News & Announcements

We capture the morning announcements from May 6, 2022 for both the freshman and main campuses.

In 2019, Lakota West math teacher Jenny Circello introduced the concept of a flipped classroom to her students and she hasn’t looked back. In fact, she’s taken it up a notch by creating MESH Workshop with Lakota West English teacher Kelsey Gelhaus. Together, they’re challenging students to own their learning.

The program of study for Lakota West Freshman students grew by 40 courses last Tuesday. The resounding theme: “Real World 101.” For a third year, students were given the opportunity to “choose their own adventures.”

A district-wide “Walk 4 Hope” on April 19 underscored the importance of mental health and wellness at all ages. Lakota West’s Hope Squad - a peer-to-peer suicide prevention program focused on spreading positivity and building awareness around mental health - encouraged all Lakota students and staff to “pause” in the form of a midday lap around their building.

“We are One” is a new art installation filling the hallways at Lakota West. The sixty larger than life photos of in-person and VLO students are part of a global participatory art project called “Inside Out.”

Some of Lakota’s oldest and youngest learners shared a unique learning experience last week when Lakota West’s Symphonic Winds zoomed into Alyssa Carr’s Liberty Early Childhood kindergarten class. While COVID has posed many challenges over the past year, it has also resulted in many creative and fun collaborations like this one.

When given the chance to find a problem and solve it, students in Jim McClure’s Engineering Design & Development capstone class looked no further than the halls of Lakota West High School. In the end, their work in the Butler Tech satellite course yielded industry-recognized certifications and viable solutions to two different challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic this school year.

A month marked by acts of kindness and anti-bullying messages at Lakota West High School culminated in “Duck Duck Hope Week,” where rubber ducks sprinkled all over campus had but one purpose: to send students and staff off to Thanksgiving break on a positive note. 

Real World Learning has even more meaning when the project helps a teacher. See how Taylor Blackburn, Jonah Dangel and Amane Ohhashi designed a shoe for English teacher Kendra Herber’s prosthetic leg in their Introduction to Engineering Design class at West Freshman. The class is led by teacher Scott Fetzer and is through Butler Tech’s Project Lead the Way program.  

Under the leadership of social studies teacher Jennifer Parrett, the small group meets twice a week during the school’s 30-minute advisory time to build community, self-confidence and character. The group is a companion to a similar program for West Freshman’s male students called “Setup for Success.”