West High School Endowment Fund

For the 2017-18 school year, this funded the following programs:

• Support a student voice group that is designed specifically to cut across race, SES, behavior, attendance and cultural groups at West to serve as a principal advisory council. Not only will this serve to provide a student voice in school decisions, it also serves as a means to involve a group of teachers the opportunity to work with social justice and civic engagement issues with students outside the classroom. It is a model that easily could be expanded to other MMSD schools.
  
• Contextual storybooks for Level One world language learners through a specific language learning method called TPRS (Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling). These French and Spanish texts provide a comprehensible story for the students as an alternative to just a language textbook. West’s program is modeled after a similar approach used at La Follette High School.
  
• Additional drums to expand the Drumline program, the first drumline program in Wisconsin to be sponsored by Special Olympics for its innovative inclusion of diverse learners in this inclusive after-school program. If you have ever been at West after school, you can hear the students drumming in the courtyard. It lends a calming and unique feel to the school in the late afternoon. This successful program is a model that could be expanded elsewhere.

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