West Columbia Elementary School Home

Dear Parents,

As we prepare to celebrate the holiday season with our students on December 15th, 2022, I want to make sure we address all of our procedures with our families in advance to ensure a safe and fun end to the first semester. Please read carefully below.

Our last day of school this semester, Dec. 15th, 2022, is a full day (8:10-3:50). As a result, we will have lunch and specials at the regularly scheduled time. During specials, students will participate in a Christmas Sing-a-long. Students and staff will also participate in holiday parties at the scheduled grade level time. Sadly, these parties will not be open to parents, as we are striving, more than ever before, to provide a safe and secure environment for our students. Unfortunately, when hundreds of parents come and go on and off campus all throughout the day, the campus is anything but secure. Allowing parent visitors also diverts essential staff support from supervising and supporting the children, to supervising adult visitors. We also will not be allowing parent visitors during lunch that day. While we encourage all parents to leave their students at school for the duration of the day, we know that historically on this day we always have a large number of parents who check their children out from school early. Since our front office staff needs to be available to assist those parents, we will not have adequate staff to support checking in and out for lunches as well. Please know that if you do arrive before the day's end to check your child out from school, you will have to wait in a first come first serve line. We only have one Raptor machine (which scans the licenses), so we are only able to check out one child at a time. Thank you for understanding the “why” behind these difficult decisions and for trusting WCE with your precious child[ren]. It is of the utmost importance to us that WCE is the safest place on earth for our children, especially at the most beautiful time of the year.

Please accept my sincerest appreciation for being such a loving and supportive community in which to serve. I genuinely wish each and every WCE student and family a blessed and merry holiday season.

Sincerely,

Mrs. Bolton, Principal
West Columbia Elementary
979.799.1760

Due to STAAR released/benchmark assessments taking place this week, we request that we have no lunch visitors this week, Dec. 5th -9th. Thank you!

1st Grade Parents:
Please note that we anticipate rain during Thanksgiving lunch today, and the majority of our seating is outdoors. We only have about 35 indoor seats. Please keep that in mind when deciding if you can come today.

Dear Parents,

This is a friendly reminder that Friday, Oct. 21st, 2022 is our first Wildcatter Extravaganza Awards Ceremony. Parents are welcome to attend their child's grade level ceremony; but please remember that we have new security measures in place for checking into the school. All visitor's licenses must scanned. Once your license has been scanned, you will receive a visitor sticker, which must be worn in a prominent place on your shoulder at all times while in the building. Your license will be held at the front office until you are exiting. When you are exiting, simply turn in your sticker to the front office, and you will be given back your license. Also, if you would like to make a reservation, in order to avoid a long line or extended wait time checking in, please come by to scan your license PRIOR to Friday and make a reservation with the front desk. If you've already scanned your license this year, simply call the front office before Friday to make your reservation, and they will have your badge pre-printed and waiting for you at the front office. You will still be asked to turn in your license. If you have any questions, please call 979.799.1760.

Thank you,

Roxana Bolton

Wildcatter Extravaganza Times:

8:30 Second Grade

9:15 Third Grade

10:00 Fifth Grade

10:45 First Grade

11:30 Fourth Grade

Dear Parents,

We are excited to announce that this year, WCE is trying to foster an even stronger connection between home and school, and engage all our parents in our student's education. One way we are hoping to achieve this is by providing incentives for students when they achieve certain "grade level milestones". Teachers are tracking these goals in the classroom on space themed bulletin boards. Given a star or rocket, each students will travel through the solar system (on the bulletin board), traveling from one planet to the next, trying to reach planet "Excellence". When a child reaches planet "Excellence", then they will have the privilege of participating in a "Ring the Bell" ceremony, where they will get to ring the bell, while their class is applauding their accomplishment. We will do our best to post these celebratory moments on our Facebook page as well.

The grade level milestones the students will be trying to achieve by the end of the year are as follows.

K: Know 26 letters and their sounds & Count to 100

1st: Read 100 sight words & Count by 2's to 120

2nd: Read at a level M & Know their Addition Facts and Subtraction Facts up to -4

3rd: Earn 50 AR points & Know their Multiplication Facts up to 12 (50 facts in 3 min.)

4th: Earn 60 AR points & Multiplications facts up to 12 (50 in 2 min.)

5th: Earn 75 AR points & know their multiplication facts to 12 (50 in 1 min.) 

Teachers and students are also tracking their progress toward meeting their grade level milestone goals in their Progress Monitoring Tracking Folders as well. This helps the children self-assess their own progress, set goals, and make a plan to achieve those goals. I highly recommend that you ask your child regularly, "How are you doing on meeting your Grade Level Milestones? What planet are you on now?" Or ask them to bring home their Tracking folders regularly, so that you too can monitor their progress and encourage their continued growth and improvement. 

Our first "Ring the Bell" ceremony will be on Nov. 4th. We know that only a few students will have achieved the end of the year goal by then, but some already have - and we want to celebrate their achievements! We anticipate that the number of students getting to "ring the bell" will grow at each ceremony that follows. Thank you for supporting your child in achieving their Grade Level Milestone,s by tracking their progress and encouraging them to meet their goals. 

Sincerely,

Mrs. Bolton, Principal

West Columbia Elementary