![MORE THAN A GAME. With two diving catches in the outfield, the Lions showed up defensively, aiding in their victory over the Pacers. One catch was made by Atwood, and the other by McGraw. Throughout the game, the Lions knew that it wasn’t just about their victory today. “I think [playing for cancer] makes it bigger than just a game,” McGraw said. “Knowing that you have a bigger impact in this world than just who you are as one person.”](https://wlhsnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/I70A1454-1-1200x800.jpg)
![Students in the National Art Honor Society work on the Mount Hood mural on the window of SouthLake Church. The students brought a variety of paints and mixed their own custom colors. “Instead of brushstrokes, we’re doing more dabbing, because it gives [a] better impression of tree foliage, rather than looking like actual brush strokes, because if we’re painting trees, we need it to look like trees,” Crawford said.](https://wlhsnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/IMG_2397-1200x900.jpg)
What students wouldn’t want a half-day every month? Beginning today, WLHS will be implementing a new system of half-day Wednesdays that will not only provide students with additional studying or recreational time, but they will also allow the staff more time for development and the students more time in the classroom.
“The days are meant to be set up for professional development for staff,” Lou Bailey, principal, said. “As a school and district, due to teacher negotiations and calendar, we lost several days of professional development for teachers.”
The days, implemented throughout the West Linn-Wilsonville School District, will allow students to have more in-school days as opposed to furlough days, according to Bailey.
The school calendar has two more days in it this year, and in addition to increasing the learning time for students, according to Bailey, these half-days will allow the teachers more time to think about their teaching and enhance their lesson plans.
“This gives the staff meaningful time to talk with and work with their colleagues about teaching and learning,” Bailey said. “This time is not time to sit in their classroom and grade papers, but a time to work professionally with colleagues and admin around higher levels of learning for kids and strategies to create more effective teaching.”
Students agree that this will be more beneficial to the staff at the school, according to Gabriel Weitz, junior.
“I think that these days will be more fair to the teachers, instead of the furlough days we had last year,” Weitz said.
One of the only problems that students have faced with these half-days is the way that they were communicated to them. The information was available in the student planner and on the website, but most students found out from their friends.
“I didn’t even know this Wednesday was a half-day until a couple of days ago,” Renton said. “I heard from other students, not from my teachers.”
On these half-days that started today, students will have a six period day with classes running 35 minutes long. They will be let out for lunch at 12:30 p.m., and the buses will leave the school at 1:15 p.m.
