The West Bend School District announced today that Brian Heimark has accepted the position of athletic director for West High School starting with the 2015-16 school year. Heimark replaces Scott Stier who will become an assistant principal at West Bend High Schools.

Heimark brings leadership, coaching experience and commitment to the athletic department at West High School. Heimark has served the West Bend School District for the past 24 years as a teacher, coach, and administrator. Since 2008, Heimark has served as the principal at Jackson Elementary School.

Prudence Pick Hway has been selected as the recipient for the 2015 Doug Ziegler Advocate for Education Award for her long-standing commitment to education in the West Bend community. Started in 2014, the Doug Ziegler Advocate for Education Award recognizes and honors individuals who have made a significant contribution to education and its profession in West Bend.

Pick Hway’s philanthropic efforts showcase her accomplishments as a visionary leader in West Bend. Her leadership and guidance for education allows students in the West Bend School District to realize their dreams, achieve success and instill a passion to give back to their community. For decades, Pick Hway’s family has played an integral role in shaping the West Bend community through their numerous contributions to local charities, events and scholarships, The Pick Awards for graduating seniors at East and West High Schools recognizes student athletes who have excelled in academics, athletics and community involvement.

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If you like American Idol, America’s Got Talent, Glee or the Voice, you will love Star Search! On Wednesday, May 27 at 7 p.m., in The Silver Lining Arts Center, the West Bend High Schools Choirs, under the direction of Karen Wysocky, will be on a star search for the best high school choir, male, and female soloists and best instrumentalist and lip sync group. Tickets cost $5, and can be purchased from the high school bookkeeper or at the box office 45 minutes before the show.

This year’s concert will feature Mixed Choir, Concert Choir and Vivace! singing favorite hits from the popular Show Glee, as well as favorite “pop” tunes like ”Best Day of my Life”, “All That Jazz”, “Dynamite” and many more! The concert choir men will also be featured singing “My Girl”. It will be a fun evening of entertainment – one you won’t want to miss!

At the beginning of the school year, the Badger Middle School administration team challenged each department to “adopt” a community service project. Due to our school’s long-standing relationship with the local VFW, the Social Studies Department knew we wanted to do something that was veterans-related. With input from our local VFW commander and some research, the social studies teachers chose to sponsor three community service events – fundraising for Camp Hometown Heroes, hosting a Loyalty Day program at Badger Middle School, and hosting a veteran’s panel question-and-answer evening for students and staff.

The fundraiser for Camp Hometown raised $900 in just 2 1/2 weeks. The fundraiser was promoted daily by the Social Studies Department in classrooms, but involved all Badger staff and students. Each social studies teacher had a container in his/her room to collect money, and the teachers encouraged students to drop in any extra change. Our goal was to raise enough money to sponsor one camper.

Watch the assembly for the WBHS Every 15 Minutes program, which was presented to WBHS juniors and seniors on April 24, 2015.  Every 15 Minutes is a two-day program involving a mock crash that is designed to increase awareness about the consequences of teenage drinking and driving. 

The West Bend West Athletic Booster Club will host its first-ever Spartan Booster Golf Outing at West Bend Lakes on Thursday, July 16, 2015. The scramble begins at 1 p.m. with a shotgun start and costs $75/golfer for 18 holes of golf, cart, 50/50 raffle, silent auction and dinner. The event will be limited to the first 36 foursomes registered.

REGISTER HERE

Donation/Sponsorship Opportunities

The West Bend West Booster Scholarship Committee welcomes cash donations or prizes for the silent auction. Please contact Tom Voelker at tvoelk@att.net with any donation offerings. 

Jessica Flitter, a psychology teacher at West Bend East High School, has been named a winner of the 2015 APA TOPSS Charles T. Blair-Broeker Excellence in Teaching Award by the American Psychological Association's Committee of Teachers of Psychology in Secondary Schools.

"Jessica shares a dedication to teaching in the classroom that is simply awe inspiring," said Mike Hamilton, chair of APA's Teachers of Psychology in Secondary Schools (TOPSS). "The committee strives to honor greatness in the classroom and Jessica exemplifies that."

Flitter engages students by relating psychology to their own lives. "She had a way of explaining concepts clearly and concisely while providing relatable examples to make the terms applicable to my everyday life," student Kayla Janto said. "My favorite part of psychology with Mrs. Flitter was the demonstration days when we would re-enact some of the interesting studies we learned about in the book." Flitter is not only passionate about teaching, but is a master of the field, having co-authored two editions of a psychology review book "Psychology All Access" and is a reader for the AP psychology exam essay questions. Her impact on student achievement is so profound that her students perform above the national average on the AP psychology exam, with a pass rate of 94.2 percent the past two years, according to West Bend East Assistant Principal David Talma.

"Jessica has a unique ability to make teaching applicable to real life," Hamilton said. "As a teacher, having an impact on your students for life is ultimately what it's all about."

Flitter will receive a framed certificate, an engraved award, $500 and a complimentary TOPSS membership renewal for 2016. Additionally, Worth Publishers donated copies of the Interactive Presentation Slides for Introductory Psychology, Volumes 1 and 2 and the Worth Video Anthology Flash Drive for Introductory Psychology to her.

TOPSS named the award this year for retired psychology teacher Charles T. Blair-Broeker, who taught for 39 years at Cedar Falls High School in Cedar Falls, Iowa, and was awarded an APA Presidential Citation in 2014 for his exemplary teaching of high school psychology.

Through APA's Education Directorate, TOPSS offers teaching materials, professional development, the Psychology Teacher Network quarterly newsletter and programs for high school psychology teachers and students. There are approximately 2,000 APA high school teacher affiliates in APA. Psychology continues to be a popular high school course, with nearly 260,000 students taking the AP psychology exam in 2014.

TOPSS’s mission is to promote the highest standards in the teaching of psychology as a science and discipline; promote professional development and other means for lifelong learning for high school teachers of psychology; facilitate networking among teachers from all teaching levels of psychology; encourage recruitment and retention of students in the field of psychology; enhance the visibility and legitimacy of high school psychology; and recommend the appropriate advocacy, education policy and certification issues that impact the quality or visibility of teaching of high school psychology. Learn more about TOPSS here and on its Facebook page.

On Monday, April 13, students from Mr. Lone and Mr. Paulin’s US History classes traveled to Skokie, Illinois to tour the Illinois Holocaust Memorial Museum and Education Center.  At the conclusion of the tour, the students, teachers, and chaperones met Ida Paluck who was a “hidden” Jewish child, rescued from the Holocaust by a Polish Catholic family and reunited with her twin brother some 50 years after the Holocaust.  A generous grant to help fund the trip was received by The Memorial Library and World War II Art Collection of New York City.

WB3 (West Bend High School Brass Band) and Milwaukee’s own, Extra Crispy Brass Band invite you to an EXTRA CRISPY and special performance on March 26 at 7 p.m. to help raise money for the transformation of the 43-year old high school auditorium. Extra Crispy Brass Band, the 2014 Wisconsin Area Music Industry’s “Horn/Big Band of The Year,” will perform their contemporary genre alongside WB3 in the Silver Lining Arts Center at the West Bend High Schools.  Tickets are available at the door and cost $10/adults or $6/students and seniors.  Listen to WB3 HERE.

WB3, composed entirely of West Bend High School musicians, is one of many extra-curricular groups meets each week after school to rehearse.  What was once a Dixieland band is now a funk, jazz, and hip-hop-influenced New Orleans-style band that performs a mix of original compositions and arrangements from some of the more popular groups in the genre like Youngblood Brass Band, Hypnotic Brass Band, Dirty Dozen Brass Band, and music by artists of very different genres converted to brass band tunes (Jackson 5, Led Zepplin).  

Athletes for the Arts Presents I'm Not a Pilot
featuring the WBHS Orchestra

WBHS Athletes for the Arts invites you to special performance from I'm Not a Pilot, featuring the WBHS Orchestra, to celebrate the Grand Opening of the Silver Lining Arts Center (formerly the WBHS auditorium) on Wednesday, April 15, 2015 at 7:30 p.m.  

Tickets cost $15/students and $20/general public and can be purchased ONLINE, or at the WBHS Bookkeeper's Office, WBSD Education Service Center, 735 S. Main St., West Bend, westbury bank, Horicon Bank and The Exclusive Company.