November - 2011

In this issue:

From the Head of School

Upcoming Events

Headlines

From the Admissions Office

Arts

Athletics

WAPA Notes and News

For the College Bound

Healthful Hints

Links

School Calendars

Scenes from School

From the Head of School

We recently had an extraordinary morning here on campus, the kind of

morning that stays with you, prompting conversations and questions for

days. Two meetings—a breakfast with nearly one hundred parents and

their children and an assembly with middle and upper school students –

sparked conversations that spilled over into classes, faculty meetings,

and dinner tables that evening. All of these discussions started with Joe

Ehrmann and his powerful message to all of us about the positive and

lasting impact we can have on one another and, for us adults, on the

children we teach, coach, mentor, and raise.

Joe has a powerful story to tell, and I encourage you to read his bio

(www.coachforamerica.com). In both of his presentations here on

campus and in a leadership meeting over lunch, Joe hit several

important themes that I want to highlight in this month’s newsletter.

We live in a caustic culture.

Our children are bombarded every day by damaging and misleading messages about who

they are and what they should value, messages that almost always contradict what we hope

they will seek and who they will become. Joe focused in his talk on the lies that our culture

promotes about masculinity and femininity, lies about what it means to be a ―real man‖ or a

―real woman.‖ Real men and women, he argues, are not those who are rich, athletic, thin, or

submissive; they are, instead, those who have a rich capacity for relationships (the ability to, as

Joe puts it, ―love and be loved‖) and who understand how to impact the lives of others by

committing to serve for causes greater than themselves.

As parents, teachers, coaches, and mentors, we need to be clear about our goals.

Joe’s message to the parents at breakfast focused on the work that we all need to do as

parents to understand and articulate our own personal histories as we seek to become better

teachers, coaches, parents, and mentors to the young people in our lives. His seminars for

coaches and teachers focus on four essential questions (questions that apply with equal force

to parents and mentors): Why do I teach? Why do I teach the way I do? What does it feel

like to be taught by me? and How do I define and measure success? As a high school

football coach at an independent school in Baltimore, Joe pursues the following goals as his

answer to the fourth question: ―I coach to help boys become men of empathy and integrity

who will lead, be responsible, and change the world for good.‖ His timeline for measuring

success is not a football season or even the four-year career of one of his players; it is, instead,

twenty years, long enough for the boy to grow into a man, to become a husband and a

father.

Cobb Atkinson Photo by Photo Innovations

We can have a powerful impact on the lives of those around us.

Among the powerful memories I will carry with me of Joe’s talk with our middle and upper

school students is the moment when he challenged them to be, as he called it, ―agents of

hope‖ in the world. Through empathy, compassion, service, and care for one another, we

can build teams, classes, and communities that give hope to those around us. Doing so

requires that we set aside what he calls a transactional view of teaching and coaching (one

which asks the question, ―What’s in it for me?‖) and chooses instead a transformational vision

of our work with young men and women, one concerned with building them into the men and

women we all want them to become. Of particular relevance to us, it seems to me, is the

point that this work is most effective when undertaken in a systematic way—one in which all of

the touch points in a child’s life—home, school, church, and the like—are all working together

in service to the same goals.

It is, in the end, Joe Ehrmann’s twenty-year perspective on his success or failure as a coach

that struck me most as I listened to him talk. For the past twenty-one years I have lived and

worked with students in independent schools, and the more time I spend as a teacher and a

school leader, the more I understand the incredible, lasting impact that our schools and the

adults that work in them can have on the lives of the children in our care. Over the past eight

years as I have begun my journey as a father, this responsibility has become even more real to

me. I find myself consumed on some days with the question of what kind of man and woman

my son and daughter will grow to be, consumed by the role that Raegan and I play each day

in trying to steer them in the right direction.

I know that many of you had reactions to Joe Ehrmann’s presentation similar to mine, and the

conversations that he has started in our school family are both incredibly important for us and

our work together and ripe with possibility and hope. His visit was a great step forward in our

work as a community to clarify and articulate our most important endeavor at Westchester:

teaching moral excellence. I can’t thank all of you enough for joining us in this vital work.

Speaking of gratitude, I would be remiss if I did not take a moment to offer our collective

thanks to David Couch and A.B. Henley. It was their generosity and vision of the impact that

Joe Ehrmann could have on our school that brought him to campus, so if you see either of

them around, please stop and thank them for this very powerful gift to the school.

News of Note - Upcoming Events

Tom Von Essen Visit

Tom Von Essen, commissioner of the fire

department of New York, who lost more than

350 firefighters and emergency medical

personnel to the terrorist attacks on 9/11, will

be coming to campus on November 9 to

speak with students. Mr. Von Essen will also

speak at HPU at 7:00 p.m. that evening. We

have a limited number of tickets for the free

HPU event available to our families. Please

RSVP to Jackie Argo by Monday, November 7,

if you would like to attend.

November Parent Forum: Coping Strategies for Stress and Anxiety in Your Life

Does it seem that there’s nothing you can do about your stress level? Does your student feel

overwhelmed with exams right around the corner? If so, please join us for an evening with Dr.

Kim Dansie, a psychiatrist in our area who focuses on children and adolescents. She and her

nurse practitioner, Jane Hunt, will join us to share strategies on how we can better cope with

our stress during the holiday season and tools we can share with our students that will enable

them to deal with their stress and anxiety in a positive way during the holidays and exam

season. This Parent Forum will be Thursday, November 17, at 7:00 p.m. in the library. Hope you

will join us!

C.A.R.E.S. Crews Event November 18

Our next school-wide event will be held Friday, November 18. Crew 4 (Grades 4 and 10) will

be organizing our school collection of new or gently used books to be wrapped and delivered

to students at Fairview Elementary School. Students will gather as Crews to enjoy a holiday

lunch, cocoa and cozying up to a favorite book, and wrapping the collected books. Students

are encouraged to bring one book, appropriate for grades K – 2, to school to contribute to

the Fairview Project. A collection box will be located in the Front Office.

News of Note - Headlines

WCDS Nominates Governor’s School Candidates

Westchester is excited to announce the following students have been nominated to

Governor's School 2012:

Junior Avery Goho in an academic area of her choosing

Junior Julia Ormond in theater

Sophomore Jessica Barker in choral music

Sophomore Andrew Foreman in instrumental (violin)

Footnotes Gets Under Way

Footnotes, our 3rd – 5th grade chorus which boasts 29 enthusiastic singers this year, will be

singing at two Triad community events as the holiday season approaches. The first will be

Festival of the Trees on Saturday, November 19, at 12:15 in the education building at the Dixie

Classic Fairgrounds in Winston-Salem. This is an annual fundraiser for Brenner Children’s

Hospital and this is the second year Footnotes has been invited to sing at this event. On

Saturday, December 3, Footnotes will be singing at the High Point Uptowne Stroll. Watch for

more information on this event soon!

Third Grade Hosts Shell Expert

In connection with their study of the Surprise Island novel, third

graders welcomed former High Point pediatrician Dr. Bill Michal

(in photo at right) and his wife Nancy to visit, show, and share

interesting facts about their exquisite seashell collection.

Students have also brought in a seashell from their own

collections and have provided some interesting information

about each one. Students have also created Surprise Island

games and have dried flowers and displayed them along with

interesting facts in a dried-flower exhibit.

Book Fair Boom

Westchester’s Scholastic Fall Book Fair theme this year was ―To

Reading and Beyond!‖ We had lots of fun and also acquired

some awesome rewards for Westchester. We added almost

$1,200.00 worth of books to the Westchester library and

teacher classroom libraries. We also made over $800 in profit

for other resources for our library. Thanks to all the students and

parents for supporting reading at Westchester! We’d like to extend a big thank you to our two

library volunteer book fair coordinators, Kim Foster and Maria Puschinsky, who worked

alongside Mrs. Jones and Mrs. Phelps to make our book fair happen. Thanks also to Raegan

Atkinson, Belinda Brown, Jeannie Felten, Chuck Foster, Roza Hall, Charlie Jones, Mary Niner,

and Amy O’Keeffe for their volunteer work and time. Westchester Wildcats love to read!

Freshman Puts Putter to Work for Charity

Ninth grader Thomas Walsh and his friend and fellow golfer Patrick Cover of Huntersville

recently organized their second Dormie Cup as a way to give back to the community. The

Dormie Cup started in 2010 when a dozen junior golfers gathered at the Dormie Club in West

End, N.C. and divided the group into two teams of six for a match-play tournament modeled

after the Ryder Cup — its initial Dormie Cup donation totaling more than $10,000.

This year’s event featured 24 nationally-ranked junior golfers from North and South Carolina

playing a two-man team competition to decide the winners on Sunday afternoon. Each

participant was challenged to raise a minimum of $1,000 as the group raised well over $25,000

for the three charities chosen to receive the funds.

Some funds raised will be distributed to the First Tee Program of the Sandhills and the American

Junior Golf Association Scholarship Program — two outstanding organizations that provide

funds for needy junior golfers to travel and compete in high-level events. Yet, the majority of

the funds raised will benefit the Wounded Warrior Program, which assists veterans who return

from action with injuries in their efforts to adjust to life back in the United States.

The funds raised during the Dormie Cup will help in enlisting public support, providing aid to

those in need, and providing programming and services to our men and women.

The participants also collected 351 new golf hats to send to the troops overseas.

Mock Trial Season Begins

From the October 2011 Mock Trial Newsletter: ―Jamie ―Jammin‖ Anderson was a little ―freaked

out‖ when the first threat against her appeared online in a campus-sponsored chat-room. The

Magnolia University student huddled in her dorm room and feared the worst as comments and

threats escalated last fall against her, with the last and final post threatening her life. The

alleged cyber-trail led police to over-achiever and loner, Kinsley Williams. Will a jury find Kinsley

Williams guilty of cyberstalking Jamie Anderson? We will see on February 4, 2012, as high

school students across North Carolina try the case of State of Arcadia v. Kinsley Williams.”

The 2011/12 season of NCAJ High School Mock Trial has officially begun and Westchester is

excited to have Brian Ball, Charlie Branson, Clayton Brewer, Claire Councill, Will Davis, Sunam

Dhakal, Dan Goldman, Lewis Miles, Cameron Raissi, Noah Reid, Courtney Spencer, and

Catherine York on our team this year. John Bryson, father of two Wildcats and a member of

our Board of Trustees, is our outside coach for the 4th year.

Campus Decorated in Celebration of Diwali

On October 26 our campus was decorated in

celebration of the Festival of Lights, the Diwali

holiday celebrated all over India. Diwali is one

of the major Hindu festivals celebrating the

victory of good over evil and the glory of light

over darkness. Decorations were provided by

the Chinnasami and Harish families in the form

of beautiful chalk drawings and various

lighting displayed throughout campus.

Special cookies were served at lunch to

represent the sweets used during the

celebration. Seventh grader Jaya Bhardwaj

(above) wore a new dress in celebration of

the day.

Videos Added to “Scenes from School” Link

Visit the Scenes from School link off the homepage to see slideshows and videos of school

happenings such as the recent Didgeridoo Down Under concert, a Master Teacher video from

Mr. Felten, a clip from Joe Ehrmann’s visit, and more.

Yearbook Advertisements Due

Business and personal ads in the yearbook are due Dec. 1.

EBOB Visits Titanic Exhibit

Our Elementary Battle of the Books team

traveled to the Natural Science Center of

Greensboro in October to experience the

Titanic exhibit. The team just read I

Survived the Sinking of the Titanic, 1912,

which is one of the 18 books on the EBOB

list this year. ―The team members were

very excited to experience what it was like

to be aboard the Titanic and see the

amazing artifacts that have been

recovered,‖ said Mrs. Jones.

From the Admissions Office

Welcome New Wildcats

Grade 3

Emma Steward

Mr. Rob Steward and Mrs. Salli Steward

Grade 6

Miles Hendrix

Mr. Nelson Hendrix and Mrs. Michele Hendrix

Alex Steward

Mr. Rob Steward and Mrs. Salli Steward

Fine Arts News

Westchester Athletics

As the fall of 2011 wraps up, it will go down as one of the most successful in WCDS athletics.

The Varsity Girls’ Tennis team won their fourth consecutive conference championship in

dominating fashion, and then went down to Wilmington to claim a state runner-up finish.

Individually, Katie Rice (#1) and Kristen McDowell (#3), won state championship titles in singles,

and Erica Sawyer and Taylor Freeman (#2) won a state championship in doubles. The Varsity

Boys’ Soccer team also had a tremendous season with a record of 19-5-1. The boys finished

second in the conference and made it to the final four in Fayetteville before losing to eventual

state champion Fayetteville Academy. The Varsity Volleyball team finished with an overall

record of 11-6 and 8-4 in the conference. The volleyball team will lose only senior All-

Conference player Jessi Stockinger, so the future looks great for this young team. The Varsity

Cross Country team had a breakout year with the boys’ team winning the conference

championship and finishing third at the state championship in Charlotte after finishing 39-0

during the season. Senior Chris Anderson dominated the regular season, won the conference

championship, and came in 5th at the state championship with a 5k time of 16:31! Junior Avery

Goho battled through some injuries and had an undefeated regular season and a second

place finish at the conference championship.

At the Middle School level, the Wildcats proved why the future looks so bright! The Middle

School Soccer team won the conference championship in exciting fashion on Kennedy Field,

and finished with an overall record of 6-3-2. The MS Volleyball team fought really hard this fall

and finished with an overall record of 5-7 and made it to the second round of the conference

tournament. Our new fall team at Westchester, the Middle School Cross Country team, had

an exceptional ―run‖ and will only grow under the guidance of head coach Tim Anderson.

Eighth grader Mike Bauman won the conference championship and made All-State for the

Varsity team.

Here is a look at all of the individual awards:

Tennis:

All-Conference: Katie Rice (Player of the Year), Taylor Freeman, Kristen McDowell, Erica Sawyer

Coach Amy Dillingham: Conference Coach of the Year

State Champions: Katie Rice (#1 singles), Kristen McDowell (#3 singles), Erica Sawyer and

Taylor Freeman (#2 doubles)

Soccer:

All-Conference: Lasse Palomaki (Player of the Year), Ben Bruggeworth, Matt Crooker, Tyler

Fairly, Harry Keefe, Tyler Thompson,

NCISAA 2A All-State: Matt Crooker, Lasse Palomaki, Tyler Thompson

Volleyball:

All-Conference: Jessi Stockinger

Cross Country:

Boys’ All-Conference: Chris Anderson, Mike Bauman, Abraham Hernandez, Patrick Williford

Girls’ All Conference: Avery Goho

Coach Mark Scott: Boys’ Conference Coach of the Year

NCISAA 2A All-State: Chris Anderson, Mike Bauman

Middle School Cross Country Conference Champion: Mike Bauman

Winter Season Sports:

Varsity Boys’ Basketball – Coach Dagan Nelson

JV Boys’ Basketball – Coach Chris Fellows

Varsity Girls’ Basketball – Coach Kat Lyons

MS ―A‖ Boys’ Basketball – Coach Rustin Thomas

MS ―B‖ Boys’ Basketball – Coach Russ Palmer

MS Girls’ Basketball – Coach Mario Watson

Varsity Swimming – Coach Blair Hawley and Assistant Coach Aaron Reeves

MS Swimming (New Team) – Coach Mary Ann Smith

Varsity Cheerleading – Coach Chelsea Evans

MS Cheerleading – Coach Christina Weiss

WAPA Notes and News

Letter from the WAPA President:

Many years ago as a new Westchester parent, I always bought Innisbrook and Hubs but didn’t

really understand the impact the purchases had for our school. Have you ever wondered

where the proceeds from Innisbrook and Hubs are spent? Each time you have bought

wrapping paper, peanuts, chocolates, and gifts, the profits have been used for

teacher/faculty mini-grants, Blue/White Day, Teacher Appreciation luncheons, decorations for

the school, the Back-to-School dinner, plantings, water and coffee in the faculty lounges, and

much more.

This year WAPA has been able to fund 25 mini-grants, totaling $15,000 and $5,000 for the Head

of School’s discretionary fund. The entire school benefits from the grants as they are spread

through the three school divisions. A few examples of grants given this year are: two Smart

Boards, SMART document camera, rain garden, forensic science virtual labs, Moticam 2000

microscope, spectrum tubes and power supply, kettle bells and rack, Art beyond Borders,

Shakespeare to go, Junior Brain Pop subscription, and Go for the Gold materials.

Blue/White Spirit Day 2011 was the best! New bounces, games, DJ, vendors, food, Morelli vs.

Felten kickball game, children of all ages interacting together. I would like to thank Renee

Allison, Blue/White chair and her committee, Amy Lewis, Cindy Webb, Lorraine Ledford,

Marianne Evans, Mario Watson, Amy Rosen, Beth Breece, and Wendi Wellington, for a

phenomenal job on this year’s Blue/White Day. Each year Blue/White continues to evolve into

an all-school spirit day for our students and parents with something for everyone. There are

some great photos from the event online. Click here to view them now.

As the holidays are approaching WAPA will be offering Hubs peanuts. These make great gifts.

Innisbrook is also available for purchase online.

Our next WAPA meeting will be November 10th at 8:15 a.m. in the library with featured

speaker Heather Singer.

Gay James

WAPA President

Peanuts! Peanuts! Get Your Peanuts!!

The WAPA Hubs fundraiser is set to kick off on November 14. The sale of Hubs is a major source

of funding through which WAPA supports our teachers and our children. Working together, we

are able to enhance the educational opportunities of each of our children by providing

books, electronics, equipment, and classroom grants from this project. On November 14 each

student will be sent home with a packet of information about the delicious products being

offered this year (and we’ve got some new ones!) and order forms. Orders can be placed

through Wednesday, December 30, and will be available for pick-up at the Finch Center on

Thursday, December 8, from 3:00 to 6:00 p.m. Thank you for supporting this important

fundraiser.

A Hubs Thank You:

Westchester and the Hubs fundraising committee would like to thank

Laura Grimes for the donation of her time and materials to create a

new peanut costume. Mrs. Grimes is the proud grandmother of

Lower School Wildcats Forrest (right, in new costume) and Duncan

Grimes (left). Donating your time is a wonderful gift to our school.

Blue/White Thanks:

The Blue/White Committee would like to say THANK YOU to all the

staff, teachers, volunteers, bakers (those delicious homemade cakes

were a big hit), students, and parents for helping with our annual

Blue/White Day. An event this big would not be possible without your

help and support. Thank you for helping to make this a great day at

Westchester!

Book Club:

WAPA Book Club will meet at 8:15 on November 8 in the library. The book that we are

discussing is Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand. All parents are welcome.

Box Tops:

The holidays are just around the corner. Have you started doing your online

shopping yet? With more than 150 stores included in the Market Place

shopping for Box Tops, it’s a great place to start. Log on to

http://www.boxtops4education.com, click on ―Earn‖ (green button), select

―Shop Marketplace.‖ You can select ―see all stores‖ or ―browse stores by

category.‖

Why? By going through Box Tops, you earn e-BoxTops and we get a percentage of your order.

You have no clipping and these e-BoxTops will get placed directly into our account.

What stores are there? Just about any store you can think of, including the Apple Store, iTunes

downloads, Bloomingdale’s, Justice, Kohl’s, Ann Taylor, UGG, Barnes & Noble, Dell Computers,

Disney, Discovery Store, BestBuy, Walmart, OfficeMax, Oriental Trading, MicroSoft, and then

there’s also Choice Hotels International, Hotels.com, Hotwire, Home Depot, Lego, LeapFrog,

VisonDirect … You’ll be surprised at all you find there.

Have questions? Feel free to call the school coordinator, Linda Forester, at 889-4876

For the College Bound

On Wednesday, October 26, I had the pleasure of attending a workshop on applying for

financial aid for college. The workshop, presented in conjunction with Davidson College and

the North Carolina State Education Assistance Authority, or NCSEAA, was particularly helpful in

light of the current economic climate and recent changes made in state funding options.

There are six principles that are used to determine need-based aid, and it is these six criteria

that college financial aid officers use when measuring a family’s ability to pay. The six

principles include the following:

1. The primary responsibility for funding a student’s college education falls on the family.

2. Families contribute to the extent they are able.

3. Income and assets reflect the family’s financial strength.

4. Consistency is important so that similar treatment is given to similar circumstances.

5. The colleges expect more from those with greater resources.

6. Unusual family circumstances are considered.

A financial aid officer’s need analysis of a family’s financial situation takes into consideration

that family’s ability to pay based on an analysis of the parents’ income and assets, the

student’s income and assets and, to some degree, the family’s expenses. The analysis looks

only at the family’s current financial status and not at any historical data. The FAFSA, or Free

Application for Federal Student Aid, is the vehicle published by the federal government to

assess this ability to pay and relies on information from one’s federal income tax return for the

previous year. For the 2012-13 school year the FAFSA will contain a link to the IRS so that actual

tax documents can be submitted along with the FAFSA form. Some institutions also require

parents complete the CSS PROFILE, a document that gives the colleges a more

comprehensive picture of a family’s financial situation. This document is used largely for

distribution of institutional funds, and only six of the 51 colleges and universities in North

Carolina require the CSS PROFILE.

Once a family’s financial aid documents are filed, an EFC, or Expected Family Contribution, is

calculated. Eligibility for financial aid at an individual college or university takes into

consideration the cost of educating a student at that institution, the family contribution (EFC),

and estimated financial assistance from outside resources such as scholarships or grants. The

family’s contribution begins with the adjusted gross income figure from the federal tax return,

but it also includes untaxed income such as child support. The parent’s assets include savings,

investments, and real estate and business value, all combined to determine net worth. From

this figure certain allowances such as cost of living are subtracted. The remaining amount is

assessed at a rate of between three and twelve percent. A student’s contribution is based on

his income and assets and is assessed at a much higher rate, between 20 and 25 percent. If

more than one child in a family is enrolled in undergraduate school at the same time, the

parent’s contribution is evenly distributed among those children.

Financial aid comes in several forms, but basically it falls into two categories – gift aid, which

includes scholarships and grants, and self-help aid, which includes employment and loans.

Beginning on Saturday, October 29, 2011, all colleges and universities will be required to

provide a Net Price Calculator on their websites. Parents can enter their financial information

into these calculators to arrive at an estimate of how much they would be expected to pay at

that particular school. It is important to point out that help determining financial aid and

financial options for funding a college education is available free of charge; thus parents

should avoid any services that charge a fee to help them search for scholarships or complete

financial aid forms. Family financial circumstances can change, and it is the responsibility of

the family to notify financial aid offices of these changes. Additional information about

financing a college education is available online at the website for the College Foundation of

North Carolina, or www. cfnc.org.

Betty Flythe, College Placement Advisor

Healthful Hints from the School Nurse

A teacher came into my office recently to tell me that some of her students appeared

exhausted. She spoke with a handful of them and sure enough, they were staying up late,

even on school nights.

When I talked with a few of the students, I found that they were indeed staying up until one or

two in the morning. Several of the students chose to be online with friends earlier in the

evening which made homework time become later and later. A few other students had

finished their homework earlier, but chose to stay up late to watch a TV show, or to chat with

friends on Facebook or via texting.

Sleep is very important for our teens, says Dr. Mary Carskadon, director of the chronobiology

and sleep research lab at Brown University. Dr. Carskadon states that teens who don’t get

enough sleep ―are extremely impaired in the morning.‖ This lack of sleep accumulates over a

period of time and can have detrimental effects on cognitive function, mood, and reaction

time.

Just recently I read a study of teen athletes and the importance of sleep for them. Dr. Nicholas

Sita found that teen athletes need even more sleep than their non-athletic counterparts. He

reports that the average American adolescent is operating on such a sleep deficit that

athletes perform worse on cognitive and coordination tests than someone with a .08 blood

alcohol level.

Did you know that…

Most adolescent students who score C’s or below report less than 8 hours sleep a night.

Most automobile fatalities among adolescents are attributed to falling asleep behind

the wheel.

Some of the reported effects of sleep deficit are: impaired motor skills, impaired

cognition, impaired memory, inhibited creativity, higher stress levels, increased body

fat, depressed immune system, anxiety, impeded growth, irritability, depression, mood

swings, decreased life expectancy, and difficulty maintaining interpersonal

relationships.

Sleep is important for all of us. We need it to think clearly. We need it to calm our hectic lives.

Give your children the gift that will benefit them now and later. Give them the gift of good

sleep habits.

If you have any questions, please call me at school (ext. 288) or at home (336) 769-9669.

Beth Kennedy, Director of Health Services