Our students are enjoying learning about careers in music! Managers (attendance & teacher helpers), Conductors (music leaders), Roadies (set-up & clean-up), & Publicists (photographers & recorders of what we do in class). Our Publicists in 2nd, 3rd, & 4th grade captured some fun photos of music time, including two of our Conductors in action! We've been learning new dances and moving to music with the parachute, too.
Belated Social Media Birthday Wishes for our one and only District Nurse Mrs. Kortney Burling!
AS A REMINDER PHYSICALS - Students entering 5th-12th grades who will be participating in school sports must have a current sport/school physical on file before practices begin. If your student is entering the 6th and 9th grades the required school physical form is acceptable. Physicals must be current in order for your athlete to participate in any sport. If you have any questions please call WP Athletic Department, Monday-Friday 7:30am to 3:30pm 309-3750.
Next week we will celebrate Special Person Day on Thursday for grades K - 6 and Friday for PreK only.
Happy Birthday to Miss Spriet. She celebrated on her birthday, August 28th. She enjoyed her staff and student signed poster and some of her favorites, an iced vanilla latte with oat-milk and Dots cinnamon sugar pretzels and students!
Today in Miss Spriet's PE class, the students were challenged to run as long as they could without stopping with a maximum of 10 minutes. Pictured are fifteen students, Kindergarten through 3rd grade, that reached the 10 minute mark!
Happy Birthday to the amazing Emily Ebey! Emily celebrated her birthday on August 22nd with her 1st grade class. She enjoyed some of her favorite things, white cheddar popcorn, unsweetened tea and school!
Friday, August 30th is Ag Awareness Day! Students in k-6 with field trip permissions on file will travel to Colchester. We will be gone from the building from 8:30 - 11:00. It is also an early dismissal day. PreK will stay back and enjoy their classrooms.
Monday will be a lockdown drill with our resource officer, Cody Lovell. Tuesday we will practice a fire drill. And, on Wednesday we will make sure students are ready for a tornado or related severe weather. We will explain each drill before conducting them, but please talk to your student and prepare them with the understanding that these are not real events but planned practices. We are looking forward to an important week of school safety preparation. Have you planned on how to keep your student safe at home in these scenarios? It is important to have safety plans at home too. Use our drill week to plan for your own safety at home too.
West Prairie would like to welcome our new Paraprofessionals to the Cyclone Nation! Mrs. Desiree Ford and Mrs. Heather Matthews
Welcome Mrs. Ryner!
Good afternoon Cyclone Nation,
West Prairie is excited to be able to provide free breakfast and lunch to all students this school year. However, due to ISBE regulations we have to charge for anything extra. Those items would include:
• An extra milk ($0.30)
• A milk if you brought your lunch from home ($0.30)
• Bottled water ($0.60)
o we do have a water cooler in each cafeteria if you do not want to purchase a bottle
• An extra entrée—Jr/Sr High Only ($1.00)
• Flavored waters—Jr/Sr High Only ($2.00)
• Other a la carte items—Jr/Sr High Only ($1.00)
If you would like your child to have the option of purchasing these items, please add money to their lunch account as we will not be allowing a negative balance this year.
Have a safe weekend!
Welcome Miss Havens!
Welcome Miss Dunlap!
What time does school start? What time is breakfast? How do I pick up my child?
Answers from the handbook
Arrival & Dismissal Procedures
The school doors will open at 7:30 a.m. and staff will be available to supervise the breakfast program and the gymnasium. School begins at 8:10 a.m.
Students may eat breakfast from 7:30 – 8:10 a.m. After eating, students will wait in the gymnasium for morning announcements and then will be released to their classrooms.
At the end of the day, bus students will be dismissed first beginning at 2:55 p.m. Parent pick-up will be dismissed after the buses have departed at approximately 3:05 p.m. Students will be dismissed from the main entrance of the building. Any person picking up a student should park on the block between the playground and the ball diamond and wait to pull up to the main entrance until all buses have departed at approximately 3:05. Traffic flows in one direction from 2:45 until 3:30. It flows from north to south on the main entrance area which is the 100 block of North Washington Street. Teachers will walk students out of the building and will release students to the adult picking up the student.
Parents are expected to send a note if there will be a change in their child’s dismissal plan. In the case of a change during the school day, please call before 2:30 p.m. This practice will improve both efficiency and safety as last minute phone calls increase the likelihood of a mistake.
"If your child will need a food substitution due to a food allergy, this form must be filled out and signed by the prescribing physician or medical authority. This must be dated within 1 year of the first day of school. Food substitutions cannot be made without this form on file. Please contact Kortney Burling or Mandy Palmer for any questions."
Don't miss Back to School Night at WPNE, Monday August 12th 5-6PM.
Come visit with Mrs. Ryner!
Attention Cyclone Nation!
Online registration is now open
Online payments with ePay is now available
West Prairie qualifies for CEP - free lunch and breakfast for all students!
Please join us in welcoming Mrs. Sara Ryner to the West Prairie Family! Mrs. Ryner will be serving as the new West Prairie North Elementary Principal. Please read below to get to know Mrs. Ryner.
"I am one of seven siblings with three brothers and three sisters. I grew up in a small town, Little York. We moved to Monmouth the summer before 7th grade. I went to Yorkwood Grade School and Monmouth High School. My school years were filled with amazing and kind teachers. I feel moved to make sure that our rural students get a great education like I was afforded. After high school, I went to the University of Illinois in Urbana Champaign where I earned a degree in Kinesiology. I married Joe Ryner in 1996. Before that I was Sara Reynolds. There are many teachers in my family...my dad, my grandmother and my aunt were all teachers. Joe and I love to cook together, cheer for our teams and explore nature. We are excited to support West Prairie together.
I love to fish and kayak. We love living between Lake Argyle and Spring Lake. We have four children Sam, Lilly and Max, and we are in the process of adopting another son, L.J. Sam works for Wright’s Tree Service, Lilly just graduated with her school psychologist degree. She works for Black Hawk Area Special Education cooperative. We will celebrate her marriage and wedding in October of this year. Max just finished his freshman year at Quincy University where he is on the Hawks wrestling team. And, L.J. is 12 and loves football, fishing and hunting.
I love all athletics and sports. My favorite professional teams are the Chicago Bears and Cubs. I am a huge fighting Illini fan too. I love all sports at Western Illinois University where I went for my Masters in Educational Leadership and my Physical Education certificate. My husband also works there as an IT manager. I live with two amazing dogs, Marge, a great Pyrenees Anatolian Shepherd mix and Winnie a Heeler Lab mix. I enjoy walking them.
I taught science and PE at United Junior High. My students learned to see patterns in data, asked questions and developed investigations. Together with my students I helped to write two science units for Open Sci Ed. I love teaching and learning. I was the Principal at La Harpe and most recently West Central Middle School. I have enjoyed every experience I have had in education. Before getting my Illinois certification, I taught in a Montessori Preschool. I love working with young people and teachers. I could not be more excited about working with youth and teachers in my own community where I live. That is something that I have never been fortunate enough to do. My goal is to make many lifelong friends here and ensure that West Prairie North Elementary is the very best we can possibly make it. I can’t wait to meet everyone!"
