Administrator Update, August 23, 2017

Welcome back to Westlake! And for those families who are new to us, we hope you have received a warm embrace by our school community. We look forward to another exciting year of growing our students, seeing them become capable disciples of Jesus Christ in thought, word, and deed.

Welcome Back

We begin this school year with 210 students, of which 18 are from new families. We prayed for several months for every student enrolled for this year, and these were sent by our Lord. There are still several more who are considering or are in the enrollment process. We are grateful for His blessing!

These Administrator Updates will come to you twice each month, allowing me (Dr. Healan) to bring you news and information that I feel is important. In addition, you will receive a weekly summary of upcoming events in an email called “What’s Up @ Westlake.” Of course, the final word on events can always be found on our school calendar accessed on our website.

Remodeling

Summer days were busy around Westlake as we threw ourselves into the project of expanding our early education program. By adding a separate 3-year-old preschool class open five days a week, we needed to move our Kindergarten class to our main building. That involved several steps:

We had to make room in our main building to dedicate room 13 to Kindergarten, which meant rethinking our computer use and remodeling the computer lab (room 3) into a truly multi-purpose classroom/lab. That meant removing two islands, reconstructing the counters, distributing some of our computers to classrooms, and recarpeting the room.
Room 13 needed to be configured for kindergarten children, which called for new carpet, new paint, white board, bulletin boards, and new furnishings.
The two rooms in the early education building received a wonderful facelift with new paint, new flooring, and new furnishings.

I do hope all of our families get a chance to stop in those remodeled areas to see the upgrades. My deepest thanks to many volunteers who spent long hours helping with those projects.

New Teachers
I’d like to introduce our new teachers to you, and ask that you would pray for them. It’s never easy to jump into a new environment with different ways of doing things. They have all adapted very well so far and are valuable additions to our faculty.Carolyn (Lyn) Guthrie is our new high school English teacher. She started her education at New Hope Christian College where she received a strong biblical foundation. She then transferred to North Park University and earned her BA in English with a minor in Literature. In May, she completed her MA at Northern Illinois University in English with a minor in Film. She and her husband Ben live in Woodstock. For the past two years, she has taught English courses at the undergraduate level at NIU. Mrs. Guthrie demonstrated her teaching skills by delivering a lesson on Shakespeare to one of our classes last year while being observed by Dr. Healan and Miss Snow. She told us that she feels “strongly called to help others discover and pursue their callings and gifts,” and understands that she can best do so through education. “I love speaking and facilitating the voices of others, so teaching English composition and literature is where I feel most comfortable.” She sees school as “a place where students discover that everything about life intertwines and goes back to one central source: God. Students should graduate . . . with a better grasp of the world and the way they can impact it for the glory of God. My task is to prepare them for being in the world, but not of the world.”Kim Merrell is our Preschool teacher, coming to take over the newly-created 3-year-old class as part of our Early Education program expansion. Mrs. Merrell received degrees in Early Childhood Education from both Taylor University and the College of Lake County. She has demonstrated her love for young children by twenty-two years of experience as a teacher, assistant director, and director of several preschool programs. She and her husband Steve live in Grayslake. Having just completed her time in a preschool program in Lake Villa, she was available for us to watch her in action with her own class, which gave us valuable insight into her outstanding qualifications. Mrs. Merrell told us, “I love teaching young children. God created me to be a teacher. I love being a part of the learning process, nurturing children’s curiosity and desire to master a skill or concept.” Concerning her role as a teacher, she desires “to teach students about God and to show how God is a part of every aspect of our lives and the world we live in.”Ellen Roth will begin teaching our upper-level art classes this year. Mrs. Roth received her BFA in graphic design from the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design and has continued her education steadily over the years, taking courses to stay abreast of changing technology as well as adding to her skills. She has used her skills and training extensively in the commercial world as well as serving for 7 years as an art teacher at Calvary Christian School in Lake Villa. We are glad that she has decided to re-enter the teaching profession with us at Westlake this year.Susan O’Malley is really no stranger, having taught part time for us for the past two years, but she is stepping up to full-time status this year, largely filling the classes left by Mr. Naegele’s retirement. This is actually Mrs. O’Malley’s second “career” at Westlake. With a BA in biology/secondary education, she began teaching WCA students in 1992 at the Pearce campus in Zion. She followed the school to Gurnee and then finally to our present facility in 2001, where she took a hiatus from teaching to have a family. We brought her back in 2015 part-time so that she could readjust to the classroom in anticipation of Mr. Naegele’s eventual retirement.

In addition, over the summer we invited Mrs. Tiffany Alm to join our staff to teach art in grades 1-4. Mrs. Alm is the wife of our soccer coach, Mr. Craig Alm. She and her husband have three children, two of which are enrolled at Westlake. Mrs. Alm brings a great deal of creativity to the classroom and desires that her students see Christ reflected in their art. One of our staff wrote me concerning her, “[Mrs. Alm] has shown me, again and again, the length and depth of her creativity, faith, and beautiful perspective on the world. . . . Her gentle nature and artistic spirit would be an absolutely wonderful fit for Westlake.” Her husband describes her as “a classic right brained ‘lefty’ who not only sees the world in a unique way but is also able to help other people see it in a unique way.” We look forward to her ministry to our 1-4 grade students this year.

Dollar Dress Down Days

In the past, we have designated two Thursdays a month for “Dollar Dress Down Days“ during which students are allowed to come to school out of uniform. However, there was sometimes confusion about which Thursday was dress down day, so to fix that, we made two changes this year. We moved the dress down days to Fridays and made them EVERY Friday. They are still “Dollar” days, with the proceeds going to our senior class mission trip (first and third Fridays) and our student council (second and fourth Fridays). On any month with five Fridays, the fifth one will be free.

This year we’re also offering the convenience of paying for the full-year of Dollar Dress Down Days ahead of time. We have a total of 34 Dollar Dress Down Days, not including the FREE Days on the 5th Friday of every month. Feel free to still bring a dollar bill every Friday, but if you find yourself often scrambling for change in your car at drop off, perhaps you’d prefer tojust pay for the whole year ahead of time. If so, click here to make your payment online. Your student(s) will then receive a Dollar Dress Down Pass that they will need to show to their teacher every Friday to prove they’ve paid. We’ll also have a list of students who have paid in advance just for clarification purposes.

All-School Family Picnic

Toward the beginning of each school year, our Parents Association leadership organizes a wonderful picnic as a community-building event. We are planning this year’s event a bit later than normal—Saturday, September 16—and at a different time—4-7 pm in the evening. I’m looking forward to this time of fellowship and hoping all of our families and staff can make it.

If you’d like to volunteer to help at the picnic, please contact our Parents Association Leadership or click here to see a list of volunteer opportunities.

Spiritual Formation

Each year we focus on an overall theme for the school year to encourage spiritual growth in our students. That theme is shared with all of our chapel speakers, who usually try to flesh it out in their messages, both to the elementary and the secondary students. This year’s theme is “Metamorphosis,” derived from Romans 12:2. The topic is very broad and suggests many applications. Essentially, we want to emphasize that the Christian life is one of constant change and growth in Christ. Click here to see an in-depth description of this year’s theme from Mr. Flemming, our Discipleship Director and Guidance Counselor.

As we start the year, our students in grades 7-12 spend extra time together away from school in two retreats, preparing their hearts for this year’s journey. The Senior High Retreat is coming up next week, August 29 through September 1. The students will be traveling to Camp Fairwood in central Wisconsin. The student council plays a key leadership role in this retreat. The Junior High Retreat will be a single day (no over night) at a nearby camp on Thursday, September 14. Their retreat is led by the high school student council under the direction of faculty and staff sponsors. Our guest speaker for both the Junior High & Senior High retreats will be Aaron Cramer, the Campus Pastor at Christ Church Crossroads.

A major initiative this year to foster the growth of our secondary students is a new mentoring program. Under the direction of Mr. Andrew Metzger and led by our faculty and staff, small groups of students will meet twice each month to analyze the Psalms and pray through them for each other. We are excited to see what God does in the lives of our students through this program.

Prayer

“To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.” (Psalm 25:1)

Pray for those who are still considering enrollment in Westlake, that God would send us more mission-appropriate students and families.
Pray for the financial well-being of the Academy.
Pray for wisdom for those in our business office.
Pray for strength and wisdom for teachers, especially for those new to Westlake.
Pray for the school’s leadership: the Board and administration. There is much need for wisdom.
Pray for our families, for their own financial resources, jobs, and spiritual strength. Our culture is so often at cross-purposes to strong families and marriages.
Pray for vision, that we would keep our eyes on the Lord and trust Him. “Good and upright is the Lord.” (Ps. 25:8)

Sincerely,

Michael Healan, EdD
Administrator