SAFETY IN THE STREETS
BY JANICE WALTER AND ANDREA KENNEDY
O
n Wednesday April 24, Mr. Kyle Harder from Gateway Rehab
Center (Addiction, Recovery, and Self Renewal) led an
interactive educational community forum at Woodland Hills Jr.
Sr. High School. “Safety in the Streets” educated students, staff and
community members on current trends in drug usage, prevention,
early identification and intervention modalities. This program was
organized by WHJSHS Certified School Nurses Mrs. Andrea Kennedy
and Mrs. Janice Walter, social worker Mrs. Kellie Irwin and guidance
counselor Mr. Jeffrey Brand.
KINDNESS REACHES
NEW HEIGHTS
at the Academy
BY THE ACADEMY PBIS TEAM
(Mrs. Armstrong, Mrs. O’Leary, Mrs. Forgie, Mrs. Moses, Ms. Fitzwater,
Ms. Lis, Mrs. Endler, & Mrs. Welch)
WOODLAND HILLS SCHOOL
BOARD MEMBER AND OASIS
TUTOR SPEAKS OUT
D
asis is a nonprofit which recruits older adults 50+
to tutor children one-on-one in grades K-4 in
reading, writing an oral communication. Mike
Belmonte, Woodland Hills School Board Vice
President, shared his thoughts about the program and
just how much of a difference the tutors make in the lives
of children. He said, “You can see the difference you’re
making and you can’t overstate how much it helps!”
He shared how he had spoken to a couple of teachers
commenting that he can understand why they would
want to be teachers; when you see a student figure
something out for the first time you have a feeling of
gratification. Tutors work with students once a week for
30-45 minutes at the school during the school day. He
stated, “The time commitment is not great and somehow,
someway you should be able to find one hour in the
week to do this.” The program is offered in the Woodland
Hills, Pittsburgh Public and Wilkinsburg School Districts.
Free training, clearances and materials are included.
No experience is needed. The next training will be on
Tuesday, Aug. 20th and Thursday, Aug. 22nd. It’s from 9
am – 2pm at the Duquesne Light Building in Downtown
Pittsburgh. Other training locations may be available. For
questions about the program or to sign up to become a
tutor you can call John D. Spehar, 412-393-7648 or email
at jdspehar@oasisnet.org.
Oasis is a program of Literacy Pittsburgh
WOODLAND HILLS
❘
SUMMER 2019
ON
uring the month of February, The Woodland Hills Academy
(K-8) participated in our first ever Woodland Hills Academy--
Kindness Challenge. Our vision was to spread kindness
from the school level, to the district level, and finally to the
community level.
During each week in February, our Academy family focused on
completing random acts of kindness. February 4-8th was dedicated
to school wide kindness; February 11-15th focused on district wide
kindness; and February 18th-22nd focused on community wide
kindness.
Teachers, staff, and Academy family members worked diligently
with students to help design and implement these random acts of
kindness. Using the hashtag #WHAcademyKindness, we carried out
these random acts both inside and outside of our school.
Our goal was to carry out 500 acts of kindness throughout the
month. We are thrilled to report that we doubled our goal and
carried out 1,240 random acts of kindness in our schools and
community! Our ability to work as a team, and because of the
support from our amazing staff, students, and families our goal
exceeded our expectations.
Next school year we plan to begin our challenge in January.
It is our goal to spread kindness throughout our communities
throughout the year!
O
BY JOHN D. SPEHAR
29