Only in Missouri would it snow on our Kindergarten egg hunt! We had over 1,000 eggs and only 60 hunters. You can only imagine the fun they had.

As we gear up for the remainder of the school year we have a few upcoming events you may want to participate in:

• Landscaping April 14 beginning at 9:00AM (Bring your shovels and gloves and be ready to get dirty!) April 21st Rain date
• MAP Testing April 17, 18, 19, 25, and 26!THANK YOU!!! For all of your donations. Our students will be well hydrated and motivated this year.
• Sock Hop – May 5 Come bid on some very elaborately themed baskets!
• K-screening – May 8 & 9 Call our office for an appointment.
• Teacher Appreciation Week – May 7th – 11th Be sure to tell your child’s teacher, a former teacher, a teacher-to-be that you appreciate everything they do for the children in our community. Willard has the best teachers!!!
• Field Day – May 11th Please contact your child’s teacher if you would like to help with this fun-filled event.

Everyone at Willard East hopes you had wonderful Spring Break! I think Spring Break brought spring weather and we are very happy to be able to be outside for recess. We would like to invite you our 1st Grade Music Program Tuesday. There is an afternoon performance at 2:45 and an evening performance at 7:oo. You are welcome to attend one or both. Thank you for all your donations of MAP test supplies. The only supplies we still need are small Kleenex packages and bottled water. MAP testing is scheduled for April 18, 19, 24, 25, and 26. Our MAP parent meeting was very successful last night. A BIG thanks to all who attended.  Have a great weekend and tune in next week!

Greetings from East! I would like to take this opportunity to recognize another building principal or two. This week I had the privilege of attending the state principal’s conference at the Lake of the Ozarks. Julie German, the principal of Willard Intermediate, will be the 2007-2008 President of the Missouri Association of Elementary School Principals! Rhonda Bishop, the principal of Willard North Elementary also serves on a state committee of public relations. Both of these ladies represented our district and region very professionally and enthusiastically. I am humbled to be able to call them friends and colleagues. Congratulations to both of them.

I would also like to thank everyone for the wonderful words of gratitude for Principal’s Day last week. You were very kind with your phone calls and notes.

After Spring Break - Cookie Dough from our fundraiser should be delivered after Spring Break. We will let you know more specifics after break.

MAP Parent Night will be held Thursday March 29 from 6:30-7:30 and we will be serving pizza!

WillardWebTV – Don’t forget to check out the “Miller Minute” video podcast on webtv each week.

February Fling was a huge success! Thank you to all the area businesses, teachers, students, and their families for making this such a great event. We had approximately 250 people in attendance through-out the morning.  We would also like to thank your community members who read to our students for Dr. Seuss’s birthday and Read Across America. Congratulations to our Willard East 1st graders for making KOLR 10 news with their ice storm books. Feel free to stop by and check out these books. Water bottle donations needed! Every year we supply our MAP testers with bottle water to keep their brain hydrated during the MAP test. We still need 300 bottles of water by the 2nd week of April. Please contact our office if you can help us. We are also taking appointments for Kindergarten screening. K-screening will be May 8 and 9 at Willard East.

Go Tigers! Beat Webb City!

February Fling tomorrow 9:00-12:30! Area business will have booths set up to display their products and services. There will games, prizes, performances, and food! Please come and check out all that Willard has to offer. I would like to compliment our MSTA representatives for planning a very nice legislative dinner last night. These ladies worked very hard to put on a successful event and our representative Shane Schoeller was very generous with his time. Monday evening our Reading Recovery teachers, Natalie Miller and Suzanne Roeder hosted a very successful family night. Again our teachers work overtime to provide our students and their families with unique and quality educational events. As always it is an honor to work such a dedicated staff.

See you tomorrow! 

Melinda Miller, Principal

Today is Teacher SWAP day at Willard East. Once a year we SWAP teachers so everyone can walk in the shoes of other great teachers in the building. A good time was had by all. Be sure to ask your student who their teacher was today. Next Saturday is our annual February Fling and we look forward to seeing everyone at Willard East from 9:00AM 12:30PM.

Melinda Miller, Principal

Willard East’s annual February Fling is just around the corner. Every year we host a business expo for Willard businesses to set up booths free of charge to display the products/services they have to offer. This year’s Fling will be held Saturday February, 24th from 9AM – Noon. We will also have a student “Variety Show” where Willard East students have applied to perform in front of our live studio audience. There will be games, prizes and delicious food. We hope to see you there!!! If you are an area business and would like more information, please contact us at

742-4639 and we would happy to set you up with a booth for the day!!! This is our way of saying THANK YOU to all the businesses who support our school throughout the school year.

Melinda Miller, Principal

Today Willard East is hosting our semester Tiger Pride assembly. We will be recognizing 4th grade Honor Roll students and other accomplishments for the semester and/or month of January. We will also be recognizing Jacque Gray and Sally Klein, former Willard East Principal and Librarian for their donations at Christmas and throughout the year. Our February newsletter went home yesterday with some requests for MAP testing supplies. We will be needing bottled water, Hershey Kisses, Peppermint candy, Smarties candy, Tootsie Rolls, and Dum Dum suckers. These requests may seem rather odd to the average Pride reader but there really is a method to our madness! Some of our teachers are participating in “The Biggest Loser” contest with Willard Central Elementary. Last we our “losers” lost a total of 40 pounds!  We will join Willard Central in a celebration breakfast before Spring Break to share our successes and “crown” the Biggest Loser! This week also begins our Fabulous Friday’s in February, an idea we borrowed from Willard North. 

Melinda Miller, Principal