that we continue to bring in quality educators that are quality people too.  I am also proud of how we keep the “big” personal.  Enjoy the big game under the Friday night lights and enjoy the wonderful place we call home.    –Shane Medlin, Principal

My parents used to warn me, “be careful what you ask for!”, and our fall fundraiser was a prime example of that.  We set a goal to sell 600 cards, which would translate to $3000 profit for our building.  We dangled a carrot, offering a hummer limo ride to lunch for any child who sold 10 or more cards, and at 15 cards, they could bring a friend.  Next week, we will be arranging for nearly 190 students to do a limo lunch!  And, we exceeded our sales goal by 400%!  We sold over 2400 cards, with a profit of just over $12,000.  We will be using the funds to purchase a smart board system for our second lab, and a new sound system for the gym and music programs.  We still have cards available, if anyone (can’t imagine who it would be) didn’t get their discount card!  THANKS TO OUR SCHOOL COMMUNITY FOR SUCH GREAT SUPPORT!

I love the new Willard Choir T-Shirts. The new shirt shows a printed list of quotes that have been stated about the program. The top quote is from Barry Hinson, Coach of the Missouri State University Basketball Bears, it states: “I came looking to recruit a basketball player and I left wanting the choir!” We have an incredible choir, however I don’t write this simply to brag on them. It is tough to be a teenager. Most are trying very hard to find a special place where they can join together with a team of others and strive for success. I believe Willard does an exceptional job of creating many different opportunities for kids to be a part of something great. At Willard you are not only “cool” if you play sports. At Willard it is “cool” to be in the band, drama, speech and debate, FFA, FCCLA, FBLA, ROTC, etc… Academic programs are clearly the most important aspect of our job as a school. However, I believe if we focus 100% of our attention and energy on MAP, ACT, and NCLB, we may lose something along the way. One of the greatest points of learning with our extracurricular and co-curricular activities is to learn how to work as a team. Teammates have to ask themselves if they are willing to sacrifice personal success for the betterment of the team. This week a young man on our football team chose to help the team by playing offensive guard instead of running back. From personal experience, I know that guards never get the same level of recognition as running backs. However this week the team needed him to be a guard. I believe this young man understands what it takes to be a team member. I believe the better we understand this concept the greater the chance of success!

Kent  

Dr. Kent E. Medlin

Superintendent of Schools

We are off to another amazing week at Central.  In honor of Constitution Day, our 4th graders shared the history of the Constitution and our Bill of Rights at Community Time.  Mrs. Peterson’s 2nd grade class followed them by reciting the Preamble of the Constitution.  We have a wonderful group of students and they did a great job starting off our week. 

Enjoy the Homecoming Week’s festivities and come support the Tigers on Friday night!!  Go Tigers!!

Before I get into this week, let’s review what happened last week with the Tigers!

After getting off to a slow start, the football Tigers scored 40 unanswered points to defeat the Buffalo Bison Friday night. This runs there record to 3-0! and will host Reeds Spring this Friday. This will be our Homecoming with festivities starting at 6:30. Also, congratulations to the freshmen on their victory over Bolivar on Monday. The freshmen and jv will host Buffalo on Monday night. Games start at 5:30.

Congratulations to the volleytigers on their 4th place finish in the Springfield Classic this weekend. The girls are now an impressive 15-4 on the season! They will host Kickapoo on Tuesday and will be at Republic on Thursday. Also, congratulations to the JV volleytigers on their 2nd place finish in the Marshfield Tournament and to the freshmen on their 2nd place finish in the Hillcrest Tournament!

Softball continues thier busy schedule by hosting Buffalo Monday night starting at 5:00pm. They will then travel to Nixa on Tuesday and will host Bolivar on Thursday. They will also be playing in the Ozark Classic this Saturday as part of a make-up due to rain last weekend.

Congratulations to K. Hession for finishing 11th and A. Bird for finishing 20th out of 73 runners at the Monett Cross Country Invitational. R. Cook took 26th out of 90 on the boy’s side.

Congratulations to Mark Lawley and his choir students for making All District Choir. Willard had 19 students make it which made us the #1 school in southwest Missouri! The following students made the choir: L. Akers, B. Bumpers, C. Unruh, B. Wade, S. Hale, M. Williams, T. Maurs, T. Inglett, Am Allen, A. Lechner, D. Bagley, G. Bacon, L. Thedell, L. Sloan, T. Huskisson, B. Baker, B. Lawley, M. Bolton, T. Chatman.

This week started the beginning of the Middle School sports events.  We kicked off the fall sport season with a pep assembly.  It was lead by the O7-08 Student Council President.  Each student participating in football, volleyball, cross country and cheerleading was recognized.  Students that participated the Greene County Library summer reading program were acknowledged along with the students that earned the highest score on the MAP test. 

Events coming up:  Wednesday, September 19 students will be given grade cards and newsletters to take home.

We have been so busy this week!  Tuesday night, first grade hosted their parent night-we had an excellent turn-out!  While the parents met, students and their siblings had fun activities to do in the library, cafeteria, and gym.  It was super!  On Wednesday, we were right in the center of the Tour of Missouri Bike race and were able to view mile the bikers at mile 106.  The bikers traveled 120 miles on Wednesday!  On Thursday, kindergarten hosted their Open House.  Students showed off their work, classrooms and took their parents on a scavenger hunt around the school.  We had a blast!  We are looking forward to a great weekend!  Go Tigers!  Beat the Bisons!!

 Rhonda Bishop

Willard North Principal

One of the many transitions that begin to occur when students arrive at the Intermediate School are all the extra activities which students can be involved with.  On any given day, we have Student Council, Peer Ambassadors, Running Club, Library Club, Honor Choir, Mini Tigerettes, and probably some other clubs I’ve missed, meeting before or after school.  All of these opportunities provide students with an opportunity to explore new interests and meet more people.  We appreciate all the extra time the staff who sponsor these groups devote to providing great things for our students!

Thank you to everyone who came to McAlister’s for dinner Monday night. We had quite a crowd and parents and students enjoyed having teachers, and especially the principal, “wait on them.” More than one parent commented that I should keep my day job when I got orders mixed up! All’s well that ends well and we raised a whopping $306!!!

Cookie Dough Fund raiser was a huge success as well! We do not have a grand total yet but we know how delicious these were last year so we expected quite a turn out in sales.

Our week kicked off Monday with our K and 1st grade teachers participating in our 1st round of training through the Missouri Reading Initiative. We welcome trainer Becky Garst and her vast amount of knowledge in reading and writing! Students and teachers will benefit tremendously from her expertise. 2nd and 3rd grade will have training next week and 4th grade is ahead of the game with 2 days of training already underway!

Individual school pictures will be next Wed. so put on your best smile and remember these pictures last forever! Many of you are reminded of this year when your family digs out all the photo albums during the Holidays!

Have a great weekend!