Principal's Page
Joe Tibaldi, Principal
Welcome to the 2010-2011 school year at Traverse City West Senior High School!! I hope your summer was relaxing and that you were able to spend quality time with family and friends enjoying all the Traverse City area has to offer.
This summer has been a very busy one at West Senior High as we move to the new “Neighborhood” configuration at West. The move to Neighborhoods, or Smaller Learning Communities, was done to provide all students with a more rigorous and relevant curriculum through increase relationships with each other and the staff. We also hope to increase communication home to parents as all 9th and 10th grade students will work with a team of teachers in math, language arts, science and social studies and all student will have an advisor.
In addition to the Neighborhood concept, students will also have an advisory class twice a week. For 9th grade students, the advisory class will center around the questions: How can I develop the skills to help adjust as a high school student? The 10th grade will focus on the question: What can I do to become an effective/contributing member in my school community? The 11st grade question is: What can I do to better prepare for my post-secondary life? And finally, 12th grade will focus on the question: How can I best serve others and myself?
Again, these changes will provide a more rigorous curriculum with more relevant experience done in a highly personalized environment. The Traverse City West Senior High School motto of “Where knowing and being known matter!” will produce increased student results and a student better prepared for the transition to post-secondary education or careers.
For the third year in a row, MME and ACT scores improved and we continue to be higher than the state average. The past school year, MME language arts and writing stayed the same, and reading increased 2%. In math, student proficiency was up 4% and 2% in science. Ninety percent of the students were proficient in social studies. The ACT composite score improved from 20.90 to 21.20. We also continue to excel in Advance Placement as 95% of the Calculus students, 92% of the English students, 89% of the science students and 78% of the social students passed the exam with 3 or above. Nationally between 50-60% of students pass Advance Placement tests. Obviously we are very proud of our students!!
Throughout the summer, I took some time to read some of the current research on parental involvement at school and its impact on student achievement. Guess what? Very little has changed! Research still points out that the more parents are involved with the school, the higher the academic success of the student. Our students have had great success at T.C. West Senior High School, but there is always room for improvement.
I sincerely believe that your active involvement can make this a better place for students, staff, parents and community members. Please consider volunteering in the Noon Activity Program (NAP). Be an Academic, Athletic or Music Booster. Attend the monthly West Parent Advisory Committee (WPAC) activities and come to co-curricular events. Visit a class and use Parent Viewer to keep current with classroom assignments and your student’s grades. Use the T.C. West Senior High web site (www2.tcaps.net/wsh) to access daily announcements, and e-mail or call me if you have any questions or concerns.
Since our opening in 1998, we have worked hard to establish a school environment based upon mutual cooperation, respect, and high expectations for all. We believe the foundation of this positive school culture rests within our Standards of Practice. The Standards were mutually developed and are reviewed annually by parents, students and staff to serve as a guide for our school. We believe that a continuing commitment by everyone puts our school standards into practice and plays an important role in the continued success of T.C. West Senior High School.
T.C. WEST SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL
STANDARDS OF PRACTICE
We will treat all people with dignity, honesty, respect and trust.
We will be positive contributors.
We will foster a safe and orderly environment.
We will provide all students opportunities for success.
We will demonstrate quality work.
Thank you for sending us such great young adults!! Enjoy the last few weeks of summer. I hope to see you at registrations, Parent Orientation on August 26th and throughout the school year at our events and activities.
Joe Tibaldi, Principal
We cordially invite you to attend the following West Parent Advisory meetings for the 2010/2011 school year:
Monday, September 28
Monday, October 25
Monday, November 29
Monday, January 24
Monday, February 21
Monday, April 25
Monday, May 23
All meetings take place in the library and begin at 7 pm. These meetings are open to all parents and we encourage your attendance. This important group helps us to make decisions that affect all students.
We hope to see you there!