The Raider Monthly Friday Exemptions are BACK! March 29, 2019 Many students have been complaining and upset about no more exemptions; however, they are COMING BACK! The board had multiple meetings and Upcoming discussions about all the pros and cons of having exemptions. It was obvious that Events the procs outweigh the cons. One of the biggest cons of having no more exemptions was that there is now a major increase in absences. The criteria to be able to exempt from taking your finals at the end of the fourth nine weeks are the April School Events same. This includes 90 average or above in the class, no more than one discipline 4/1 April Fools Day 4/1- 5 Spring Break referral, no more than five absences, all books returned to the Media Center, and 4/12 Special Olympics @ ELHS lunchroom account paid. With the Milestones at the end of the year, finals add 4/12 The Blue and White Ball 4/19 Student Staff Holiday extra stress on us students, so getting the news that exemptions are back is a 4/25 Class Meeting (for High School) huge relief. An administator at one of the meetings stated,”The students at West 4/30 Progress Reports Go Home Laurens Middle and High are failing more classes than they have in past years Community Events with exemptions.” Furthermore, an anonymous parent at one of the board Event: Fantastic Futures, FanCon2019 Dates: March 30 meetings quoted,”My son, who is in seventh grade and has never had any Time: 10 – 2 PM discipline referrals, has had three this school year! I feel like his behavior is Location: Laurens County Library because there’s no reward for good behavior besides stamps for pizza or something Event: Aquatic Circus trivial from the school store. However, he loved getting out of school to miss extra Dates: April 4-7 Times: April 4th: 7:30 PM, April 5th: 7:30 tests.” With this information, the board knew this was an issue that they needed PM, April 6th: 1:30 PM, 4:30 PM, and 7:30 PM. to fix. (Article continued on page 3). Location: Dublin Civitan Fairgrounds Event: Community Egg Drop Date: April 13 Time: 10 AM - bounce houses and food vendors, 11 AM - First Egg Drop (ages 0-5), and 11:30 AM - Last Egg Drop (ages 6-10) Location: Southern Pines Park Event: Empty on Easter – Liberty Church Easter Celebration Date : April 21 Time : 9:15 AM – Easter Egg Drop Easter Party, 10:30 AM Easter Service Locatio n: OFTC – Dubose Porter Center FREE NEWSPAPER TEMPLATE DELIVERED BY WWW.EXTRANEWSPAPERS.COM WLMS Student Spotlight: Dublin’s New Water Park th Maci Brown – 8 Grade In Dublin, Georgia, we have the average temperature of 94 degrees during the summer. Most people have to go at Maci Brown is this month’s student spotlight. least 50 miles just to cool off. Well, now the city of After school on Mondays, she’s a part of the Dublin is building a brand new water park at Southern Hummingbird singing group. She likes horses and Pines. It will have features like two 20-foot tall water slides, a 500-foot long lazy river, a 6-lane lap pool, a small animals very much. She also is in FFA where she wading pool, and the splash pad. The water park opens serves as Treasurer. The primary responsibility of Memorial Day weekend, May 25 and 26. It will begin a national FFA officer is to serve the organization operating 7 days a week starting June 1st. The park will in local, state, national and international only be open from 8 AM to 10 AM for programs like activities. Her job is to invite members and swimming lessons and senior aerobics. From 10 AM to 6 motivate other peers about FFA. She said, ”It’s PM, the water park will be open for the public. The admission fee is a $10 flat rate for everyone. If you are 12 not all about farming like most people think; it’s years old or younger, you must have a parent present. about leadership.” We asked her about high Don’t worry if you get hungry while at the park because school and if she was ready for this big step. She you can choose food from an extensive list of concessions. said, ”A little.” She goes to Dexter Baptist Some of the concessions include grilled chicken Church and encourages more of you to come to sandwiches, hot dogs, hamburgers, chicken fingers, chicken wings, pizza, soft pretzels, French fries, nachos, this church. salads, quesadillas, fountain drinks, candy, ice cream, and much more. If you want to cool off this summer, you should definitely check out the new water park. Car Rider Line Problems If you’re one of the people who are always late in the mornings because of the long car rider line that sometimes extends all the way to the technical college, you know that the line isn’t anything except ANNOYING! There are busses trying to get to the ramps, cars trying to get in the left lane, teachers trying to go to the parking lot - it’s just chaotic! Some would recommend creating another lane just for busses, some may say that they need to have more traffic directors, and of course, M OST say, “Get here on time, and you wouldn’t have to worry about the line.” If you’re already late, then you have to worry about 6th graders going to connections (8:05) and cutting across to the gym. The problems are endless, and it is causing students to accumulate tardies to school. Fortunately, the office has extended homeroom by 10 minutes to accommodate these late students. However, the WLHS Tardy Policy states, ”When arriving less than 10 minutes late for a class , students are tardy. After 10 minutes, the student is considered absent for that class and needs to report to the office to sign in and receive an admission slip to class. A student is expected to be punctual to school and to classes. Being on time demonstrates a sense of personal respon sibility as well as a respect for the educational process. The tardies are per 9 weeks, and they do not go away. They accumulate until the new 9 weeks starts over. Consequences of being tardy: (1-3): no punishment, first 3 are free. (4-5) : 1 day ISS. (6-9): 2 days ISS. (10-11): 3 days ISS. (12 or more): OSS until parent conference. 2 FREE NEWSPAPER TEMPLATE DELIVERED BY WWW.EXTRANEWSPAPERS.COM WHAT I NEED Make-Up Room Spanish 8th Grade Mrs. King is one of the WIN Spanish We re you absent and now feel overwhelmed with all the make-up work? No need to stress any longer teachers here at West Laurens Middle when we have the WIN make-up room. The teacher School. She signed up for this class because a of this WIN class is Mrs. Williamson. She says that lot of students wanted to take this class, and she thinks the make-up room is effective at WLMS she decided to help out. She enjoys teaching because it allows students who have missed days to this class, and she likes watching her catch up on their work. The make-up room is not students grow in knowledge of Spanish. So only helping students, but it is also helping the far her students have learned to say the teachers be able to put grades in on time. The only alphabet in Spanish, numbers 1-20, colors, negative that Mrs. Williamson sees about this class is body parts, days of the week, months of the that sometimes the same students come in year, and nature words. They’ve also repeatedly because they think they can skip work labeled classroom items, have simple during class and just make it up during WIN. One conversations in Spanish about things they student stated, ”She likes the make-up room, so she like, and they even learned about the Day of can get her missed work done.” The make-up WIN the Dead. Mrs. King and Mrs. Raffield both class is a great asset to WLMS. spoke to the high school Spanish teachers and are preparing their students for the upcoming years. _______________________________________ La Sra. King es una de las maestras de español de WIN aquí en la escuela secundaria West Laurens. Se inscribió en esta clase porque muchos estudiantes querían tomar esta clase y ella decidió ayudar. A ella le gusta enseñar esta clase y le gusta ver a sus estudiantes crecer en el conocimiento del español. Hasta ahora sus estudiantes han aprendido a decir el alfabeto en español, números 1-20, colores, partes del cuerpo, días de la semana, meses del año y palabras de la naturaleza. También han Exemptions continued etiquetado los elementos del aula, tienen from pg. 1 conversaciones sencillas en español sobre cosas que les gustan y hasta aprendieron sobre el Día Happy ”Early” April Fool’s de los Muertos. La Sra. King y la Sra. Raffield Day! Enjoy your Spring Break! hablaron con los maestros de español de la escuela secundaria y están preparando a sus estudiantes para los próximos años. 3 FREE NEWSPAPER TEMPLATE DELIVERED BY WWW.EXTRANEWSPAPERS.COM Life Skills WIN Class Coding One of the WLMS WIN classes is life skills. Code.org is an easy plaform for kids to lean how to code. Code.org is a computer program that includes It’s an eighth grade class taught by Mrs.