July 1, 2020
Dear Blacksmiths:
Hope you are having a relaxing Summer break. We are pleased to announce our Secondary Leadership Team for SY 2020-2021:
DP Principal/DP Coordinator
Westlake Academy is proud to announce the promotion of
Dr. James Owen
as the new Diploma Programme (DP) Principal. Dr. Owen, a British citizen, joined Westlake Academy in 2015, where he has taught History of the Americas in the DP. He graduated with a BA in History and Politics from the University of Nottingham, and a master’s degree in European Studies, as well as a PhD in Modern History from the University of Cambridge.
Prior to joining Westlake, he worked in London as a Research Fellow for the History of Parliament Trust, a long-running scholarly project funded by the British Houses of Parliament. He has also taught at Liberal Arts Colleges on both sides of the Atlantic.
In 2014 his book, Labour and the Caucus, a study of the early British Labour Party, was published in both the United Kingdom and the United States. In 2018 he was awarded Outstanding Teacher of American History for the State of Texas by the Daughters of the American Revolution. Congratulations Dr. Owen!
MYP Principal
In a previous communication, we introduced Ms. Kaylene Rudd as our new MYP Principal. For those who may have missed that, Kaylene joins the Academy
with an extensive background in International Baccalaureate (IB) curriculum.
Her educational career includes IB experience in both Texas public and charter schools. She’s served schools as a PYP, MYP and DP Coordinator, MYP and DP teacher and is currently a Continuum IB Coordinator (K-12th Grade) for a charter school network in the Los Angeles-area. Kaylene's work with the International Baccalaureate Organization is extensive. She collaborates with educators throughout the world on IB School visits, conducts workshops around the United States, sponsors educator roundtables, facilitates DP examinations for the Arts, and assists schools in authorization/evaluation visit preparation. She has collaborated and facilitated the complex work to create, save, and build MYP Programmes with school communities in Texas and California.
MYP Assistant Principal
Please join us in welcoming,
Mr. Maxwell Ituah
! As an experienced IB educator, Maxwell is coming to Westlake Academy with more than five years of IB expertise.
Professionally, Maxwell values the ideals of IB and has a zealous passion to uplift, equip, and empower the next generation. Based on such ideals, Maxwell has a made a conscious effort to remain in the IB community by which he is ecstatic to continue his leadership journey at Westlake Academy.
In his leadership capacity in his previous district, San Antonio ISD (SAISD), Maxwell served as an IB Instructional Coach and MYP Coordinator. In both roles, across three campuses, he built a concurrency of learning amongst neighboring schools in all three programmes of the IB – PYP, MYP, and DP.
MYP Coordinator
Terri Watson
will continue this year as our MYP Coordinator. Terri joined Westlake Academy in 2006 and since that time has served in many roles including teaching English to PYP students and both English and US History to MYP students. In addition, throughout her WA career, Terri has served as the IB Coordinator for all three programmes. This year, Terri will be teaching G9 English and continuing to serve as the MYP Coordinator. We thank Terri for her tenure at the Academy and the depth of IB knowledge that she brings to this position and our leadership team.
Planning for the 20-21 School Year
Our leadership team is leading several committees this month who are working hard to plan for this school year. As a part of this process we need your input! Please take a moment to complete our
survey
- the deadline is July 6th. Your input is invaluable as we tailor our plan to best meet the needs of our students and staff.
We thank you for your partnership and ask you to stay tuned. There will be much to communicate this month about our plans for the coming school year. As always should you have any questions or concerns, please contact me via
email
.
And, on a light note, we leave you with our third and final
video
courtesy of our Administration.
Sincerely,
