Month: September 2020

Curriculum & Instruction

All K-12 Administrators

FastBridge is Coming!

FastBridge is a suite of universal screeners and progress monitoring tools in reading, math and behavior designed to help teachers screen, monitor student progress, and analyze skills in grades K-12.

FastBridge has multiple benefits, such as:

• universal screeners to determine students’ strengths and deficits
• progress monitoring to frequently assess student skills
• adaptive, computer-based measures
• teacher-administered assessments
• behavior assessments with numeric value and ranges
• reports for staff and parents
• Intervention connections for tiered supports

FastBridge screeners are administered three times a year for all students in grades K-12—fall, winter, and spring—because student performance can change drastically across the school year. A student may need support in the fall, but no longer require the added resources in the winter. Likewise, a student may score well in the fall, but struggle later in the year. FastBridge helps teachers make informed decisions about intervention throughout the entire year at the school, class, and individual student level. More specifics about how KCKPS will administer these assessments in remote learning are coming soon.

All EC-12 Administrators

Student-Centered Coaching Update ~ free electronic resource
Beginning in the Fall of 2020, Student-Centered Coaching was named as the model of coaching for KCKPS by Matt Andersen, Interim Assistant Superintendent. Author and creator of the student-centered coaching model, Diane Sweeney, has developed a free electronic resource for districts that are providing instruction in a remote setting. This resource includes guidance on the model itself, as well as adaptations for remote learning.

The student-centered coaching model centers on these principles:

• Keeps a focus on student learning and mastery rather than on teacher performance
• Aligns coaching cycles and coaching conversations to standards outlined in the GVC
• Gauges progress through measurement embedded in the student outcomes and visible evidence of student mastery

Federal Programs

Title I Principals (ALL Elementary and Middle Schools)

ALL Title I Principals must sign and submit their school’s Title I Schoolwide Supplemental Form by close of business on Monday, 9/28/20. The report has already been written for you and all assurance boxes have been selected (you’re welcome J).  You will need to sign, date, and click Save and Send for Review in order for your plan to be submitted to KSDE.  To locate the form, use the following steps:

• Log in to KansaStar and go to your homepage.
• On the bottom left-hand side of homepage, click the triangle to the right of Complete Forms to open the drop-down menu.
• On the left-hand side under Forms, click the Title I Schoolwide Supplemental Form.
• Open the form, scroll to the bottom of the page.
• Sign, date, and click Save and Send for Review.

Principals, Department Managers, Title IX Coordinators/Investigators

Curtis Nicholson, former Deputy Chief with our KCKPS Police Department, has transitioned to the Federal Programs Team as the new District Title IX Investigator.  We’re excited for Curtis to join the team and believe his previous experience with the KCK and KCKPS Police Departments enables him to bring a deep expertise to the Title IX district framework.  Stay tuned for more information regarding his contact information and how the Title IX procedures will be adjusted to include our newest team member!

Important REMINDERS from Title IX Coordinator/Investigator Trainings

1. Immediate Reporting of Alleged Title IX Misconduct to District Title IX Coordinator is required. Any alleged misconduct that is sexual in nature must be screened through the Title IX grievance process.  As a reminder from our district Title IX Coordinator/Investigator training, please contact Lisa Walker immediately upon receiving any report that falls into this category (See #1, #2, and #3 on the KCKPS Title IX Reporting & Investigation Procedures). This immediate consultation enables us to tighten alignment across departments and involve Human Resources regarding any potential leave that might need to occur, as well as other departments that might need to provide immediate support for student-on-student issues.
2. Please be thorough in completing the Incident Report form and checking for missed entries prior to submitting. Your report should tell the complete story of the initial inquiry and provide all information, for any individual who knows nothing about the situation, to understand what the initial problem was and what steps were taken to accurately assess the initial problem and ensure supportive measures were put into place.
3. Incident Report and Complaint Forms should be emailed to TitleIX@kckps.org and copied to your supervisor and IIO, if applicable.
4. There should be nothing entered on the form after the PAUSE for Preliminary Assessment section. Entries in this section occur AFTER the Building/Department Title IX Coordinator submits to the District Title IX Coordinator, who will make the decision on how the investigation will proceed.

Fine Arts (IARC)

Elementary and Middle School Principals

ARTS INTEGRATION

Principals,

Please share the attached information with all teachers in your building.  In the past, IARC paid for homeroom/core teachers to attend a local arts-integration symposium.  The workshop is now going virtual and will be free.  The first session is October 7th or 8th. See the attachment.

An arts-integration learning experience points out and explores natural and relevant connections between a subject of focus (math, ELA, science, social studies, etc.) and an art discipline.  It moves beyond arts-enhanced learning to engage participants in rigorous artistic practice that helps participants gain insight into and understanding of the connected subject and, ideally, gain deeper insight into and understanding of the art form through the connected subject.

In addition to the October session, there will be virtual sessions in November, January and March.

Please forward this flyer to all of your teachers.

PE (IARC)

Principals

IARC will be working with the communications team to put out a message via Bright Arrow and other platforms regarding our PE curriculum and the need to collect parent signatures for consent.  We attempted to collect signatures when we deployed materials at all of our building sites, but the results were poor.

IARC now has clearance to collect an electronic signature from parents to opt in or opt out of the following curriculum topics

• puberty (5th grade) information
• Reducing the Risk (8th-9th grade)
• Making a Difference (9th grade)

Print Shop

If you are not aware, the print shop can make directional wall/floor signs for your sites if you would like to support preparing your buildings for staff/students.

We are getting many inquiries through the Shop/Storeroom; you can order directly through the Print Shop as they would normally order a print job.

Student Services

Trauma Sensitive Tuesdays (bi-weekly)

The next Trauma Sensitive Tuesday will be Tuesday, September 29th at 12pm. We will be focusing on wellness/self care and have some great presenters!  Staff can register via Crowdcast and it can be found on Frontline. All sessions are recorded for staff to view on-demand as well.  

SIT Building Coordinator Information 

As we have moved into the 20-21 school year, thank you to those who have updated their SIT Building Coordinator information in the spreadsheet sent out. An email went out this week with SIT Building Coordinator role/responsibility information and building coordinators will get an email next week with our first meeting date included. If you did not receive an email and feel you should have, please contact Tracie Chauvin at tracie.chauvin@kckps.org.

KCTC 

KCTC login information to view prior year’s data was sent out this week to all secondary building principals. This is great data and information to utilize within your building leadership and behavioral health teams. If you did not receive this email please contact Tracie Chauvin attracie.chauvin@kckps.org.

Family Advocacy

Family Advocacy is rapidly approaching and we are pleased to announce that we will continue to provide interpreter support during Family Advocacy scheduled for Friday, October 9th. However, due to  COVID-19, we will unable to provide schools with student volunteers and/or on-site interpreters.  We will be providing interpretation services via over-the-phone and the ESOL/Migrant Department will also be available to help facilitate video/zoom calls as needed.

Please share the attached instructions to utilize Propio over-the-phone services to your building staff.  For all video/zoom call requests be sure to fill out this Interpreter Request Form. It is imperative that interpreters are provided with the zoom information, Link and password prior to the meeting. Please make sure all interpreter requests are submitted by Monday, October 5th.

Thank you for your patience and understanding.  Feel free to contact Naomi Tolentino if you have any questions.

OPI Instructions PDF

Attend to Achieve (A2A)

The A2A Team and TIS have been working on a solution for fixing the attendance for students who were marked absent in Infinite Campus even though Daily Meaningful Contact was made by a teacher.  We are scheduling a mandatory training for all secretaries on the next steps for making those necessary changes. That meeting will be held on Monday, September 28th, 2020 at 2:00pm.  Principals are invited to attend. The meeting will be recorded for later viewing.

If a parent/guardian has received a Truancy notification, please contact Naomi Tolentino (naomi.tolentino@kckps.org) immediately.

College & Career Readiness

Click here to read the Diploma+ Newsletter.

Curriculum & Instruction

Elementary School Principals

Re: CKLA Resource (4th and 5th):
All building principals and assistant principals can access CKLA resources by clicking the orange Amplify tile in your Clever Account. If you do not see this tile, please email allison.rice@kckps.org. You can also go directly to the CKLA website at ckla.amplify.com and click “Log in” under 2nd Edition Resources. You will use the Shared Access Username: MJXZR and Password: soft-loon9. More detailed information can be found here.

Re: F&P Building Accounts:
All building accounts are created and functional for EC, Elementary, Bridges & KVC. At the Elementary level, your IC knows your username and password. If you need your account information, please email allison.rice@kckps.org. These accounts can be shared with your entire building and allow for concurrent use, meaning more than one person can be signed in on more than one device at a time. Most buildings have the full suite of products connected. If your building is missing a product or two or more, I am working to get this issue resolved as quickly as possible. When F&P turned on the ability for concurrent use, they turned off the ability for each building to add their own products. Elementary buildings that also have an EC center, you will also be receiving Pre-K Shared Reading and IRA products on your accounts.

Print Shop

If you are not aware, the print shop can make directional wall/floor signs for your sites if you would like to support preparing your buildings for staff/students.

We are getting many inquiries through the Shop/Storeroom; you can order directly through the Print Shop as they would normally order a print job.

Student Services

Bullying Prevention and Awareness from KSDE- This year’s theme is “Choose Peace.”

By joint resolution, the Kansas State Senate and the Kansas State Board of Education, have declared the first full week in October as “Anti-Bullying Awareness Week.” This year the week would start on Oct 5th. However, if that date doesn’t work for schools they are encouraged to recognize the need to address bullying when it would work for them as well as follow-up throughout the school year.

KSDE Bullying Page will have great resources added regularly, so you and your school team should check back for ideas, resources, and information. Other resources shared by KSDE can be found here.

Recognizing Anti-Bullying Awareness Week and Bullying Prevention Month via activities, resource share outs to staff, and communication with the community are GREAT to add to your Bullying Prevention Site Action Plans, which are due by October 31st. Please complete your site action plan in the google doc labeled for your building.

Systemic SEL On-Demand Webinar

“Integrating SEL to Connect, Heal and Recover: Lessons Learned from District Leaders”
Learn from district leaders about the systems of supports for SEL they put in place to support educators, to re-engage and connect with students and parents, and to create a foundation for learning regardless of their environment. https://youtu.be/MU_vI8ytwjw

Curriculum & Instruction

Thank you for your patience as we continue to navigate our attendance taking processes and procedures. Please ensure that you refer your attendance clerks and teachers to pages 12-18 of the updated Remote Learning Plan to understand all of the KSDE and KCKPS expectations for attendance.  Our goal as a district is to ensure the majority of our students can engage in the live online learning sessions with our teachers. It is the best way for our teachers to teach and our students to learn.

We know that you are working diligently with families to determine who will need to complete learning logs. To alleviate the issue of collecting such a large number of logs, please see p.18 of the RLP regarding working with families on a case-by-case basis to complete the learning log. Finally, we will continue to update the Attendance and Daily Learning Log FAQ document when questions arise.

Please use this link to access the FAQ document.

Also, please remind your staff that this first week is for the district and buildings to collect baseline data on how many students can participate in online learning where we can take attendance using Infinite Campus. Although a student may be counted absent in Infinite Campus because they could not attend a live online session, they will not be penalized for not participating in online learning sessions this week. We are waiving the completion of the daily learning logs for the first week as well.

Starting next week (September 14), students who are unable to attend live online sessions (all or part of them) will need to complete a daily learning log. Those daily learning log folders have been shared with each principal’s @m account. Please make sure you have access to that folder through your ‘Shared with me’ folder. If you do not, please contact Brandi Mendenhall for assistance. You will also want to share that folder with your attendance clerks so they can cross-reference Infinite Campus with the daily learning log spreadsheet. We have recently obtained a Spanish translation for the electronic Remote Daily Learning Log, which can be found in your school’s Remote Daily Learning Log Folder. Other languages will be available shortly. We are waiting for the translations to come back. If you need a specific language, please email Brandi Mendenhall and let her know which ones.

KCKPS Leadership Mobile Minute

Click here to read the Mobile Minute.

Elementary School Principals

Re: K-5 Social Studies Cadre

The Curriculum Department is seeking a variety of classroom, SPED, and ESL teachers to represent K-5 grade levels in work around the KS HGSS (History, Government, and Social Studies) standards. We will engage in a cadre that will come together to examine the revisions in the HGSS standards and learn about the C3 framework. This knowledge will then be applied to analyzing and using resources to develop and revise inquiry units to add to the GVC and build assessment tasks. Please see the application for more information and forward to teachers who might be interested. 

Applications are due by September 17.

For questions or more information please email me at cheryl.beyer@kckps.org

Middle School Principals

Re: Caregiver Supports for Amplify Science

Hello Principals! Building ICs and classroom teachers know this already but I wanted to make you aware that Amplify has created some resources to support, parents, guardians, and other caregivers in the transition to Amplify. They cannot offer support to students directly but I am excited that they have resources for the adults that are supporting students at home. 

Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns. My email is Spencer.Martin@kckps.org

Caregiver’s Support For Amplify Science

1. What is Amplify Science?
2. Getting started
3. Materials overview
4. A powerful partnership
5. Explore grade-level resources.
6. Where to go for help
   1. Contact Support via telephone at (833) 97-Care-8 (833-972-2738) or caregiver@amplify.com.
   2. Our support hours are Monday – Friday, 7 a.m. – 10 p.m. EDT, and Saturday – Sunday from 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. EDT.

Federal Programs

Principals, Department Managers, Title IX Coordinators/Investigators

Immediate Reporting of Alleged Title IX Misconduct to District Title IX Coordinator

Any alleged misconduct that is sexual in nature must be screened through the Title IX grievance process.  As a reminder from our district Title IX Coordinator/Investigator training, please contact Lisa Walker immediately upon receiving any report that falls into this category (See #1, #2, and #3 on the KCKPS Title IX Reporting & Investigation Procedures).  This immediate consultation enables us to tighten alignment across departments and involve Human Resources regarding any potential leave that might need to occur, as well as other departments that might need to provide immediate support for student-on-student issues.

Principals

 Update School Improvement Plan (SIP) Indicator Selections by 9:00 AM, Monday, 9/21/2020

The Federal Programs team must submit a required report to KSDE by 9/30/2020.  As discussed during our 2019-20 School Improvement Planning Process professional development, all Kansas schools are required to have their School Improvement Plans located in the KansaStar system by the start of the 2020-21 school year.  Additionally in 2020-21, KCKPS will be required to submit a secondary report for EACH school that will include identifying the Indicators your leadership teams have decided to work on as a part of your 2020-21 SIPs. All plans must be updated in KansaStar with final selections on the 3-5 indicators you plan to focus on for the coming year by Monday, 9/21/2020. 

Human Resources

REMINDER

Here is the list of trainings for Principals and Assistant Principals provided by LSI during this month.  Your participation is required.  Please see the Attendees column for details about which sessions you need to attend.

You only have to attend one of the sessions focused on effective feedback.  Use the link below to enroll in the How to Make Your Feedback More Effective session.  Zoom links and resources will be provided closer to the training dates.

https://forms.gle/9PtpPn48gvFR3CGKA

Student Services

SIT

Please update your SIT Coordinators for the year in this spreadsheet- SIT Building Coordinator Contact Sheet. As you conduct SIT meetings and create plans, please continue to document in Infinite Campus. If you need a refresher, this is a great resource.

This brief provides considerations and suggestions for adapting Check-in Check-out (CICO), an evidence-based Tier 2 school intervention, for situations where students are learning from home.

Bullying Prevention Site Action Plans

Bullying prevention is a priority in KCKPS and as part of that initiative each building submits a Bullying Prevention Site Action Plan to the Office of Student Services by October 31st. Within the Bullying Prevention Site Action Plan Folder, you will find your respective building’s template that we are asking be completed by October 31st, 2020. Please also include any supporting documentation, which can be added to the folder (please label with building name and item title) or emailed to Tracie.chauvin@kckps.org.

Did you know that Teaching Tolerance has a Learning Plan Builder that you can utilize to support SEL and bullying prevention implementation? It allows you to select meaningful student texts, choose how you’ll teach them and how you’ll assess student learning. Read about the Learning Plan Builder here.

Prepped and Ready

Children’s Mercy is offering Prepped and Ready remotely. Prepped and Ready is a presentation to help equip parents for the transition into parenting teenagers. Feel free to add the following into your parent newsletters:

We understand this transition is a time of tremendous change for teens and it can be overwhelming as a parent to know how to help. Prepped and Ready aims to help you learn what steps you can take before a crisis develops with your teenager. We seek to empower you to address the hard topics that can be very uncomfortable and we talk about changes each one of us can make within our own homes to make them safer. To see upcoming dates and register go to:

https://www.childrensmercy.org/departments-and-clinics/developmental-and-behavioral-health/prepped-and-ready/

Curriculum & Instruction

Quarterly Midpoint Progress Reports

Per Board Policy IHA, report cards for all students shall be sent home and posted in the online grade book four times a year at the end of the quarter (please see district calendar for the end of quarter dates). In addition, progress reports for all students shall be issued at the midpoint of each quarter. Grades shall be updated in the online grade book each week (approximately 10 per quarter) to keep everyone informed of student progress.

The following weeks will be dedicated to sending home Quarterly Midpoint Progress Reports:

Quarter 1- Week of October 5-9, 2020 (Family Advocacy Day- October 9, 2020)

Quarter 2- Week of December 14-18, 2020

Quarter 3- Week of February 22-26, 2021

Quarter 4- Week of April 26-30, 2021

All Principals

Re: Literacy Festival and Math Relays

With the suspension of events that require student groups to meet in person, the Curriculum and Instruction Department is cancelling the Literacy Festival and Math Relays for the 2020-21 school year. 

Middle and High School Principals

Re:  Signaling Shifts in ELA Instruction (Revised GVC and myPerspectives) 

The purpose of this asynchronous learning opportunity will be to revisit shifts in Secondary ELA instruction through the revised GVC and the new resource, myPerspectives.  This video (approx. 1 hour) will highlight program components in the new resource and reacquaint you with the Student-Centered Unit Structure.  By participating in this learning opportunity, you will gain additional background information that your teachers received during the week of training (August 18-20).   After viewing the video, take time to explore myPerspectives on your own and immerse yourself in the work alongside your ELA teachers.  The demo log-in is available in the video.  Please do not hesitate to reach out to Kristi Chalk with questions or concerns, as teachers and PLCs continue to move forward in this work. 

Secondary ELA Instructional Shifts (Video)

Slide presentation pdf

Middle and High School Principals

Re: Math Curriculum Access for Administrators

If you were unable to schedule a time to meet with Kurt Parker about the math curriculum and resources this week, please contact him via email to set up an appointment. The meeting will take less than an hour and is required before administrative access can be granted.

Middle School Principals

Re:Robotics

With the suspension of events that require student groups to meet in person, Middle School Robotics is cancelled for the 2020-21 school year. 

High School Principals

Re:Robotics

High School Robotics is slated to begin in January of 2021.  We will wait to determine whether teams will be allowed to meet in person, per local health official recommendations, to fulfil the requirements needed for competition.

Elementary School Principals

Re: Math Curriculum Resource (Eureka Math in Sync)

 Update: Great Minds and our IT department have started the rostering process of Eureka Math in Sync. Teachers and students will access Eureka Math in Sync using Clever. Great Minds anticipates access to the platform will take approximately 5 business days. In the meantime, please work with your building representative to provide staff with the professional development session around utilizing Eureka Math in Sync. Building representatives have already received the training and have been provided with a PowerPoint to help guide their work. If questions arise please do not hesitate to reach out to Marica Rhone and she will be happy to assist your building.

Student Services

Info from Student Services on Social Emotional Learning

As we enter this school year, know that the Student Services Department is here to support you and your community. Here you will find pertinent information and helpful resources related to Social Emotional Learning.