Hello Northwest families,  

I hope everyone is doing well as we fastly approach the holiday season.  November is a month in which we finally see some downtime between fall sports/activities ending and winter sports/activities beginning.  It won’t be long and the first semester will be over.  

As always, Mrs Merritt and Mrs Smith have some information they would like to share with you from the counseling office.  Please click on this link to access it: Counselor’s Corner.  If you ever have any questions or concerns regarding your student, feel free to contact their counselor.   

This past week the administrative team met with each class separately to go over important information as we finish up the first semester.  First, we congratulated each class on an outstanding start to the year in sports and activities.  What an awesome start to the year.  We were also impressed with the amount of school spirit our students have brought to start the year!  It’s been so fun watching them cheer each other on.  Another celebration is as of right now 92% of our student body are passing all of their classes.  That is impressive considering we have a little over 650 kids in our school.  This goes to show how hard our students and teachers have been working in the classroom.  It also goes to show you that relationships between students and teachers are strong.  As the saying goes, “I want to know you care, before I care to know”.  

One concern we want to make you aware of is the uptick in careless driving we have seen on North Road before school starts and when school is dismissed.  Please encourage your student to follow the speed limit and to be more cautious.  We also request that you do not pick up your child on North Road.  This is extremely dangerous and we are trying to keep kids safe.  

Our attendance committee will also be meeting in December to go over any student that has missed 10 or more days of school.  Absences due to activities and doctors appointments (as long as we have a doctor’s note) do not count towards those days.  If your student has been attending appointments to see the doctor or a counselor, but haven’t been turning in notes, please do so soon.  After the committee meets, we will be sending letters home to students who are having credit pulled.  This letter will detail which classes the credit is being pulled from along with a hearing request form if you would like to appeal the credit loss.  

Finally, I wanted to share with you a goal we have as a staff.  We want every student to feel comfortable turning to a teacher in a time of need, also known as an “adult anchor”.  I had the students fill out a google form asking them if they had a teacher they were comfortable talking to as well as if they had an adult outside of school they were comfortable talking to.  Most all students listed multiple teachers and also had an adult outside of school they felt comfortable turning to.  This was great to see.  We also found that we had a few students who didn’t have a teacher or an adult they could turn to in a time of need.  Our focus now is building those relationships with the students who indicated they didn’t have someone they could turn to.  We want all students to feel welcome, safe, and cared for at Northwest.  There is no doubt in my mind that our staff will work diligently to ensure all students have an adult anchor in their life.  

I know the holiday season can be stressful on families.  If there is anything Northwest can do to help with anything, don’t hesitate to reach out.  We always want to do whatever we can to help our Northwest students and their families.  

Sincerely, 

PJ Smith, Principal