Transcript:

ASPEN NEWHOUSE: Hi, I’m Aspen Newhouse and welcome to Woodard Wednesdays. I’m here with our principal.

BILL WOODARD: Hello.

ASPEN NEWHOUSE: How are you?

BILL WOODARD: I’m great. Welcome back, happy new year.

ASPEN NEWHOUSE: So, what has happened over the past month?

BILL WOODARD: Well, we are near the end of the second term, so we have like eleven more school days, finals and grades, so that’s the big thing now. We just had our winter break, so everybody got, hopefully, a good, relaxing, two weeks off. But hopefully we’re back and ready for the end of the term. Before winter break, students got their spring schedule verification from their counselors to make sure their classes are ready and accurate for the spring. And hopefully if you have any errors on that or questions you would contact your counselor. The other big thing that happened over winter break — and I think you may have seen my email about it — is the district hired a company to do an environmental study of our campus based on some concerns some staff members had raised about— there has been a number of staff members that have come down with one form of cancer or another. And they just wanted to make sure there wasn’t anything related to our environment that was triggering that. So, that happened over winter break. A company was here for like four days doing a very intensive environmental study of our campus, and we should have the results in about a month, which I shall share with students and staff.

ASPEN NEWHOUSE: Are there any events going on today?

BILL WOODARD: Tonight, Wednesday, is the big game against San Marcos for the boys. So definitely come out tonight. A lot of big athletic events this week, and then the big thing for us is Thursday night is our Open House for incoming ninth grade families. So we’re getting ready for that as well.

ASPEN NEWHOUSE: Are there any upcoming events parents should know about?

BILL WOODARD: Nothing significant. We have our next PTA meeting in February, we haven’t decided what we’re going to present for that yet. But lots of athletic events are going on right now, for sure.

ASPEN NEWHOUSE: Any big thing that’s going to be affecting students soon?

BILL WOODARD: Definitely the end of semester and finals, and the shift to the spring, new classes, it’s almost like starting a new school year. This is our third year now of doing this kind of a schedule so we’re still kind of adjusting to that. It’s hard to say goodbye to your students and the bonds you’ve made with them, but it’s also exciting to be ready for and welcome a new group of students. I know most of our teachers have mixed feelings about the schedule because of that.

ASPEN NEWHOUSE: Has the school board made any recent decisions that are going to be affecting us?

BILL WOODARD: The only thing, you’ll be hearing about this soon, is they created a board resolution that reiterated that we all need to be respectful of each other. And that includes all types of communication, there have been a number of incidents where students and staff have reported that students throughout our district have used racial slurs or other slurs against LGBTQ or, y’know, ethnic groups. And they want to make a really clear statement that those things are not tolerated. And so we’re going to do a campaign around that, coming up soon.

ASPEN NEWHOUSE: Any other big events that are happening very soon?

BILL WOODARD: Gosh, January is a blur. With all the rain, you know, it’s just going to be. I mean, every night there’s another athletic event or… you know, December was busy but January’s always the busiest month for athletics, so definitely come out and watch the games and have some fun, and blow off some steam around finals. Oh, we’re having a PGP, I think this Friday as well, so look for more information on DPNews.

ASPEN NEWHOUSE: Any other thoughts that you want DP students to hear from you?

BILL WOODARD: Finish strong. We’ll be talking next week, closer to finals, but these are the grades that go in your transcripts, so work hard. Meet with your teachers if you have any concerns or anything you want to do to improve your grades, and look forward to your new classes in the spring.

ASPEN NEWHOUSE: Alright, thank you.

BILL WOODARD: Thank you.

ASPEN NEWHOUSE: I’ll see you next week.