Month: May 2017

Contents

New Items

School Information Needed – for All Principals
Department Information Needed – for All Administrators
Notices Regarding Students in Foster Care – for All Building Principals

Previous Items

Contact Information Requested – for All Administrators

New Items

School Information Needed

From Mike Keener
There are a number of items we need from each school:

1. While it’s a just a little after the end of the year, we need School Report Cards (or School Highlights). We need these for each school in the district.
2. We need school supply lists for each school, so we can post them to the public website. We have recently received lists from Coronado Middle, Douglass Elementary, Frances Willard Elementary, John F. Kennedy Elementary, New Chelsea Elementary, Rosedale Elementary, and Welborn Elementary; we need all other schools’ lists.
3. Any school with a uniform policy needs to update us on any changes from what we currently have posted on the public site (click here for the middle school uniforms list, and click here for elementary school uniforms list.). Please update us as soon as you can, so we can let the public know what they need before the next school year starts.

Contact Mike Keener if you have any questions.

Department Information Needed

From Mike Keener
Please go to the Staff Intranet, review your department’s individual ??webpage, ??related links, ??and documents (under “District Forms”), and let us know immediately of any changes to existing information (anything from basic page verbiage to contact information to forms with updated dates or contacts), as we want the site to be as up to date as possible. If you have any questions, please contact Mike Keener.

Notices Regarding Students in Foster Care

From Octavio Estrella
Over the last couple of weeks, some of you have received email notices regarding particular students in your building that are in foster care. These notices are part of a new KSDE process for communicating with school districts regarding changes in foster care placement. The subject line in these emails read: “Action Required: Potential Move of Child in Foster Care.” At this time, please DO NOT RESPOND to these emails. These emails are sent by the foster care service contractor KVC. They are intended to serve as initial notification that the foster care placement of this student may change and the student may be leaving your school. It also meant to inform you that you should begin to compile all relevant educational records (transcripts, grade cards, attendance records, etc.) of the student.

In the near future, you may receive a second email notification once the new school has been identified. This second notification will be called “Educational Enrollment Information Form.” This will be followed by an official request for educational records sent by the receiving school. As the school of origin, you are required to send the educational records to the receiving school once you receive the request (this is the same as our current process). If a student has an IEP, please follow the current process by forwarding the request to the Special Education Department.

Once again, please DO NOT respond to these initial notifications. Octavio Estrella, Assistant Director of Student Services, will be serving as the point of contact for the district regarding students in foster care. If you have any questions about this process please email (octavio.estrella@kckps.org) or call 627-4370.

Previous Items

Contact Information Requested

From Melissa Bedford Fears
In an effort to keep everyone informed of important news, please take the time to provide Melissa Bedford Fears, director of communications and marketing, with the home and cell phone numbers, email address and home address of your department???s administrators and their executive assistants by Monday, June 5.

We anticipate communications may be needed throughout the summer regarding the school finance formula and want to make sure administrators receive this information and are able to forward it to individuals working within their departments/divisions.

Thank you for your help with this matter.

If you have questions, please contact Melissa at 279-2225.

Contents

New Items

Previous Items

Contact Information Requested – for All Administrators

New Items

Previous Items

Contact Information Requested

From Melissa Bedford Fears
In an effort to keep everyone informed of important news, please take the time to provide Melissa Bedford Fears, director of communications and marketing, with the home and cell phone numbers, email address and home address of your department???s administrators and their executive assistants by Monday, June 5.

We anticipate communications may be needed throughout the summer regarding the school finance formula and want to make sure administrators receive this information and are able to forward it to individuals working within their departments/divisions.

Thank you for your help with this matter.

If you have questions, please contact Melissa at 279-2225.

Contents

New Items

Contact Information Requested – for All Administrators

Previous Items

Checking for Completion of Elementary Grades – for Elementary Principals
Classified Lump Sum Option – for Principals
End of Year Evaluation Closeouts – for All Administrators

New Items

Contact Information Requested

From Melissa Bedford Fears
In an effort to keep everyone informed of important news, please take the time to provide Melissa Bedford Fears, director of communications and marketing, with the home and cell phone numbers, email address and home address of your department???s administrators and their executive assistants by Monday, June 5.

We anticipate communications may be needed throughout the summer regarding the school finance formula and want to make sure administrators receive this information and are able to forward it to individuals working within their departments/divisions.

Thank you for your help with this matter.

If you have questions, please contact Melissa at 279-2225.

Previous Items

Checking for Completion of Elementary Grades

From Alan King
In previous years, elementary buildings were instructed to check grades to ensure that all domains of the report card have been addressed at least once within the school year. With the change of the elementary grading scale, we lost the cumulative property of our grading system. The cumulative property meant that all of the previous grades were calculated into the current grade. This made it easy in the 4th quarter for buildings to identify any domains that had not been assessed in particular areas.

Unfortunately, when we switched to the new scale, we were forced to abandon cumulative grading, causing us to lose the ability to see those gaps. There is not a report that clearly identifies across the year whether or not a standard has been assessed. As a result, buildings will NOT be expected to check for this.

Classified Lump Sum Option

From Jody Mitchell
The District has extended classified employees, who are scheduled to receive payment in July, the option of receiving a lump sum payout in June. Please note, this option is not available to all employees and notification was sent via email specifically to those on this payment cycle. This option provides employees their regularly scheduled June 30, 2017 pay check, along with their July checks as one lump sum payout (three checks would be included: 6/30/17, 7/14/17, and 7/31/17).
The email provided specific instructions on how to submit the form along with a deadline of Thursday, June 1, 2017. Late forms cannot be accepted due to payroll deadlines.

End of Year Evaluation Closeouts

From Sherry Samples
It is very important that as we approach the end of the school year, that all evaluations showing as incomplete in Talent Ed Perform for your staff are completed and the process marked complete before the staff member leaves for the summer or leaves the district. For any that still remain incomplete, Kathryn or I will be contacting you for reasons that I can submit with my end-of-year report.

As a reminder, staff may sign and comment on any internet accessible device including a Smart phone 24/7. The employee does not need to be on a district computer.

Overall, I am pleased to say that the completion rate for evaluations has improved dramatically this year and I heard from several employees that they truly appreciated their evaluation as expected.

Thank you for your efforts!

Contents

New Items

Previous Items

Checking for Completion of Elementary Grades – for Elementary Principals
Classified Lump Sum Option – for Principals
End of Year Evaluation Closeouts – for All Administrators

New Items

Previous Items

Checking for Completion of Elementary Grades

From Alan King
In previous years, elementary buildings were instructed to check grades to ensure that all domains of the report card have been addressed at least once within the school year. With the change of the elementary grading scale, we lost the cumulative property of our grading system. The cumulative property meant that all of the previous grades were calculated into the current grade. This made it easy in the 4th quarter for buildings to identify any domains that had not been assessed in particular areas.

Unfortunately, when we switched to the new scale, we were forced to abandon cumulative grading, causing us to lose the ability to see those gaps. There is not a report that clearly identifies across the year whether or not a standard has been assessed. As a result, buildings will NOT be expected to check for this.

Classified Lump Sum Option

From Jody Mitchell
The District has extended classified employees, who are scheduled to receive payment in July, the option of receiving a lump sum payout in June. Please note, this option is not available to all employees and notification was sent via email specifically to those on this payment cycle. This option provides employees their regularly scheduled June 30, 2017 pay check, along with their July checks as one lump sum payout (three checks would be included: 6/30/17, 7/14/17, and 7/31/17).
The email provided specific instructions on how to submit the form along with a deadline of Thursday, June 1, 2017. Late forms cannot be accepted due to payroll deadlines.

End of Year Evaluation Closeouts

From Sherry Samples
It is very important that as we approach the end of the school year, that all evaluations showing as incomplete in Talent Ed Perform for your staff are completed and the process marked complete before the staff member leaves for the summer or leaves the district. For any that still remain incomplete, Kathryn or I will be contacting you for reasons that I can submit with my end-of-year report.

As a reminder, staff may sign and comment on any internet accessible device including a Smart phone 24/7. The employee does not need to be on a district computer.

Overall, I am pleased to say that the completion rate for evaluations has improved dramatically this year and I heard from several employees that they truly appreciated their evaluation as expected.

Thank you for your efforts!

Contents

New Items

Previous Items

Checking for Completion of Elementary Grades – for Elementary Principals
Classified Lump Sum Option – for Principals
End of Year Evaluation Closeouts – for All Administrators
Daffodil Bulbs from KCK Rotary – for All Principals and Teachers

New Items

Previous Items

Checking for Completion of Elementary Grades

From Alan King
In previous years, elementary buildings were instructed to check grades to ensure that all domains of the report card have been addressed at least once within the school year. With the change of the elementary grading scale, we lost the cumulative property of our grading system. The cumulative property meant that all of the previous grades were calculated into the current grade. This made it easy in the 4th quarter for buildings to identify any domains that had not been assessed in particular areas.

Unfortunately, when we switched to the new scale, we were forced to abandon cumulative grading, causing us to lose the ability to see those gaps. There is not a report that clearly identifies across the year whether or not a standard has been assessed. As a result, buildings will NOT be expected to check for this.

Classified Lump Sum Option

From Jody Mitchell
The District has extended classified employees, who are scheduled to receive payment in July, the option of receiving a lump sum payout in June. Please note, this option is not available to all employees and notification was sent via email specifically to those on this payment cycle. This option provides employees their regularly scheduled June 30, 2017 pay check, along with their July checks as one lump sum payout (three checks would be included: 6/30/17, 7/14/17, and 7/31/17).
The email provided specific instructions on how to submit the form along with a deadline of Thursday, June 1, 2017. Late forms cannot be accepted due to payroll deadlines.

End of Year Evaluation Closeouts

From Sherry Samples
It is very important that as we approach the end of the school year, that all evaluations showing as incomplete in Talent Ed Perform for your staff are completed and the process marked complete before the staff member leaves for the summer or leaves the district. For any that still remain incomplete, Kathryn or I will be contacting you for reasons that I can submit with my end-of-year report.

As a reminder, staff may sign and comment on any internet accessible device including a Smart phone 24/7. The employee does not need to be on a district computer.

Overall, I am pleased to say that the completion rate for evaluations has improved dramatically this year and I heard from several employees that they truly appreciated their evaluation as expected.

Thank you for your efforts!

Daffodil Bulbs from KCK Rotary

From Mary L. Viveros
The Rotary Club of Kansas City Kansas would like to partner with schools to beautify areas around school buildings. The club will provide daffodil bulbs and can occasionally assist with fall planting. Rotary would like gather contact information now to streamline communication and delivery in the fall when the bulbs are available. If you are interested, please contact Mary Viveros, Executive Director.