August 2008

Dear Students and Families of Walnut Creek Campus,

It is my pleasure to welcome you to Walnut Creek Campus.  We are proud to have you as part of our learning community.  Our mission is to surround students who demonstrate need for a smaller, more flexible, individualized learning environment with high quality instruction.  This is a place where all members of the school community are known and nurtured. We develop informed, contributing citizens who are empowered to advocate and problem-solve throughout their lives.  

The staff at Walnut Creek Campus strives to support students academically and personally so they can be as successful as possible.  This relates to our district vision, which is: “The West Des Moines School District will be a caring community of learners that knows and lifts every child.  We will inspire joy in learning. Our schools will excel at preparing each student for his or her life journey.”  We look forward to realizing this vision by working collaboratively with your family.

A book that I read recently, Whatever It Takes: How Professional Learning Communities Respond When Kids Don’t Learn by Richard DuFour is an inspirational book about doing “whatever it takes” to help students be successful.  The title really resonated with me and reminded me of why I feel so blessed to work at Walnut Creek.  We do strive to work collaboratively with one another to ensure that all of our students maximize their potential. Many students that come to us have not felt successful in school for some time or have personal issues that they are battling. Some simply needed a smaller/different environment so they could thrive. 
           
At Walnut Creek Campus we are also constantly addressing how we can make the curriculum aptly rigorous and relevant.  We all know that students learn best when they are appropriately challenged and when they see a clear purpose for their learning.  The academic component is designed to accommodate students who have not met with success in the comprehensive high school or who have special learning needs.  In addition, class sizes are small and everything we do is designed to meet the needs of our students.  We also know that we must give our students the tools that they will need in order to be successful in a global world. 

At Walnut Creek Campus we focus on building relationships with one another.  I firmly believe that without relationships, very little can be accomplished.  One of my favorite quotes is, “People will forget what you said. People will forget what you did. But, people will never forget the way you made them feel.”  At Walnut Creek, our hope is that every student, parent/guardian, and staff member feels cared for and lifted.  We will work diligently to make the learning process joyful for every student and we invite you parents/guardians to come into the school and work collaboratively with us to ensure that students meet with success.

Sincerely,

Kim Davis,
Walnut Creek Campus Principal