The Waller Independent School District (“ISD”) Assistant Superintendent for Administration, Danny Twardowski, is selected as the new Waller ISD Superintendent effective July 1, 2010. The Waller ISD Board of Trustees announced their sole finalist selection on January 12th, and formally voted on the appointment of Danny Twardowski to the Superintendent’s position at the February 8, 2010 Regular Called Board Meeting.

The Waller ISD Board President, David Kaminski, said,” Danny has been instrumental in the successes and improvements in Waller ISD since his arrival in 1997. He is highly regarded by the staff, community and educators across the State. He has worked closely with Richard McReavy and the School Board and is intimately familiar with the School Board's vision. We are excited that Danny has accepted the Superintendent's position and we look forward to continued district-wide success.”

The Waller High School Varsity Boys Basketball Team competed in the Brazoswood Holiday Tournament over the Christmas break. The bulldogs defeated St. Pius 55-54 and Bay City 78-56 on Wednesday, December 30, taking home 3rd place in the consolation bracket. It was a total team effort along with key contributors Greg Allen, Jyrin Broussard, Rod Hill, and DJ Ragston. Mikhail Drake and DeAndre Bell made the All Tournament Team. The Bulldogs were back in action to open up district play on Saturday afternoon losing a hard fought game to The Huntsville Hornets. The Bulldogs led early in the contest but weren’t able to pull out the victory. The team competed hard with never giving up, and made a couple of runs in the game. The Bulldogs have two very important district games ahead of them. A home game against Magnolia West on January 5th, and then they travel to Willis on January 8th. All district game times are 4:30/6:00/7:30 p.m. The Waller Boys Basketball Team is asking all fans to come out and support them as they try to compete for a District Championship.

A character book parade was held at Turlington Elementary School as students dressed in costumes to replicate their favorite book characters. The students paraded around the school hallways to show off their costumes to their schoolmates after each classroom passed by the costume contest panel of judges.

Each classroom selected their favorite book and dressed in character costume to compete in a classroom costume contest. The winning classroom won the opportunity to throw a pie in the face of the School Principal, Mindy Peper, Asst. Principal, Stephanie Fletcher, and School
Librarian, Kim Arnold. Classroom favorite book characters were Skippy Jon Jones, The Polar Express, Stellaluna, Where the Wild Things Are, Bug Fairy, The Tale of Despereaux, Harry Potter, The Magic School Bus, and many more. The school surpassed their goal of selling 500+ books at the Book Fair.

Over 400 people attended the Evelyn Turlington Elementary School dedication and open house on Sunday, October 11th. The community joined together to express their appreciation for the many years that school namesake, Evelyn Turlington, has dedicated to the Waller ISD community. This school year marks 53 years in education that Mrs. Turlington has dedicated to the Waller ISD students, staff and community.

Waller ISD Superintendent, Richard McReavy, welcomed the community by expressing his appreciation to the many people who have contributed to the elementary project, a 3-1/2 year project that was truly a Waller Independent School District community-wide effort.

The Waller High School Bulldogs continued their winning streak, pushing it to three in a row. They beat the Caney Creek Panthers 45-7 Friday night at Moorhead Stadium. Defensively, the Waller Bulldogs were led by Jordan Hamilton, BJ Kwiatkowski, David McDade, Keith White, Jordan Ondijo, Jordan Gooden, and Jacobie White. Hamilton played his best game of the year and continues to improve. Kwiatkowski moved to middle linebacker this week and had an interception return for a touchdown along with numerous tackles. Keith White and David McDade were all over the field making plays. Ondijo, Gooden and Jacobie White clogged the middle and held Caney Creek to 23 offensive yards at halftime, and slightly less than 80 total yards for the game. Miller Pierce, Chad Madden, Kalyn Utz, Jyrin Broussard, Matthew Pierce, Hunter Schmidt, Art Musgrove, Alex Ramirez, Cardale Durham, Oscar Rodriguez, and Conlee Fry also played well for the Bulldogs defense.

WHS is inviting the Waller community to expand their Science knowledge by participating in WHS Science GIANTS Night, an evening filled with Science related demonstrations and activities on Tuesday, November 17th, 6 pm-8 pm. Students will present laboratory experiments and applications they learned in their Waller High School Biology, Chemistry, Integrated Physics & Chemistry, and Physics classes. A pot luck dinner will be served. For more information about the event or potluck dinner, contact kmoore@wallerisd.net.

The Waller High School Varsity Lady Bulldogs came closer to playoffs ending the week with a 23-10 season record and a 6-5 district record.

On Tuesday, October 13, the Lady Bulldogs defeated Caney Creek 23-25, 25-13, 25-11, and 25-17, but on Friday, October 16, Magnolia West defeated the Lady Bulldogs 19-25, 15-25, and 17-25. Senior Kallie Carpenter and Junior McCale Fite led in kills with sixteen for the week. Kallie also had twenty three digs and five service aces while McCale added two block assists, three solo blocks, eleven digs, and two service aces. McCale was the Lady Bulldog Varsity Player of the Week. Senior Kaydee Rayburn had twenty digs and three service aces for the week, and Junior Lindsey Yanchak had a 2.3 serve receive and nine kills. Junior libero Emily Wood led the team with thirty digs and a 2.4 serve receive. Sophomore Kamryn Dimas had twenty nine digs and fifteen assist, and Morgan Heise had nine kills, sixteen assists, and twenty five digs.

On Saturday, October 10th, the Schultz 8th Grade ‘White’ Volleyball Team participated in the Brenham tournament.

The lady bulldogs had an impressive showing in their first game defeating the hosting school, Brenham, in 3 games.

In their second game, Schultz had the opportunity to avenge their previous loss to Magnolia. In the first match, it looked as if they would achieve just that and won! However, they fought hard but came up short in the last two matches. This put the Lady bulldogs in position to play for 5th place where the defeated a second Magnolia team in three games.

Overall, the Schultz lady bulldogs are truly coming together as a team and building their abilities on the court. Countless “bump, set, spikes” were achieved along with several incredible saves by girls hustling on the court!

Ultimately, it was their determination to never give up and keep fighting as a team that earned them their success this weekend. Micayla Ugron, Mikayla Williams, Cali Zeka, and Taylor Barkely all achieved ace serves during their three games this weekend. Additionally, several kills were earned by Taylor Barkley, Peyton Irvan, Mikayla Williams, Madison Vanek, and Abigail Costea. The Hustle and Heart award was earned by Mikayla Williams who always kept a positive attitude and displayed her leadership abilities through her hustle and drive on the court. On Thursday, October 15th , the Schultz lady bulldogs will face Willow Wood there. Go Lady Bulldogs! WISD Public Information

The Waller ISD Band Program is looking for donated musical instruments.  Help spread the word and search your closets, garages, and attics to give a student a wonderful musical experience!

Clean out your closets, attics, and garages! The Waller ISD Band Program is looking for your musical instruments so that we can help students in need enjoy the same musical experiences you had in school! We need your instruments that you no longer use, that your children left behind, or that you simply have laying around the house. Specifically, we are looking for following instruments: Flute, Clarinet, Alto Saxophone, Trumpet, and Trombone.

The Waller High School Boys and Girls Tennis Team competed in the off-season Bryan High School Tennis Tournament on Thursday, November 5, giving Coach Jacqueline Crow her first 1st place finish since taking over the team Fall 2008. Waller took 14 players from Varsity and JV to participate with 7 other schools, including Bryan HS, A&M Consolidated HS and Brenham HS, in 5 events - Boys Singles, Girls Singles, Boys Doubles, Girls Doubles and Mixed Doubles. It was an excellent day for the girls! Senior Haley Jones, ranked #2 at Waller High School, defeated Conroe 8-6 and Brenham 2-0 to go on to play Waller Junior Kallie McWhinney, ranked #3, in the finals in Girls Singles. McWhinney beat out Conroe 8-3, then Somerville to then play Jones. In the finals, Jones and McWhinney fought it out in the first set with Jones winning 6-4. Jones dominated the second set 6-2 to win first place and McWhinney took second. Sophomores Kim Le, ranked #4, and Alex Pretto, ranked #5, competed in the Girls Doubles Division as new partners.

The Waller High School Varsity Lady Bulldog Volleyball Team ended district play with a huge win over Montgomery 27-25, 18-25, 25-16, 17-25, 15-13. Senior Kallie Carpenter led the team with twenty kills. Junior Lindsey Yanchak led with twenty-three digs and added twelve kills, and libero Emily Wood had nineteen digs. Sophomore setter Kamryn Dimas had fifty assists, and McCale Fite added ten kills. The Lady Bulldogs ended regular season with a 25-11 record. Volleyball Playoffs begin on Tuesday, November 3, for the Bulldogs when they play Elgin High School at Bryan HS at 8pm.

The Junior Varsity team finished the season with a loss against Montgomery 23-25, 17-25 and ended the season with a 14-21 record. The Freshman team defeated the Montgomery Bears 25-12, 25-20 in their final game. The combined freshman team finished the season with a 10-1 record. The Freshman Maroon ended with a 17-9 record, and the Freshman White team ended with a 18-8 record.

Sixth grade students at Schultz Junior High recently participated in a “Challenge Day”. The goal for the day was to challenge the students and teachers, both mentally and physically, so that they are able to connect these challenges to the ones they will face throughout the year. Students learned how to overcome these challenges by working together and communicating with one another. Some of the activities the students experienced during Part I of their “Challenge Day” included making a social contract, tag games to get them energized, and team-building activities. The focus of these “challenges” included building teamwork, improving listening skills, problem solving, leadership, cooperation, following directions, and goal setting.

The students concluded the day by building a “team rope” which will hang in the teacher’s classrooms throughout the year. The “team rope” hanging will help them remember their day and realize that the team is stronger when they work together.

In the Spring, the students will get to experience Part II of their “Challenge Day”. Part II of the challenge is held at the Waller ISD Ropes Course, located next to Schultz Junior High, where they will experience the high elements. High elements include walking across the catwalk, and coming down the zipline. At the end of Part II, students will “cut” their “team rope” so that each team member walks away with a piece of the team challenge.

WJH would like to invite parents to join them for a day in the life of their WJH student on Friday, November 6th. Parents will report to the front office for the class schedule and will actively participate in their WJH student classes for a day. Grab some coffee, juice, and breakfast goodies when signing in and head to the school auditorium to meet the Principal for a “briefing” about the activities for the day. Call the school at 936.931.1353 to RSVP or log onto www.wallerisd.net/wallerjh for more details.

The Schultz Junior High Cross Country season came to an end at the district meet in Montgomery last Friday October 16th. It was a great evening for the entire team with all runners breaking their personal bests.

Top finishers were 7th grade girls: Makenzie Bartlett 7th place, Jacklyn Waddel 19th and Kayce Costea 31st. 8th grade girls were Jessica little 19th and Angelica Grayson 21st. 7th grade Boys were Tim Cone 45th and Bradley Zeka 49th. Other runners included Allison Payne, Julia Payne, Britani Carre, Emily Netto, Samantha Schild, Sarah Burton, Sara Turner, and Victoria Tenorio. Coach Smith was very proud of all the runners and is looking forward to next season!

On Thursday October 1st, the Lady Bulldog Schultz 8th grade White ‘A’ Volleyball team played the Magnolia Bulldogs in Magnolia.  The Schultz bulldogs came out fighting in the first match delivering several hard hits against the opponents but ultimately falling short 27 to 25.  In the second match, the ladies lost steam and were defeated 25-11.  Still, the Schultz lady bulldogs showed tremendous improvement in their game and stepped up their hitting and tips.  Angelica Grayson earned the teams first block of the season while several of her teammates contributed consistent serving and awesome hits!  Micayla Williams, Abigail Costea, and Taylor Barkely stood out for their hustle and determination on the court.  The Lady Bulldogs look forward to another exciting match at home on Thursday, October 8, against Tomball!  Go Bulldogs!

Brookshire Brothers Pharmacist Lenny Saladino (center) donated a Wii to the students of Holleman Elementary.  Also pictured are Holleman Volunteer Coordinator and teacher, Nancy Evans (left) and Holleman Elementary Principal Merilyn Godwin (right). WISD Public Information
  Holleman Elementary received a Wii game console donated by Brookshire Brothers Pharmacy of Waller and the Lenny Saladino family.  The Wii will be used by the Positive Attitude Winners (PAW) from Holleman which are chosen each week for each grade level.  Holleman students will be chosen as a PAW from their homeroom class each Friday. The PAW Award is an earned incentive with a goal that students will feel pride in themselves and their behavior when they earn the PAW Award.  The Positive Attitude Winners consistently display a positive attitude in all activities, show consideration for others, encourage others, share easily, and display an effort to resolve difficulties and conflicts in a positive manner.

Holleman Elementary students are very grateful to Mr. Saladino and family and to Brookshire Brothers Pharmacy of Waller for their generous Wii console donation.