Wood River High School

 WOOD RIVER HIGH SCHOOL (WRHS) - General information and links

Wood River High School continues to work in close partnership with Matt Leidecker and the SVSEF to accommodate the needs of our athletes.  During spring registration, students can sign up for "release periods" in the spring and fall semesters to free up afternoon training time and lighten their academic load during the competitive ski season.   It is important, however, for students to communicate clearly with their individual teachers when they will miss school for a SVSEF event. Here are some useful links.

Blaine County School District Website
Wood River High School Website
2012-2013 District Calendar

2013-14 District Calendar

 

WRHS teachers continue to build and develop their online web pages.  Some are better than others at posting coursework and other information on these sites.  This can be in invaluable tool for athletes who are on the road to pull assignments off the teacher's website.  Below is a link to the teacher website page on the Blaine County website.  Take a moment to get familiar with your teacher's website to see how you can utilize them this season.

WRHS Teacher Web Pages

*** Important info regarding the WRHS 2013/14 Pre-Registration  ***

Here is a bunch of information about the WRHS registration process as it relates to SVSEF athletes.

 

Release Period Paperwork - Do I have to track down my coach or Matt Leidecker to sign this form?

All SVSEF athletes are required to fill out the “Early Release” form in order to drop classes to accommodate afternoon training.  This is a yellow sheet that is available at either the WRMS or WRHS counseling offices (it is available online). 

 *** Don’t worry about getting the required signature from an SVSEF official.  I will sign all of the release paperwork at one time later this spring.

 

Release Periods – What time do we get out of school?

Here is the WRHS daily schedule.

 

 

Students hoping to take 3 release periods will get out at the following time:

• Mon, Thurs & Fri  - 12:15 or 12:45 depending on their lunch schedule
• Tues – 11:41 (if they don’t eat lunch at school)
• Wed – 1:54

Students hoping to take only 2 release periods will get out at the following time:

• Mon, Thurs & Fri – 1:40
• Tues & Wed – 1:54

 

 

Release Periods – Are SVSEF athletes allowed to sign up for 3 release periods?

This issue reared its head last year due to state funding.  Public school students need to be enrolled in 5 classes a day for the school to receive “full-time” compensation from the state.  Anything less than 5 classes results in the school district getting only “part-time’ compensation. 

A work-around was created this year by enrolling SVSEF athletes in simple classes such as “Office Aide”, or “Pass”.  They were required to sign into their 5^th period class (for attendance purposes) but were then allowed to leave to for training.  I would imagine this will be a possibility for next year, but there is no official policy in place.

It is not recommended for 9^th and 10^th graders to take 3 release periods, but certain exceptions exist in each SVSEF discipline.  If you are hoping to take 3 release periods it will be necessary to eventually work with your counselor in order to place you in an appropriate 5^th period class.  The most important thing to do when requesting your courses is to write “SVSEF” in bold on top of your course request sheet so it will be flagged during the scheduling process.

 

SVSEF 9-week course options – Do these exist any more?

The short answer is no.  During the 2011/12 school year WRHS experimented with a suite of 9-week (quarter) courses.  They were not popular so the school decided (in the 11^th hour) to cancel the 9-week program.

Unfortunately, the 9-week courses were a great way for SVSEF athletes to accumulate ½ credit elective courses in the fall and spring when they did not have to leave early for daily training.

Last year the school was willing to create another work-around by enrolling students in elective courses that they would drop after the 1st fall quarter and pick up again at the beginning of the 4^th spring quarter.  This solution created many issues with the course tracking and registration process as well as frustration among individual teachers.  There is no official policy in place, but if this 9-week “pass-through” credit option is available next year it will probably work only with the following courses:

• IDLA Lab
• Pass
• Office Aide
• Chess
• PE

 

What about IDLA (Idaho Digital Learning Academy) Classes?

With the switch to a semester schedule and the end of the 9-week program, it is becoming more important for SVSEF athletes to rely on IDLA online courses as a means to accumulate the credits dropped to accommodate daily training.  A recommended IDLA course load is to take 2 classes during the summer and 2 more during the school year (ideally in the fall, but these can be spread over the fall and spring).  Students should choose appropriate IDLA courses that fill appropriate gaps in their four-year plan.

One important thing to consider when signing up for IDLA is that the flex (work at your own pace) courses are not yet accepted by the NCAA.  If this is a potential concern, I would sign up for a regularly paced course and contact your online teacher if competing work on a regular basis will be an issue.  Learn more by going to the IDLA Information Page

 

Is there a monitored IDLA Lab at WHRS?

On a positive note, WRHS has established a monitored IDLA lab class.  Students can sign up for this class and do their IDLA work in a daily monitored environment.  Once ski team training begins in December most students should be finished with their online course, or can simply skip the class and do their online coursework at home after skiing.

Rebecca Bornhoft Duncan (RBornhoftDncan@blaineschools.org) is the new IDLA coordinator at WRHS.  You should contact her with any questions related to the IDLA lab class or signing up for IDLA courses.

The link to the IDLA website is: www.idahodigitallearning.org.

 

Are my course selections final at this time?

The courses you select now are not set in stone.  While I highly recommend choosing courses based on your 4-year plan, it will be possible to tweak your course selection later this spring.  One of the most important things you can do now is to highlight SVSEF in bold letters on all of your pre-registration materials.  This will help the counselors identify the block of ski team athletes who may need scheduling accomodations

 

General info about the 2-year old change to semesters.

Two years ago when the WRHS made the switch to a semester schedule I put together a lot of information on how that would effect SVSEF athletes.  Here is a quick summary from that research.  The three significant differences between a trimester and semester schedule are:

 

Here are some Power Point presentation from a meeting two years ago.  *** Please note that the school is no longer offering 9-week (quarter) courses.  Read the info about that above.

WRHS New Schedule Power Point download (9.8 MB)

WRHS New Schedule PDF download (9.8MB)

WRHS New Schedule (web slide show)

The image below shows the WRHS schedule overlaid with SVSEF and IDLA schedules.  You can download a copy of the excel file WRHS schedule (2014).   It contains the original information show in the slide show above, but students and parents can use the various worksheets to build their 4- or 5-year plans.  It includes several sample 4-year plans that fulfill the requirements for WRHS, WRHS + IB (Middle Years Program), & WRHS + Elite Colleges.  This should be a very useful tool for mapping our your skiing and academic career.