Wheeler Community, 

It was so great to see so many smiling faces all spiffed up for Picture Day today! Couldn't be at school today? No worries - there is a makeup/retake day on October 17th. 

We are still in the midst of our Fun Run School Fundraiser. This fundraiser is so crucial to everything that we do to support the best student and teacher experience at Wheeler. We appreciate any donations that are made, and are hoping to create some meaningful and fun memories for students as incentives for participating. We are excited for our culminating event on Friday, September 19th. Please know we will not need volunteers this year because we are not using the colors, but we absolutely invite spectators to come cheer on our Wildcats! See the image below for the schedule. 

*A random note - but stay with me!... "Mokita" is a word from the Kivila language of Papua New Guinea that describes a truth that everyone knows but no one dares to speak of, similar to the English phrase "the elephant in the room". 

I would be allowing a Mokita in not acknowledging the several recent tragic incidents of violence across the country, both in & out of school settings. Here is what Wheeler has been doing and will continue to be doing to make safety of utmost importance. We as a school have truly beefed up the security of our building with the new vestibule. Our building is infinitely more secure now because of it. We have also worked hard to upgrade our systems in how we would respond to a variety of emergencies - from fire to shelter in place to lockdowns. Our staff has highly focused conversations and table talk exercises nearly every staff meeting in how we would respond to a given scenario. 

We NEVER anticipate having to experience a situation like that but I hope you know important the safety of every person in the building is to me as the building leader, as well as our staff. We had an unannounced fire drill with the Omaha Fire Department Thursday morning this week, and 660+ humans got out of the building in 2:15 - impressive stuff! I hope you have a fabulous weekend.....Go Wildcats!

Mr. Greg Wunderlich

Principal