Blog

The Board of Education of the West Des Moines Community School District is pleased to recognize the outstanding accomplishments of district students and staff.

STUDENTS

Academics

Kerrigan Owens represented the state of Iowa at the national contest for Veterans of Foreign Wars Voice of Democracy Contest. Her speech “Is the constitution still relevant?” won at the local, district and state levels and she traveled to compete in Washington, D.C., in March.

Valley High School seniors Eric Chen, Caroline Erickson and Tricia Shi were selected as a candidate for the United States Presidential Scholars Program, which recognizes the nation’s most distinguished graduating seniors.

All six of the National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists from Valley High School were upgraded to National Merit Scholarship Finalists this week. Seniors Erica Becker, Eric Chen, Emma Lind, Michelle Rose, Tricia Shi and Alexander Zhou will be notified in June if they have been selected as a national Merit Scholar.

Westridge fifth grader Pramit Vyas, Jordan Creek fifth grader Animesh Joshi, Indian Hills eighth grader Kacey Baker and Stilwell eighth grader Ben Koele have been named semifinalists in the 2013 Iowa National Geographic Bee.

Valley junior Brianne Tuttle ­won first place in Costume Contest and junior Molly Brown took fourth place in Reading Comprehension at the Illinois Junior Classical League convention. The IJCL encourages an interest in and an appreciation of the language, literature and culture of ancient Greece and Rome to impart an understanding of the debt owed by our own culture to that of classical antiquity.

The Indian Hills Math Counts team had eight students finish in the top 25 percent at the chapter competition. Three students ranked in the top 10 of all individuals – Brain Gu in eighth place, Linh Tran in seventh place and Cayden Codel in fifth place. The team, made up of Cayden Codel, Linh Tran, Brian Gu and Shubham Tayal placed third out of about 35 schools, which qualified them for the state competition. The team alternate, Madison VanSickel, joined Brian, Linh and Shubham for the state competition over spring break. Notable individual performances went to Linh Tran, scoring 12^th in the state and Shubham Tayal, scoring eighth in the state. The Indian Hills team finished in third place overall.

Stilwell eighth grader Gabriel Mintzer competed in the Math Counts state competition, placing second and earning a trip to the National Math Counts competition in May. He qualified to compete at the state competition after placing first at the chapter competition.

Congratulations to the Valley Mock Trial Team for an outstanding performance at state competition. Only four teams from across the state made it to semifinal competition, including two teams from Valley. Team i b red up won a 3-0 victory in the semifinals and advanced to the championship, placing second in the state. Students on the second-place team were Dylan DeClerck, Caitlin Edwards , Lucy Korsakov, Ben Kruse, Joel Kruse, Emma Lind, Megan Nubel, Rishi Shah, Grady Stein  and Ben Weinberg. Students on team TNHB were Katie Apland, Brooke Beatty, Lexi Brennan, Kyra Cooper, Rae Gernent, Catherine Leafstedt, Thomas Leafstedt and Abby Pepin. (more…)

When using the WDMCS website, notice that the white banner at the top is always present. It is like a friend, always there for you when you might get lost or you are not sure where you heading. As you travel from one page to another (including the school sites) the top banner stays consistent on every page. No matter where you are at within the website you can always have access to the district calendar, news, careers, directory and tabs for students, parents, staff and more. It may not be your bestie, but it won’t let you down.

You don’t have to click your heels together three times to get back to the home page of the WDMCS website. If you are visiting a page within the website and decide you want to get back to the home page, just click the WDMCS mark (the circle with two “stick figures) located in the upper left hand corner.

Clicking on a company’s mark, logo, or graphic treatment at the top of a website is a standard and easy way to get to a home page on many websites today. If you want to click your heels together while doing this, we won’t stop you.

Bethene Songer, Kindergarten Teacher at Western Hills Elementary
Congrats!  You’ve made it to winter break!  A well-deserved break from home work and school obligations.  To help prepare for a smooth transition back, you can help your child stay mentally active over break with these fun family activities;  READ for pleasure, WRITE thank you notes, JOURNAL your travels or activities, COOK together, GAME nights, CRAFT for fun and most of all….ENJOY your time and MAKE wonderful new memories!

Jackie Scieszinski, Math Teacher at Indian Hills Junior High
Take advantage of daily routines to include a little mental math…for example…it is 8:57.  You have an appointment at 10:15.  How many minutes before your appointment?  It takes 10 minutes to get there. What time should we leave? (more…)

The Board of Education of the West Des Moines Community School District is pleased to recognize the outstanding accomplishments of district students and staff.

Academics
Congratulations to Kerrigan Owens who advanced to the state level for the Voice of Democracy contest sponsored by the Veterans of Foreign Wars. Her speech “Is the constitution still relevant?” won at both the local and district levels. Also competing well at the local level were seniors Dylan DeClerck and Hannah Beuse.

The Crestview First Lego League team won the High Quality Team Performance award at a regional competition. Team members are Cael Elmore, Mark Breiner, Jerry Breiner, Sukhman Virdi, Grant Rieker, Gwyn Chilcoat, Lindsay Wirta, Chloe Thorn and Hans Bunn. (more…)

WDMCS Instructional Coach Jenni Freeman (left) works with fifth grade teacher Skye Wakefield.

When Western Hills teacher Leslie Welter was looking for a different way to teach math in her first grade classroom, she decided to get a coach.

She wasn’t looking for someone to explain baseball statistics, she wanted an instructional coach. (more…)

The following was submitted to the Des Moines Register from WDMCS Superintendent Dr. Peter Ansingh.

Dear Editor:

As superintendent of the West Des Moines Community Schools, I am proud that the word “community” is part of our name. It is a reflection of how the citizens of our district come together to support our children.

A recent example of this was the outpouring of offers this summer from individuals, businesses and organizations to assist when we were looking to temporarily relocate the students of Hillside Elementary. (more…)

The West Des Moines Community Schools Board of Education approved base bids for the last phase of the Valley High School project October 24, 2012, with a total contract amount of $25.4 million. This phase of the project primarily includes a new 1,140 seat auditorium, new performing arts practice space and a renovated north academic wing. (more…)

The West Des Moines Community Schools Board of Education held a regular meeting on October 22, 2012, and took the following action:

• approved the consent agenda including personnel resignations, recommendations, support staff new hires, certified staff initial contracts, minutes from the Oct. 8 workshop and meeting;
• approved a minor modification application for Hillside Elementary for the addition of a 1,500 sq.ft. concrete pad and an 200 sq. ft. expansion of the existing wood mulched swing set area located on the south side of the facility with the use of Site funds; (more…)