2024-25 Weekly Post

A big week for the Tigers as four teams will head to state to compete for hardware.  Our defending 3A State Champion Girls Track demonstrated they are ready to make a run for a repeat as they won the 3A Western Regional this weekend. Individual champions included Paisley Hollingshead in the 100 hurdles, 300 hurdles, the long jump, and high jump.  Ava Gerlach, Eliza Scott, Katy Anderson, Daisy Goklish in the 4x400 relay, Adelyn Anderson in both the shot put and the discus.  On the boys side, just Gavin Romer was able to claim the top spot on the podium with his discus throw.  Both teams will be at  Kelly Walsh High School this Thursday-Saturday to try and fire up those fire engines on Saturday.   The defending 3A State Champion Soccer team will try and do the same as they carry the three seed into their state tournament in Gillette this weekend.  The boys will enter the tournament as a two seed and both the boys and girls will face off against Worland in the opening round. Good luck to  all teams and we look forward to cheering you on!  

Our choir classes will be performing on Monday night (5/19) showing off their incredible talent and hardwork that has allowed them to compete well at festival earlier this spring.  We hope you can make it at 7pm in the LVHS Auditorium.  

We completed 2 full weeks of AP testing which included tests in 13 different AP classes that LVHS proudly offers to its students.  As you know our success on these tests have been growing at an exceptional rate and we look forward to seeing how these students did on the most difficult and challenging courses and tests offered to high school students!   

We look forward to hosting our Class of 2025 Commencement on Sunday, June 1st at 1pm in the Bob Carey Memorial Fieldhouse.  We will be sending out links to stream that event for our families and friends who cannot make it soon so please be on the lookout for those as well.  Please remember that doors do not open until 11am and that seating is first come, first serve.  We will have additional seating for our family and friends on the floor behind the graduates and staff, along with additional seating in the mezzanine area nearest the fitness center, but we will have a full house so please plan accordingly.  

Senior parents please remember that Thursday, May 29th at 7am we will be hosting our senior awards breakfast and encourage students and their families to attend.  We celebrate the millions in scholarships and other great accomplishments of our students and hope we see you all there to celebrate.  Breakfast begins at 7am and awards start promptly at 7:30.  

As we did last semester, we will soon be sending out End of the Semester Referrals for all students 9-11.  Please be looking at both email and USPS as this is early notice that your student does not have proficiencies on all standards and/or is missing work that must be completed to assess their proficiency.  These referrals will open this week and will require students to complete to earn credit in their courses or be required to attend summer school.  Summer School this year will run Monday through Thursday from June 16-26th.  Please visit with students this week about where they are at in each of their courses and have them start taking care of any issues to minimize the need for referrals.   Please don’t hesitate to contact your students' teacher(s) with any questions or concerns about student progress towards standards.  

Last week was the last full week of school for students.  This Friday we have off as it was a snow day that we did not need to use….the next week is Memorial Day on Monday and the following week is the last week of school which officially ends on Thursday, June 5th.   For this week we will simply have our four traditional schedule days with no Friday schedule.  For the following week we will have our Monday schedule on Friday since there is no school on Monday.  For the last week of school we will follow a traditional schedule for Monday and Tuesday, and then on Wednesday we will follow the schedule below.  Please remember that Thursday, June 5th is only required if students have referrals.  This is also an opportunity for students to come in and raise grades.   Please note that students may utilize summer school for raising grades in core areas but must make plans with teacher prior to the end of school in order to do this.  

5/19-5/22 -- We will have typical schedule all four days, as 5/23 is a snow day make up

5/27-5/30 -- We will do like normal when we don't have a Monday, we will follow regular schedule and on Friday we will follow the Monday schedule for Makeup as Monday 5/26 is Memorial Day

6/2-6/6  -- Monday 6/2 will be normal Monday schedule

                 Tuesday 6/3 will be normal Tuesday schedule

                 Wednesday 6/4 will be shortened Friday schedule see below:  

                  Thursday 6/5 will be referral day, just like we had at end of 1st semester, no real schedule students will be triaged out and sent to their referrals until they are finished, only referral students are required to come

                  Friday 6/6 Is all staff inservice day, no students

 WEDNESDAY 6/4 

 Period 1     8:00 – 8:45 am

       Period 2     8:50 – 9:35 am                                          

 Period 3     9:45 – 10:30 am

             Period 4     10:35– 11:20 am

             Lunch        11:25-12:00 pm

             Period 5     12:05 – 12:50 pm

             Period 6     12:55 – 1:40 pm

             Period 7         1:45 – 2:30 pm

Hope all our Tiger Mom’s had a great day with their families and know how grateful we are all for all of our excellent mothers, staff and/or parents!  Thanks for all you do for the us at LVHS and hope today was all about you!  

Well we definitely had a Night in Paris thanks to the Class of 2026 and their fabulous work hosting a great prom.  Special thanks to Junior Class Advisors Mrs. Traci Darr who led the event and was assisted by Jen Gregorcy!

We look forward to hosting our Class of 2025 Commencement on Sunday, June 1st at 1pm in the Bob Carey Memorial Fieldhouse.  We will be sending out links to stream that event for our families and friends who cannot make it soon so please be on the lookout for those as well.  Please remember that doors do not open until 11am and that seating is first come, first serve.  We will have additional seating for our family and friends on the floor behind the graduates and staff, along with additional seating in the mezzanine area nearest the fitness center, but we will have a full house so please plan accordingly.  

Senior parents please remember that Thursday, May 29th at 7am we will be hosting our senior awards breakfast and encourage students and their families to attend.  We celebrate the millions in scholarships and other great accomplishments of our students and hope we see you all there to celebrate.  Breakfast begins at 7am and awards start promptly at 7:30.  

Congratulations to all of our seniors whom we celebrated last Monday on their College signing.  We currently have students planning to attend colleges and universities across the nation and have military recruits heading to three different branches.  

We had a great week of AP testing with students taking Biology, Chemistry, English Literature, US History.  This week our students will conquer Calculus AB, Calculus BC, Environmental Science, PreCalculus, English Language, Computer Science, Spanish and Psychology.  We are so proud of all of our students who have challenged themselves in these very rigorous courses.

We had a great week of athletics, with boys and girls soccer getting double victories this week, our track team performed well with many personal bests, some records and wins at the Shane Brock Invitational on Saturday.  On Friday, both Hunter Kihn, and Keigann Watson earned the Lander Golf Invitational Individual Championship and that helped to propel both the boys and girls on to team victories.  

As we did last semester, we will soon be sending out End of the Semester Referrals for all students 9-11.  Please be looking at both email and USPS as this is early notice that your student does not have proficiencies on all standards and/or is missing work that must be completed to assess their proficiency.  These referrals will open late next week and will require students to complete to earn credit in their courses or be required to attend summer school.  Summer School this year will run Monday through Thursday from June 16-26th.  Please vist with students this week about where they are at in each of their courses and have them start taking care of any issues to minimize the need for referrals.   Please don’t hesitate to contact your students' teacher(s) with any questions or concerns about student progress towards standards. 

Hello TIgers, 

Although I do not have official results I do know that many students earned the prestigious blue ribbon at the WHSAA State Art Symposium this past Thursday and Friday in the Ford Wyoming Center.  Over 5,000 pieces of art from high schools around the state were a part of this incredible show and a large portion of the LVHS students selection were awarded the blue ribbon.  Congratulations to all students who had pieces submitted!  

College Signing Day is this Monday, May 5th at 1:30 pm in the Bob Carey Memorial Fieldhouse.  This is a great opportunity to celebrate the post-high school plans for college, postsecondary training, or military that Class of 2025 has committed to. Come and help us celebrate this great tradition at LVHS. 

Wednesday, the LVHS chapter of the National Honor Society will induct its newest members into this prestigious organization.  We congratulate all the students and their families for this remarkable achievement and look forward to celebrating this with you on Wednesday night in the LVHS Auditorium.  

Thursday we will host the 2nd annual LVHS Student Showcase which showcases the work from the Art, Culinary, Woods, Metal, and ELA Departments at LVHS.  This will happen on Thursday, May 8th from 5-7pm in the LVHS Commons.  This is a great display of the amazing work our students do on a regular basis. 

Saturday we will celebrate a Night in Paris, as the junior class hosts their Prom from 8-11pm at the Community Center.   Tickets are on sale now and only open to Juniors or Seniors.  Underclassmen who come must be a guest of an upperclassmen.  Tickets are $20 for a single and $35 for a couple if bought in advance.  Please keep in mind that students must be at the Community Center no later than 9pm to be admitted and if they leave the building there is no reentry. 

In addition to all of this I we have a makeup soccer game against Pinedale on Tuesday, our home golf tournament on Friday and Saturday the LVHS track team will host the Shane Brock Invitational.  

Don't forget, AP Tests start this week for students in AP Classes.  All parents of students in an AP class should have received in the USPS mail a letter with schedule and more information about the conclusion of those tests and the ability for students to raise grades.  Please refer to those letters and please call the office to request one if you did not receive one a couple weeks ago.   For a quick reminder here is the AP testing schedule for the next couple of weeks...

Date Time Exam Room(s)

Monday, 5/5 8am - 1pm AP Bio 221 and Fremont

Tuesday, 5/6 8am - 1pm AP Chem Room 221

Wednesday, 5/7 8am - 1pm AP Lit 222 and Fremont

Friday, 5/9 8am - 1pm APUSH 221, 222, Fremont

Monday, 5/12 8am - 1pm AP CALC 222 and Fremont

Tuesday, 5/13 8am - 1pm AP Pre CALC Room 221

Tuesday, 5/13 12pm - 330pm APES 221 and Fremont

Wednesday, 5/14 8am - 1pm AP Lang 221, 222, Fremont

Thursday, 5/15 8am - 1pm AP Spanish Room 221

Thursday, 5/15 12pm - 330pm AP Comp Sci Room 221

Friday, 5/16 12pm - 330pm AP Psych Room 221

Finally, it is Teacher Appreciation Week and I encourage you to reach out via phone or email to let the teachers who mean the most to you and your student know.  LVHS is INCREDIBLY lucky to have staff full of highly qualified adults who put our students first each and every day and I am so grateful to be a part of this amazing team.  Nothing means more to teachers than a quick shout out from a parent/student that gives them the positive feedback that they have earned and I thank you in advance for recognizing the tremendous efforts of our LVHS staff.  I also want to commend the Wyoming State Teacher of the Year, Mrs. Morgan Hahn, who has held that title since January, Mrs. Rachel Peters who was named a PAEMST Teacher of the Year in the fall, and Mr. Richard Atnip who was recently recognized as a state finalist for the PAEMST.  These three are just a few of the many examples of the high level and incredible teaching staff that LVHS is fortunate to have and I want to thank all LVHS teachers and staff for their continued contributions and dedication to our students.  

Hope you all have a great week!  

Hello Tigers,

I want to thank everyone for their help in making our State Testing Day a fabulous success.  We had great attendance in all three tests and that has made our retake process smooth and simple.  We thank all of our parents for ensuring your students were here and ready to take the test.  

Good luck to our LVHS Art students who will have their artwork on display at the WHSAA State Art Symposium in Ford Wyoming Center this Thursday and Friday.  This incredible display of art takes the entire floor of the Event Center, with thousands of pieces of art from high schoolers across the state.  We look forward to hearing about your succes and wish you the best of luck.  If you have a chance to make it to Casper for this event it is well worth your time, I encourage anyone to go and take in this great display.  In case you can’t make it you will have a chance to see many of the pieces right here in Lander the following week.  

I want to invite all of you to the 2nd annual LVHS Student Showcase which showcases the work from the Art, Culinary, Woods, Metal, and ELA Departments at LVHS.  This will happen on Thursday, May 8th from 5-7pm in the LVHS Commons.  This is a great display of the amazing work our students do on a regular basis.  

I also want to give an early heads -up about our Junior Class Prom, A Night in Paris.  This will happen from 8-11pm on Saturday, May 10th at the Community Center.  Tickets are on sale now and only open to Juniors or Seniors.  Underclassmen who come must be a guest of an upperclassmen.  Tickets are $20 for a single and $35 for a couple.  Please keep in mind that students must be at the Community Center no later than 9pm to be admitted and if they leave the building there is no remittance.  

I also want to cordially invite all to the LVHS College Signing Day which happens on Monday, May 5th at  1:30 PM in the Bob Carey Memorial Fieldhouse.  This is a great opportunity to celebrate the post-high school plans for college, postsecondary training, or military that Class of 2025 has committed to. Come and help us celebrate this great tradition at LVHS.   

Our LVHS Yearbook class is busy finishing up documenting all of the greatness of LVHS and encapsulating that into the 2024-25 yearbook.  Those yearbooks can only be purchased online and you can go and order your copy now at https://www.treering.com/purchase?PassCode=1014389688861342

Hello Tigers, 

This Tuesday, April 22nd is the LVHS State Testing Day!  Here is what it means for your student:

Seniors:

No tests for any seniors.  Seniors are only required to come if they have received a State Testing Day Referral. Those will have been copied to parents emails as well as parents and so please be sure to look at those. Although the majority of referrals have happened by now, those could happen up to testing day so please check emails on Monday night and direct students to school if you receive one of them.  Those referrals will begin at 8:30 am for all seniors as we need some time to take care of testing before we start this process.   

Juniors: 

All juniors are taking the ACT test and will need to be here by 7:45 am.  Once the test begins students CANNOT be admitted as per ACT rules.  Juniors will need to make sure that they bring both their chargers and chromebooks on Monday, April 21st as we will be getting those set up in their testing rooms before they leave on Monday. This will help reduce a lot of the issues previously experienced on state testing day and make sure that we are ready to begin promptly on Tuesday.   Please remind your students to make sure they have this ready for Monday, April 21st and we will handle the rest towards the end of their 5th hour class.  Any students absent on this day will just be sure to bring it with them on Tuesday morning when they come to take the test.  

Sophomores: 

All sophomores are required to take the state required WY-Topp test on Tuesday as well.  Please make sure students are prepared with a fully charged chromebook and their charger and are at school no later than 7:45 am on that morning so we can begin on time.

Freshmen: 

All freshmen are required to take the state required WY-Topp test on Tuedsday as well.  Please make sure students are prepared with a fully charged chromebook and their charger and are at school no later than 7:45 am on that morning so we can begin on time.

Students will be allowed to leave after testing if they have NOT been referred for missing or non-proficient work for that day.  If they have been referred students will be expected to stay until all referrals are complete. Referrals began last week and will continue up until the state testing date.  Please make sure you are checking your emails and most importantly reminding students too so that they will have time to rectify the situation prior to testing day.  You can search your email for the subject line of State Testing Day.

Please remember that due to the different schedule on Tuesday, we will follow a traditional Tuesday schedule this Friday.  All other days will follow their normal schedule.  

Although I have not got final official results I do know that both our band and choir performed well at festival this week in Rawlins.  I also know that our FFA teams competed well with many top-10 finishes for them which led to them being named a Gold chapter for the first time in many years.   Congratulations to all students who competed at these events recently.   

Last week our students competed in the CWC Regional Math Competitions and our top-team took the top-honors with most of the top-ten performers coming from LVHS.  This success at this competition is a pretty regular occurrence and is a quick indication of the type of success that we are able to have with our math classes. LVHS is the only school that competes that offers the highest level of math possible to a high school students and we remain extremely proud of the almost thirty students annually who take our AP Calculus AB and BC courses.   Special thanks to our entire math department but especially to Mrs. Rachel Peters who took the students to the competition!

Congratulations to Finn Richards and Emma Jones who were recently recognized for earning the State of Wyoming Seal of Biliteracy. The Wyoming Department of Education gives this award in recognition of students who have attained proficiency in English and one or more additional languages (Spanish)  by high school graduation. We are so proud of these students and they will adorn official regalia marking this incredible achievement at commencement in June.    

If you are looking for an incredible enrichment opportunity for your student this summer check out this Arabic Summer Camp put on by the University of Wyoming.  The link will answer all the questions you may have and direct you to how to apply.  https://www.uwyo.edu/arabic/high-school-and-community-outreach/startalk-arabic-summer-camp.html

Congratulations to Keigan Watson and Hunter Kihn who both won their respective divisions of the Thermopolis Golf Invite this past week after several reschedules to avoid the weather.  Soccer and track both had their events postponed and hopefully we will get back on schedule this week!   

Hello Tigers,

I hope that you were all able to enjoy one of three fantastic nights of the LVHS production of Alice in Wonderland.  It was incredible to see the talent, combined with the costumes, sound, stage, music, and makeup that made this a real spectacular undertaking and great success. Special thanks to Mrs. Angela Pettibone who directed the play and her entire crew and cast for all they did to make this great weekend possible for our students and the community!  

Congratulations to our boys and girls soccer teams who are both off to a good start in their spring season.  The girls were able to get a big win over Douglas on Tuesday, suffered a tough loss to Powell on Friday night and were not able to rebound against Cody on Saturday.  The boys dominated Douglas and Powell, before falling to Cody in a tough 1-3 loss on Saturday.   The track team is also off to a good start with many individuals fairing well at the couple of meets that they have participated in.   

I hope to update you next week on the success of our FFA team who competed at their State competition in Cheyenne this past week.  This team has been working hard and competing across the state in various competitions to refine their skills and prepare for this culminating event.  

Just a reminder that next Tuesday, April 22nd is our LVHS State Testing Day.  All Juniors are required to come that day to take the state required ACT test.  All freshmen and sophomores are required to take the state required WY-Topp test on that date as well.  Please make sure students are prepared with a fully charged chromebook and their charger and are at school no later than 7:45 am on that morning so we can begin on time.  Students will be allowed to leave after testing if they have NOT been referred for missing or non-proficient work for that day.  If they have been referred students will be expected to stay until all referrals are complete.  Seniors will only need to report to school that day if they are referred for work in their current classes.  Referrals began earlier this week and will continue up until the state testing date.  Please make sure you are checking your emails and most importantly reminding students to do so that students will have time to rectify the situation prior to testing day.  You can search your email for the subject line of State Testing Day.   

All Juniors will need to make sure that they bring both their chargers and chromebooks on Monday, April 21st as we will be getting those set up in their testing rooms before they leave on Monday. This will help reduce a lot of the issues previously experienced on state testing day and make sure that we are ready to begin promptly on Tuesday.   Please remind your students to make sure they have this ready for Monday, April 21st and we will handle the rest towards the end of their 5th hour class.  Any students absent on this day will just be sure to bring it with them on Tuesday morning when they come to take the test.   

Please keep in mind that due to the schedule change required for state testing day, the rest of the week schedule will remain the same, except for Friday (4/25) which will be a Tuesday schedule so students will report to periods 2/4/6/7. 

Well somehow the third quarter is now officially over and just one more quarter to go to wrap up the 2024-25 school year.  As a result, Parent/Teacher Conferences are this week and we invite you to come with or without your student to ensure that we are all on the same page as we finish the school years off.   Our times are: 

Tuesday, March 25th – 4-7pm

Wednesday, March 26th – 3:30-5:30

We look forward to seeing you in the LVHS Auxiliary Gym on one or both of those nights listed above.  

The Class of 2026 definitely did not disappoint as they put on one of the greatest nights in LVHS Night at the Museum History with an incredible display of family, local, national,  and world history.  We are so grateful for the support of the community and this year many have commented on how many community members showed up to take in this incredible event.  Again, if you have not taken part in this show we encourage you to save the date for next year, once you come, you will not be able to stop.  Special thanks to our LVHS Social Studies Department, Mr. Jeremy Francom, Mr. Abilio Monteiro, Mr. Brennan Ibach, and Mrs. Morgan Hahn for their tireless efforts to ensure that the LVHS Social Studies Department is #1 in the state of Wyoming!  

Our students seemed to really enjoy the band Gooding and the Financial Literacy component of the assembly that we were fortunate enough to host on Friday.   The band was impressed by the knowledge of our students and of course by their splendid behavior and spirit that they demonstrated throughout the show.  Please chat with your students about what they learned about Financial Literacy.  

Our LVHS FBLA competed at their state competition this weekend where they took 17 competitors and 12 of them placed in at least one event.  Congratulations to all of our FBLA students and special thanks to their advisors, Mr. John Rounds and Mrs. Rachel Peters.    

LVHS Placers

1st Place Finishers

Intro to Business Procedures - Lachlan Gebhart

Intro to Business Concepts - Lachlan Gebhart

Intro to Marketing Concepts - Lachlan Gebhart

Community Service Project - Lyla Rounds, Kennedy Brown & Makayla Noetzelmann

American Enterprise Project - Ella Giesmann, Cira Hampton & Callie Morey

Business Ethics - Lyla Rounds

2nd Place Finishers

Public Service Announcement - Brianna Ong, Amelia Leonard & Joce Strom

3rd Place Finishers

Electronic Career Portfolio - Makayla Noetzelmann

Intro to Public Speaking - Kennedy Brown

Social Media Strategies - Joce Strom

4th Place Finishers

Intro to Financial Math - Callie Morey

Intro to Social Media Strategy - Ty McWilliams & Corbin Eddy

Electronic Career Portfolio - Lyla Rounds

Digital Video Production - Ella Giesmann, Cira Hampton, & Callie Morey

Although I have not heard the results yet, I did want to mention and congratulate the LVHS ESports team on their qualification for the state tournament that was hosted in Torrington this past weekend.  I hope to relay results this next week as I know we had several students who went into the competition ranked to compete at the top-level!   

A big congratulations is in order to Mr. Richard Atnip, a long-time science teacher here at LVHS, who was recently named a Wyoming Finalist for the prestigious Presidential Awards for Excellent in Mathematics and Science Teaching (PAEMST). His application will now be forwarded on to the National Selection Committee, where the results of that will later be announced by the White House. One interesting fact about Mr. Atnip that speaks to the strength of his application at the national level is that  his Advanced Placement (AP) Biology students consistently outperform the national average, with over 94% achieving success on the AP exam this past year, compared to the national average of approximately 68%. You may remember that back in January we celebrated the news that Mrs. Rachel Peters, was awarded the PAEMST Award by the White House for a previous year.  The Lander Community is incredibly fortunate to have this caliber of teachers available to our students and we can’t thank them enough for all they do for our students!  Congratulations Mr. Atnip, and good luck at the next level.    

This is an early warning to save the date for Tuesday, April 22nd which is the LVHS State Testing Day.  All Juniors are required to come that day to take the state required ACT test.  All freshmen and sophomores are required to take the state required WY-Topp test on that date as well.  Please make sure students are prepared with a fully charged chromebook and their charger and are at school no later than 7:45 am on that morning so we can begin on time.  Students will be allowed to leave after testing if they have NOT been referred for missing or non-proficient work for that day.  If they have been referred students will be expected to stay until all referrals are complete.  Seniors will only need to report to school that day if they are referred for work in their current classes.  Referrals will begin for this day on April 11th so that students will have time to rectify the situation prior to testing day.  Referrals will only be emailed this time due to the quick turnaround and will appear in your inboxes much like SRB and Catch-up lunch referrals but will be specific to State Testing Day.

Please don’t forget to mark your calendars for the LVHS performance of Alice in Wonderland which will take place in the LVHS Auditorium on April 10,11, & 12th.  The cast and crew have been working all winter long to make this an incredible experience and you all know that I can go on and on about the FACT that you do not want to miss these performances.  Each one has been absolutely incredible and I am certain that this one will be no different!   

Due to our teachers across the district working late for parent teacher conferences, there is no school on Friday as that is a comp day….which is also the beginning of our Spring Break 2025.  School will resume on Monday, April 7th.  There will be no more Weekly Post until April 14th. 

On one final note as we enter the busy spring season ahead, we want to thank all of our students and parents for working towards the best attendance possible here at school.  LVHS has been very fortunate to have great success in the past few years and we are so grateful for our partnership with you to ensure that success. We are currently at a five-year high in regards to attendance with 92% of our students in attendance daily, up nearly 5 points from our past five-year average. There is absolutely nothing we can’t achieve if we work together, but time out of class affects everyone.  We know that illness and other issues come up and have been pretty difficult this year, but we just highly encourage everyone to support our number one Big Expectation and our most important one, which is to Be in Class and On Time.  If you are receiving our letters for 3/5/or 10 days of absences in one or more of our classes we highly encourage you to begin working with your student and us to make sure that we can have our students in the seat that will ensure high levels of success!  Although we are happy with our numbers we would love to see continued increase in attendance and appreciate all of your efforts in this regard!  

The Winter Activity Season officially closed on Saturday with both the conclusion of our girls basketball season and State Speech and Debate.   

Despite second half leads in both games at state, the girls basketball team was unable to close and advance to the next round after securing the trip to state for the first time since 2022.  We are proud of our girls and look forward to the continued momentum that they built this season.   

The Speech and Debate team of only 13 students returned home from their WHSAA State Competition where they, brought home one 2nd place state medal, one 2nd place 3A medal, two 3rd place  3A medals, two best legislation awards and a prestigious award only given to 6 students in the state!  It indeed was another great weekend to be a Lander Tiger, especially if you were on the Speech and Debate team!

With the conclusion of our winter activities, we look forward to seeing you at a track meet or a soccer game in the very near future!  

The time has come yet again for our wonderful spring tradition of the LVHS version of Night at the Museum on Tuesday, March 18th from 5:30-7:30 pm in the LVHS Auxiliary Gym put on by our LVHS Social Studies Department and our junior class.  This is an incredible display of local, national and world history from a family history perspective with incredible artifacts, stories, and presentations that will leave you speechless as to the quality of the exhibits.  If you have not attended one, please make an effort to come this year and come for 5 minutes or the whole time!  Special thanks to all the families who are working with students to finalize those projects, it is such a great team-effort and we look forward to hearing a bit of the amazing family history from the Class of 2026!

We are excited to host an all-school assembly on Friday, March 21st.  This creative approach to Financial Literacy will take form as a rock concert in the LVHS Auditorium from 1-2:15.  We will be following this schedule for this special event.  

  Period 1      8:00 – 8:44 am

               Period 2     8:48 – 9:32 am      

               Period 3     9:36 – 10:20 am

               Period 4     10:24– 11:08 am

               Lunch        11:08-11:43 am

               Period 5     11:48 – 12:32 pm

               Period 6     12:36 – 12:55 pm

               ASSEMBLY in Fieldhouse 1:00 –  2:11pm

               Period 6     2:15 – 2:40pm

               Period 7     2:44 – 3:30 pm

6th Hour teachers please take your students to the Auditorium for the assembly.  Students will return to 6th hour after the assembly. 

LVHS was proud to host Wyoming Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder along with other members of her staff from the Wyoming Department of Education this past Tuesday as we were honored to be selected as part of their “Tour of Excellence.”  We were able to showcase some of the great things we are able to do in fine and performing arts, career and technical education, disciplinary literacy, and so much more while they toured our building with us. The team left very impressed by the culture of LVHS and the great teaching and learning they were able to witness.  

Remember that the spring parent teacher conferences are quickly approaching and will be held next Tuesday, March 25th from 4-7pm and Wednesday, March 26th from 3:30-5:30.  As always, these are student-led conferences so we encourage you to bring students, but also realize that sometimes schedules do not work and thus we also encourage you to come with or without students.  We greatly appreciate the chance to visit with our parents and hope to see you at one of these two nights.  

Special thanks to all of our students and parents who did remarkably well with the new cell phone policy this past week.  We remind students and parents that if the phone is in the classroom it MUST be stored in the provided cell phone caddy.  We really had very few issues and hope to minimize those even further this week as we continue to strive to ensure high levels of learning for all students, every day!   Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.  

Hello Tigers! 

Hope you all enjoyed the long weekend and it was so great seeing so many of you at the 3A Western Regional Basketball Tournament this weekend.  Congratulations to our Lady Tigers who advanced on to the WHSAA State Basketball Tournament in Casper where they will take on Torrington in the opening round at 9am on Thursday morning.   Unfortunately the boys fell a little short after some closely contested games including a heartbreaking triple overtime loss to Mountain View on Thursday and despite working their way back to a must-win game on Saturday, they were unable to qualify for the state tournament.     

Congratulations to our Tiger Indoor Track Team who competed this weekend in Gillette.  Adelyn Anderson continued her domination in the shot put, setting a new 3A state indoor record with her 40’ 0.5” championship throw.  This throw was nearly 4 feet ahead of her closest competitor in 3A and would have also earned her gold in the 4A meet as well!  Katy Anderson, Ella Giesmann, Ava Gerlach, and Eliza Scott teamed up to win the state championship in the 4x400 meter relay.  Brayden Johnson-Baker was the 400 meter indoor runner-up.  All of the above were honored as All-State recipients for their top performances.   Congratulations to the entire team as the girls finished 7th and the boys 6th overall. 

Just a reminder that the FCSD#1 Cell Phone policy goes into effect tomorrow (Monday, March 10th)  A separate email went out earlier last week, but here is a copy of that for those of you who may not have been able to read it yet.  

I am reaching out with some clarification about FCSD #1's new cell phone policy, which will be fully in effect at LVHS starting Monday, March 10th and applies to but not limited to: cell phones, smart watches, non-medical listening devices, and headsets (airpods).The full policy can be viewed here ( DISTRICT POLICY JICJ) To ensure we are all on the same page, here is how the policy will play out at LVHS:

Students are required to place their phones and devices in a caddy at the beginning of each class. Students will be able to take their phones at the end of class for passing periods and lunch, but may not access it at any point during class. Each student has been issued a Chromebook, so we are confident that they will still be able to access all their learning materials. 

If a student is found to have their device or has to be reminded by their classroom teacher, the phone will be confiscated and placed in the front office until the end of the day. If it becomes a consistent issue, we will follow typical behavior and discipline procedures.

We ask that you visit with your student about this change and are grateful in advance for your help in ensuring that students understand the expectations of LVHS! It may also be beneficial to remind your student to charge their Chromebook's at night and connect with the Chrome Depot if they are experiencing any technical hiccups with their school-issued devices. As always, we are committed to ensuring the best possible learning environment for each and every student! Thank you for your continued support as we strive to be the #1 high school in everything that we do-it truly takes a village. Please don't hesitate to reach out with any questions that may arise. 

The LVHS office is happy to take any calls and pass them onto students that may be more urgent as students will not have the ability to check phones during class.  Don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions or concerns or to have us get a message to your student.   Thanks again for your support as we work together to ensure high levels of learning for all students!   

Mark your calendars for the Annual Night at the Museum on Tuesday, March 18th at 6pm in the LVHS Auxiliary Gym put on by our LVHS Social Studies Department and our junior class.  This is an incredible display of local, national and world history from a family history perspective with incredible artifacts, stories, and presentations that will leave you speechless as to the quality of the exhibits.  If you have not been to one, please make an effort to come this year and come for 5 minutes or the whole time!  

We are excited to host an all-school assembly on Friday, March 21st.  This creative approach to Financial Literacy will take form as a rock concert in the LVHS Auditorium from 1-2:15.  We will be following this schedule for this special event.  

  Period 1     8:00 – 8:44 am

               Period 2     8:48 – 9:32 am      

              Period 3     9:36 – 10:20 am

               Period 4     10:24– 11:08 am

               Lunch        11:08-11:43 am

               Period 5     11:48 – 12:32 pm

               Period 6     12:36 – 12:55 pm

               ASSEMBLY in Fieldhouse 1:00 –  2:11pm

               Period 6     2:15 – 2:40pm

               Period 7     2:44 – 3:30 pm

6th Hour teachers please take your students to the Auditorium for the assembly.  Students will return to 6th hour after the assembly. 

Lastly, remember that the spring parent teacher conferences are quickly approaching and will be held on Tuesday, March 25th from 4-7pm and Wednesday, March 26th from 3:30-5:30.  As always, these are student-led conferences so we encourage you to bring students, but also realize that sometimes schedules do not work and thus we also encourage you to come with or without students.  We greatly appreciate the chance to visit with our parents and hope to see you at one of these two nights. 

Congratulations are in order to our boys and girls wrestling teams who had 4 wrestlers in the finals on Saturday at the Wyoming Ford Center in Casper.  Freshman Ty McWilliams earned the 106lb 3A State Championship.  Senior Landon Jones earned the 2nd place finish along with teammates sophomore Andie Jo Gibson and freshman Harlie Velarde.  Henry Quiver and Cody West finished in the fourth spot while seniors Jordan Nielsen and Colin McWilliams completed their high school career with a 5th place finish.  

Congratulations are also in order for our Girls Nordic Team who competed on Friday and Saturday in Laramie and finished WHSAA State Runner-up!  The girls were led by Ameya Eddy (3rd), Twyla Beason (5th), and Dorothy Jensen (8th) in the Friday classic race.   On Saturday Eddy again finished 3rd while Beason finished in the 8th spot to lead the ladies to a close second place finish next to champion Jackson.   

After a long weekend at their District Meet our LVHS Drama team had another good performance with the following students making it to the Semifinals:  Loukia Savino, Natalie Reilley, Sophie DeLair, and Alexander LeClair. LeClair also made it to finals in Drama.  

Both LeClair and Reilley earned an alternate position for Nationals. This week, the team will be participating in an online tournament while preparing for a competitive weekend at the University of Wyoming.  Both the virtual tournament and the in-person tournament will help us as we gear up for our state competition March 13th-15th in Cheyenne.

Good Luck to the Indoor Track team who will head to Gillette this weekend for their state meet.  On that note I want to highlight a big congratulations to Adelyn Anderson who, to my current knowledge, became the 1st LVHS athlete to win the highly coveted Simplot Games in Pocatello last week in the shot put with a throw of 45’6”.  Congratulations to Adelyn and good luck to the entire team this weekend.  

LVHS is proud to host the 3A Regional Basketball Tournament this Thursday, Friday, Saturday in the Bob Carey Memorial Fieldhouse.  Both our boys and girls are seeking a berth to the state tournament next weekend and we look forward to packing the house to cheer on our Tigers!  First game is 4pm (Girls) and 5:30pm (Boys) for the Tigers on Thursday night.  Because the Tigers will not play until after school no students will be released for any regional tournament action without a parent explicitly checking a student out in person and must accompany the student to the game.  Friday there is no school so this will not be an issue.    

Please remember that Friday is one of our built in snow days and it does not appear we will have a snow day to make up for so there will be no school for students.   Enjoy the three-day weekend and cheer on the Tigers.   

We are communicating directly with incoming freshmen parents, but just a reminder that if you have one or know one, we are doing our LVHS Incoming Freshmen Student/Parent night this Monday, March 3rd at 6pm in the LVHS Auditorium.  After a short introduction and discussion the majority of the night will then transition to the LVHS Auxiliary Gym where all of our departments and activities will be set up to discuss opportunities for our incoming freshmen and parents.  This is a great night and we HIGHLY encourage all parents of incoming freshmen to attend with their student(s).  

Lastly we were honored to receive communication from the Wyoming Department of Education last week that Lander Valley HIgh School is being featured on their “Tour of Excellence,” due to our continued high performance in many categories.  State Superintendent Degenfelder along with several staff members will be in attendance next week as they tour some classes and get to see the great things our students and teachers are doing on a daily basis.  

The Tigers have done it again, winning their 29th Consecutive State Swim and Dive Championship this weekend in Gillette.  They were able to top 2nd place Buffalo by just over 100 points to bring the banner back to the Valley!  Unlike many previous state championships, the Tigers trailed through the first few events but were able to take a commanding lead after the Tiger Divers finished with 5 in the top 12, and 3 of those finishing in the top five – Gage Hampton 2nd, Jace Hammonds 4th, and Dylan Blunck 5th.  In the pool the Tigers were led by seniors Finn Richards and Colby Blackburn who both won two individual championships and teamed up to also bring home two relay championships.  As with so many teams that have won before them, to acquire over 300 points, it is truly a team effort and so many of our 28 swimmers and divers contributed points to the overall team effort.  Congratulations to all of the athletes and their parents!  We will honor our state champions at 1:40 pm Monday  in the LVHS Commons with our traditional March of Champions, parents and families of athletes are welcome to attend.  

In other swimming news Head Coach Shawna Morgan was recently announced as a finalist for the National High School Athletic Coaches Association (NHSACA) Coach of the Year.  This is Coach Morgan's second time as a finalist for this incredibly prestigious award.  The winner will be announced at their conference in June.  Good Luck Coach Morgan and congratulations on a great season and this well-deserved honor!  

The Tiger Wrestling teams did well this weekend, qualifying four of the girl wrestlers on Thursday in Evanston on Thursday and then adding another 9 qualifiers for the boys on Friday/Saturday in Pinedale.  Their state tournament is this weekend at the Wyoming Ford Center with action beginning at noon on Thursday and concluding Saturday afternoon.  Good Luck wrestlers!  

Good luck to our LVHS Nordic Team who will head to Laramie this weekend for their state meet.  The Indoor Track team returns from the Simplot Games this weekend and will finalize their preparations for their state meet in Gillette on March 6-8th.  

The boys basketball was able to get a win on Friday in Powell, while the girls lost by just a few points in this conference matchup.  They have games this Thursday against Lyman before hosting the 3A Regional tournament right here in Lander March 6-8th.  

We are communicating directly with incoming freshmen parents, but just a reminder that if you have one or know one, we are doing our LVHS Incoming Freshmen Student/Parent night on Monday, March 3rd at 6pm in the LVHS Auditorium.  After a short introduction and discussion the majority of the night will then transition to the LVHS Auxiliary Gym where all of our departments and activities will be set up to discuss opportunities for our incoming freshmen and parents.  This is a great night and we HIGHLY encourage all parents of incoming freshmen to attend with their student(s). 

Hello Tigers

Monday was an unprecedented day for LVHS, when Mrs. Morgan Hahn received privilege of the floor on both the house and senate of the Wyoming Legislature.  Mrs. Hahn delivered a powerful speech about the incredible things that are happening in the state of Wyoming with education and most certainly, right here at LVHS.  She highlighted the fact that since 2017 Wyoming has led the nation in NAEP scores (referred to as the nations report card) and is the top state in the country amongst states who test all of their students on the ACT.  She even highlighted that with Wyoming’s ACT average being high enough to lead the nation, LVHS’s score this year was still 1.4 points above that average!   Mrs. Hahn then explained one of the best qualities about Wyoming, that all of the numbers are actually student faces and described the great success that our students experience as they leave high school.  We are grateful to have students succeeding in college, career, and military and each year have our students achieving even greater heights. She encouraged lawmakers to reach out to school staff to continue to collaborate together to continue to lead this nation in education.   You can watch her whole speech on the house floor by following this  link to the video..  We are incredibly proud of Mrs. Morgan Hahn, the Wyoming Teacher of the Year, and boastfully proud of our entire school staff who work tirelessly each and every day for each and every student as we continue to strive to be the #1 high school in the state in EVERYTHING that we do!   

Speaking of….#1….the LVHS Boys Swim team will make the trip to Gillette this year seeking their 29th consecutive WHSAA State Swim Championship.  Loaded with 27 qualifiers it should be an incredible meet and stay tuned to our website, facebook, or twitter to see live results posted immediately following each race of the finals on Friday morning/early afternoon!   

Continuing to have an incredibly successful wrestling season, the girls swept through, in quick fashion, all but one of the entire Riverton squad, with multiple pins leading to decisive victories for our tough girls program.  The boys followed with yet again another great and exciting dual, and after giving up 18 points in forfeits due to injuries and illness, the Tigers fell to Riverton by a mere 2 points.   They will head to conference this weekend, with the girls in Evanston and the boys in Pinedale.  Good luck to all of them as they work on qualifying for the state tournament in Casper the last weekend of the month.   

The boys basketball team captured victory on Friday night against Mountain View while the Lady Tigers fell 43-45 to the fourth ranked Mountain View squad.  Both teams tip-off against Pinedale today (Saturday) in Lander, assuming the Wranglers can get over the pass!  

Please don’t forget that there is NO SCHOOL on Monday, February 17th as it was built into the calendar as a snow-day, no snow days have happened and thus no need to make up time so the day is a day off for students and staff.   This will be the same for the 2 other upcoming snow days listed on the school calendar (3/7& 5/23)….if school is not cancelled some other day then those days are days with no school.  If a day is cancelled then they would be used to make-up for the day off.  

Lastly,  senior parents you can look to your physical mailboxes for a Senior Letter and bulletin arriving today or early next week.  It is also linked here and has all the end of the year information needed.  We get this information out early as we know that you are all trying to coordinate plans with family and friends to help celebrate the great Class of 2025 on June 1st, 2025 at 1pm in the Bob Carey Memorial FieldHouse.  Please see all the information and let us know if you have any questions.  We look forward to joining you in this great celebration!  

Good Day Tigers!  

Our guidance office is bustling after kicking-off our 2025-26 course selection process on Monday.  They also helped celebrate National Counselor Week by having a self-care topic each day for our students to participate in and raffled off gift cards for those taking their own self-care selfies!  They have put all of their most recent Information in their Counselor Newsletter which also includes an upcoming FAFSA help night for seniors, AP testing schedule for later this spring and upcoming national ACT test data.  Please refer to the Counselor Newsletter for more details and information about these topics and so much more!  I would also like to commend our Counseling Office for an incredible job each and every day with our students.  They are graciously there to take care of a wide variety of students guidance and mental health needs and such a crucial piece of each of our systems.  We are lucky to have three of the finest in the business and as we look at the vision of LVHS to be the #1 high school in the state in Everything that We Do, I challenge any school to be able to top the type of top-notch professional services that are consistently applied to each and every student here at LVHS by our counseling office.  

Congratulations to our boys swim team who, as expected, swam away with the 3A Southern Regional Championship in Kemmerer this weekend.  27 have qualified for the state meet in Gillette on February 20-21, and any remaining swimmers now have one last chance meet to earn their berth to the state meet. The Tigers are swimming to bring their 29th consecutive state championship to the halls of LVHS!  Let’s GO!

The boys basketball team were narrowly defeated by 2 points in a thriller on their homecourt on Friday night against Worland and were unable to find victory against top-ranked Lovell on Saturday.  The ladies however earned victories against both Worland and Lovell.    They will play host to Pinedale on Saturday.  

The wrestling team had another exciting dual on Thursday night, all four of their duals have been really closely contested and as about as exciting as it comes.  This one may have taken the cake going into the final match against Rawlins down by 3 team points needing a major decision or fall to take the dual victory, Taj Prine stuck his opponent and carried his team to a big victory.  The wrestling program is ramping up for their state meet the last weekend in February at the Casper Event Center.  If you have not been to this event, it is something everybody must see and this would be a great year to cheer on a deep and talented Tiger team on both the boys and girls fronts!  

The LVHS Speech and Debate team competed in their final meet for a couple weeks in Jackson this weekend where they finished 4th as a team.  They will compete in their district meet at the end of the month.  

Students who made it to semifinals:

Myriah Haratyk, Anna Womack, Janetta Womack, and Oliver Parrott

Making it to Finals:

Alex LeClair placing 6th in Congress and Drama

Natalie Reilley placing 4th in Oratory and Original Spoken Word Poetry

Brooklyn Vincent placing 2nd in Original Spoken Word Poetry

Myriah also won an award acknowledging her kindness to other teams and her humility.

We want to remind parents and students about the Big Four Behavior Expectations here at LVHS as this week our focus is on Seeking Assistance and Using Resources when needed.  We are now starting our 4th week of the semester and this is a great time for our students to reflect where they are currently at and seek assistance from our highly qualified and willing staff to get the supports they need to be successful.  Please keep in mind that a large number of our faculty are available during each Student Responsibility Block (SRB) for office hours and we encourage students to drop by and check in with teachers and get assistance and additional resources and support as needed.   Students know these schedules for teachers and can seek additional information from any staff member on when to best meet with teachers.   

Hello Tigers, 

It is hard to believe but we will begin our Course Selection for the 2025-26 school year today (Monday, February 3rd) during our SRB time.  We will follow this approximate schedule but will call groups down when we are ready: 

Current Juniors, soon to be Seniors 2-2:20pm

Current Sophomores, soon to be Juniors 2:20-2:40pm

Current Freshmen, soon to be Sophomores 2:40-3pm

This is required for all students currently in 9-11th grade as they will be selecting courses for the 25-26 school year after the presentation.  All students will report to their advisories on Tuesday to select courses and show the advisory teacher that you have completed this.  Once you have, you will be dismissed for lunch.  Here is a link to the online enrollment guide for 25-26 and we encourage parents to discuss students' selection with them.  Please let our guidance team know if you have any questions along the way.  If you have an incoming freshman we will be having our Freshman Student/Parent Night at LVHS on Monday, March 3rd at 6pm beginning in the auditorium.  All incoming students and parents are highly encouraged to attend this important event as we begin this exciting transition.  More details to come…..

LVHS is proud to announce that it has raised its graduation rate significantly from the past couple of years and are celebrating the efforts of our students, parents, and staff for their efforts to help all of our students achieve this important milestone.  For the graduating class of 2024 we had 89% (88.8) of our students graduate.  When you look at schools across the state with a minimum graduating class of 100 students, just 4 other schools fared better than LVHS in graduation rate.  This rate is also 7%  higher than the state average of 81.6%.  We will continue to look at those students who did not graduate and try to improve our systems to ensure we are meeting the needs of Every Student, Every Day.  Thanks again for all you do to take care of our students and make these results possible. 

LVHS is also proud to announce that it has once again won the Female Diversity Award for expanding young women’s access to our very rigorous AP Computer Science class.  LVHS was last named a Female Diversity Award Recipient in 2020.  Across the nation just 34% of students taking this course are female, however at LVHS 50% of students enrolled were female.  The class taught by Mrs. Hannah Duranko had 88% of the total LVHS students pass the AP Exam with a 3 or better, compared to the 63% that passed the test nationally. Congratulations to all students in this class and especially our young ladies who have out-represented their peers across the nation in taking and succeeding in this course!    

A big congratulations is in order to Jordan Nielsen who was crowned a Ron Thon Champion this weekend at the all-school, all-classification wrestling tournament with all 43 high school programs in the state represented.  This is the first LVHS wrestler to win the highly coveted Ron Thon Championship since 2016.   Joining Nielsen on the awards podium were teammates Harlie Velarde and Andie Gibson who both were able to secure 3rd place finishes. The girls team finished 8th out of the 43 teams with nearly 400 girl wrestlers competing.  The wrestling team will host Rawlins in a dual on Thursday at 5pm.  The last three duals have been very exciting and you will not want to miss this event!  

The boys swim team got a huge win at the largely 4A meet in Gillette this weekend with 18 teams competing.  They will compete in their conference meet this weekend in Kemmerer which means this week is Peak Week at LVHS!  State for the boys swim team is February 20-21 right back in Gillette where the team will try and capture their 29th straight state championship!  

I know our speech and debate team and nordic teams competed this weekend in Casper and our Indoor Track Team competed at The Oval in Salt Lake City.  As of press time results were not available.  Basketball at Pinedale was cancelled on Friday due to the treacherous conditions on South Pass, those games will be rescheduled at a later date.   Basketball will be at home this weekend against Worland on Friday night and Lovell on Saturday.  We hope to see you this weekend as we cheer on our Tigers!   

I know according to the Chinese Calendar, it is supposed to be the year of the Snake, but it looks like the year of the Tiger here at LVHS!  Some incredible things keep happening and we are excited to share as we build up to an exciting Winter Sports State Finale at the end of February beginning of March.   

The boys swim team continue to stomp a wide path towards a 29th consecutive State Championship with a giant win in the Bruce Gresly Invite this weekend at home.  Lyman and Rawlins placed 2nd and 3rd respectively behind us and if you were to add their scores together the Tigers still would have won by 50.  They now have 26 swimmers qualified for Gillette with still 3 weeks of competition  to go!  

The Nordic team hosted their Lander Invite this weekend with Twyla Beason leading the girls with a 4th place finish in the Friday Freestyle Race while Mack White led the boys with a 10th place Freestyle Finish.  On Saturday they competed in a 7.5 k Classic race where Beason finished 2nd amongst all girl racers and the boys did not have a finisher in the top 10.  

Congratulations to Andy Gibson who took the Lander Wrestling Invitational Championship at LVHS while teammate Jordan Nielsen finished in 2nd place and Harlie Velarde took 6th.  . On the boys side we had Henry Quiver take second, Ty McWilliams fourth, and Landon Jones fifth.    

Congratulations to our Speech and Debate students who competed in Riverton this weekend where nearly the entire team broke to Semi-finals in their events.  Top finishers included: 

Loukia Savino-1st place in Poetry and POI

Natalie Reilley-3rd place in Drama

Oliver Parrott and Skyler Leonard-3rd place in PF debate

Myriah Haratyk-5th place in Impromptu speaking

They will now take this momentum into a big weekend at Natrona County High School in Casper! 

The LVHS Boys and Girls basketball teams got big conference wins on the road at Lyman this past week including a big overtime finish for our girls squad.   Both teams headed to Cody on Saturday to take on a third ranked Cody team and were unable to get the victory on the road.   

Our Indoor Track team was on the road to Gillette this weekend where we had several athletes finish in the top six led by Adelyn Anderson who finished 1st in the shot put.  Brayden Johnson Baker took 3rd in the 200 and 400 and 5th in the 55.  Tres Pickerd finished 4th in the shot put.  Ella Giesmann was 6th in the 200 while Ava Gerlach finished 4th in the 400.  

We are very excited to share that our math teacher, Mrs. Rachel Peters, was named a Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching (PAEMST) by the White House.  This is the highest award K-12 math and science teachers can receive from the U.S. Government.  

The very selective process can often be years in the making to confer this great honor upon teachers.  According to the release from The White House, "A panel of distinguished mathematicians, scientists, and educators at the state and national levels assess nominations before recommending awardees to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). Teachers are selected based on their distinction in the classroom and dedication to improving STEM education."  

  Mrs. Peters has been an invaluable asset to Lander Valley High School for many years. Her exceptional ability to support struggling math students with effective remediation, while simultaneously challenging and inspiring students in Advanced Placement Calculus, highlights her outstanding pedagogical skills and dedication to meeting the diverse needs of all learners.

On Monday January 27th, we will be doing an all-school celebration in the LVHS Auditorium to recognize all the great things students did during the 1st semester.  Parents are welcome to attend.  Here is the schedule for that day:

LVHS Celebration Assembly Schedule 1/27/25

1st Period  8-9:30

Celebration Assembly 9:40-10:20

3rd Period 10:30 12:00

Advisory 12:10-12:30

Lunch 12:30-1:00

5th period 1:10 -2:40

SRB 2:50-3:30

Thanks to all for spreading the word about our new Alumni Military Honor Wall, we have about 115 responses already, but we want to be sure we include all LVHS/FCVHS graduates who went on to serve in the military so please continue to spread the word and you can send this link to them or it was also listed in County 10.  Please go to the link above or here to fill out the form to have you or a loved one honored https://forms.gle/WF5weHKwhw2xcsg6A

Good Morning,

We had a wildly successful referral day with so many students finishing up the semester strong and demonstrating high levels of learning on the very rigorous standards that are necessary to ensure the future college, career, and military readiness of our graduates.   Teachers will be finalizing grading early this week and we will be working with students as we begin Individual Learning Plans (ILP) for any referral that was not completed by end of the day Friday.  You will receive an email if this applies to your student later this week and they will be schedule with that teacher for SRB this semester until the ILP is completed.  Anything not completed by end of the semester will require students to attend summer school in June.  A sincere thank you to all parents who have been so diligent in making sure their students worked with teachers to complete these.

As we move forward to next semester, please keep in mind that SRB and Catch-up lunch referrals along with our weekly missing assignment emails to parents are early indicators that if not dealt with ultimately lead to the end of semester referrals and ILP’s.  The earlier we can address these in the learning cycle the better, but we will never surrender until ALL students achieve high levels of learning on ALL standards!

Thanks to all for spreading the word about our new Alumni Military Honor Wall, we have about 100 responses already, but we want to be sure we include all LVHS/FCVHS graduates who went on to serve in the military so please continue to spread the word and you can send this link to them or it was also listed in County 10.  Please go to the link above or here to fill out the form to have you or a loved one honored https://forms.gle/WF5weHKwhw2xcsg6A

Wrestling entertained this week with a great come-from-behind victory defeating a quality Worland club 38-30 in front of our home crowd on Thursday.  Basketball followed their lead with two great wins at home for our basketball team on Friday night against Mountain View where we were also able to honor the newest LVHS member of the Wyoming Coaches Hall of Fame.  Serol Stauffenberg was honored in front of his family, friends, colleagues, and home crowd for this very prestigious honor.  His resume speaks for itself and you can read all about it in the foyer of the Bob Carey Memorial Fieldhouse where all of our LVHS Coaches in the Hall of Fame are honored.  One highlight is that in his 9 years as the Activities Director at LVHS, the programs under his direction and leadership have won 31 state championships!  Thank you to Coach Serol Stauffenberg for your continued leadership and helping LVHS be the number one high school in the state of Wyoming!  

Don’t forget to stay up on all activities  with the calendar of events at https://www.landerschools.org/events.  Couple notable highlights, the Lander Invite for both wrestling and nordic skiing will happen on Friday and Saturday.  A great opportunity to see both programs at their best!  

Keep in mind that this Monday, January 20th is a staff in-service day which means no school for students in FCSD #1.  The second semester will begin on Tuesday, January 21st and we will have a Monday schedule on Friday, January 24th to balance our block schedule.  

On Monday January 27th, we will be doing an all-school celebration in the LVHS Auditorium to recognize all the great things students did during the 1st semester.  Parents are welcome to attend.  Here is the schedule for that day:

LVHS Celebration Assembly Schedule 1/27/25

1st Period  8-9:30

Celebration Assembly 9:40-10:20

3rd Period 10:30 12:00

Advisory 12:10-12:30

Lunch 12:30-1:00

5th period 1:10 -2:40

SRB 2:50-3:30

Good Morning and Happy New Year!  Hope you all had a great and wonderfully relaxing holiday spent with family and friends!  We are off to a great start here at LVHS as we welcomed our students back on Tuesday and they got right to work trying to finish up all of our 1st semester courses.  That work continues this week and will conclude on Friday afternoon.  Remember that in December I gave you a heads up that students without “End of Semester Academic Referrals” are not required to attend school this Friday, January 17.  Those referrals began going out via email last Tuesday and will continue.  The majority were in however by Thursday as that was our deadline to teachers to have the mailing go out.  So….parents if your student was referred by Thursday at 8am, you and your student would have received a referral via email and we also mailed those out via USPS on Thursday afternoon and they should hit mailboxes already or by Monday or Tuesday.  Late notice referrals may still be going out and for those please check your emails to stay up to date.  Any questions or validating your students reports can be directed to the LVHS Office as they have access to the up-to-date referral list.  Any student still on that list by Friday MUST come to school so they can reach proficiency in all standards that our teachers have determined as essential to earn the credits they need from each course.   Please don’t hesitate to call the front office if you have any questions and please check your emails for any incoming late referrals.   Students who do not complete referrals by end of the day Friday, January 17th will be given an Individual Learning Plan (ILP).  Students with ILP’s will be required to stay during each SRB until they are complete and those not completed by the end of the school year will require students to attend Summer School.  Students are highly encouraged to work immediately to resolve these referrals ASAP!

LVHS is proud to announce a new project to help recognize a long and deep tradition of our graduates going on to serve in our nation's military.  We are asking for everyone's help to identify LVHS and Fremont County Vocational High School graduates who have gone on to serve in any branch of the military.  We will be sending this out to County 10 as well, but I am including the link here to fill out the form to give us the name, graduation year, and branch of service for each graduate who went on to serve in the military.   This fall we will unveil a new Alumni Military Honor Recognition Wall in the LVHS Commons to say thank you and to celebrate the graduates of LVHS/FCVHS who have served and protected our nation.   Please share the link with anyone in the community who have served or have had children who have served so we can be sure to include ALL!  Please go to the link above or here to fill out the form to have you or a loved one honored https://forms.gle/WF5weHKwhw2xcsg6A

All of our activities are enjoying a great amount of success this winter season with lots of highlights for each program.  It is still early on and lots of action still  to come so please stay up-to-date  with the calendar of events at https://www.landerschools.org/events

Keep in mind that Monday, January 20th is a staff in-service day which means no school for students in FCSD #1.  The second semester will begin on Tuesday, January 21st and we will have a Monday schedule on Friday, January 24th to balance our block schedule.  

On Monday January 27th, we will be doing an all-school celebration in the LVHS Auditorium to recognize all the great things students did during the 1st semester.  Parents are welcome to attend.  Here is the schedule for that day:

LVHS Celebration Assembly Schedule 1/27/25

1st Period  8-9:30

Celebration Assembly 9:40-10:20

3rd Period 10:30 12:00

Advisory 12:10-12:30

Lunch 12:30-1:00

5th period 1:10 -2:40

SRB 2:50-3:30

Hope your year is off to a great start and don't hesistate to contact us if there is anything we can do to help you or your student!  GO TIGERS!  

Tomorrow is Challenge Day and we look forward to having nearly 60 students go through this program all day Monday.  Please see the link here for more information about this incredible national experiential workshop to help support adolescents through social emotional issues that come up throughout these formative years  

Congratulations to our teams who began competition this week, girls basketball went 3-1 on the weekend at the Lander Invite, while the boys team went 2-2, the swim team won a close one in Buffalo on Friday and then traveled to Rawlins to with the Pentathlon, 19 swimmers are already qualified for the state meet after just two meets!  Unfortunately as of press time I do not have updates from Nordic or Wrestling…. For this week girls basketball will be home Friday and Saturday playing in the Lander Classic, while the boys are on the road at the Douglas Classic.  Wrestling heads to Worland to Battle in the Big Horns for the weekend but will host their home-opening dual against Cody on Thursday night first, Swim is home Friday for a tri, before heading to Green River on Saturday.  Nordic is off until January 3rd when they head to Pinedale.  

The LVHS Speech and Debate team was honored to be able to host their meet this week with 15  teams competing all throughout the building, including a team from South Dakota!  Special thanks to our advisor, Tania Haratyk who continues to grow and improve this program and her passion for this lead to such a great experiences for these teams and our community this weekend.  In all of her graciousness she also expressed her extreme gratitude to all of our teachers and maintenance staff for their great efforts to make this weekend such a success!  We do have a great team and when your building is full of students from across the state and elsewhere, you definitely need a full-team effort!  

This week we were excited to be notified that LVHS has 6 students who  have made it to the second round of consideration for the the most distinguished honor given to students from the University of Wyoming, the Trustees Scholarship. This full-ride plus scholarship will cover all costs for students attending the University of Wyoming, and consists of just students with nearly perfect GPAs and an average ACT around 31!  Congratulations to Anne Butler, Adam Cieniewicz, Alandra French, Emma Jones, Colin McWilliams, and Finn Richards for getting this far and good luck on the next round!  To get one student nominated for this is incredible, yet LVHS, year after year, is fortunate to have many students in contention and ultimately receive this distinguished honor!  

Please remember that Friday 12/20 is early release for all students and LVHS students will be dismissed from class at 12:30 on Friday.  Here is the schedule for that: 

Period 1 8:00 – 8:35 am

Period 2 8:39 – 9:14 am

Period 3 9:18 – 9:53 am

Period 4 9:57– 10:32 am

Period 5 10:36 – 11:11 am

Period 6 11:15 – 11:50 pm

Period 7 11:54 – 12:30 pm

Buses leave high school at 12:45

Breakfast will be served, however lunch will not.....

There also will be no SRB on that Friday, thus we will do the 30/30/30 on Monday 12/16.  

With this being the last week before break I wanted to let you know there will not be another WEEKLY POST until Sunday, January 12th.  Students return to class on Tuesday, January 7th, thus that week we will have our traditional Monday schedule that Friday (January 10th). 

Please remember that our semester does not officially end until January 17th.  Although we hope that most of our students can enjoy a break free from school over Christmas, we do encourage you to work with your students if they have missing assignments to get those all resolved prior to returning from Christmas Break on January 7th!  Please keep in mind that students will be getting referred for our annual referral day on the last day of the semester (January 17th)  Students with no referrals will not need to attend on Friday, January 17th,  however any student with any referrals MUST attend.  Parents will get emails of referrals for this special referral day on or around January 9th.  Students who are caught up will be in a great advantage to finish the semester strong.  We greatly appreciate our parents' efforts to ensure your students are where they need to be as we end the semester.  You can always monitor this through the SRB/Catch-up Lunch/ Missing Assignments email that are sent home as needed as well as through the parent portal on Infinite Campus and pay special attention to Referral Day emails coming on or around January 9th.  

We hope that you have a great holiday season with your family and friends and take some time for yourselves and your family to reflect on all the great things that are happening with your son/daughter!  We are so proud of the work of our LVHS Tigers and are grateful for all of your efforts to continue to make LVHS the #1 high school in the state of Wyoming.  Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from LVHS and we look forward to welcoming you all back on January 7th!  

Hello Tigers, 

Thanksgiving Break has arrived and we want to remind all of you that students WILL NOT have school Wednesday through Friday this week as we take time to celebrate with our families and friends.  

During this break, it is always a great time to reflect on what you are grateful for and the amount of gratitude I have for this community, school, staff, and students is hard to express in words.  In previous posts, since school has begun, I have bragged about the great things that our students are accomplishing and although sometimes it feels like we are embellishing our accomplishments, the reality is that we are just very fortunate to have the kind of culture and climate in our school, supported by our parents and community, that leads to high levels of success for all students.  I again thank you, for your continued support of the LVHS Tigers, its students, and staff and look forward to a great winter season at LVHS.  

On Tuesday, Lander Valley High School FBLA and FFA will be filling nearly 150 Thanksgiving Turkey Baskets for families in need! This has been an incredible tradition at LVHS for many years and we are grateful for the opportunity to continue to help where we can in our community!

Turkey Baskets will be delivered to homes on Tues 11/26 1-4pm or they will be available for pickup at LVHS Tues 11/26 1-3:30 pm depending on the arrangements you have made.  It is not too late to donate to support this incredible community effort. If you would like to donate please contact the LVHS office.    

Lander Valley High School will host our Winter Formal on Friday, December 6th after returning from break.  This formal dance from “Inside the Snow Globe,”  will go from 8pm-11pm in the LVHS Commons and costs $10 per person.  

Congratulations to our Speech and Debate team who competed at the Green River Invitational this past weekend against most of the teams in the state.  When competing in Speech and Debate it is most often against 3A/4A as it was this weekend where the Tigers were able to secure a solid 3rd place finish.  The Tigers will host their own tournament on December 13th and 14th and if you would like to volunteer to help judge it would be greatly appreciated by all.  These events take an enormous amount of volunteers to support all of the students and events and we encourage anyone interested in helping on 12/13-12/14 to call the office to volunteer to help and we will get you connected.  

Good luck to all of our winter sports teams who will begin their practices and preparation for the upcoming season this week.  Most activities will begin competitions the week of December 9th.  Looking forward to some wrestling, basketball, swimming and skiing, along with speech and debate in the months to come.  Here we go Tigers!  

We hope that you all have a very restful and grateful Thanksgiving Break with family and friends and thank you for all you do for our LVHS Family!  Due to the break, there will be no WEEKLY POST next week, you can expect the next post on December 8th.  

Happy Thanksgiving! 

Well one of my favorite weeks at LVHS has just passed and I am reminded of the biggest celebration of all during this week, on two separate occasions.  

First was our LVHS Veterans Day program that was masterfully planned and executed by our Student Council and FFA in cooperation with our American Legion Don Stough Post 33.  We were honored to also be able to host Governor Mark Gordon who spoke at the event.  Our choir sang the national anthem and an additional song and members of our band played dueling taps following the traditional firing of the cannon. Members from both the FFA and Military Science class took on color guard duties.  Several students delivered well-crafted and perfectly executed speeches.  We also were honored to have members of the Eastern Shoshone Tribe who played the honor song.  Most importantly however we were reminded of the greatness of our American Soldiers who showed up in great numbers to not only be honored by us, but to also act as a continual reminder to our students of the importance of service, sacrifice, and valor.  

Second was the three-night sold out showing of the LVHS production of The Sound of Music where the capacity audience was blown away by the lights, sounds, acting, singing and of course the directing that all went into making this a very successful and top-quality musical.  From all the artists, community volunteers,and singers, makeup artist and hair stylists, seamstress and so many others, this show is a constant reminder of how lucky we are to have our community support our school and programs.  There is no way either the Veterans Day celebration nor the musical could have happened without a great collection of people from all over our community and we are extremely grateful for their efforts and commitment to serving our students.  Thank you all from the bottom of my heart for all you have done to make this past week and each week incredible for all of us in this community.  

Don’t forget another great LVHS tradition is coming up.  Lander Valley High School FBLA and FFA are excited to again provide Thanksgiving Turkey Baskets for families in need! This has been an incredible tradition at LVHS for many years and we are grateful for the opportunity to continue to help where we can in our community!

Please complete this form by Thurs 11/21 if your family would like to receive a Turkey Basket this year. If you have already submitted the Turkey Basket form, please disregard this message. 

Turkey Baskets will be delivered to homes on Tues 11/26 1-4pm or they will be available for pickup at LVHS Tues 11/26 1-3:30pm.

Also we are alway looking for donations to support this incredible community effort. If you would like to donate please contact the LVHS office.  

Special thanks to all of our seniors and especially to Mrs. Stacey Stanbury, who coordinated with various colleges, universities, and military branches to make our official College Application and Post-Secondary planning day such a great success last Friday.   Here are the great results of this event: 

• 98 seniors attended 

• 22 students identified as First Generation

• 90 LVHS students have submitted at least 1 college application

• A total of 284 college applications completed, 191 prior to our College Application Day and 93 on College Application Day (self-reported by the students)

• Teffany Fegler from the Education Opportunity Center had 71 students complete her paperwork and 69 created their FSA ID on Monday

• 6 Wyoming colleges sent reps to attend (Casper College, CWC, LCCC, Sheridan,  Eastern WY CC, UW)

• 3 branches of the military were in attendance (U.S. Coast Guard, the Marine Corp and the US Army)

• 42 community colleges applications have been submitted (total LVHS students)

• 242 4-year college applications have been submitted (total LVHS students)

• Wyoming Apps.: Casper -7, CWC - 26, EWC - 1, LCCC - 5, Gillette - 1, NWC -- 2, Northwest - 1, UW - 57

• On Wednesday, Nov. 13, I will take 50 seniors to the University of WY for a college visit

This great effort by our students, staff and the community is just one of countless examples why Lander Valley High School was named a School of Excellence last year by the American College Application Campaign.  LVHS was the only Wyoming school to earn the honor and one of just 27 high schools in the entire nation to receive this distinction. ! More information on that incredible honor can be found here.  

One more week until the official start of the winter sports season and we look forward to our student-athletes returning to the course, pool, court, mat, and track.  

We hope you have a great week!  Please don’t forget that next week we will have school on Monday and Tuesday only for the Thanksgiving Break. 

Congratulations to the LVHS Swim team who won the WHSAA State Championship on Friday in  Cheyenne.  This marks the 7th state championship in 9 years for the Lady Tiger Swim team, who placed second last season.   It is the 10th time in the 21st century the Lady Tigers have finished in the top spot and the 14th overall state championship.   Despite their continued success, something about this season felt special as they dominated the competition. The Tigers swept all 11 swimming event championships, and still took the podium in the 12 event, diving.  In the final event, the 400 meter freestyle relay the Tigers won by 19 seconds. The Lady Tigers combined efforts that left the podium looking green most of the afternoon added up to 431 team points.  To add some perspective, Cody finished 2nd place with 199 points, Buffalo and Kemmerrer tied for 3rd with 118 points.  If you were to add all three teams points together they would have only topped the Tigers by 4 points.    

Freshman Vayda Havens won the Athlete of the Meet after winning golds in the 200 freestyle, 500 freestyle, 200 freestyle relay and the 400 freestyle relay.  Senior Lara Robertson won the Athlete of the Year for her performances all-season, including the state meet where she won gold in the 200 medley relay and 400 freestyle relay, and silver in the 200 freestyle and 500 freestyle.  Congrats to our other gold medalists….Emily Plaisted (200 Medley Relay and  Individual Medley and the 100 breaststroke), Sara Kearns (50 and 100 freestyle, 200 Medley Relay, 200 freestyle relay) Katy Anderson (100 butterfly and backstroke, 200 medley relay,  & 400 freestyle relay), Daegan Reinhardt (200 freestyle relay), Emma Jones (200 medley relay) Chayse Denton (2OO freestyle relay).  Also congratulations to the many others who added to the overall team points and also took the podium as one of the top six.  Special thanks to Head Coach Erik DeClue for his time and dedication to the team.  We will celebrate our state champions with our traditional March of Champions that will begin at 2:45 on Monday, parents wanting to attend should check in to the main LVHS office by 2:45.  With this, our fall sports season has officially concluded….winter sports season will be here soon!  

Don’t miss our Veterans Day Celebration at 1pm on Monday in the Bob Carey Memorial Fieldhouse.  Veterans and their guests are also cordially invited to a BBQ in their honor which will be hosted in the FFA Room at LVHS at 12 pm.  All entrance will be made through the Fieldhouse Doors and students and staff will direct you from there.   

The time has also finally come for the LVHS production of The Sound of Music, which will go live at 7pm on Thursday in the LVHS Auditorium and run on Friday and Saturday at the same time as well.   

Lander Valley High School FBLA and FFA are excited to again provide Thanksgiving Turkey Baskets for families in need! This has been an incredible tradition at LVHS for many years and we are grateful for the opportunity to continue to help where we can in our community!

Please complete this form by Thurs 11/21 if your family would like to receive a Turkey Basket this year. If you have already submitted the Turkey Basket form, please disregard this message. 

Turkey Baskets will be delivered to homes on Tues 11/26 1-4pm or they will be available for pickup at LVHS Tues 11/26 1-3:30pm.

Hello Tigers,

In recent years LVHS has become one of the top schools in regards to the percentage of students successfully completing the collegiate application process and all that comes with it.  Just last year, LVHS was just one of 27 schools across the country, and the only Wyoming school to be named a School of Excellence by the American College Application Campaign.  A large part of this extraordinary honor is the great work our students, staff, and college and community partners do during our College Application and College Signing Days and of course everything in between those to big events.  This Friday the LVHS Counseling Office is hosting  College Application Day!  This is an opportunity for seniors to meet with:

• College reps from all of the Wyoming community colleges and the University of WY

• Teffany Fegler with the Educational Opportunity Center for FAFSA help

• TRIO

• LVHS Counselors

Students will:

• Apply to college

• Meet with admissions reps

• Get help with the FAFSA

• Get help with institutional scholarships

• Pick up fee waivers for the college application fees or ACT as needed

• Request official transcripts

Seniors will come to the Auxiliary gym during their English class and get as much done as possible.  They can bring any questions about any part of the process.  Our goal is for them to accomplish as many tasks as they can in the post high school planning process. If that's not reason enough, there will be an awesome coffee/tea and HOT CHOCOLATE BAR to enjoy while they're working. 

Lander Valley High School FBLA and FFA are excited to again provide Thanksgiving Turkey Baskets for families in need! This has been an incredible tradition at LVHS for many years and we are grateful for the opportunity to continue to help where we can in our community!

Please complete this form by Thurs 11/21 if your family would like to receive a Turkey Basket this year. If you have already submitted the Turkey Basket form, please disregard this message. 

Turkey Baskets will be delivered to homes on Tues 11/26 1-4pm or they will be available for pickup at LVHS Tues 11/26 1-3:30pm.

We look forward to the first concert of the year with our choirs showcasing their talents tomorrow night (Monday 7pm) in the LVHS Auditorium.  

Congratulations to the Speech and Debate team who finished first at their meet this weekend in Rock Springs.  The team will take a couple weeks off before competing again the weekend prior to Thanksgiving.  Congratulations to our team and good luck in a couple weeks!

Well our fall sports will officially come to a close this weekend when the Girls Swim team heads off to compete at the WHSAA State Championship in Cheyenne this weekend.  The girls have dominated the pool earning state, school, and pool records on their way to the state finals.  The state team was finalized last week with 19 athletes qualified for the big show in Cheyenne. LVHS has an incredible method of peaking at the right time and I can’t wait to be able to report on their performance in next week's blog.   Football and Volleyball officially came to a close this past weekend with the girls going 0-2 in the regional tournament and the boys losing to Star Valley in the opening round of the WHSAA State playoffs.  The cross country team also finished their season last weekend with their state meet in Cheyenne where the boys finished fourth as a team.  Congratulations to all the athletes, coaches and parents for a great fall season!  

Two amazing traditions of LVHS are quickly approaching.  First do not miss our Veteran’s Day Assembly at 1pm on Monday, November 11 as we do our best to show our gratitude and honor all those who have, or are currently, serving, our country.  This will begin promptly at 1pm and we are always honored to be able to host our nation's heroes for his event.  The LVHS production of The Sound of Music will also take place on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday – November 14-16th in the LVHS Auditorium.  These are always incredibly well done and also well attended so be sure to plan ahead to be a part of this performance.  

Finally, last week I mentioned that if you were not able to attend Parent-Teacher Conferences that we would be sending home your students report card along with their individual goal tracking sheets for each class with your student.  Please ask your student about those, if they did not already get them on Friday they will be getting them tomorrow from their 1st hour class.  Please let us know if you have any questions after reviewing these with your student.  

Hope you quickly adjust to the end of daylight savings time, and have your clocks set accordingly!  Have a great week everyone!  

Good Morning Tigers, 

Thanks for the great turnout at the LVHS parent teacher conferences.  We loved having the conversations with you about how to best meet the needs of your students and will continue to strive to meet those needs every day.  If you came to the conferences you all received nice summary sheets from your student about where they are in each of the standards and also see the goal(s) they have set for themselves.   One of the most important factors to ensuring academic success is making sure our students know exactly where they are as they work towards meeting every standard.  This activity is an important summary and please know these conversations and alignment are going on each and every day.  If you were not at conferences we are in the process this week of collating those summary sheets with report cards and will be given to students to take home last this week or early next week.   If you prefer those to be mailed home, please contact the LVHS office and we will be sure to drop it in the mail for you.   When you receive them please visit with your student about those and let us know if you have any questions.  

One reminder that since we do not have school on Monday this week, we will follow our traditional Monday schedule on Friday.  We will also be hosting the 1A/2A Conference Volleyball tournament–this does not include our LVHS Lady Tigers as they will be in Powell.  Students will not be excused to attend the volleyball tournament at LVHS and will need a parent to accompany them if they are excused by you and plan to attend.   Please do not call to excuse them for the tournament as we will not have staff there to supervise them, students excused from school need to leave campus or be accompanied by a parent/guardian.  

Last week I invited you to our Veteran’s Day Assembly, this week, I invite and highly encourage you to make plans to attend the LVHS production of The Sound of Music which will be showing November 14-16th in the LVHS Auditorium.  These are incredibly well-done productions and this classic will be no exception! Come early as seats fill up quickly!

Another exciting weekend for the LVHS Tigers as our football team secured a berth to the WHSAA State Playoffs after an exhilarating win at their last home game on Friday against Buffalo 42-35!  The boys will load the bus on Friday and head to Star Valley.  The girls swim team has just one last chance to go before they head to what should be a great swimming spectacular in Cheyenne November 7-8.  Last week they made their rounds through the 4A teams of the state defeating each and every one they took on and by 100+points!  Last number I knew was 18 qualified…..can’t wait!!!  Volleyball also got a big win over Mountain View this week and will head into their conference meet this weekend in Powell, ready to find their own place in the state tournament in Casper!   

Sometimes (daily!), I can hardly believe how incredible our students are and how many great things happen for them as the result of a lot of hard work by themselves, our families, and our staff.  Nothing outside my family brings me such pride and joy and I love celebrating all the amazing things that happen here on a weekly basis.  So…..with that said ... ..we recently have our state accountability data and although there is plenty to grow and improve on there are some things in the report that really separates us from our peers around the state and I am so grateful for all of your efforts for these incredible results.  

As you will see below the state measures traditional high schools in 6 areas, although we are meeting in four of the six criteria and partially meeting in 2 we are technically labeled partially meeting.  It is not uncommon for us to be Partially Meeting, and actually is part of the LVHS celebration, we get the students young and with our programs, processes, and systems of support are able to take students not meeting standards as freshmen and sophomores and get amazing results from them on ACT, AP, concurrent and other methods of measurement.  Also keep in mind that no one test, out speaks the system of common formative assessments aligned to our priority standards and supported with proficiency scales for each standard that we have in place. 97% of our students are on track for graduation and we are closing that gap daily!    

The six categories that we are measured by on the  Wyoming School Report Card are: 

1) Achievement -- essentially figured based on the percentage of our students meeting or advanced measured by the spring Wy-Topp test.  We are partially meeting in this category.

2) Growth -- again figured based on the percentage of students meeting or advanced measured by the spring Wy-Topp test.  This one though takes a subgroup of our lower scores from previous years and compares their growth to those from all the other subgroups from around the state to see if they are growing in the same proportion.  We are meeting in this category.

3) Equity -- again figured based on the percentage of students meeting or advanced by the spring Wy-Topp test.  This one though takes students who did not meet the cut score in the previous year and weights them at 80% while all others are weighted at 20% and they see if we are getting students out of the achievement gap. We are meeting in this category.

4) Graduation Rate -- this rate is based on the previous year so would be Class of 23, not Class of 24. We are partially meeting in this category.

5) On-track -- this rate is percent of freshmen who after their first year are on track for graduation or in our school have a minimum of 6.2.5 credits.   We are meeting in this category.  

6) Post-secondary Readiness -- uses a number of criteria to make sure students are either college, career, or military ready.  Essentially it is a combination of ACT scores, AP scores, Dual and Concurrent Credit classes successfully completed,  being opportunity or higher on Hathaway Success Curriculum, successful completion of a CTE  Concentrators, successful completion of an Industry Recognized Credential, and successful completion of the ASVAB. We are meeting in this category   

This year we are a few points shy in Achievement, we are typically borderline due to our freshmen and especially due to our integrated math approach.  The state Wy-topp tests Algebra only on this test and one of the bigger portions of the test is quadratics, a skill our students do not learn until they are sophomores.  When we look at our sophomores they all are where we need to be and exceed the state percentage.  We are also low this year in English so our freshmen (current sophomores) did not meet on WyTopp in either ELA or Math...but our Sophomores (current juniors) did meet in both Math and ELA  and also in Science (only tested in 10th grade).

We are also shy in graduation rate, this is a number that has fluxed much for us in the past few years, but when you look at a 3 year rolling average we are still outcompeting much of the state and our previous rates.   

In the other four areas, we are meeting and really exceeding the state targets.  For example, in what I consider the most relevant of all of these indicators, we are nearly 20% higher than the state average in our Postsecondary Readiness, with 80% of our graduates meeting that criteria where just 60% state-wide met the criteria.  In hathaway success we are 20% higher than state average, in students who pass an AP test we are 20% higher, we have 33% more of our students earning a C or better in a dual/concurrent enrollment class and we also have about 8% more of our students earning a 19 or better on the ACT Composite.   

If you notice the ACT doesn't have a huge bearing on our school report card and most of the indicators are about how our freshmen and sophomores do.  When we get to the post secondary readiness we get a clearer picture of how our school is preparing our students but I also wanted to add some incredible ACT news that we also just received this past week.    

Each year the ACT releases its Graduating Class profile and this year's graduating class of 2024 was the highest on record for LVHS with a 21.5 composite score, beating the Class of 2020's 21.4.  This score takes the best score of each student in that class, not simply the state score from when we test them in April.  One point of pride for LVHS, is the number of students who strive with a growth mindset to do better on that test and retake the test.  This class in particular raised their average 1.1 points from the 20.4 they averaged on testing day.  This is largely led by our fall testing effort where just this year we had over 60 students take that grueling test another time.   All of this leads to some incredible statistics that sets Wyoming on top of the country and then compare that to how LVHS fares inside the top state in the country and we all have something incredible to celebrate!

Only 9 states test 100 percent of their students on the ACT, Wyoming is one of those states.  This year Wyoming led all states who test 100 percent of their students with a 19.1 graduating class composite average.  Remember LVHS had a 21.5 or 2.4 points above the state average.....that's right.....Wyoming leads the nation, and LVHS scores 2.4 points above that average!   Here is something else....an additional 7 schools test a minimum of 80% of their students....so for all 16 states testing a minimum of 80% of their students the average ACT score is 18.6 and the closest state to our average is still 1.5% below with 20 from Utah who tests 89% of their students.  When looking at the percentage of students meeting the benchmark in English, Reading, Math, and Science, LVHS is 17% higher than the average of the 16 states in English, 19% higher in Math, 25% higher in Reading, and 19% higher in Science. When looking at students who score at benchmark or higher on all four, LVHS more than doubled the average of the 16.   

Now let's look at our ACT data for our current seniors, this is all data from just the April test last spring.  We averaged 19.9 which is 1 point above the state average.  Although not as good as last year, out of 77 schools we are 16th and when you look at comparable schools -- any school testing 40 or more students -- just   8 tested higher than LVHS of the  38 schools  

All of this data leads to incredible outcomes for our students, including the fact that despite falling rates of college attendance across the country, LVHS graduates are setting new records in those attending, succeeding, and are spread across the country in some of the top universities and colleges in the world!  

We obviously have places to grow and continue to improve but I have no doubt that process is already happening as that is the great work that you do each day with our students, ensuring that every student has every single standard. I am so greatly honored to work beside all of you and I look forward to continued success and growth with you all giving your best to every student, every day!  

Good Morning Tigers, 

It was a great week to be an LVHS Tiger, with football and volleyball having victories at home on Friday night, cross country hosting conference on Thursday and Swimming at big meets in Casper and Cheyenne this weekend.  

Good luck to the swim team who will host the conference meet this week in final preparations for what looks to be an incredible state meet in Cheyenne in three weeks.  Good luck to our LVHS Cross Country team who will compete in Cheyenne at the WHSAA State Meet this weekend!   

Congratulations to the Lander Valley High School Marching Band who had an incredible performance at the WHSAA State Marching Band Festival on Saturday in the Ford Wyoming Center in Casper.   Special thanks to Garth Moline for directing the band and to Jennifer McClung for directing the color guard.   I say this each year, but if you have not had a chance to watch these schools compete at this level, you really should take one in.  The noise in the center is captured beautifully and makes for a very positive experience.  

Just a final reminder that we will be hosting our fall parent teacher conferences this Tuesday (4-7pm), and Wednesday (3:30-5:30pm).  These will be hosted in the LVHS Auxiliary Gym and access to the event will be through the main Field House doors.

Due to conferences no school for any students this Friday, October 25th and due to a teacher professional development day, we also will not have school on Monday, October 28th.  So this week we will have our normal Monday-Thursday school and will just not have our Friday schedule.  The week of the 28th we will follow our traditional schedule Tuesday-Thursday but will have our Monday schedule on Friday to keep our block schedule even.   

It is never too early to invite you all to the Bob Carey Memorial Fieldhouse on Monday, November 11th at 1pm where the LVHS Student Council and FFA will co-host our Veteran’s Day Assembly for all of our Veterans.  This is a proud LVHS tradition and we invite the community to help us show our gratitude and support to all of our current service members and Veterans.  Here is the special bell schedule we will follow for that day: 

Monday, November 11th 2024

Period 1 8-9:30

Period 3 9:40-11:10

Period 5A 12:20-12:50 pm (teachers will take 5th hour to fieldhouse)

Veteran's Day Assembly 1-1:50 pm in the LVHS Fieldhouse

Period 5B 2-3pm (students will return to their 5th hour after assembly)

SRB 3-3:30 Science and English will refer and we will do our best to prioritize

We continue to focus on our Big Four Responsibility Expectations here at LVHS and for the first time you will see these grades on our report cards at conferences. These are our big four::

1.  Being in  class and on time

2. Completing assignments on time and making up work form absences in timely manner 

3. Actively participating in classroom activities

4. Seeking  assistance/use resources when needed

 This week’s focus is Being in class and on time.  This one is such an important expectation and anything we can do to increase our students' attendance and punctuality will not only lead to better success in the classroom but surely will empower them for the future. Please discuss this necessary responsibility with your student and how this life skills will set them up for future success.  

Lander Valley High School is very proud to boast that the 2025 Wyoming Teacher of the Year is Mrs. Morgan Hahn.  Although LVHS have had a couple finalists for this honor, this is the first such honor for LVHS or Fremont County School District #1 in at least a lot of years (not sure of its entire history).  Mrs. Hahn works hard to meet the needs of ALL students throughout her leading, teaching, coaching, advising, and her own professional development at Lander Valley High School. Mrs. Hahn is an incredibly strong leader,, educator, coach and inspiring Student Council and Close Up advisor who cares deeply about her students and her responsibilities towards them. I have no doubt that she will continue to represent LVHS and now the entire state of Wyoming well as she will work closely with the state, advocating for and promoting the great things that are happening in Wyoming through our public education system.  We are truly leading the nation in so many ways and Mrs. Hahn is not only a product of that great educational system but is now working to make it even stronger! Congratulations Mrs. Morgan Hahn (Praska).  

Mrs. Hahn was selected by our students and teachers last spring and later was selected by the district teacher of the year committee this summer.  Just last week we found out she was one of five finalists in the state.   On Thursday, Mrs. Hahn had a formal interview process where she had to do a presentation to the state committee, answer some questions that she was provided in advance and then to end it, fielded questions that were not given to her, but would be similar to what she may be asked in public appearances with the media.   It was just an hour or two later that we were notified of her selection.   

This is an incredible honor for Mrs. Hahn who is in her sixth year at LVHS and we are super proud of all that she has done and accomplished for our students here at LVHS.  Thanks to all of you who have helped her to become the incredible teacher that is simply the representation of this great school, the #1 high school in the state where for the next year we also have the undisputed #1 teacher in the state!  

Our teachers have begun the process of preparing for our student-led parent teacher conferences that will take place on Tuesday, October 22nd (4-7pm) and Wednesday, October 23rd (3:30-5:30pm). In the classroom teachers will be working with students in setting goals and evaluating where each of them are on the priority standards for each class.  Those discussions will carry into our conferences listed above.   Students are definitely welcome to come, but with high school aged students we understand that they are in lots of different activities and this may not be possible.  Students will have what they need in the class and our teachers will be prepared to carry on conferences with you whether you bring a student or not.  

We host Thermopolis in volleyball on Tuesday and then will play at Riverton on Friday night for our annual keeper of the gold game in Football. .  Please keep in mind and reinforce with your students the expectations for coming to these school events.  Good luck to the Tigers!   

We are proud of the 61 seniors who took the ACT again on Tuesday to try and raise their previous scores.  These students already have taken at least one test and many of them have taken it multiple times.  We are proud of our students' growth mindset as they continue to improve themselves and their scores as the college application season begins!   

Please remember to take a look at your students Responsibility scores listed in ICampus….as a reminder in our first four weeks the teachers marked each area of our Big Four Expectations individually and now will make changes as students demonstrate differing levels of meeting these common expectations of responsibility in all of their classes.   You will see an individual scores for:

1.  Being in  class and on time

2. Completing assignments on time and making up work form absences in timely manner 

3. Actively participating in classroom activities

4. Seeking  assistance/use resources when needed

As we did in the beginning of the year, we continue all year emphasizing one of these expectations each week.  This week’s focus is Actively Participate in classroom activities.  Please discuss this necessary responsibility with your student and how this life skills will set them up for future success.  

Hello Tigers,

We had an incredible week full of school spirit, camaraderie, and fun during our Homecoming Week.  Congratulations to the Senior Class of 2025 for earning a close victory over the Class of 2026!  Also congratulations to our Homecoming King Gage Hampton and Queen Emma Jones!

Unfortunately I do have some bad news to report.  During our after school Homecoming Friday festivities, we had 7 students issued Minors in Possession of Alcohol tickets and will also be facing consequences through school.  This is the largest amount that we have dealt with in a single day and as a result I need to ask for your help.  Please chat with your students about the risks of drinking, or being under the influence of alcohol or other drugs and remind them of the consequences including legal and school consequences.  I have already spoken with all students and let them know weeks ago that any student caught with or under the influence of illegal substances generally receives at minimum, a 30 day long term suspension/alternative placement.  My promise to all parents and students is that we have a safe and drug-free school and this promise extends to all of our activities and extracurriculars.  We are looking into options to help us more quickly screen for alcohol in large group settings and will be asking staff to be extra vigilant to ensure that we are catching all students who take these risks.    Please don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions or concerns you may have, but please know we are addressing this and will not tolerate such behavior at school or any of our events and activities.  We ask all students to report such activity directly to any school personnel or to Safe2Tell.

Please don’t forget that Lifetouch will be here to do picture retakes tomorrow (Monday) (Sept 30) but please note that they will only be here from 7:45am until approximately 9am.  

Early heads up that Parent Teacher Conferences are on their way, we will host them on Tuesday, October 22nd (4-7pm) and Wednesday, October 23rd (3:30-5:30pm).  These are designed to be student-led conferences so please feel free to bring your student along, or if they are busy with extracurriculars, please don’t hesitate to stop by on your own.  Essentially we want to meet with as many students as possible, so we hope to see you on one of the two nights.  

It is my pleasure to announce that Mrs. Morgan Hahn, LVHS Social Science teacher, department head, Student Council Adviosr, and Close-up advisor, was recently named by the state of Wyoming as a finalist for the 2025 Wyoming Teacher of the Year.  Hahn was nominated as the LVHS Teacher of the Year for 2024 and later went on to become the Fremont County School District #1 Teacher of the Year.  The state then reviewed all district teacher of the years and have selected just five as finalists for this prestigious award!  Congratulations Mrs. Hahn and best of luck in your upcoming interview and screening process.  We are so proud of you and our students and staff are so lucky to have you!

Please also keep in mind that there is no school for FCSD #1 on Friday, October 25th, nor Monday, October 28th.  Due to this, Friday, November 1st will be a traditional Monday schedule (students will attend periods 1,3,5 and SRB)

We hope you all have a great week!  

September 23, 2024

It’s Homecoming Week at LVHS and we are so excited to celebrate with our theme Tigers vs. Teachers  

The Homecoming Dance will be held immediately after the Homecoming Football Game on Friday night and will conclude at 12AM.    Any high school aged non-LVHS students must be invited and approved guests of an LVHS Student.  Approval forms are available at LVHS and must be turned in no later than Tuesday, September 24th to the LVHS front office.   The Homecoming Theme is Tigers vs. Teachers and here is the dress up days so students can plan accordingly: 

Monday: Tigers vs Teachers: Students dress like teachers and teachers dress like students.

Tuesday: BBQ Dad vs. Soccer Mom: (this one is self-explanatory...dress as either one!)

Wednesday: Color Wars: Seniors dress in green, juniors dress in black, sophomores dress in gray, freshmen dress in white.

Thursday: Country vs Country Club: Dress in your cowboy attire or like you're ready for the golf course and a 5-course meal.

Friday: Bleed Green! Wear your best Tiger gear and get hyped with Tiger spirit! 

On Friday, September 27th  we will run a special bell schedule due to our Homecoming Festivities, here is that schedule:

Period 1 8:00 – 8:33 (33)

Period 2 8:38 – 9:11 (33)

Period 3 9:16 – 9:49 (33)

Period 4 9:54 – 10:26(32)

Period 5 10:31 – 11:03(32)

Period 6 11:08 – 11:40 (32)

LUNCH  11:40 – 12:15 (35)

Period 7 12:20 – 12:50 (30)

Pep Assembly 1:00: – 1:40

Parade             2:00 -- 3:00 (All LVHS students are dismissed for the day following the Pep Assembly to attend the parade)  

Games during homecoming week include the Volleyball match on Thursday night and the Girls Swimming in Lander on Friday and of course the football game against Torrington at 6pm on Friday night!  In addition we will also be hosting a Dodgeball Tournament for points towards the Homecoming Competition on Tuesday night  in the LVHS Auxiliary Gym beginning at 7pm.  Please don't forget that we also do a Spirit Stick competition, where each day a clue is given to find the Spirit Stick that is hidden within city limits.  The class who finds the stick wins the points. We look forward to the great excitement as our LVHS Tigers show off their school spirit as the #1 high school in the state of Wyoming!  

Thanks to all of the parents who have already submitted their Health Services Opt-In survey form to us.  This form is a new requirement that arose from state statute and the resulting KBB policy.  Your direction is required so that we can best serve our student and if you have not filled out this form you were specifically sent a form on Friday afternoon.  I actually sent two emails as I forgot to attach the form to the first email(sorry). If you received that email and text please print, fill out, sign and return the form ASAP so we are aware of how you would like us to proceed in events that require our highly qualified health care and counseling teams.   If you have any questions or concerns please contact me directly.   

Last week we wrapped up our fourth big expectation and sometime next week you should be able to see scores in all four areas of your students responsibility grade.  If you can't see those by the end of the week, please contact your teacher directly or me and we will make sure you are getting the feedback you need to ensure your student is meeting expectations of responsibility that make them successful here at school as well as give them the skills they need once they leave the friendly confines of LVHS!   

Please remember that if you are not happy with/or you did not receive school photos from Lifetouch, they will be here on Monday, September 30 for retakes.  

Lastly, congratulations to both our girls and boys golf teams who finished 2nd place in the WHSAA State Tournament this weekend.  The boys were led by Sequeil Lozier with his second place individual finish and close behind him was Hunter Kihn with a fourth place finish.  The girls were led by Keigann Watson who finished second place individually and Siara Espinosa finished 10th place.  Special thanks to our coaches Mike and Trisha Watson for all of their work and dedication with our team this year!   

Have a great week and thank you for sharing your students with us, we are off to a great start and look forward to a fabulous week ahead.   

September 15, 2024

We are finishing our third accountability priority of ensuring that students actively participate in classes and have had a great week of students demonstrating their ability and willingness to do so.  Our final priority will begin this week, and that is to seek assistance and use resources when necessary.  One of the ways we really want students to utilize this priority is be ensuring that they are going to teachers office hours to get assistance.  Our core teachers have set office hours during our SRB time (end of the day on Mon, Wed, and Fri) and we encourage our students to use this college model to proactively seek the assistance they need to be successful in their classes.  All of the departments have different schedules that are highlighted in their hallways for these office hours.  Please work with your students to ensure they know these times and encourage them to use them when necessary.   As we begin our fourth priority I want to remind students and parents of our emphasis on all of the big four as we move through the school year and here they are again for a reminder: 

1. Be in class and on time

2. Complete assignments on time and make up work form absences in timely manner 

3. Actively participate in classroom activities

4. Seek assistance/use resources when needed

Mrs. Stanbury worked with all seniors during SRB on Wednesday, September 11th and will host a Senior Parent/Student Informational night for Post-Secondary Planning, Monday, September 16th at 6pm in the LVHS Auditorium.  You do not want to miss this night as it will connect you to some greatly important resources that will make this process so much easier.     

Just a final reminder that on Wednesday, October 16, our school will provide an opportunity for students to take the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test.  The PSAT/NMSQT:

• is available to sophomores and juniors. The test is optional.  Some schools use a 3.6 GPA as a guideline for students taking the PSAT.  The fee of $18.00 must be paid in the guidance office at the time the student signs up for the test.

• is the first step, for juniors, in entering the National Merit Scholarship Corporation competitions for scholarships and recognition.  Less than 1 percent of the nation’s graduating high school seniors will qualify as Semifinalists.    This is only a test-taking experience for sophomores; they are not eligible for this competition.  Being a finalist or semi-finalist on this test is one avenue to the LVHS Academic Hall of Fame.

• measures the reading, math, and writing skills needed for college.  After the test, a score report will tell students how their skills measure up.  Students can use it to find their “skill gaps” and then make plans to fill those gaps before college begins.

• gives students a chance to see how their skills compare with those of other students who will apply to college.

• provides practice for the upcoming SAT exams

• allows students to predict their SAT scores in time to work on specific skills.

Also, the Student Search Service gives PSAT/NMSQT test-takers the option to voluntarily place their names and addresses in a pool of college-bound students interested in receiving admission and financial aid information from certified colleges, universities, and scholarship agencies.

The test will run from 8:00 a.m. until approximately 12 p.m.  A travel list will be issued to notify teachers of the students’ absence. Students are responsible for the make-up work in the classes they miss on the day of the test.  Students should bring a calculator and sharpened #2 pencils.  

An early heads-up, Homecoming Week is fastly approaching and will run the week of September 25-29th.  Homecoming Dance will be held after the Homecoming Football Game on Friday night.  Any high school aged non-LVHS students must be invited and approved guests of an LVHS Student.  Approval forms are available at LVHS and must be turned in no later than Tuesday, September 24th to the LVHS front office.   The Homecoming Theme is Tigers vs. Teachers and here is the dress up days so students can plan accordingly: 

Monday: Tigers vs Teachers: Students dress like teachers and teachers dress like students.

Tuesday: BBQ Dad vs. Soccer Mom: (this one is self-explanatory...dress as either one!)

Wednesday: Color Wars: Seniors dress in green, juniors dress in black, sophomores dress in gray, freshmen dress in white.

Thursday: Country vs Country Club: Dress in your cowboy attire or like you're ready for the golf course and a 5-course meal.

Friday: Bleed Green! Wear your best Tiger gear and get hyped with Tiger spirit! 

As you know from last weeks post it is suicide prevention week.  As part of the school counseling curriculum, counselors met with all 9th grade students in advisory to discuss why suicide prevention is important, risks and warning signs and how to get help for themselves or others. Students were allowed to opt out of the lesson at anytime during the presentation.  We also had a booth set up at lunch for information and many displays and announcements to create awareness about this issue.  We know that these topics can be difficult, so if you have any concerns or wish to have a counselor check in with your child please reach out the the counseling department.  Here is also a reminder of how to receive help outside of normal school hours: 

Help for Someone You Know

Learn how to recognize the warning signs when someone's at risk-and what action steps you can take. If you believe someone may be in danger of suicide:

• Call 911, if danger for self-harm seems imminent.

• Call or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline to talk to a caring professional.

• Ask them if they are thinking about killing themselves. This will not put the idea into their head or make it more likely that they will attempt suicide.

• Listen without judging and show you care.

• Stay with the person or make sure the person is in a private, secure place with another caring person until you can get further help.

• Remove any objects that could be used in a suicide attempt.

Believe it or not, we will have our first state competition this weekend with our boys and girls golf teams heading to the beautiful city of Rawlins in hopes of bringing back the first state championship of the 2024-25 school year.  The boys teams was able to capture the 3A Western Regional Championship in Cody and Keegan Watson captured the individual conference championship.    Cross Country will host their home meet on Thursday with the start and finish being in the stadium for the first time in years.  Football will also host its home-opener against Evanston at 6pm on Friday

September 9, 2024

Hello Tigers, 

We applaud all of our parents and students who have made sure our students are here, in class, and on time! We thank you all so much for your support and encouragement to ensure our students have that life skill as they prepare for their future.  Last week, we transitioned to our second point of emphasis and have worked with our students to ensure they understand the importance of meeting deadlines and making up work when they are absent.  To the end, this week/weekend you may begin getting automated emails from my email which are generated when a teacher refers your students to either catch-up lunch or student responsibility block (SRB).  When you get these emails these mean that our teachers DO NOT have from your student what they need.  The email will tell you the rest but please know that this must be taken seriously and addressed ASAP so we can make sure we are meeting the needs of your student.  

This week we will begin our third point of emphasis: Actively Participate in Classroom Activities.  

We have worked with our teachers, district-wide, extensively on equipping them with tools to ensure that active engagement is happening with the students in the classroom.  Research confirms, and we all know, the ones doing the work are the ones doing the learning.  In order for us to guarantee high levels of learning for all students every day, we must have students actively participating in classroom activities.  Trust me, our teachers are using best practice and when they ask students to participate, they need it to allow students to learn or reinforce a skill or standard, to assess students current ability levels, and to make adjustments based on that assessment to how to change their instruction and intervene with students as appropriate.  Thank you in advance for encouraging and reinforcing the importance of your students' active participation in classroom activities.   

I had the pleasure to meet with each grade level last week to discuss other areas of respect, responsibility, and safety to ensure we have the best school year.  Some key points were made to students to ensure they understand that with privileges comes responsibility and reinforced what they need to keep the privileges they enjoy.  We also discussed the vital importance of keeping a drug and weapon free school.  Students were reminded that violations of this will result in a long term suspension with the possibility for expulsion.  I promise to all of you that your students can come to school free from the exposure to drugs and weapons and violations of this are taken VERY seriously in order to maintain a safe learning environment for all.  We also discussed the importance of treating others with respect, kindness and empathy.  Bullying and harassment of any kind are also strictly prohibited at LVHS and will be dealt with promptly and seriously.  Please work with your students to report any issues to a school staff member, safe2tell, or to law enforcement when necessary.   We are blessed to have such a wonderful group of students and we thank you in advance for continuing to have these conversations with your children to ensure a safe, happy, learning environment for all!  

To celebrate our students' success in these accountability efforts we had giant chocolate chip cookies for all of our students on Thursday after school.  Thank you again for your support with our accountability process.  As I told our students, LVHS is built through a system of privileges and responsibilities and if you aren’t taking care of your responsibilities we must restrict privileges until you take care of expectations.  Our goal is to have 100% of our students on track for graduation, currently 94% of our students meet that expectation and we will improve that number each day as we work with your students during SRB and lunch to get them there, EVERY STUDENT, EVERY DAY!   

Thanks for all of your help to make sure your students were here and ready for picture day, retakes are scheduled for September 30 for those that missed it or know that they will want a new picture taken!  Students not here should go to the office so that we can get them a 2024-25 ID card with appropriate privileges attached to their cards.   

Mrs. Stanbury will be working with all seniors during SRB on Wednesday, September 11th and will host a Senior Parent/Student Informational night for Post-Secondary Planning, Monday, September 16th at 6pm in the LVHS Auditorium.  You do not want to miss this night as it will connect you to some greatly important resources that will make this process so much easier.     

On Wednesday, October 16, our school will provide an opportunity for students to take the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test.  The PSAT/NMSQT:

• is available to sophomores and juniors. The test is optional.  Some schools use a 3.6 GPA as a guideline for students taking the PSAT.  The fee of $18.00 must be paid in the guidance office at the time the student signs up for the test.

• is the first step, for juniors, in entering the National Merit Scholarship Corporation competitions for scholarships and recognition.  Less than 1 percent of the nation’s graduating high school seniors will qualify as Semifinalists.    This is only a test-taking experience for sophomores; they are not eligible for this competition.  Being a finalist or semi-finalist on this test is one avenue to the LVHS Academic Hall of Fame.

• measures the reading, math, and writing skills needed for college.  After the test, a score report will tell students how their skills measure up.  Students can use it to find their “skill gaps” and then make plans to fill those gaps before college begins.

• gives students a chance to see how their skills compare with those of other students who will apply to college.

• provides practice for the upcoming SAT exams

• allows students to predict their SAT scores in time to work on specific skills.

Also, the Student Search Service gives PSAT/NMSQT test-takers the option to voluntarily place their names and addresses in a pool of college-bound students interested in receiving admission and financial aid information from certified colleges, universities, and scholarship agencies.

The test will run from 8:00 a.m. until approximately 12 p.m.  A travel list will be issued to notify teachers of the students’ absence. Students are responsible for the make-up work in the classes they miss on the day of the test.  Students should bring a calculator and sharpened #2 pencils.  

Thanks to all of our parents who were able to come to our Open House last Wednesday night.  We are always happy to work with our parents and want to remind you that we will always make ourselves available, so if you were not able to make it or have other questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to let us know. 

September is National Suicide Prevention Month and thus LVHS will dedicate this week to Suicide Prevention. We will be doing announcements and small educational activities all week around this important topic. We want to make sure that parents and students are aware of the waring signs and resources available:   

Suicide Warning Signs for Adults

*Risk is greater if a behavior is new or has increased, and if it seems related to a painful event, loss, or change

• Talking about or making plans for suicide.

• Acting anxious or agitated; behaving recklessly.

• Talking about being a burden to others.

• Talking about feeling trapped or in unbearable pain.

• Increasing the use of alcohol or drugs.

• Talking about feeling hopeless or having no reason to live

• Sleeping too little or too much.

• Withdrawing or feeling isolated.

• Showing rage or talking about seeking revenge.

• Displaying extreme mood swings.

Suicide Warning Signs for Youth

It's time to take action if you notice these signs in family or friends:

• Talking about or making plans for suicide.

• Expressing hopelessness about the future.

• Displaying severe/overwhelming emotional pain or distress.

• Showing worrisome changes in behavior, particularly in combination with the warning signs above, including significant:

• Withdrawal from or changing social connections/situations.

• Changes in sleep (increased or decreased).

• Anger or hostility that seems out of character or out of context.

• Recent increased agitation or irritability.

Help for You

Talking with someone about your thoughts and feelings can save your life. There are steps you can take to keep yourself safe through a crisis. Call or text 988 any time or chat online with the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline to get support also find resources on:

• Finding a therapist/support group

• Building and using a support network

• Making a safety plan for yourself

Help for Someone You Know

Learn how to recognize the warning signs when someone’s at risk—and what action steps you can take. If you believe someone may be in danger of suicide:

• Call 911, if danger for self-harm seems imminent.

• Call or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline to talk to a caring professional.

• Ask them if they are thinking about killing themselves. This will not put the idea into their head or make it more likely that they will attempt suicide.

• Listen without judging and show you care.

• Stay with the person or make sure the person is in a private, secure place with another caring person until you can get further help.

• Remove any objects that could be used in a suicide attempt.

• Call or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline to talk to their professionals and follow their guidance.

The counselors in the LVHS Counseling Office are here to help you if you or anyone you know is feeling suicidal.  If you are worried about reporting to them or it’s after school hours, you can always make a report to Safe to Tell anytime, day or night.  The most important thing is that you get help.

Greetings Tigers, 

I just wanted to thank you all for such an incredible start to our 2024-25 school year.  As mentioned in last week’s post we are emphasizing the importance of student responsibility in the classroom and our first priority was to make sure that our students are here and on time.  We had an incredible four days where our students exceeded our expectations and I can’t thank them or our parents enough for ensuring that our students are in their seats ready to learn.   This week we will add another emphasis to our Big Four Expectations and that is to Complete assignments on time and make up work form absences in a timely manner. Please remember that like mentioned in last weeks posts you will soon start seeing updates to your students responsibility grades in ICampus and this year they are individually marked for each of our Big Four Expectations.  Here is our scale to determine proficiency levels on each of the Big Four.  

Our teachers set deadlines for each and every assignment they give and we will be working with our students specifically to ensure they understand the importance and value of meeting deadlines and also understand the privileges that are associated with that positive behavior.  We have also cleaned up our grade book and so anytime you as a parent are receiving notifications of a student who has missing evidence, represented by the letter M,  the gradebook will also indicate that their overall grade in the class is incomplete represented by the letter I.  We often are asked how parents can help hold their students accountable and I love the question as we simply cannot do this alone. I would suggest that parents take it week by week.  Once we are in full swing you will begin getting missing assignment reports for any class where they have a missing assignment, you will also get copied on any referrals to our Student Responsibility Block (SRB) and to our Catch-up Lunch (CUL).  The catch-up lunch referrals should be emailed by no later than the Friday before the week begins to let students know to plan for staying on campus at lunch.  The missing assignment report follows on Monday.  I would say using that information you make the expectation that your student will have all the work on the missing assignment report completed by Friday.  That gives them the week to deal with it, allows our systems to play out and is a reasonable time to allow for work that is technically already late.  After that time, if I was the parent I would ensure that my students' weekends would look differently than normal.  So phones and video games would be confiscated or minimized, leaving the house would not be allowed and students would work until all work was completed.   The school will already be revoking privileges and you supporting this on revoking their privilege at home will go a long way in motivating your student into being accountable to the work.  

Our emphasis on the above has led to so many amazing results!  We are so proud of our students and want to celebrate the success of last year's graduating class.  We recently published our annual LVHS Profile for the 2023-24 school year.  This report shows you all of the great colleges and universities where our students were accepted and currently attending.  It also shows you our ACT scores compared to our state average.  Please keep in mind that the state of Wyoming is the top state in the nation amongst those who test all students.  So when we outpace the state by 1.9 points, and the state is top in the nation…this is a HUGE deal!  We are extremely lucky to have such a high quality guidance department who works tirelessly to ensure our students are ready for their post-secondary options.  A big part of this is the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) completion rate.  This past year we had a 75% completion rate on that important form, the national average was just 46%!  Seniors in the Class of 2025 will soon begin this process and please trust me when I say that we have your backs and will support you through this process.  Mrs. Stanbury will be working with all seniors during SRB on Wednesday, September 11th and will host a Senior Parent/Student Informational night for Post-Secondary Planning, Monday, September 16th at 6pm in the LVHS Auditorium.  You do not want to miss this night as it will connect you to some greatly important resources that will make this process so much easier.  

One final bit of immediate senior information is that we will be offering a free ACT test date for seniors only on Tuesday, October 1st. We have already sent this information and have about 50 students signed up to take the ACT again, however wanted to make sure all parents were aware in case their student needs to take the test but hasn't signed up yet. Please have your student reply to the form they received from Mrs. Stanbury by Wednesday to be included in this.   If you have any questions don't hesitate to give Mrs. Stanbury a call.      

Thanks to all who have done the  District Health Services Opt-In survey that was sent home a couple weeks ago via email and is linked above for your convenience.  This is in response to statute W.S. 21-3-135 and Policy KBB and is a new process for the 2024-2025 school year.  The survey allows you to consent to health services and other services.  If you do not fill out the survey we will have to call in the event your student needs one of the listed services.  If you are not able to fill out survey when we call we will not be able to deliver those services.  Please fill out this form ASAP online to let us know how you would like us to proceed and if you need any help, please call the LVHS Office.  

Please don’t forget these other immediate calendar items: 

September 2nd – Labor Day No school for students or staff

LVHS Open House – Wednesday, Sept. 4th 6-7pm All parents and students are welcome to come and talk to one or all of their students' teachers.  Come anytime as we will not follow any schedule, you will be able to move about the building as needed and leave when you would like prior to 7pm  

Lifetouch Photo Day – Wednesday, Sept 4th  8am-11am.  All students will get picture for required ID card and yearbook.  Parents wishing to purchase photo can get a packet at the LVHS office or go to mylifetouch.com with your picture day ID: EVTQWPHSB

Students will immediately receive their ID Cards after pictures and they  already know this but ID card must be present on  all students while at school.  This is how we check students in and out of the building and also will be color coded based on the privileges that they have.   If your student has the following color of card this is what it means: 

Green – They are a junior or senior and are on track for graduation and have not had excessive absences or tardies and thus are allowed to leave campus for lunch and community experience during SRB.  

Charcoal – They are probably a sophomore and are on track for graduation and have not had excessive absences or tardies and thus are allowed to leave campus for lunch.  No sophomores however are allow to leave during SRB, thus the different color from most juniors and seniors.  Some juniors and seniors may also have this card if they are on track for graduation, but still have an ILP from a class that they need to make up that would prevent them from leaving at SRB.  

White – All freshmen as they are not allowed to leave for lunch or SRB, they are working to earn those privileges by demonstrating they can earn their credits, demonstrate their responsibility and be in class and on time.  Many sophomores, juniors and seniors will also have white cards to begin the year, which means they have struggled with behavior, attendance or grades.   Freshmen who do not meet expectations during the year, will not be allowed sophomore level privileges next year.  

Please remember that if your student is to receive a  green or charcoal card we need the appropriate forms signed by you which allows them to leave at lunch and/or SRB.  You DO NOT have to sign those, and if you choose not to we will issue them the appropriate card until you do.  As it is also your right to restrict privileges here at school.  Please let us know if we can help you anyway in this regard.  

Students' cards will be pulled this year if they are not following our expectations, so if attendance, responsibility, or grades become an issue we reserve the right to change card colors, and privileges at any time.   

I hope you all have a great week and a fabulous Labor Day Weekend and we can’t wait to see our students in class and on time while also completing all assignments by their deadlines!  Let us know how we can help with the success of your students!

Hello Tigers, 

I am so excited to welcome you all back for the 2024-25 school year here at Lander Valley High School.  For all of our new students and freshmen I welcome you to the Tiger Family.  This is my weekly blog which I generally send out on Sunday afternoon or Monday morning depending on the week.  I include any updates, pertinent details, and upcoming scheduling items to make sure that everyone is on the same page.  I try to keep them short and to the point but from time to time they will be a little lengthier, like this one!  

We are excited to see everyone on our 1st day of school, this Tuesday, August 27th.  Doors are open at 7am, breakfast opens at 7:30, and school begins promptly at 8am.  Please make sure that you make sure you are here a bit early so that you can be in your seat and ready to learn at 8am.   When you arrive you will go to your advisor, you can find your advisor at the bottom of your schedule on Icampus or we will have them listed for you in the commons.  You will go there just for 5 minutes to check in and grab the most current schedule and then will proceed to your 2nd period class (Students will go to periods 2,4,6,7 on the first day). For most students your schedule is probably accurate on ICampus, but we always print them on Monday afternoon to make sure everyone has the most current schedule after all changes and adjustments have been made.  Please note that because we will not go to school on Monday this week, we will follow our traditional Monday schedule on Friday, so students would report to periods 1,3,5 and SRB.  The next week we will do the same as there is no school for Labor Day.   Students who are eligible to leave during SRB will be asked to stay (at least for part of it) this first week as we take care of some tasks.   

Thanks to all who have turned in the forms that were mailed to you earlier this month.  Those forms are required and we must have them back for all of our students.  Please if you have not already done so, please bring them in Monday or send them with your student to hand into the front office on Wednesday.  Some of those forms are what allow privileges and thus those privileges will not be allowed until the forms are turned in.  

One other very important form is the District Health Services Opt-In survey that was sent home last week via email and is linked above for your convenience.  This is in response to statute W.S. 21-3-135 and Policy KBB and is a new process for the 2024-2025 school year.  The survey allows you to consent to health services and other services.  If you do not fill out the survey we will have to call in the event your student needs one of the listed services.  If you are not able to fill out survey when we call we will not be able to deliver those services.  Please fill out this form ASAP online to let us know how you would like us to proceed and if you need any help, please call the LVHS Office.  

I would like to introduce our new staff members 

Kellen Freedman, a former graduate of Pathfinder High School,  comes from Riverton where  he was teaching third grade to take over as our new Assistant Principal.  

Maya Morduch-Toubman recently completed her Master of Social Work at Portland State University and will take over as our new Social Worker.  

James Parks from Wisconsin and recently relocating from Utah joins our Language Arts Department.  

Megan Hall recently left Michigan and prior to that was teaching in Texas before joining our Language Arts Department.  

Monika Leopold  has worked with our science team and students doing outreach with her previous position at Brunton, now will join our Science team and takes over with Chemistry and AP Chemistry.

 Sydney Eichelberger begins her first official teaching position taking over our Family Consumer Science Department. She most recently completed her student teaching at Highland High School in Pocatello, Idaho.  

Drew Powell transitions from our Learning Center Coordinator position to become the newest addition to our Math Department.

Carissa Johnson transitions from an inclusion paraprofessional to our Learning Center Coordinator where she has already helped in that role in many instances.   

Trenton St. Clair, a parent of a current student and a familiar face at many events, will now join our Individual Education team as a paraprofessional.  

Juhvy Mowery, a former teacher in the Philippines, returns to the classroom as a paraprofessional for our Individual Education team.  

Robert Jensen was most recently working in a similar capacity in the Riverton schools and will join our Individual Education team as a paraprofessional.  

Miranda Shumacher is just moving to the community and will join our Individual Education team as a paraprofessional. 

Melinda Villa Hernandez was once a member of our nutrition staff, but we welcome her back as a paraprofessional on our Individual Education team.  

Katherine Black has experience coming from LMS and will take on a similar position as a paraprofessional on our Individual Education team.  

Airin Owens was subbing for LVHS and prior to that worked as a paraprofessional on our Individual Education team, where she will return.  

Alicia Walker will also be joining our Individual Education team as a paraprofessional.  

Ben Logue is a former graduate of LVHS and has just finished his Bachelor’s degree at the University of Wyoming. He returns to LVHS to be our Media Center/Library Assistant while he pursues a Master’s in LIbrary Science.  

I am sure that these staff members are a great fit to join our incredibly dedicated and hard-working staff that pushes our students to achieve greatness in many areas, while also maintaining a very compassionate relationship that truly values the best interest of each individual.

This year we will again be teaching, reinforcing and holding students accountable to the  LVHS Big Four Responsibility Expectations:

1. Be in class and  on time

2. Complete assignments on time and make up work form absences in timely manner 

3. Actively participate in classroom activities

4. Seek assistance/use resources when needed

We are also proud to announce that all students' responsibility grades will now be tied directly to the Big Four with an individual score for each of the four areas to give you more quality feedback to help us make sure our students are college,career, or military ready!  This week we greatly appreciate your help on our first focus point: Being in class and on time.  One of the most important things you can do for your student is to ensure that they are in school and on time.  We raised our attendance rate by 3% last year from the year previous and we hope to improve that this year.  Your discussions with your students and help getting them out the door are vital to ensuring their success and we greatly appreciate your help in this regard.  

Parents of all Advanced Placement (AP) students will be receiving letters in the mail soon congratulating them for their students choice of taking these rigorous college-level courses and some of the increased expectations that we will be holding those students to so that we can sure our teachers are able to deliver the depth and breadth of rigor these courses require for their successful completion.  Please take time to read that letter and contact us if you have any questions or concerns.  We want to continue to improve our incredibly successful AP program by increasing the number of students enrolled and the percentage who successfully complete the course as measured by a 3 or better on the corresponding and required AP exam.  We are always willing to intervene for academic skill issues but will be taking a more proactive approach to the will, or lack thereof,  issues that we see occasionally in these courses.  

Upcoming schedule includes: 

September 2nd – Labor Day No school for students or staff

Lifetouch Photo Day – Wednesday, Sept 4th  8am-11am.  All students will get picture for required ID card and yearbook.  Parents wishing to purchase photo can get a packet at the LVHS office or go to mylifetouch.com.

LVHS Open House – Wednesday, Sept. 4th 6-7pm All parents and students are welcome to come and talk to one or all of their students' teachers.  Come anytime as we will not follow any schedule, you will be able to move about the building as needed and leave when you would like prior to 7pm  

Good luck to our golf, football, cross country, girl's swim, and volleyball teams as they begin their fall season.  Golf has already competed in a couple events with both the boys and girls finishing third last week right here in Lander.    

In closing I just want to celebrate the many accomplishments of LVHS, its students and staff over the past few years.  We are so fortunate to have such an incredible learning community and these things would not be possible without the complete team effort:

• One of just five high school Model Professional Learning Communities in the State and just one of 64 in the nation.

• Recognized as one of the top three Professional Learning Communities in the Nation in 2019.

• Named four consecutive years and 6 of the last 8 years as a US News and World Reports Best School and was the second ranked school in Wyoming for our college and career readiness score.   

• Graduation rate average of  88% the past 7 years compared to 82.5% for the five years previous

• Record Advanced Placement enrollments, including Tier III and Special Education students

• Prior to making every student in an Advanced Placement (AP) class taking the test we had an average of 25% of our students successful on those tests, since making all take the test we have increased our success rate to 68%, this represents a 24% increase from the previous year!

• The Class of 2015 had less than 1% of their graduating class receive a 3 or better on an AP exam, The Class of 2024 just set another LVHS record with  over 39% of them graduating with a 3 or better on an AP Exam.  

• Set another record, absolutely crushing last year’s record by 18 total scholars with 26 AP Scholars/9 AP Scholars w/Honors & 6 AP Scholars w/Distinction, or 41 total scholars! 

• Since 2018-19 we have averaged 1.9 points above the state average composite ACT score compared to the .5 we were averaging in the six years prior.  

• Nationally, there are just 18 states who test at least 80% of their students on the ACT, Wyoming tests 100% and ranks 7th out of that 18 in test scores.  LVHS scores a full point above the leader of that cohort and also scores a point higher than the national average ACT score with only approximately 36% of the nation's students taking it.  

• LVHS was recognized in 2021 as a Ellbogen Meritorious School for the percentage of teachers who hold a National Board Certification!

• Won 4 State Championships (28th Consecutive Boys Swimming, Back-to-Back Girls Nordic, 2nd in four years Girls Soccer, 1st in 23 years Girls Track)

I look forward to serving you and your students and hope that you will reach me directly if you have any concerns or questions that I can help you with so that we can meet the needs of Every Student, Every Day as we strive to be the #1 high school in the state of Wyoming!