Thursday, December 20, 2018
Tuesday, December 18, 2018
Monday, December 17, 2018
Ugly Sweater Contest
Please vote during your Flash time Monday or Tuesday. Winner will be announced Thursday.
Sunday, December 16, 2018
Ritz, Willard educational team recognized
WILLARD CITY SCHOOLS
http://www.norwalkreflector.com/Education/2018/12/16/Ritz-educational-team-recognized.html?ci=stream&lp=14&p=1
ZOE GRESZLER
WILLARD — The Crimson Flashes’ superintendent, Jeff Ritz, has been recognized for his hard work and imitation-worthy leadership. He said the award instead should go to the entire Willard team that stands behind him.
Ritz recently received the Saluting Exemplary Education Leadership award from the Buckeye Association of School Administrators, the state superintendent association. In order to qualify, a superintendent must be nominated by another superintendent in his or her region.
Recipients, according to the award, should have outstanding educational leadership “which has resulted in the enhancement and improvement of educational opportunities for the elementary and secondary students of Ohio.”
Ritz said he’s not sure who nominated him, but said he doesn’t feel comfortable accepting the award solely on his own behalf.
“It’s an award for the whole educational staff I feel,” he said.
“I’m going to say (we received the award) because of the great things that our educational leaders do in our school system. I’m very happy and very proud and there are great things in the future for them.”
Ritz said the first thing comes to mind when considering what specific accomplishment would have earned the nomination is “the culture change” about bullying the district has striven for over the past two years.
“(I’m) very happy with the implementation of our culture change and with the amount of time and effort that’s gone into trying to change our attitude toward bullying. And how that (change) has effected the education of our students and the staff — all of the benefits of culture changes,” he said.
Ritz said the team always is focusing on implementing “educational learning strategies,” meaning even the principals and other administrators are receiving education on how to be the best educational leaders. He said they then pass that instruction onto the teachers.
“We have the teachers with the Leader in Me program and its implementation in the elementary school and the anti-bullying curriculum at the middle school and the mentoring at the high school level. Everyone’s doing a great job of improving the culture and in turn that will improve our district.
“This award, it’s because of them,” he said.
Friday, December 14, 2018
Culture change going 'far better than expected' in Willard City Schools
http://www.norwalkreflector.com/Education/2018/12/14/No-matter-what-you-do-you-re-never-going-to-prevent-bullying.html?ci=stream&lp=5&p=1
WILLARD CITY SCHOOLS
WILLARD CITY SCHOOLS
Culture change going 'far better than expected' in Willard City Schools
ZOE GRESZLER • TODAY AT 4:00 AM
WILLARD — Is this a bullying problem or a culture problem? Do students want to come to school? Do they understand pride? Do they know how to treat other people?
Considering these questions has allowed the Willard City Schools district to pinpoint exactly where its problems lie, and to address those issues, producing “great” results.
“Things are going far better than expected,” superintendent Jeff Ritz said.
Since implementing a personal development program called “The Leader in Me” at the beginning of the school year, administrators has seen discipline referrals cut in half.
That didn’t happen by accident or by chance, Ritz said. The district has put up a hard fight to combat what it deemed a “culture issue.”
“About two years ago, we had a group of parents that were angry about the bullying that goes on, or what they interpret to be bullying,” he said. “Whether anyone decides if it is bullying or not, it’s a culture problem. And we have to address that culture problem.”
On April 2, 2017, Caleb Hershiser, 14-year-old Willard student, committed suicide in his family’s home, sparking a loud outcry against bullying in the district.
Police had received a tip that bullying might have played a role in the youth’s death. However, nothing found during the investigation “would indicate the cause of Caleb’s death was related to any sort of criminal act or provocation such as bullying that would have contributed to Caleb’s death,” the Huron County Prosecutor’s Office reported.
His mother, Anna Hershiser, launched an anti-bullying campaign that includes a billboard with a picture of her late son.
Bullying, whether actual or perceived, was still in the district, however. During the past two years, Willard school officials held a number of seminars and community events, altered its curriculum to fit anti-bullying ideas throughout the course work, altered the school’s atmosphere and even the way it’s able to respond to potential emergencies.
“I’m very proud about what this group has done,” Ritz said of the administrators spearheading the schools culture change.
“You try to get kids to make better decisions, but no matter what you do, you’re never going to prevent bullying from happening. It’s an impossibility to prevent. ... How can I stop you from doing it until after you’ve done it? I can’t punish you, so to speak, until you’ve stumbled. But what we’ve really looked at is getting you the intervention needed and then saying, ‘Don’t do it again.’”
Improving culture from the inside out
School board members received a small collection of papers that outlined each of the district’s bullying-related reports submitted during the last six months. The superintendent said each student who has been bullied, is the bully or is recommended for expulsion is required — along with his/her parents or guardians — to go through a two-hour counseling session, the cost of which is covered by the district.
Willard also had inspirational, positive messages painted on the corridors throughout the school, again helping to change the culture even in small ways. The murals share messages such as “Right is right even if nobody is doing it. Wrong is wrong even if everybody is doing it,” “The world is full of good people. If you can’t find one, be one,” and “Do good deeds. Make someone smile.” Ritz said new murals will be painted in January as a way to continue promoting positive messages.
Another method used to change the district’s culture is education — for the students, but also for the school staff and community.
The district has brought in authorities to discuss varying topics oriented around bullying, suicide prevention, treating people right and more. One example includes the recent suicide gatekeeper training with The Ohio State University, which Ritz said offers the “foremost experts in the country.” All counselors, three teachers and two administrators went through the training.
Suicide gatekeeping training will be offered in an evening training session for local parents. Ritz said he intends to make it mandatory for all administrators, and eventually for the entire school staff.
And on Jan. 24, a two-hour community session on school safety and bullying will be offered at the school.
In the students’ curriculum, the anti-bullying sentiments have worked in both obvious and subtle ways.
“One thing that we worked on with the staff is, ‘What can you do to change the culture?’ You can change the culture just by little things like this,” Ritz said. “So our curriculum is embedded with different anti-bullying slogans.”
Ritz also said the school psychologist “is going into the classrooms with teachers and teaching a curriculum on how to be aware if a student is being bullied — what to look for. They use training videos. The middle school kids have created the training videos for all these other kids.”
Creating the training videos served as a computer skills lesson for the students.
“You’re teaching these technical computer skills, teaching what the state tells us we have to,” Ritz said, “But you’re using (anti-)bullying as the vehicle.”
Training other schools
Willard’s many-faceted project to reduce bullying and create a better atmosphere for the students has been noticed because “it works,” Ritz said. In fact, the results have spoken so loudly for themselves that district administrators were asked to teach other schools how to follow suit.
“(Toledo Public Schools) asked us to give a presentation on what we’re doing because there aren’t a lot of schools that go through and do what we’re doing. In fact, I’d venture to say there’s none,” he said.
“Because of the approach (the district) and the staff has taken, we were asked to do a presentation and then they asked, ‘Would you guys be willing to come and train our staff on what you’re doing as well?’”
Ritz said he’s “very proud” both of the district’s accomplishments in this regard, but also in the individual administrators who have made the difference and remained “dedicated” to improving Willard City Schools.
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Willard City School superintendent Jeff Ritz discusses how the district is trying to change the students' culture for the better with positive murals throughout the school at the 2018 Chamber of Commerce banquet. The school hopes to help students grow up to be good leaders and good workers, and to prevent them from being sucked into the negative aspects of the culture around them. The district believes this has helped to decrease the amount of bullying.
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“What’s wrong with improving your culture? No matter what you believe, you have to improve your culture. We have a culture problem here that we are working hard to improve and it’s going to be a long, drawn-out process, but we’re going to succeed in doing this because (the district) won’t have it any other way.”
Wednesday, December 12, 2018
Tuesday, December 11, 2018
Monday, December 10, 2018
Friday, December 7, 2018
November Students of the Month - November
Congratulations to the WMS Students of the Month for November. Kelly Delgado (6th), Natalie Frye (7th), and Yuliana Velasquez (8th). Thank you for your hard work and dedication to excellence.
Wednesday, December 5, 2018
Monday, December 3, 2018
Thursday, November 29, 2018
Wednesday, November 28, 2018
Monday, November 26, 2018
Tuesday, November 20, 2018
Monday, November 19, 2018
Friday, November 16, 2018
National History Day
Are you looking for a fun project about history? Become historians at this year’s Region 2 National History Day event!
Saturday, March 2, 2019 at Terra State Community College, Fremont, Ohio
For Students in Grades 6-12
v Entry Categories: Paper, Exhibit, Documentary, Website, Performance
v 2019 Theme: Triumph & Tragedy in History
v Registration deadline: February 16, 2019
For information check out the Ohio History Day website at
Thursday, November 15, 2018
Orchestra Fundraiser
The Shirley's Popcorn fundraiser is coming to a close on Monday. If you would like to order (and a student did not already ask you) please send me an email or call ext. 46215 by end of day Monday.
Delivery day is Friday, December 14 so these would make great little goodies to add to Christmas gifts!
Thank you for supporting our Orchestra program! =) Have a fabulous weekend!
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