November 3, 2025

November News

Dear West Families,

Welcome to November! A big shout out to our West families who attended parent-teacher conferences! We truly appreciate your partnership and the opportunity to connect about your student’s progress. We enjoyed sharing their accomplishments and goals and we look forward to continuing to work together throughout the year.

Keep in mind that a good deal of coordination happens to ensure that all students take the correct transportation home from school. One way West families can help is by letting our main office know as soon as possible when there are changes to your student’s transportation. Please call our office prior to 2:00 PM, 1:00 PM on Wednesdays, to allow time for our staff to communicate changes to classroom teachers.

Each morning our West students engage in social and emotional learning. Part of this time is spent watching our daily announcements. Check out our daily announcements by going to this link: Nov. Announcements

Please contact our administrative team with any questions or concerns!

Warmly,

Chad Tolson, Principal

Jennifer Heinritz, Assistant Principal

Important Dates:

  • Friday, November 7 is a ½ Day of School, dismissal is at 11:35AM

  • No School Wednesday, November 26 through Friday, November 28 

This Month’s PBIS Focus Lessons

Each week West students focus on the expectations for one area of the school or a time of the day. November’s focus lessons are riding the bus, arriving at school/breakfast, dismissal/end of the day, and the cafeteria. The expectations for each focus lesson are taught through multiple methods– The morning announcements, teacher-directed lessons and role playing the expectations. Help us enforce this week’s POWER expectations by asking your student to tell you about the rules for riding the bus!  

West PBIS Power Store Donation and Volunteers

The West Power H Store has been a huge success! Thank you to all of our amazing volunteers as well as the families who have donated prizes for the store. We are always looking for volunteers to help run the store and donations of prizes! 

Swimming Lessons at HAC

The first session of Swimming lessons at the Holland Aquatic Center begins November 10 and runs through November 21. The classrooms swimming in the first session are Witters, Chamness, Murphy, Smith and Klein. The other session dates are January 5-16, February 2-13, and March 9-20. The swimming advisory slips for the first group of classes went home a couple weeks ago and should have already been returned. 

Below are some suggestions to help make swimming lessons successful:

  • HAC provides all swimsuits and towels.

  • Wear easy on and off clothing like stretch pants, track pants or sweatpants, pull on shirts without buttons, crocs or slip on shoes.

  • Students with long hair should come to school with it braided or pulled into a ponytail. You may also want to send a brush for your student to use.

  • You may want to send a plastic grocery bag with extra socks and underwear just in case items get wet by mistake.

Spooktacular Thank You and Survey 

We would like to thank everyone who attended theSpooktacular this week. It was great to see so many families involved and interacting with their children. We hope you had a great time and were able to take away some helpful tips to make math homework with your child easier. 

We know that Spooktacular can be an exciting time, with a lot going on. If you missed the parent survey, you can find the link here. We value your feedback. 

https://tinyurl.com/8ns3xv74t

November Attendance Update

Congratulations to Mrs. Kuiper’s second grade class and Mrs. Kempf’s fifth grade class for their amazing attendance in October. Both classes won a pumpkin painting party!! This month’s attendance goal is to have a school-wide daily attendance percentage of 94% or higher. If we are able to hit our goal 12 times in November, then students will earn a Pajama Party, and possibly pie if we are able to get enough donations!!! If you are interested in donating a pie for the celebration, please check out this link: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0B4EACAD22A7FDC70-60022948-west

Consistent student attendance promotes improved academics, building relationships with friends, and helps meet the basic needs of all students!!

Recess Rangers

A new program is coming to West– Recess Rangers!! Recess Rangers will help support students during lunch or on the playground (11:00 AM-1:00PM). This is an opportunity for parents and guardians to be an extra helping hand during that time. If you are interested, please sign up for a time slot at https://signup.com/go/bjbThfB.

All volunteers must complete the HPS Volunteer Background Form at least a week ahead of time. 

Food Resources

Several Food Resources are available for West families.
1) Kid's Food Basket: A daily sack supper of food that can go home with kiddos. If your student is not currently registered and you would like a new permission slip sent home, please let me know and I would be happy to get that sent home today :)
2) Hand2Hand: A weekly bag of more substantial food and items that can make a meal. If your student is not registered and you are interested, please sign up at this link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScrkSDgH18kfw1fRLndLFfVtxEkbAnS-DQ3HD2QRgSxQT0Cyg/viewform
3) Feeding America Mobile Food Pantry: This mobile drive thru pantry happens once a month at the Holland High School, but follow this link to learn about other locations and dates as well as other community food resources: www.ottawafood.org