Saturday, February 27, 2016

Lottery Results for WAIS 2016/17 Admissions


Congratulations to all of our incoming new wildcats. 

We look forward to meeting our new Westchester families at upcoming open house events and working with you next fall. The acceptance and wait lists are currently posted on the WAIS Campus; just past the middle school arches and main office entrance.

Again this year, we received over 700 applications for next year's openings for next school year. This does not include current students intending to return next year. Applications were handled a little differently this year. If a student applied to multiple SBISD options, they were required to rank their preferences. If a student was accepted to one of the schools they applied for, they were removed from the lists of any choices they ranked lower.

As of the lottery's conclusion, we have approximately 350 students on wait lists from 6th - 11th grade. Numbers vary from grade level to grade level, and 6th and 9th have the longest wait lists. We understand and sympathize that it can be discouraging to be on a long waiting list. If your number was not drawn this year, we hope that you continue to apply. Whether a student becomes a WAIS Wildcat or not, we hope they continue striving for success and working hard to be the best learner they can be.

Admittance to WAIS is based only on two things; residing within Spring Branch, and limitations of our school's capacity. While we aim to provide a rigorous and challenging environment for our students, we don't have a grade requirement on our applications. We understand that a student's current level of success is not always indicative of their level of success here at WAIS. This may be due to a variety of factors within the environment and within the student, including but not limited to learning strategies, curriculum, peers, and level of interest.

The lottery is conducted and supervised by multiple school and district staff and administrators. Law officers and law practitioners are also present during the lottery. This year's lottery included supervision from the Whitley Penn accounting firm. The lottery is conducted in English, but with Spanish translation provided. The public is allowed to attend.


Friday, February 19, 2016

4H Share the Fun hosted at WAIS


The Cooperative Extension 4-H & Youth Development Program at Prairie View A&M University hosts their annual Share the Fun event this weekend at WAIS. The Share the Fun event has a variety of categories in which students can show their skills- including but not limited to public speaking, education presentations, musical performances, and dances.

This is the third year that the Share the Fun event will be hosted at WAIS.

Thursday, February 18, 2016

District Spelling Bee Finals hosted at WAIS


The Spring Branch Annual District Spelling Bee for the 2015-16 school year was held today at Westchester Academy. The District Spelling Bee includes the Spelling Bee winners and first runner-up from each elementary and middle school in the district- including WAIS middle schoolers Chase and Betty.

The pronouncer for this year's District Spelling Bee is Roberta Smiley and the judges are Sunny Bell-de la Garza, Julie Hummel, and Dianne Gebhardt, with sponsor Amy Ellington and special thanks to Roberta Smiley and the Blue Willow Bookstore.

Wednesday, February 17, 2016

Teachers of the Year Announced


Teacher of the Year nominations were handled differently by Spring Branch this year. Nominations were made online through the district website. SBISD Community relations sent out information about nominating a teacher on January 13th. Nominations could be cast through Jan 22nd.

As Westchester serves both Upper School and Middle School students, we have two sets of nominees. Not just staff, but students and families were also able to nominate teachers this year. A significant number of nominees came from our students and parents.

For Middle School, the following teachers were nominated:
Christina Carrizales Shelly Horne Brandin LeBlanc
Kimberly Montgomery Nichole Nakadate Jeremy Reese
Rachel Rose Barbara Stephens Kristin Thompson
Cheryl Wegscheid

For Upper School, the following teachers were nominated:
Shivani Agrawal Anthony Carandang Elizabeth Carwile
Lindsey Faleiro Alberto Halos Angela Juarez
Marialice Lindig Trevor Love Andrew Maddocks
Aurelia Maldonado Mark Newkirk Katherine O'Connor
Maryam Ogunkoya Kathy Oxspring Laura Sigworth
Melissa Von Blon Kristen Wachsmann Shaun Wegscheid

The voting from the nominations were cast by WAIS Faculty and Staff. The Upper School had a run-off; with ballets accepted from Monday at 9:00 am through Tuesday at 4:00 pm.

WAIS Middle School Teacher of the Year:
Christina Carrizales
WAIS Upper School Teacher of the Year:
Shivani Agrawal


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