West Liberty-Salem Local School District

The West Liberty-Salem girls cross country team won the team title at the Piqua Under the Lights Invitational Saturday evening. Team Scores: 1st WLS 44, 2nd Botkins 67, 3rd Butler 78, 4th Brookville 126, 5th Tippecanoe 140, 6th Sidney 158, 7th Troy 173, 8th Piqua 193, 9th Covington 210, 10th Fairborn 261, 11th West Carrollton 358 Senior Megan Adams led the Big Orange with a convincing first place finish in 18:35.9. Four other runners cracked the top twenty for WLS with Ashley Yoder placing 3rd (19:30.3), Addison McAuley 6th place (20:11.1), Claire Longshore 15th place (21:22.8), and Mandilyn Weaver 19th (21:42.7). Also placing for the Big Orange were Taylor Kennedy 29th place (22:52.6), Anna Knox 32nd place (23:16), Maggie Davis 38th place (23:34.6), Dani Smith 68th place (25:21.9), Joy Hudson 77th place (26:20.4) and Laney Craig 79th place (26:37.7). Coach Ann Vogel said that Megan Adams took control of the race early and pulled away from the field. “The team ran well today. Running late at night is a new experience for us, so our main goal was to work together as a team and be mentally strong throughout the race. We know we have areas we need to work on, but it was good to see improvement from last week,” Vogel shared. West Liberty-Salem hosts the 44th Annual Ohio Caverns Max Evans Memorial Invitational on Saturday. There will be an Alumni Race open to the public at 8:00 a.m. and the school races will begin at 8:40 a.m.

Hello WL-S families, I hope everyone is having a good week. We have finished our 13th day of the school year and to date we have had 28 students and 4 staff positive with COVID. We have had another 83 students and 1 staff member who have had to quarantine as close contacts. Please remember that quarantines can be avoided for those who have not had COVID in the past by wearing a mask or getting a vaccination for ages 12 and older. Our goal is to keep students in school and our doors open. Please help by making decisions with your family that help to avoid quarantine. Learn more daily numbers by visiting our COVID dashboard, https://www.wlstigers.org/page/covid-dashboard. Thank you and have a great evening. Go Tigers! Kraig Hissong, Superintendent

The high school counseling office will highlight a new theme each month to cover information and helpful tips on making the most of their educational experience! This month is ‘Testing 101’. Molly Smith, HS Counselor, will visit all high school homerooms to discuss what testing will occur by grade level, test taking tips and tips for reducing text anxiety. There is a bulletin board with more information and helpful resources outside of the guidance office.

It’s Gold Card Friday, so be sure to check out the elementary and MS videos linked below! Congratulations to all of our gold card winners! The elementary had a record 24 winners this week! There names are announced in the video: https://youtu.be/Zh0-PByxOk4 Congratulations to Mrs. O’brien and Mrs. Crowder who were our elementary staff gold card winners! Congratulations to our middle school, high school and staff winners! https://youtu.be/KNEa8yskOwI 6th Grade Ashlyn Taylor - Buroker Brayan Gullett - Milliron 7th Grade Levi Yelton - Mazza Braydon Thompson - Mazza 8th Grade Cameron Pope - Fullenkamp Devon Jones - Stapleton Staff Mrs. Unger – given by Mr. Yoder 9th Quentin Rudolph given by Mrs. Spencer 10th Maxwell McCombs given by Mrs. Seymour 11th Lauren Hunter given by Mrs. Moell 12th Ally Gaver given by Mrs. Neer

Our elementary teachers received a special visit from an old friend at their recent staff meeting. Click the link to read the whole story! Exciting things are happening at WL-S! https://www.wlstigers.org/article/536848

Coach Ann Vogel was recently named a 2020-2021 OHSAA Sportsmanship, Ethics and Integrity Award recipient. Vogel, who coaches girls cross country and girls track & field, was selected for reflecting the values of sportsmanship, ethics and integrity through her professional responsibilities and is a role model for student-athletes and others. Congratulations to Coach Ann Vogel! https://www.ohsaa.org/news-media/articles/coaches-recognized-with-ohsaa-sportsmanship-ethics-and-integrity-awards-4

It's Chipotle fundraiser day!! Plan to pick up your supper & support WLSAA, 4-8pm. Please remember to show the flyer or use the online ordering code. Thank you!

Hello WL-S families, So far morning parent drop off has gone very well this year. I am pleased that parents are taking your time and keeping students safe. I do want to remind parents to make sure you use the South Entrance if you are coming to the school from the South, or from Urbana. After you enter,, take a right at the 4-way stop and a left into the drop off loop. This prevents traffic exiting the school and heading North from having to wait for cars to turn into the main drive from 68. This can cause a back up of traffic on campus during our busy mornings. Also, if you are picking up children after school, please do not park along the red curb at the entrance of the parent loop. This can block traffic on our main drive. Thank you, Kraig Hissong

We caught Athletic Director Jake Vitt recruiting the next generation of athletes this morning.

High School Environmental Science students pruned and cleaned up overgrowth in the science wing courtyard last week. Their work doubled as a lab where they learned what vegetation is growing around our building! Great job and thanks for the hard work!

If your child received the Pfizer COVID vaccine the week of August 23. Community Health and Wellness Partners will be providing the 2nd dose of the vaccine on Sept. 17 in the nurses office during school hours. Someone from community health and wellness will contact you to set up an appointment time. They will have 14 extra doses available that day to any student that would like to receive the first dose. If you would like to receive the first dose you may call 937-887-0075 and leave your name and phone number and a staff member will contact you to schedule an appointment. If for any reason the 14 openings become filled and more people are wanting the first dose they will hold another vaccine clinic on Sept. 21 depending on demand. Thank you!!!

Hello WL-S Families, This weeks COVID numbers have been updated. Please visit the COVID Dashboard at https://www.wlstigers.org/page/covid-dashboard to view updates on quarantine and case numbers for students and staff. Thank you, Kraig Hissong Superintendent

Hello WL-S Families, I hope everyone had a great Labor Day weekend. Here is a quick update regarding COVID. We are continuing to see more cases of Covid among our student body. Most of that spread is still occurring outside of the school due to close contacts of students with family members, etc. and as of now, with respect to the amount of COVID cases in Champaign and Logan Counties, I feel we are doing a very good job of preventing COVID in the building. As of today we had about 7.5% of our student body absent. This would include all reasons for absence; regular illness, COVID positives, quarantines, etc. Overall, school is going well, and there has been a limited impact on staff. At this time, we have no reason to consider going hybrid or remote instruction, but will continue to monitor staff and student absences. We do, however, encourage families to have a plan in place for your children in case that would be necessary this school year. As of today, we have 4 new COVID cases which have impacted 28 students as close contacts. Of those 25 students had to quarantine outside of school and 3 students were able to remain in school due to wearing a mask, being vaccinated, or previously having COVID. Next, most of the recent WL-S COVID cases and quarantines have impacted the HS football team. Currently about 33% of the team is absent from school based off of three (3) positive cases. As a result, we are canceling the game this Friday (9/10) against Greenon. This decision is twofold. First, we want to ensure that we try to eliminate the spread of COVID throughout our teams remaining players and from Greenon’s team. Second, we hope that by pausing the season at this point, we can restart on next Monday and be able to field a full team for the remainder of the season. Practices will be canceled until Monday and students will be encouraged to take extra precautions at school and at home to avoid the spread of COVID. Thank you, Kraig Hissong

There is still time to sign up for the annual girls basketball golf scramble fundraiser. The scramble is at Woodland Golf Course on Sunday, 9/13/21 at 1:30 PM. We hope to see you there! To register, click the link below. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bbeBgiWTPwqW_emDHoqcnbXvshoMdEBd/view?usp=drivesdk&fbclid=IwAR2j5QBACV97MA9RYXUsd2Fjc8mt75En5fl7y9yRa_g7OyDBffyltScRbyE

The High School Counseling Office has announced important dates to put on your calendar! 9/17 Hi Point will be at WL-S to present to all sophomores during their English class 9/20 Financial Aid Parent meeting; the flyer is attached. 10/26: PSAT, Juniors only (up to 20 may sign up)

Our COVID-19 dashboard is updated as of 9/7/21. If you’d like to follow along, you may click the attached link. https://www.wlstigers.org/page/covid-dashboard

We are currently filling sub positions for this school year! The details are in the flyer attached. We have the greatest bunch of students and staff, so it would surely be rewarding and fun!

The long weekend wouldn’t be complete without the annual Lions Club Labor Day Festival celebration. Many thanks to our student athletes, band, show choir, class fundraiser volunteers, parents and other clubs and participants that helped make it memorable! If you have photos of your student participating or volunteering, share them in the comments!

The outside fun didn’t stop at lunchtime! Our elementary Specials teachers took their students outside because how could you miss out on a day like today?! They played games and enjoyed playing with friends they haven’t seen for a while! We are having a great time at West Liberty-Salem!

It’s been a great week at WL-S, and we’ve certainly enjoyed fantastic weather to kick off back to school! Today our fifth graders enjoyed lunch outside. The fresh air and sunshine were just what they needed on their first full day as a whole class. It’s a great day to have a great day!