Hawaiian Night at WCS Football

Have you heard? The Wayne Christian Eagles are currently on a 3 game unbeaten streak. The team has already tied the previous high for wins in a regular season. With 4 games still left in the season, our record is 2-1-1. It is an exciting time to be a fan of Wayne Christan School football. 

This Friday, Wayne Christian hosts Bethel Christian at 7:00 and we need your support. The cheerleaders are hosting a Hawaiian/ Luau Night and you are invited to participate. The gates open at 5:30 and I would love to see our students and families come out to support the Wayne Christian Eagles. Remember, students get in free. 

Our players will come out to the field at 6:00 and it would be great for our fans to greet them as they come out to warm up. Make sure you are in your seat for the 7:00 kickoff. You don’t want to miss the Eagle Walk. 

Friday nights are special and this Friday night is going to be extra special. Bethel is a tough opponent and I know our kids are up to the challenge. You will be treated to a great game between two good teams with excellent players. 

See you on Friday! 

Coach Miranda 

Chromebooks

You know the saying “Not all super heroes wear capes.”  Well, I agree 100%.  We have two super heroes in our midst.
Mr. Jon Sheldon and Mr. Craig are superheroes.  They have been working tirelessly for the past three months to get our new network ready to handle all the new Chromebooks.
This summer, we upgraded our entire network with over $100,000 worth of equipment (including a fiber optic feed into the entire school).  Well, after Spectrum installed the new hardware, we ran into several issues with our firewall, routers and switches.  Mr. Sheldon worked with several different companies on a daily basis from the end of June all the way to Labor Day to identify the issues, resolve them and get our network up and running.
During this same time, Mr. Craig worked closely with Mr. Sheldon to resolve email issues so that we could assign Chromebooks to our students.
I am happy to announce that students will be receiving their Chromebooks this coming week!

Hurricane Dorian preparation

In preparation for Hurricane Dorian, the leadership team at WCS has been monitoring storm forecast reports. At this time, tropical force winds and heavy rains are expected to impact Wayne County, with conditions expected to worsen throughout the night Wednesday and into Thursday and Friday. Conditions are expected to become unsafe for travel as the storm passes through our area, and it is our desire for our staff and students to remain safe during this storm.

Due to the expected impact of tropical force winds, Wayne Christian School and Child Care Center will be closed on Thursday and Friday, September 5-6. In order to prepare our campus for the inclement weather and give our employees time to prepare their homes, extended care will be closing at 5:00 Wednesday.  Please make plans to pick up your students from extended care before 5:00 pm on Wednesday. The child care center will remain open until 6:00 on Wednesday.

The school will open on a two-hour delay on Monday, September 9 to give us time to take down our hurricane preparations and put the campus back together to hold classes.  Morning extended care will be available beginning at 7:00 Monday morning, and the child care center will operate on normal hours.

Updates will be posted to waynechristian.org and the WCS Facebook page, as well as sent out via email, text, and phone call.

Talent Show Auditions

Do you have a child with talent? Does your child want to showcase that
talent at the Wayne County Fair? If so, we want YOUR child to come to talent
show auditions for the Wayne County Fair! Students can compete in the following areas:

  • Instrumental Solo (Keyboard, piano, stringed, or other)
  • Novelty Act Solo (Recitation, skit, baton twirling, ventriloquist, etc.)
  • Vocal Solo
  • Instrumental Group (Keyboard, piano, stringed instrument)
  • Group Novelty Act (Puppetry, skit, acrobatics, baton, etc.)
  • Vocal Group (Duet, trio, quartet, groups up to eight vocalists)
  • Large vocal group (groups of nine or larger)

Auditions for the talent show will be held in the music room (Room 119):

  • Tuesday, September 10: Elementary @ 3 P.M.
  • Thursday, September 12: Middle School and High School @ 3 P.M.

What you need to know:

  • Students will be evaluated by a panel of judges, and selected based on an average of scores.
  • Vocalists must bring the CD track with them to auditions that they plan on using during the talent show. Musicians should pick a Christian song. Inappropriate song choices will result in disqualification by the judges. I am available to approve song selections if there are any questions or concerns.
    • A keyboard and CD player will be available for use, but the fair does not provide other instruments or allow music to be streamed over phone, MP3 players, or other devices. Pantomime and lip-syncing are not allowed. Vocalists must sing with a karaoke style CD that is labeled with the contestants’ name and school. Tapes are not accepted.
  • All contestants should come dressed in their performance outfit/costume.
  • Talent entries must be no longer than three minutes. The fair will automatically disqualify contestants who have acts that exceed the time limit (even by one second).
  • Any previous first place winner is not eligible to participate in the same category in the same grade division.
  • We ask that talent reflect the values of WCS. Clothing, music, or talent category cannot change after final selections are made. The school is limited to one entry per talent category per grade division. No more than four entries per school, per grade division, with a limit of four talent entries per school, per grade division.
  • STUDENTS WHO ARE AUDITIONING MUST SIGN UP TO AUDITION ON THE SHEET HANGING ON THE MUSIC ROOM DOOR. STUDENTS MUST COME WITH THE CD THEY PLAN ON USING AND IN PERFORMANCE DRESS. STUDENTS WHO PLAN ON AUDITIONING MUST RETURN THE ATTACHED PERMISSION SLIP BY TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 3.

The talent show will take place on Thursday October 3, 2019. The gates
will open at 4:00 P.M. and the show will start at 4:30. Contestants must arrive at the Entertainment Arena at least 15 minutes before the designated start time for each division. There is no charge to park at the county fair, but you may want to bring some cash for food and spending money. The fair will provide a ticket for contestants and ONE parent. Parents are responsible to pay for the cost of fair tickets for themselves and any siblings/other family members.

wayne-christian-talent-showDownload

The Social Contract in the Classroom

I believe that relationships are important.  The relationship between teacher and students is of utmost importance when developing a great learning environment.  To help build these relationships, we are working with each class to develop agreements of behavior, rather than just declaring classroom rules.
We call these agreements Social Contracts, and we’ve been working on them in our classrooms over the past week.  It is a process we are using to develop a basis for how we are going to treat each other.  We are using the process from Preschool all the way through High School.
The process is simple.  The teacher poses a series of questions, and the class discusses their answers.  Here are the questions:

  • How do you want to be treated by me, the teacher?
  • How do you want to be treated by each other?
  • How do you think I want to be treated by you?
  • How will we treat each other in times of conflict?

We want to instill in each student that they are responsible for their behavior.  But, we also want them to express how they would like to be treated and to have a conversation about what that looks like.
Mrs. Clatturbuck’s kindergarten class not only talked about how to treat each other, they acted out each of the different things in their contract and put the pictures on the contract! 
I believe wholeheartedly in this process.  We even have a contract at home.  If you want to learn more about it, I’d love to talk with you.

Paul Brenner, WCS Administrator

Subscribing to Calendars

As we are switching our email server over to the Google Suite for Education, we are also moving our school and athletic calendars to be maintained in our organizational G-Suite. Many of you have subscribed to our calendars to sync with your personal calendars, and those subscriptions will need to be updated. If you are interested in following our calendars, they can be found at:

School Calendar: http://www.waynechristian.org/wcs-family/parents/event-directory/

Athletic calendars: http://www.waynechristian.org/athletics/spring-sports/

To subscribe to a Google calendar:

1.Follow the link above to the calendar you want to follow.

2. Click on the +GoogleCalendar link at the bottom of the calendar.

3. You should be taken to a new window with a list of calendar options. For the school calendar, there is only one option to choose. For the athletic calendar, you can subscribe to every sport or choose just a few.

4. Select the calendars you want to follow and click on “add all” in the bottom right corner of the selection box.

The calendars you selected should now be added to your personal calendar and will sync across any device that has your personal Google calendar on it.

Help the Art Room

Someone recently asked me how I was enjoying my new role and I had to pause and remember that my role changed slightly from last year when I was the elementary principal. This year I have the pleasure of being the k-12 principal and working with all of the students and all of the teachers. 
My role is not the only thing that has changed this year. One of the biggest changes this school year is how we have separated our art class. We are extremely blessed to have Mrs. Craig joining our staff and teaching middle school and high school art. Mrs. Stovall is doing an outstanding job teaching art to our elementary students. 
One of the challenges of separating the art classroom into two separate rooms is being able to have enough supplies in each room for the students to use. Mrs. Craig and Mrs. Stovall have put together an Amazon Wishlist of items that they need for their classroom. My hope is that our school family will come together to help these teachers stock their art classrooms for all of our students to benefit.

Mr. Miranda

Mrs. Craig – https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/3CMM5WUJ4O025?ref_=wl_share

Mrs. Stovall – https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/RJVKP7KBG6IQ?type=wishlist

Why do we let them play football?

On Friday, the WCS football team stepped out on the field for the first game in two years. We faced a tough opponent, and several of our players–including my son–ended up injured. The question has been raised, so why do we let our sons play football? Isn’t the risk too high? Shannon Daniels, the mother of three of the homeschool students on our team, eloquently answered those questions in a Facebook post Sunday afternoon. This is why we let them play.

Paul Brenner, WCS Administrator

The post below is from Shannon Daniels

As many of you know, Friday night’s football game was tough. We had 4 players injured and taken out of the game. 3 of them went to the ER and one of them remains in the hospital after surgery. So…..it’s not a crazy question…..and one I’m getting asked frequently: Why are you letting your boys play football? So I figured I’d answer the question here.

When I look at those boys, I don’t just see high school football players having a good time. I see future soldiers, firefighters, paramedics, linemen, and missionaries. I see young men who are being trained to be brave and take chances.

1. Team. There really is no “I” in team. These boys are working together. Last week, the bus broke down after a scrimmage. They sat on the interstate for two hours in the heat with no A/C….sweaty post-game football players. I texted each of my sons and offered to come get them. But they wouldn’t leave the team. 
2. Discipline. I’ve never seen more bruises, more sweat, more fatigue, or more drive. A large portion of the team spent their summer conditioning at 7 am each morning and sometimes again in the evening. 
3. Bravery. Ok. This is the one that gets me. This is the real reason I let them play. These boys are running straight into the face of adversity. They know it’s gonna hurt and they realize they may get injured. But I gotta tell you, I’ve never seen more bravery than I did Friday night when those boys kept fearlessly taking the field, even after their teammate/friend left the field on a stretcher. When I look at those boys, I don’t just see high school football players having a good time. I see future soldiers, firefighters, paramedics, linemen, and missionaries. I see young men who are being trained to be brave and take chances. When Jim Elliott set out to reach the Auca Tribe in Ecuador, it was a calculated risk. They were a murderous people and no one had survived the effort to share the gospel with them. And yet, Jim Elliott and four of his cohorts took that chance. And by God’s sovereignty and the death of all 5 of them, the Lord miraculously saved the tribe and the power of the Gospel of Jesus defeated that murderous evil.

But what does that have to do with football? We’re teaching these boys that it’s ok to be brave. DO HARD THINGS. One of these boys may storm a battlefield in war or fly a fighter jet one day fighting for our country’s freedom. One may run into a burning home and retrieve your loved one. One may race to the scene of an accident and fearlessly rescue your family. One may face the elements of hurricane or ice so you can maintain the comfort you expect in your home. One may take the Gospel to an unreached people group….or maybe share the gospel with his coworker or classmate even if it makes him unpopular. The bottom line, I see brave young men, willing to take a hit and keep pushing forward. This is why I let them play. This is why I’m cheering for them.

From the administrator’s office

Memo

RE: Organizational Changes

Date: 8/5/2019

From: Mr. Brenner

In an effort to better support the WCS faculty, the administrative team is undergoing some structural changes.  With better-defined roles, we feel that we can provide the curriculum and classroom support our teachers need to be the best teachers they can be as they educate the students that have been entrusted to our care.

The new administrative structure is as follows:

  1. Mr. Brenner is still the administrator and head of school. He will also be working as the interim athletic director until an athletic director is hired.
  2. Mr. Miranda’s new title is K-12 Principal and Assistant Director of Advancement. He will provide support for teachers at all levels, as well as work with admissions, development, and advancing the school’s mission.
  3. Mrs. Ford’s new title is Assistant Administrator of Curriculum and Advisement. She is tasked with developing a college/career advisement office, leading the accreditation team, and curriculum improvement. She is available for curriculum/lesson plan support for both elementary and upper school teachers and will be working closely with teachers on curriculum as we prepare for re-accreditation in the next few years.
  4. Mrs. Anderson is now the assistant principal for middle school and high school, as well as the activities coordinator.  She is available to help middle school and high school teachers with classroom/lesson plan support and will serve as the first level of discipline for upper school students who behave out of the classroom.
  5. Mr. Craig is coming to us from Texas, where he has served as a children’s pastor for the last five years. He holds a Master’s of Divinity in Christian Education from Southeastern Theological Seminary.  He will serve as the assistant principal for elementary and teach some high school Bible classes.
  6. Mrs. Burt is moving from the high school office to the administrative building. She will continue to work as the registrar and will take over the accounts receivable office. We are sad to see Kala Coates leave us next week.

Questions about these changes can be addressed to Mr. Brenner or Mr. Miranda.