Wynnewood Middle School

**Schedule for JH/HS Girls Regional Powerlifting Meet** Monday, February 27th: JH/HS Girls - Arrive at Fieldhouse at 6:00 - Leave for Tishomingo at 6:30 Tishomingo High School Gym 1300 E. Main Street Tishomingo, OK 73460 - Weigh-In at the Meet at 7:30 - Meet Starts at 9:00 - Arrival back at Wynnewood is unknown. We will communicate when the meet is over and when we’re coming back to Wynnewood. - Powerlifting Meets last all day, athletes will need money for food and drink throughout the whole day. **Schedule for JH/HS Girls State Powerlifting Meet** Monday, March 6th: JH/HS Girls - Arrive at Fieldhouse at 5:30 - Leave for Durant at 6:00 - Weight-In at the Meet at 7:30 Choctaw Event Center 3702 Choctaw Road Durant, OK 74701 - Meet Starts at 9:00 - Arrival back at Wynnewood is unknown. We will communicate when the meet is over and when we’re coming back to Wynnewood. - Powerlifting Meets last all day, athletes will need money for food and drink throughout the whole day.

**Change of Meeting Date Notices** Date: February 28th JOM @6:00pm Indian Ed meeting @630pm We will be electing officers. Meeting Location: Administration Conference Room (Superintendent's Office)

Reminder- We will be in school Tuesday, February 21st. Thanks!

Due to so many activities going on in the Spring, we have moved the dance to Thursday, April 20th 6pm-8pm. We hope to see all of our students there! Thanks!

The Chickasaw Nation Nutrition Services is now accepting applications for the Summer EBT for Children program. Students receiving Free & Reduced Meals may qualify for free food this summer! Los Servicios de Nutrición de la Nación Chickasaw ahora están aceptando solicitudes para el programa Summer EBT for Children. ¡Los estudiantes que reciben comidas gratis ya precio reducido pueden calificar para recibir comida gratis este verano! To apply online go to (Para aplicar en línea vaya a) https://chickasaw.net/summerebt To apply over the phone, call the Chickasaw Nation SEBTC at (580) 272-1178 or (844) 256-3467 (8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Friday). Para presentar una solicitud por teléfono, llame a SEBTC de Chickasaw Nation al (580) 272-1178 o (844) 256-3467 (8:00 a. m. a 5:00 p. m., de lunes a viernes).

**Meeting Notices** Date: February 23rd JOM @6:00pm Indian Ed meeting @630pm We will be electing officers. Meeting Location: Administration Conference Room (Superintendent's Office)

Reminder of No School on Friday, Jan 10th and Monday, Jan 13th.

Parents-Guardians, We wanted to let you know that we will be in class Tuesday, Feb 21st and Monday, March 27th instead of being virtual/remote. The teachers were able to come up with a schedule to accommodate the training while still having school. So thank a teacher!

Parent Teacher conferences are this Thursday, Jan 9th 3:30pm-9:00pm. We hope to see you there!

As much as I’d like to, I can’t risk putting our busses and student drivers on the road tomorrow morning after all this freezes over tonight, not to mention our kids who will be walking on ice covered sidewalks and streets. This isn’t an easy decision, but it is the safe decision. School activities tomorrow are canceled until 12 noon. After that, all activities can resume as scheduled. Thank you for your understanding.

Well, folks, it doesn't look like we're out of the woods yet. Mother Nature has another round of sleet, freezing rain, and ice scheduled tonight. As a result, Wynnewood Public Schools will be closed tomorrow. It'll be another virtual day with all activities canceled. Thank you.

Due to the expected hazardous driving conditions, Wynnewood Public Schools will be closed tomorrow with all activities canceled. It will be a virtual/remote learning day. Thank you.

Due to the anticipated hazardous driving conditions tomorrow morning as well as tomorrow afternoon, Wynnewood Public and all activities will be canceled tomorrow. It will be a virtual/remote learning day. I hope everyone stays safe. Thank you.

Due to weather conditions, we are going to run buses at 10:30am. If your child rides a bus and no one is home, please contact us at (405) 665-4105 so that we can help make arrangements for them. Walkers will need to be picked up as well. If they cannot be picked up, please contact us.

Get your Valentine's Day order in!!

Due to the inclement weather coming in Tuesday afternoon through early morning Wednesday, Wynnewood Public Schools will be going virtual both Tuesday and Wednesday. Stay safe and we look forward to seeing our kids back in class on Thursday.

Good afternoon! The upcoming weather could be an issue for us safely transporting our students home Tuesday after school and transporting them to school Wednesday morning. I just want to give our parents a heads up in case we have to have virtual days on Tuesday and Wednesday. If we have to go virtual, we’ll let you know by 7pm tomorrow. I hope you enjoy the rest of your day.

For the second year in a row, Wynnewood Middle School is proud to announce that one of our students will be attending Rural Electric Cooperative's Energy Camp this summer at Canyon Camp in Hinton, Oklahoma. Jaycee Rose received this honor by writing an essay detailing several ways to conserve electricity and explaining why it is important to do so. She is one of eight 8th graders in REC's service area to earn this distinction. At Energy Camp, students learn about cooperatives and electricity while also developing leadership skills and learning teamwork through action-packed activities. Congratulations, Jaycee!

**Long Message Alert–Please Bear with Me** Hello, Everyone! Over the last week or so, you probably have heard about the upcoming virtual days from your child’s building administration. We know that these kinds of changes in our regular schedule can be problematic for many of our parents. In light of that, I would like to provide you with an explanation as to why this is happening. An explanation won’t solve the problems, but hopefully it will give you some understanding of why we are doing what we are doing. Whether it’s our businesses, our jobs, or our personal lives, our world continues to change. Keeping up with those changes can be difficult. It has always been difficult for school districts to provide important and necessary training and professional development to their staff. In Oklahoma we are allotted 5 days for professional development. Because of various yearly mandated trainings from the State Department of Education, we are lucky to have 2 days available to train our staff on any new instructional programs, tools, or instructional practices, so in the past we did the best we could with the time we had available, but historically, there hasn’t been nearly enough time to provide our teachers with the training they need to continually improve the academic performance of our students, and no one is more frustrated with that fact than them. For most of an educator’s career, learning how to use new technology and new instructional practices has been baptism by fire. They deserve better and our kids deserve better. The COVID pandemic was awful. It forced school districts to offer virtual education as a learning option for its students, which had to be planned and implemented over the course of a few months with little to no training. Nationwide, virtual learning is a work in progress. The silver lining with virtual learning is our ability to make calendar changes without affecting end of year programs and ceremonies such as graduation. If we miss a week because of inclement weather, we don’t have to add days to the end of our calendar to make those days up. If a family is going through a traumatic event that requires their child or children to miss an extended period of time, virtual learning is an option that may allow them to continue their education without being counted as absent. In rare cases, it also allows the district to provide necessary training to its teachers and staff so that we can improve the work we are doing in our classrooms and buildings. This year the district has obligated itself to the implementation of PLCs (Professional Learning Communities). In a nutshell, PLCs are a way to provide teachers with the opportunity to work together collaboratively in small groups by grade level or subject area to analyze and discuss student assessment data in order to take actionable steps to improve the academic growth of their students. This is an involved initiative with many layers and many moving parts, and it is not something that can be properly implemented in a day or two. In order for the trainers to work individually with each PLC team, we need a full day at the elementary school and a full day at the high school, which is why we are alternating virtual days. In order to complete the training, we will also be having alternating virtual days on February 21st and 22nd as well as March 27th and 28th. If there were any other way to do this that wouldn’t affect our calendar, we would do it. I sincerely apologize for the inconveniences and problems that these virtual learning days might cause our Wynnewood families. While we work to get better, we appreciate your patience and understanding. It doesn’t go unnoticed. Sincerely, Tim Simpson Superintendent

Report cards were sent home today! If you didnt get one, please let us know and we will make sure you get one!