Iroquois County CUSD 9

Unit 9 is hiring for the 2023-2024 school year! 1st Grade Teacher 1st Grade Paraprofessional 3rd Grade Teacher High School Business Teacher ESL Teacher High School Language Arts (9-12) Junior High Language Arts (6-8) Kindergarten Special Education 3rd Grade Special Education 6-8 Special Education 6-8 Life Skills Special Education Early Childhood Teacher High School Secretary We would love for you to join our team! Apply here: https://watsekaschools.tedk12.com/hire/index.aspx

IMH Sports Physicals Saturday, May 20th from 8-12pm at the Iroquois Regional Health Center. Call 815.432.7857 to schedule your appointment.

The NHS Throne made its first stop at Mr. Findlay's house! It's on the move!! Follow the throne on Twitter @WatsekaNHS

Important Athletic Updates: WCHS Softball: Chrisman has canceled today's (5/1/23) softball game at Watseka due to lack of players and will not make the game up. WJHS Track: Today's track meet has been moved to Tuesday, May 2nd at 3 PM.

PROM season is here! The Iroquois County State’s Attorney Office and the Juvenile Justice Council of Iroquois County have been working diligently to share a prevention message with parents and teens.

Save the Date - Our 2023 WCHS Senior Honors Night will be Monday, May 8th. Invite letters will be coming home soon.

Warrior Softball and Baseball Shirt Order - LIMITED Quantity Available Order: tinyurl.com/warriorsoftbase

Presenting our 2023 WCHS Prom Court... https://tinyurl.com/23wchspromcourt

Mark your calendars for an Interactive Health Fair with the MEGA BODY! Walk through a giant inflatable display of the body, learn how trauma can affect our overall health, and explore community resources! May 5, 2023 from 3pm-6pm at WCHS Gym. Sponsored by Harbor House and Juvenile Justice Council of Iroquois County.

With only 6 weeks of school left, Unit 9 would like to remind all parents and guardians to please make sure you have your student's negative lunch account balances paid by the end of the school year. Fees can be paid online at www.k12paymentcenter.com

Watseka School District is pleased to announce that we have been awarded the National School Lunch Program grant for the 2nd year! Last year we were awarded funds to purchase a Refrigerator, Freezer and new serving line for Watseka Junior and Senior High school, a Convection Oven and Warming Unit for Wanda Kendall and this year GRS will be getting a new Reach-in Freezer, Chest Freezer and a new door for the Walk-in Freezer. These funds through ISBE will help provide our students healthier meals as well as a better variety of food choices.

Tomorrow is Kindergarten screening and registration! If you don't have an appointment or need to know what time your appointment is scheduled, please call (815) 432-2112. You need to bring proof of residency, student's birth certificate, and parent ID to registration. Visit: https://www.watsekaschools.org/page/2024-kindergarten-information for more information!

Mark your calendar for April 10th!! The Watseka PTO and Monical's Pizza are working together to support a great cause. You're invited to gather at Monical's Pizza for their “Community Night" fundraiser. It’s simple! Just go online to www.monicalspizza.com/events and find this event. Then you can show the flier on your smart phone, tablet, or print it out and bring it in! Monical’s will donate 20% of your meal check to Watseka PTO!

Check out the video here: https://youtu.be/wcaFrjNYZfY A big CONGRATS goes out to some of my art students for winning awards last week/weekend at the KCC High School Art Show and the Vermilion Conference Art Show. Alexys Young and Philine Borinksi both won awards for their 2-D and 3-D artwork. 200 works of art from 14 area schools were showcased in the Miner Library at KCC. We had 10 students participate in this show. We had 16 ribbon winners at the Vermilion Conference Art Show which took place on Saturday, April 1st at Georgetown-Ridgefarm High School. Eleven Vermilion schools participated in this event - 1800 works of art were on display!! Our 1st Place ribbon winners in their category were: Philine Borinski (Pencil - Figure), Ella Combes (Watercolor - Misc.), and Faith Yarneau (Sculpture). 2nd Place ribbon winners were: Ben Paro (Colored Ink - Animals), Mason Galyen (Colored Ink - Misc.), Alexys Edwards (Sculpture), Philine Borinski (Misc. - 2D), and Tiffany Zhao (Colored Pencil - Animals). 3rd Place ribbon winners were: Tiffany Zhao (Misc. - 3D), Emma Roberts (Acrylic Scenery), Juliann Newman (Acrylic - People), and Anthony Shervino (Colored Ink - People). Honorable Mentions were: Kim Ruiz (Colored Pencil Animals & Acrylic Scenery), Anthony Shervino (Colored Ink - Misc.), and Tiffany Zhao (Paper Art).

The WCHS Art Department has been hard at work creating and winning awards! Check out all their accomplishments in this video- https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uayG1AzewpGJ6QJkB40sjcMotOm3tnJ7/view?usp=drivesdk

Congrats to the WINNERS!! 1st prize: 1/4 beef- Ron Schmidt 2nd prize: $300 chicken- Amy Keller 3rd prize: $50 Berkots gift card- Mikko Snow

Please consider giving blood at the NHS Red Cross Blood Drive on April 28th at WCHS. To schedule an appointment, please visit: https://www.redcrossblood.org/give.html/drive-results?zipSponsor=Watseka Or, email casie.hanson@watsekaschools.org for an appointment.

On Thursday, March 30th WCHS hosted a Career Fair for their 9th - 12th grade students. Students were able to attend two 30 minute sessions on a career of their choice. Through this experience, community businesses were able to provide WCHS students with real-world knowledge and experiences on their area of career expertise, helping to better prepare our students for a successful future and potential career choices. Unit 9 is thankful for our community and local businesses that were able to attend to give our students the opportunity to start networking early and gain more knowledge. After the Career Fair, a CTE Advisory meeting was held to discuss ways we can work to build a stronger partnership between Unit 9 and our stakeholders. Several of our local community members shared their insight on ways we can better support our students career pathways. Some of the ideas discussed were job shadowing and internship opportunities, adult mentoring, bringing in more local guest speakers and taking students to visit/tour local businesses. We are very excited to offer our students more opportunities to help prepare them for a successful future after high school and work to develop stronger workplace skills. If you are interested in partnering with Unit 9, please fill out our form: tinyurl.com/iroquoisbusinessinfo

Unit 9 Partnership Opportunities

Thank You to These Businesses for Helping to Making Our WCHS Career Day a HUGE Success.