La Grande School District www.lagrandesd.org Volume 3, Issue 3 • September 2019 La Grande Pride Love, Care, Serve La Grande High School, La Grande Middle School, Central Elementary, Greenwood Elementary, Island City Elementary CALENDAR OF EVENTS Board Meetings: September 11, 2019 October 9, 2019 November 20, 2019 All are on Wednesdays at 7:00 p.m., District Offi ce Conference room La Grande Middle School School Pictures are scheduled for Thursday, September 12th. Retakes will be Friday, October 18th. Picture packets will be available in the school offi ce and students will be given a packet in advisory. Greenwood Elementary Picture/Screening Day Sept. 3rd, all school day Central Elementary Open House - September 10 5-5:30 Kindergarten/1st grade 5:35-6:05 2nd/3rd grade 6:10-6:40 4th/5th grade 6:40-7:00 wrap up in the resource fair Pictures - Sept. 18 Hearing screening - Sept. 19 Vision screening - Sept. 26 Island City Elementary Sept 13 - Vision Screenings Sept 17 - Co-ed Volleyball begins (4th & 5th grades) Sept 17 - Fiddle Club Parent Meet- ing 6:00-8:00 Sept 25-27 - Dental Screenings and Sealants Sept 27 - PICTURE DAY WELCOME NEW ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL Monica West serves Central and Middle School By Trish Yerges “During the last seven years, I was a principal The La Grande School of an elementary school District welcomes Monica and prior to that I was an West as the new assistant assistant principal at our principal at Central El- middle school. Before ementary and LG Middle that I was the K-12 math School this year. instructional specialist She and her husband, for the district and I also George, relocated to Union taught middle school and West County from the Olympia, high school math and sci- Washington school district ence.” in July, and she started her new posi- Like many high school students, tion with the LGSD in early August. West said she was inspired by one of She comes to the district with solid her own teachers, who interested her teaching and administration creden- in public education. “I had a really tials and 25 years in public educa- great high school biology teacher tion. who got me excited about biology and “I went to the college of Idaho and teaching, so that’s how I got started,” got a bachelor of science and biology she said. degree, then I moved to Washington The Wests are parents of two State where I got my teaching en- children who are currently attending dorsement,” she said. “Then I went school at Oregon State, Corvallis. to the University of Portland and got “Our son is a mechanical engineer a masters of educational leadership, and our daughter is a fi nance and followed by Seattle Pacifi c University, business major,” she said. where I got my administrative cre- West is a graduate of Ontario dentials in 2003.” High School and always liked East- She has spent 25 years in the ern Oregon, so returning to a drier Olympia Washington district that has geographic area was very appealing to her. “I just wanted to be back in a student population of 10,000. Eastern Oregon. I saw the job and was just excited for the opportunity,” she said. For the past three years, she said she had been in construction proj- ects in her building in Olympia, and she was looking for something a little different. When she saw the opening for a half-time elementary/ middle school assistant principal, she thought she would apply. “I’ll have about 1,000 kids and over 100 staff members in both buildings,” West said. “It will be fun.” Compared to her last post in the Olympia Washington district, West said she will defi nitely have a greater student population here to care for, and two buildings instead of the one in Olympia. Overall, it is a step-up in responsibility, but she is looking forward to it. “For right now, I will spend morn- ings at Central and afternoons at the Middle School,” she said. “I’m excited to be on board and to get to meet all the families and students and see what I can do to help them be suc- cessful in whatever way that means for each family and student.” The word on Enrollment... enrollment numbers as of September 4, 2019 Central Elementary 471 students Greenwood Elementary 295 students Island City Elementary 295 students Middle School 574 students High School 703 students Total Elementary Enrollment 1,072 students LGSD Total Enrollment 2,369 students