Lewis
News
August 3, 2022
PRSRT STD ECRWSS
US. Postage Paid Winlock, WA 98596 Permit No. 5
Covering rural communities in Southwest Washington since 1967
Changes at WSD beginning this school year
Photo courtesy of winlockpickersfest.com Pickers performing during the 2018 Winlock Pickersfest.
Party the weekend away at the 22nd Annual Winlock Pickersfest By Lynnette Hoffman The 22th Annual Winlock Pickersfest is this weekend and we are so glad to see its return. The event takes place from Friday to Sunday with many different varieties of acoustic music. If you are new or have not been to Pickerfest, you will find a lot of very good pickin’
going on. WAMA, which is the group for acoustic musicians, has been strong in Washington State for many years. Every year, except during the pandemic, they have come to the Winolequa Park to bring music to South Lewis County. This year they are back. Many guests start arriving on Thursday night
for camping. Winolequa Park has limited seating so please bring your own chairs. There will also be a concession stand operated by the Little League in Winlock. Pickerfest offers instructional workshops, genre jams, open mics and plenty of pickin’ and grinnin’. This year, if you See Pickersfest Page 4
By Lynnette Hoffman Winlock School District has changed their district calendar beginning this school year. Many in the area have concerns that it will impact their children, but the biggest impact should be on test scores and improvement. The Winlock School District has made the choice to change the calendar so there is less time off in the summer. This will help students who struggle when they return to school as not as much time has lapsed since their last class. Garry Cameron, Superintendent of Winlock School District took the time to sit with us. He stated, “We are happy to announce that Winlock School District is transitioning to a different school calendar this fall. We embrace this new schedule with more connection and opportunity for our students, and flexibility for staff. We have referred to our new calendar as a ‘modified calendar,’ and some have been asking
Winlock School District Superintendent Garry Cameron
why the district would want to change from the previous calendar.” To begin with, our students had difficulties during the pandemic, it showed that the students with a less structured environment struggled during the pandemic. Per Cameron, he stated, “The pandemic showed us that extended unstructured, unsupervised time at home can be detrimental for some of our kids. We also know that students suffer from significant learning loss during the 11-week summer, and those concepts need to be re-taught before teaching the curriculum for the next school year.”
“The modified calendar will allow the option for students to spend more time with teachers and friends throughout the year and this will grow our students' social and emotional health,” he continued. “Student academic performance will improve as we reduce the time needed to reteach from summer learning loss. Student academic performance will also improve as students participate in intersessions. Intersessions are a very important component to a modified calendar. Intersessions are up to one-week long, volunteer See WSD Page 3