This weekend, the Sound Check show choir will perform their 5th Annual Showcase. Unfortunately, this year the show isn’t open to the general public— only 2 tickets per performer. It will be live-streamed during show times on Saturday at 2pm and 7pm, and Sunday at 5pm. A special thanks to the HS Advanced Art students and Mrs. Seymour who contributed to the show this year with their design and painting the back wall on stage.
It's Gold Card Friday! Check out this week's edition that features our upcoming Food Drive https://youtu.be/kwXhv48iHLA
Do you have a student, 16 or older, looking for an after school job? Green Hills and Mercy Health-Urbana are hiring!
The sophomore class hosted a ‘Hats on for Veterans’ school-wide fundraiser and toiletry drive on Veteran’s Day. The goal of the fundraiser, at the suggestion of Vets Services, was to generate enough money and/or toiletries to create Christmas gift baskets for the local veteran widows and female veterans. Vet’s Services said they are often an overlooked population and could use the extra support, especially during the holiday season.
Our students provided enough for a trunk load of toiletries that will go to Logan County Veteran’s Services next week.
The sophomore class officers will create gift baskets with gas cards, toiletries and Christmas goodies that LoCo Vet’s Services will deliver on behalf of the WL-S Sophomore Class. We wouldn’t be able to do any of this, if we didn’t have such a great staff and group of kids willing and able to donate their funds on Wednesday.
Thank you to everyone who helped support our Vets!
West Liberty-Salem students, who enrolled in Physics through Edison State University, built awesome water rockets as a part of their unit on Newton’s Law of Motion! Mrs. Brandie Roberts, who also teaches high school physical science, assisted her class in a successful launch earlier this week! They spent several days building the rockets and were asked to use an astroblade and trigonometry to determine the height of the rocket blasts in several different launches. This interdisciplinary approach allowed students to understand how a scientist uses more than one area of study in a single experiment.
Check out what’s happening in FFA. This article was submitted by Madeline Hutton, FFA Reporter
The West Liberty- Salem FFA had their annual officer interviews on September 30th. A variety of questions were asked of the applicants, making sure that they were fit for the positions. Positions were elected on November 1st. Cooper Havens is the new FFA President, Morgan Damron is the Vice President, Trinity Perkins the Secretary with Gavin Woodruff as the Co-Secretary, Madeline Hutton Reporter with Dylan Glunt as the Co-Reporter, Marissa Bailey the Treasurer with Hayden King as the Co-Treasurer, Maddox Havens the Historian, Dawson Jenkins the Sentinel, and Olivia Muirhead the Student Advisor. The FFA chapter is very excited to have the new officer team in swing for the 2020-2021 school year.
Pictured from left to right: Back Row: Hayden King, Dawson Jenkins, Cooper Havens, Maddox Havens, Dylan Glunt and Gavin Woodruff ; Front Row: Madeline Hutton, Morgan Damron, Marissa Bailey, Olivia Muirhead and Trinity Perkins
The West Liberty-Salem Youth Football team concluded their season at Urbana on Saturday. In the JV game the Tigers won 19-0. This secured the teams undefeated season and Co-championship in the Youth Ohio Heritage Conference. Calen Fairchild had two rushing touchdowns. Grant Krabill had a touchdown and an extra point. Gibzen Cox had an interception on defense. Lucas Cook, Carver Wallace, Gabe Dunham and Cohen Evans had multiple tackles for loss.
The Varsity team came up short against Urbana but earned 3rd place in the league. Great job, guys!
No need to travel to New York City for the Thanksgiving Parade this year! Our 5th grade STEM students created their own! They designed floats to pull behind robots that they control with their iPads. From Spongebob to Minion floats, no design went without a lot of creativity and hard work! Click the link to check it out.
https://youtu.be/yba_VIuSFwY
West Liberty-Salem students and staff would like to extend a sincere thank you to all Veterans for their service to our country. Because of your sacrifice American remains the home of the free, because of the brave. And a very sincere thank you goes to four special WL-S employees for serving our country in the United States Armed Forces. Today, we are honoring Mrs. Douthwaite, Mr. Lewis, Mr. Spencer, and Mr. Miller in a special Veteran’s Day edition of Staff Spotlight.
Jennifer Douthwaite- School Nurse; Lieutenant Colonel in Ohio Army National Guard, 1999-Current
Mrs. Douthwaite is in her 6th year at WL-S. She and her husband Jason, who is an active service member for the last 18 years, have four children. Trenton, their oldest is at United States Military Academy at West Point. Tyler, a senior, plays soccer and plans to join the military. Tina is a sophomore and plays soccer, and Victoria is a 7th grader and does tumbling. She enjoys running, hiking and vacationing with her family. Mrs. Douthwaite also plans to start SBHC within 120 days!
Todd Lewis- High School Math; United States Air Force 1987-1991; stationed in California and Indiana and temporary duty in England, Guam, Japan, Australia, Philippines, Iceland, Saudi Arabia and Panama.
Mr. Lewis is in his 26th year at WL-S and feels fortunate to combine his career with his hobby. He truly enjoys teaching students math. He hosts Calc Club with his calculus students and is working on incorporating philanthropy projects into their work! He married his wife Crista last February and he has 2 daughters and 3 grandchildren. He enjoys taking walks and is an avid sports fan!
Cameron Spencer- 7th Grade Science teacher; US Army 1986-1989; 101st Airborn/Air Assault, Fort Campbell, KY and Camp Humphreys, South Korea; US Army National Guard from 1989-1994.
Mr. Spencer has been a MS Science teacher for 21 years (teaching 23 years overall). He also serves as the school Science Olympiad head coach. They have been highly competitive and advanced to the State Science Olympiad tournament for 15 years in a row. His wife, Stephanie, has been a Math teacher for 13 years and currently teaches Geometry and Algebra. They have four children, all of whom have gone to WL-S. Their oldest is a mechanical engineer in Toledo and will welcome their first grandchild in February. He enjoys fishing and collecting rocks and fossils.
Dan Miller- 8th grade Social Studies Teacher; US Army National Guard 1994-2005; Staff Sergeant; deployed to Iraq and served 2004
Mr. Miller is in his 14th year of teaching Social Studies at WL-S. He is currently the Junior Class Advisor and has done a lot of coaching for WL-S over the years. He is married to his wife Lindi, and together they have 3 adult children. He enjoys hanging out with his family and loves watching football!
Please help us thank our Veteran’s for their service to our country and as they continue to be servant leaders in our schools.
FFA students took advantage of Indian Summer and did a pumpkin launch of the all of those contest pumpkins from the week prior! They had a little fun competing for who throws the farthest while picking up rocks in the field and harvesting the seeds for future use!
West Liberty-Salem girls cross country student athletes, Madison Bahan, Katelyn Stapleton and Megan Adams have been named OATCCC Academic All-Ohioans.
This is the third consecutive year for Stapleton to earn this honor, and the second consecutive year for Bahan and Adams.
West Liberty-Salem boys cross country student athletes, Josh Spinner, Dylan Lauck, Ayden Estep and Owen Harrison have been named OATCCC Academic All-Ohioans. This is the second consecutive year for Lauck to earn this honor.
To qualify, student athletes must qualify for the OHSAA state meet, be in grades 10-12, and have a a cumulative GPA of 3.5 or greater.
Photo credit: John Coffman
West Liberty-Salem girls cross country student athletes, Madison Bahan, Katelyn Stapleton and Megan Adams have been named OATCCC Academic All-Ohioans.
This is the third consecutive year for Stapleton to earn this honor, and the second consecutive year for Bahan and Adams.
West Liberty-Salem boys cross country student athletes, Josh Spinner, Dylan Lauck, Ayden Estep and Owen Harrison have been named OATCCC Academic All-Ohioans. This is the second consecutive year for Lauck to earn this honor.
To qualify, student athletes must qualify for the OHSAA state meet, be in grades 10-12, and have a a cumulative GPA of 3.5 or greater.
Photo credit: John Coffman
It’s November and we are still blessed with this beautiful weather, so how could we not celebrate a bit? Our older elementary students have been eating in their classrooms to allow for more social distancing in the cafeteria, so the teachers got creative! Why not eat outside on these great days? They get to eat as a class and some really cool things have happened because of it. Students have been really inclusive and caring for their classmates. They are all looking out for one another and making sure no one ever eats alone! What a great group of students we have at WL-S!
Seventh grader, Taylor Cook participated in her first every marathon over the weekend. The marathon, The Marine Corp Virtual Marathon, honored veterans like her travel softball coach, veteran Jim Parker. Taylor ran over 20 miles with her team over the course of about 7 hours! Great job, Taylor!
Are you having concerns about your pre-k child? Virtual Developmental Screening for ages birth to age 6 (not in kindergarten) available. Please contact Early Intervention at 937-292-3065 for an appointment or additional information. Services provided by: Logan County Board of DD/Early Intervention Family & Children First Council
The Big Orange Boy’s Cross Country team had a strong season finish with a 12th place finish at the D2 State meet!
It was the Big Orange’s 19th overall State appearance and the third consecutive year for the men.
Jr. Dylan Lauck placed 12th with a time of 16:10.9. This is the 3rd straight year earning 1st Team All Ohio. Dylan also finished the season with the best time recorded in D2 with a 15:41.9 set at Districts.
Jr. Tate Yoder finished 43rd with 16:48.7. This is Tate’s second straight year earning 2nd Team All Ohio.
So. Michael Jones 106th 17:40.7
So. Owen Harrison 114th 17:47.8
Sr. Josh Spinner 119th 17:52.3
Sr. Hayden Kennedy 122nd 17:57.7
Jr. Ayden Estep 154th 18:51.9
Congratulations to the Big Orange boys on a fantastic season and incredible finish!
Our first and fourth graders are taking advantage of the last days of the beautiful weather by reading with book buddies outside! First graders are paired with a fourth grade reading buddy at the beginning of the school year and read to them each week. This improves the confidence of our fourth grader readers, while giving younger students the opportunity to improve their skills reading aloud. Both grade levels equally enjoy the leadership opportunity and getting to know older students!
The West Liberty-Salem girls cross country team capped off an undefeated season, with its first state title in school history Saturday at the OHSAA DIII State Championships at the Fortress Obetz. The Big Orange held off the 4 time defending state champion Minster and state powerhouses Liberty Center and Fort Loramie for the convincing win.
Team Scores: 1st WLS 55, 2nd Minster 83, 3rd Liberty Center 115, 4th Fort Loramie 126, 5th Gilmour Academy 163, 6th Mount Gilead 185, 7th Maplewood 224, 8th Mineral Ridge 275, 9th Colonel Crawford 283, 10th Versailles 291, 11th Woodmore 302, 12th Anna 322, 13th Ft. Recovery 323, 14th Ottawa Hills 349, 15th Liberty Union 381, 16th St. Henry 392, 17th Smithville 421, 18th Grandview Heights 432, 19th Cardington-Lincoln459, 20th Caldwell 479.
Four Big Orange runners earned First Team All-Ohio status with Megan Adams leading the way in 5th place in 18:43. Freshmen Ashley Yoder and Addison McAuley placed 8th and 10th respectively in 18:49 and 18:56, and Katelyn Stapleton placed 18th in 19:20. Madison Bahan earned Second Team All-Ohio placing 31st in 19:30. Rounding out the WLS placers were Taylor Kennedy in 89th place 20:49, and Claire Longshore 127th in 21:51.
Adams and Stapleton have become the first Big Orange athletes to earn All-Ohio in three consecutive years.
The team caps off the season being ranked #3 in all divisions in Ohio and #58 in the nation.
Welcome back, Big Orange XC and the STATE CHAMPS! If you didn’t make it to the parade, check it out here! Go Big Orange!
https://youtu.be/K9XCUbKHPm8
