1000 NEW WESTMINISTER DR, THORNHILL, ON, L4J 8G3

Westmount CI

Message from Admin 2

This week & News 3—5

Guidance 6

Events / Workshops 7—15

Looking Ahead 16

School Bus Info 17

Inside this issue:

Please check our website regularly for updates.

� NEWS & EVENTS

� PARENTS

� SCHOOL CALENDAR

April 20—May1

Attendance: 905.882.0277 x 238

Principal: Sheri Epstein

Vice-Principal: Lisa Wargo

Vice-Principal: Sheldon Zelsman

Dear Parents/Guardians:

Spring is here and we are finally enjoying some nice weather. It is a busy and exciting time at Westmount with so many events and activities planned to celebrate the current school year, while at the same time, we are making important preparations for next year. Mid-term report cards will be distributed to students during homeroom class on Friday, April 24. The June final examination schedule has now been posted on the school website. Please make note of these dates when making summer plans. Exams must be written.

What have we been up to?

We enjoyed a successful Spring Award’s Assembly that was standing room only! At this ceremony, students received awards for merit and highest average in their course. Awards are given out by grade and course code.

The Westmount Jr. and Senior Hockey Teams competed in 7 tournaments at York Univer-sity, making it to the finals on all counts. The Sr. boys won two out of three tournaments, while the Jr. boys won all three tournaments and were invited to compete in the Jr. Clas-sic. Unfortunately, the Jr. boys lost 5-4 in the finals against Franco-Cité (Ottawa-Carleton Board). We are very proud of the players and impressed by their hard work and determi-nation. A big thank you goes out to coaches Robert Grossi and Neil Orlowsky, for devot-ing so much time to our students. Go Wolves!

Over 50 Grade 9 students attended the ‘Count Me In’ Conference at the Sony Centre in downtown Toronto on April 14, 2015. ‘Count Me In’ is a youth led organization that pro-vides teens with the tools, resources & mentorship, in order to inspire community volun-teerism, and grassroots social innovation.  Thank you to Marta Srulovicz, Neil Orlowsky, Andrea Santos, Rod Conte, Cynthia Jackson, Joanna Lambert, and David Pressman for chaperoning and making this great learning opportunity for our students possible.

A number of Westmount Students participated in a ‘Vow of Silence’ in support of the inter-nationally recognized charity Free the Children.

On March 26, all Grade 10 students in the province wrote the OSSLT. Results will be sent to the school in early June.

Student council hosted a successful Semi-Formal at On the Rox, with music provided by the Magan Boys Entertainment. A good time was had by all.

A big congratulation goes out to the grade 9 concert band for achieving a Platinum rating at the York Region Music Alive Festival. Thank you to Mr. Knight and Mr. Nixon for all of their support.

As mentioned, the last few months of school are a busy time for your children. Please encourage them to stay on top of their school work, seek extra help from their teachers and feel free to con-tact us should you have any questions.

Ms. Wargo

Vice Principal

Message from Admin Team

Tuesday, April 21 Ridvan Begins Thursday, April 23 Arts Gala—City Playhouse (pm) Friday, April 24 Report Card Distribution—homeroom Monday,April 27 Valedictorian Nomination Opens School Climate Survey - P1-5 - Library

Tuesday, April 28 School Climate Survey (P1-5) Friday, May 1 Valedictorian Nomination Closes

These 2 Weeks

York Region District School Board Student Surveys In order to provide information for Board and School planning, York District School Board students in Grades 5-12 will be invited to participate in a school survey. The survey, which is anonymous and confi-dential will be conducted from April 7 to May 15, 2015 and will take place at school. The information will be used to identify areas to be addressed, monitor progress and plan strategies to support achievement and well-being. Aligned with Board priorities, the survey will address topics including equity and inclusion, school safety, learning environment, student well-being and other priorities. If you have questions, please contact the school office.

Kerry's Place Connection News and information for all those connected to Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)

Spring 2015: Issue 7 We've gone mobile friendly!

Library News

Please see NEWS & EVENTS section of our school site for the June 2015 Exams and Exams Feedback Day Schedules. The June 2015 Exam Guidelines are forthcoming, and will be posted to the same drop-down tab. Links to this important information have also been included on both the PARENTS NEWSLET-TERS and ANNOUNCEMENT pages for everyone’s easy retrieval.

DECA INTERNATIONALS Six Westmount students will be joining the 17,000+ students, from across the world, to compete at this year's DECA International Competitions in Orlando, Florida. The Westmount team, along with Mr. Coates, will depart with DECA Ontario on Thursday, April 23, returning Thursday, April 3o. Benji Saltz is competing in the Entrepreneurial Venture - Independent category, Brad Perez is competing in the Hotel & Lodging case category, Jonah Prousky & Josh Shapiro are competing together with their new product pro-posal while Daniel Weisberg & Ari Perez are competing together in growing their venture category. We wish them all luck in winning!

What's Happening at Co-op

Jessica Shulman is a Grade 11 Co-op student completing her placement at SNAPD Vaughan East. SNAPD newspapers are distributed locally around Ontario. Jessica, has been given the opportunity to run two columns “Word on the Street” and “Jessica’s Corner at Westmount”. For each column, she asks ques-tions to different students and teachers. Then, their picture and response goes in the paper for a specific month. This is a great opportunity for Jessica as she is only 17 years old and already published, which is something people strive to do their whole life. These columns are great as they are very student based and allow for student voice on a variety of topics. She writes these columns hoping to inspire and motivate peo-ple with her creativity.

April 16, 2015

Dear Westmount Families and Community Members:

The York Region Police pedestrian safety program is a collaborative initiative with York Re-gional Police and the Regional Municipality of York. The objective is to educate motorists, stu-dents, parents and teachers of the importance of pedestrian safety in school zones, espe-cially during school hours. In addition, the focus of this year’s campaign is on distracted driv-ers and to reinforce the importance of crossing only at intersections or designated crosswalks and to walk, not run, across the road and always make eye contact with drivers.

To that end, York Regional Police officers will be out enforcing the rules of the road, pedes-trian safety and educating motorists on safe driving in school zones as part of the Spring into Summer Campaign.

Parents and students should expect to see a heightened police and media presence in the area of Westmount Collegiate Institute, located at 1000 New Westminster Drive, Vaughan, on Thursday, April 23, 2015, from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m.

Officers will be on hand reminding students of the appropriate places to safely and lawfully cross roads around their school. Officers will also be reminding drivers that the Highway Traf-fic Act states that all motorists must yield to pedestrians that are lawfully crossing the road-way. Motorists must always be prepared to stop when approaching a crosswalk and are re-minded that pedestrians expect drivers to stop. Motorists will also be advised of the conse-quences for breaking the law in designated Community Safety Zones. In addition, the officers will be looking out for distracted drivers; those on the phone, texting, eating, etc while in the driver’s seat.

York Region Police will also be hosting an assembly on April 23rd for our grade 11 and 12 stu-dents on the importance of safe driving and the dangers of distracted driving.

For further information please contact York Regional Police Media Relations Officers at

1-866-876-5423, ext. 2664.

Guidance Appointments Need an appointment with your Guidance Counsellor? Here’s how to book and appointment: https://sites.google.com/site/wciguidance/

Westmount Guidance Website

The Guidance website is updated on a regular basis. Students should regularly check the website to ensure they are up-to-date with what is happening in the school. For example, our grade 12 graduates should check out the “Graduating Class NEWS” page #wcigrads.

Did you know that each page of the Guidance website has been identified with a Twitter #hash tag? For example, the main page with the list of upcoming events has been labeled #wcievent. The Grads News page is labeled #wcigrads. These hash tags will make it easier to find news and information that has been posted to Twitter. If you type #wcigrads in the search box on your Twitter screen you will get a list of all tweets regarding news and events for our graduating class. Check it out at https://sites.google.com/site/wciguidance/

Prom

Senior Prom is Thursday May 7. All the venue details are on the ticket. PLEASE NOTE! The Bellvue Manor entrance at Prom will close at 7:00 p.m. sharp. Students arriving after 7:00 p.m. will not be allowed into the venue. Unfortunately, there are no exceptions to this rule. To accommodate for rush-hour traffic, weather condi-tions and road construction, it is recommended that students leave home by 5:45 p.m. at the very latest. This is a reminder that every car, bus and limo will be inspected by an Administrator before students can enter the Prom venue. #wcigrads https://sites.google.com/site/wciguidance/graduation

Westmount Guidance

WCIGuidance

Stay in the Loop Follow WestmountGuidance on Facebook and @WCIGuidance on Twitter. Visit the Guidance website regularly for important news, information and announcements. https://sites.google.com/site/wciguidance/home

Prom / Graduation

Prom and Graduation Ticket night has come and gone. All grade 12 students have purchased their Prom Tickets and picked-up their Gradua-tion Ceremony Tickets/Cap/Gown. Additional tickets for the Graduation Ceremony will be re-lease for sale the week of June 1. Please follow us @WCIGuidance #wcigrads. https://sites.google.com/site/wciguidance/graduation

Valedictorian Nomination and Voting

Our graduating class can submit their nominations for Valedictorian beginning April 27. Nominations close on May 1. Voting will take place in the Guidance office May 4 to 7 and the Valedictorian will be announced on May 8. #wcigrads https://sites.google.com/site/wciguidance/graduation

Semester 2 Full Disclosure

Full Disclosure for grade 11 and 12 students is Friday, May 1. Courses dropped before May 1 will not appear on the official transcript but WILL appear on their se-mester 2 mid-term report card. #dropacourse https://sites.google.com/site/wciguidance/dropping-a-course

An ambivalent Cinderella? A blood-thirsty Little Red Ridinghood? A Prince Charming with a rov-ing eye? All characters in James Lapine and Stephen Sondheim's fractured fairy tale. Don't miss Arts Westmount's brilliant production May 27-29, 2015 at 8pm. Tickets are 15$ adults, $10 Stu-dents-available online at westmount.bpt.me, or at the door.

Looking Ahead

Monday, May 4 Staff Meeting Valedictorian Voting Thursday, May 7 Valedictorian Voting Closed PROM Friday, May 8 PA Day—Regional Day Wednesday, May 13 School Council

Su Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sa March 31

* Spring Awards Assembly (P1)

1 *Gr.12 Final Graduation

Prep Assembly *Parents’ Night

2

3 *Good Friday

*Passover Begins

4

5 6 *Easter Monday

7

8 9 10 *Holly Friday (Eastern)

11

12 13 14 *Vaisakhi

*Count Me in Conference

15 *Graduation/Prom

Ticket Night

16

17 *Vow of Silence—for

Free the Children

18

19 20 21 *Ridvan Begins

22 23 *Arts Gala PM City

Playhouse *OUAC File Transmission

24 *Report Card

Distribution

25

26 27 *Valedictorian

Nomination Opens

28 29 30

Apr i l 20 1 5

To ensure the safety of students, school bus service may be cancelled due to inclement weather, extreme temperatures and/or poor road conditions. In these cases, parents and students should develop alternate care/transportation arrangements.

Since some busing schedules begin by 7:00 a.m., cancellation decisions must be made by 6:00 a.m. to allow time to communicate this message to bus drivers. Cancellation decisions will only be made after thorough consultation with the Safety Officers of school bus companies servicing York Region and are based on several factors including precipitation, air temperature, road conditions and weather forecast.

Please note the following;

A decision to cancel school bus service will be region-wide meaning all school buses, vans and taxis will not operate.

When bus service is cancelled all school tests and/or examinations will be cancelled and rescheduled.

Student trips involving the use of school buses will also be cancelled.

School bus routes may be cancelled when severe weather may not be affecting all municipali-ties in York Region. Both the YRDSB and YCDSB operate many regional educational programs. Stu-dents attending these programs are transported over large attendance areas encompassing several mu-nicipal boundaries. This limits the ability to cancel bus service using a municipality or zone methodology.

Unless otherwise stated, schools will remain open and parents can make arrangements to transport their children to and from school even if school bus service is cancelled. If buses are cancelled in the morn-ing, they will not operate in the afternoon. Therefore students transported to school by parents will require the same transportation home.

Parents, students and school staff are asked to access the following radio and television stations after 6:00 a.m. to receive bus cancellation information:

RADIO

590 AM 640 AM 680 AM 860 AM 1010 AM 1050 AM

1540 AM 1580 AM 88.5 FM 89.9 FM 92.5 FM 93.1 FM

94.9 FM 95.9 FM 97.3 FM 98.1 FM 99.1 FM 99.9 FM

101.1 FM 102.1 FM 104.5 FM 100.7 FM 107.1 FM

TELEVISION

CITY TV CTV Barrie CTV Toronto CP24 GLOBAL NEWS

A bus cancellation message will also be available at www.schoolbuscity.com and by calling 1-877-330-3001, or by follow-ing the YRDSB and YCDSB on twitter.

School Bus Cancellation Notice