Whitko Prepares For Middle School, High School Merger
LARWILL — Right now, Whitko staff members are working behind the scenes to update internal processes: the school website, social media, and messaging systems, to reflect the new changes for Pierceton Elementary School, South Whitley Elementary School and the new Whitko Jr./Sr. High School.
Parents and students can expect that over the coming weeks, some changes will be more visible than others, but all are being made to help accommodate the changes in wake of the new Jr./Sr. High School, as well as the incoming sixth-grade students to the elementary schools this coming fall. Behind the scenes, the Whitko messaging system will be updated to reflect that sixth-grade students and parents will be notified based on the elementary school where they attend.
“This transition should flow smoothly as the outgoing fifth-grade class will become the sixth-grade class, which means they will remain with their current elementary school,” said Nate Haywood, Whitko’s Marketing and Communications Coordinator. He said the merging of the middle school and high school will reflect similar changes behind the scenes but that he anticipates an easy transition. The more visible changes for parents and students will be reflected on social media and the school’s website.
“We’ve always had separate social media accounts on Facebook for WMS and WHS, and now we’re going to start the process of merging those accounts and creating a space on the school website to also bring them together,” Haywood said.
Haywood continued by saying the merge could take a few weeks as the process requires approval through Facebook headquarters. He said the goal is to help retain all content and followers. “When we announced the new website last summer, it felt very seamless. My goal is for this to feel very similar, and part of that is by helping everyone know the changes are coming.”
The Whitko Jr/Sr High School will begin it’s first year at the old High School location in the fall of 2018 at the same time that PES and SWE will welcome their first sixth-grade student classes.