Good Afternoon WSMS Parents,

We have had an incredible start here at Willow Springs. Our teachers are excited and our students have exceeded all expectations. I am so thankful for the opportunity to lead this amazing school.

Today, our students will be practicing all of our safety drills. We have always held safety and security in high regard, and this year is no exception. We are looking forward to the opportunity to inform and practice what to do in case of an emergency.

Today we will also be having conversations with students about being on time to class. At the beginning of each school year, we allow a grace period for students before we start tracking tardies. Next week, we will begin the process of tracking tardies and holding students accountable for being on time.

Your students have done an amazing job in the lunch room the last 2 days. Starting today, students will be able to sit where they like in the lunch room and will also be able to eat outside in the courtyard if they choose.

As a reminder, dress code will begin on Monday. I have had numerous conversations with students so far who have questions and they have been very positive interactions. Again, its such a blessing to work with your students. You have raised them in a way that even when they may not like a certain rule, they are able to have appropriate and positive conversations to raise their concerns.

We appreciate all of the patience you have shown in car line this week. All things considered, I feel like car line has been incredibly smooth for the first week of school. It will continue to get smoother and smoother, especially when we open up tutoring after school, and when athletic events are happening after school.

Lastly, we are so excited to have our first social (when we were in school, “school dance”) on Friday August 26 from 4:30 - 6:30. The Back to School Bash will allow students to do a traditional school dance portion in the cafeteria, open gym in the gyms, and the concession stand will be open to sell pizza, candy, and drinks. Tickets to the B2SB will be $10 at the door or $8 in advance. Information below about how to purchase tickets. If you would like to volunteer as a chaperone, we would love to have you.

If you have any questions or need additional information about the upcoming school year, please contact me at chris_koder@lovejoyisd.net, or call the school at 469-742-8500.   

Respectfully,

Chris

Arrival and Dismissal at WSMS

This year, we will be placing even more focus on our safety and security protocols. Our school doors will open at 7:45 this year so that we can ensure that anyone who is entering our building is a student or staff member. The crosswalk in the back of the school will be manned with a crossing guard from 8:15 until 8:45. At 8:45, the back door will lock. Please make sure that your student is dropped off at the front to get a tardy slip if you know that they will not be at the back door by 8:45, otherwise, the student will have to walk around the school to the front.

School will get out at 4:05 PM. We will be encouraging students to look for their parent to make sure that traffic can move as quickly as possible. At 4:15, hallways will be swept and students will need to wait outside (weather permitting) for their rides to arrive.  Tutoring will go on until 4:45, and again the building will be swept for students to move outside (weather permitting) to wait for parents.

Please reference the map below for arrival and dismissal traffic flow.

Bell Schedules

As many of you have heard, we are rolling out a brand new program this year called Leopard Time. More information can be found below regarding Leopard Time, however we will be running two different bell schedules depending on the day.

Monday and Friday will be a traditional school day, just like all of our students have always done. There is extra time built into 4th period for lunches, SEL, announcements, and other programming that happens during the school day.  Click here for a copy of the REGULAR bell schedule.

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday we will run the Leopard Time schedule which will feature a one hour block of time in between 4th and 5th period where students will eat their lunch as well as take part in another activity of their choosing.  Click here for a copy of the LEOPARD TIME bell schedule.

LHS and WSMS both are implementing a version of Leopard Time and requested that the school board grant us 5 additional minutes on to our school day. The reason for this request was because we did not want to sacrifice any class time to make this program work. This extra 5 minutes will only affect the student day and will not have any effect on the teacher work day.

Academic Lockers

There are often lots of questions about student lockers in middle school. Students participating in band or orchestra will have an instrument locker. Student athletes will have an athletic locker. Academic lockers are located in the academic hallways, and these lockers will be available to students during the first week of school. Academic lockers are optional at WSMS as we transition students to high school where academic lockers are not available. During the first week of school, students will be able to request lockers. WSMS staff will be in the cafeteria during lunches on Wednesday, August 18th to assign lockers to students. If you have any questions regarding academic lockers at WSMS, please contact your student's counselor.

Fall School Pictures

Our school pictures are schedule for Wednesday, August 31st.  Picture retake day is schedule for Friday, September 30th.

As part of the WSMS student experience, we would like to offer a spirit shirt for all 7th and 8th-grade students. These will be shirts that students can wear to school, athletic events, and field trips. During campus field trips and community service events, we will ask students to wear their spirit shirts to identify them as WSMS students. The 7th-grade shirt will be black with red and white print. The 8th-grade shirt will be red with black and white print.

The tshirts are $15 and may be ordered by returning this completed order form to WSMS with check/cash, or by going online to the Online Payment Center. Deadline for orders is Thursday, September 1st.

When: Friday, August 26th from 4:30 - 6:30

Tickets: $8 purchased online or $10 at the door

Concessions are cash only: Pizza & Gatorade - $2; Chips, Candy and Water - $1 

We'll have a DJ with dancing lead by the LHS Majestics and Open Gym in both gyms

Rachel's Challenge will be coming to WSMS on August 30 to spread the message of kindness and compassion. The program is designed to show students how to take action and create a positive culture in the school. We would like to thank our amazing PTO for providing our students with this opportunity.

ParentPortal Update Needed by Friday, September 16



The PowerSchool ParentPortal is now open for you to complete the online Enrollment & Student Information Forms. Please click here to access the Parent Portal. Completion of these forms is required every year for each student, and need to be completed by Friday, September 16^th.  Click here for instructions on completing.

If you need assistance with account access or password reset, please use this link . Access requests and password resets will occur during business hours: 8:30am-4:30pm. We are unable to fulfill requests after hours, holidays or weekends. You’ll be notified via email once your request is complete.

Happy first week of school! We are excited to see what this school year brings for our classes of 2027 and 2028! Please help us make this a great year by joining, donating and getting involved in the PTO.

Link Here

Your dollars are already hard at work. We kicked off the school year last week by treating our wonderful teachers and staff to a back to school luncheon. We’d like to thank Robertson Orthodontics for their donation and our parent volunteers for their help. 

If you’d like to know more about volunteer opportunities at Willow Springs please fill out this form and we’ll notify you as needs arise. 

 https://ptowsms.membershiptoolkit.com/home

Join and Donate Now!

Athlete Physical Information

Online athletic forms are online and ready to be completed for the 2022-2023 school year. Please go to https://lovejoyisd.rankonesport.com/New/Home.aspx set up your account, and fill out the forms.  The physical forms are now available for athletes to pick up. Players may get one at the front office of WSMS, or print one by clicking here.  

Any and all online paperwork questions should be directed to Steve Smith at 469-742-8411 or wsmsathletictrainer@gmail.com.

WSMS Workout Shirt

These are available for purchase online through Sunday, August 21st.  Please click here to purchase.

Attendance Policy Updates

Important Attendance Reminders and Updates:

All families should have received their campus’ Beginning of Year Truancy Letter, via Bright Arrow. We felt that it was important to follow up with additional information.

In addition to the Compulsory Attendance Law that was addressed in the letter, there is also the 90% law; state law mandates that a student is in attendance at least 90 percent of the academic year.

In order to receive credit for a final grade in a class, a student is required to attend 90% of the days a class is offered, regardless of whether the student’s absences are excused or unexcused. 

All absences count towards the 90% law and Truancy, except for the following absences with the proper documentation: 

• Religious Holidays with written request prior to the absence 
• Attending a required court appearance
• UIL eligible absences- Educational Competition administered by school staff
• Academic, Athletic, and music contests (uiltexas.org)
• Medical-Related absences, when the student attended a portion of the school day and presents documentation from the health care professional for the same day
• All day Medical-Related absences do NOT exempt a student from the 90% law or Truancy. Medical Documentation for a full day absence is only used in consideration by the Attendance Committee)
• Sounding “Taps” at a military honors funeral held in Texas 

Attendance notes for an absence must be submitted to your student’s campus no later than 5 school days after the absence. Notes will NOT be accepted after the 5^th day, and your student’s attendance will not be changed.

Absence notification timeline, all absences are counted, (excused and unexcused):

• A letter will be sent home if your student is absent 3 times in a 4 week period
• Another letter will be sent home once the student has accrued 6 absences
• Intervention will begin with the campus attendance committee
• A 10 day letter will be sent home once the student accrues 10 absences
• Your student can be referred to Truancy Court
• 
  

 Although we know that students will get sick or other challenges may arise during the school year, consistent and timely school attendance is of the utmost importance. We all share the goal of enabling the students to reach their full potential and achieve all of their educational goals. The way to allow a student to reach their full potential and educational goals starts with consistent and timely attendance.

Important Change in the 2022-2023 Lunch Program

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) waiver that allowed Lovejoy ISD to offer free meals to all students at our schools (K-6) who participate in the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) has expired. Congress did not fund the waiver program for the 2022-2023 school year.

Due to this change in federal policy, Lovejoy ISD families will return to submitting an application to qualify for free/reduced-priced lunches.  Families are encouraged to apply now!



Submitting an application can do more than just provide access to free and reduced-price meals. Some of the Additional benefits may include:

• Funding for state and federal programs and services for our schools
• Discounted rates on internet services
• Free or reduced registration fees for AP, SAT, and/or ACT test
• Discounted rates associated with college applications
• Free or discounted fees to participate school activities

Here also are links to MySchoolBucks documents on how to load lunch accounts: https://www.lovejoyisd.net/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=388507&type=d&pREC_ID=881396

PowerSchool App

The PowerSchool app is available in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. You use the same PowerSchool online login. Enter the District code NJBC.

7th and 8th grade student anglers - if you love to pond fish and bass fish at the lake…come join us! We would love to have you join the Middle School Leopard Fishing Club. The purpose of the Club is to educate and prepare future Leopard Fishing High School Team anglers for competitive bass fishing. As a Club member you will be introduced to competitive bass fishing, interact with the high school fishing team, participate in fish camp and enjoy many pond fishing excursions.

Join us for a meeting on August 30th at 6:00pm at WSMS Cafeteria. All anglers need to be signed up by for the club by September 6th. Email us with any questions:

Leopardfishingclub@gmail.com 

Click here to join the WSMS PTO today!

LISD Calendar

Please go here for LISD calendars.

Community News

The Lovejoy ISD Community News Page includes news from our schools, programs, booster clubs, student organizations, Foundation for Lovejoy Schools, community, and more. Check back often for up-to-date news on events and activities.

Ladies Coffee

The Council of PTOs would like to invite all “new to Lovejoy” moms (grades 1^st – 12^th) to our welcome coffee on September 13^th.

Please RSVP and let us know that you are coming. We can’t wait to meet you!