Welcome to SY2021 - A Message from the SWWHS Home and School Association (HSA)
Dear SWWHS Community,
From families to families - a heartfelt welcome (and welcome back) to SWWHS.
We would typically welcome you back by saying we hope you've had a restful summer, but this summer has been anything but typical (or restful). We will, instead, say we recognize that everyone is facing both shared and unique challenges. We hope you are hanging in... we're doing our best to hang in, as well.
Our SWWHSA 2021 Board met at the end of June to kick off. Since then, committees have been working on how we can support our students, families and educators during this time of uncertainty. A few highlights:
Budget Committee: We are updating the 2021 budget so that it reflects needs we are currently aware of, supports established clubs/teams who seek to benefit from HSA fiduciary systems and protections, and (via general funds) meet needs of school clubs and activities who have traditionally not sought support from HSA funding. Stay tuned for more on this.
Communication: We launched a beautiful, fresh website (yay, content you can find and trust!) with the help of student volunteers.
Clubs and Teams: We believe extracurriculars play an important role for students to stay connected in this difficult time of disconnect and restore some normalcy to their school experience. Clubs and Teams are such a big part of how our kids spend their time, build friendships, and learn. There are 60 Clubs and Teams at Walls! We are amping up HSA outreach and support for creative ways to keep these going -- please encourage your students to join clubs.
Parent Engagement: We want to also help families connect. We will restart our weekly coffee chats, support virtual parent ed tailored to our community, and hope families will find each other via the family directory and organize small, safe, (masks on!) local gatherings. Look out for tips on this soon.
We are also refreshing our gear (coming soon!), fundraising, thanking teachers, updating our bylaws, and taking care of daily operational duties like paying for funding requests! We hope you'll think about how you might want to volunteer if you have capacity.
We look forward to opportunities to connect with you. In the meantime, 3 easy(ish) ways to engage are:
Everyone: Read email. Keep up with communications from school - teachers, admin and counselors, as well as from DCPS. It's a lot, but things are constantly changing. (Read Penguin Nation, too, please!)
Students: Join a club
Families: Donate to the HSA (what you can, when you can)
Very Best,