Contents
New Items
Professional Development Plans and Consultants – for All Administrators
Consultant Contracts – for All Administrators
Important State Assessment Information – for All Administrators
Learning Environment Grant for Teachers & Schools – for All Administrators
The Board of Education Presents Listening Tours – for All Administrators
Groundbreaking Ceremonies for Thursday – for All Administrators
Previous Items
Culturally Relevant Pedagogy Summer Seminar – for Secondary Administrators
Standard Response Protocol – for Building Administrators
Saturday Academy Information – for All Administrators
New Items
Professional Development Plans and Consultants
From Shelly Beech
This is a reminder that any Professional Development Contract and/or consultant contract is to be sent to the Professional Workforce Development office to my attention for approval. Also as a reminder your Executive Director or supervisor should also be aware of this contract.
Consultant Contracts
From Bridgette DeSmet
Please remember that ALL contracts must be approved by Dr. Mather before consultant services can be scheduled.
I know many schools are working to schedule/contract consultant services for next school year. Be sure to send your contracts for Dr. Mather’s review and approval.
This is crucial as some contracts may require Board approval.
Important State Assessment Information
From David Rand
The district state assessment window opens on March 19 and runs through April 27. Detailed information can be found on the DERA webpage for the state assessment at https://sites.google.com/m.kckps.org/kapinfo. Please review the following checklist and ensure that your school has completed all of the important steps below in order to be prepared for testing. We will provide a list of DLM students (exempt from KAP if enrolled and completed DLM) and ELL students in the country less than a year (exempt from ELA and SS) when we send your test tickets later this week.
- Train all test administration staff on test security and test administration procedures; ensure all have signed the ‘Agreement to Abide by Testing Procedures’ document.
- Provide a list of students that need read-aloud or magnification accommodations to Samantha Bradshaw by March 9th.
- Ensure that enrollments are cleaned up prior to testing and that the district protocol for doing due diligence and dropping students is followed (document attached). Students still actively enrolled once the testing window opens will count against your official participation if they are not tested, regardless of whether they have a schedule or are truly attending.
- Notify David Rand how you would like your tickets sorted. Elementary will default to being printed by grade level and teacher and middle school will default to being printed by the core content class that matches the subject area of the test. There is no default for high school, you will need to notify David Rand how to organize tickets for printing.
- Plan for the scoring of the multi-disciplinary performance task that is part of the Social Studies test (grades 6, 8 and 11). While schools have the flexibility to determine how they will conduct scoring, we strongly recommend that all staff are involved with scoring and the burden does not fall solely on the SS teacher. All scoring must be completed by May 11 and details will be available on the DERA state assessment webpage.
- Check technology to be used for testing to ensure they have the latest updates and are able to launch KITE successfully. If you are planning to test a large amount of students at one time, we strongly recommend doing a test run with the demo test to make sure the network can handle a large number of devices hitting at the same time.
- Test Coordinators make sure they can access the KITE admin portal; all identified coordinators have been entered/updated with the appropriate access.
If you have any questions regarding the state assessment or need support around any of the required tasks, please do not hesitate to reach out to the DERA Staff by e-mail or phone (Dr. Doug Hager – 913-832-6707, Ms. Samantha Bradshaw – 913-575-3261, Mr. David Rand – 913-279-2298). Thank you very much!!!!!
Guidelines for Dropping Students from Enrollment PDF
Learning Environment Grant for Teachers & Schools
From Amanda Chavez
The Kansas City Chapter of the Association for Learning Environments is proud to support
efforts in education innovation by funding the work of teachers, administrators and schools to
bring new ideas and opportunities to learners in our area. Four $1,500 Innovation in Learning
Environments Grants will be awarded annually. Application Deadline is April 2. Please see attachment for more details.
Learning Environment Grant PDF
The Board of Education Presents Listening Tours
Dear Principals and Administrators,
Please share the following information with your audiences by placing this content on your School Loop, social media and various other communication sites to make parents, students and the community aware of these opportunities to engage with the board about what is important for the school district.
The Board of Education is presenting ???Listening Tours??? for the school district???s parents, students and the community to share what???s important to them and their families regarding the Kansas City, Kansas Public Schools (KCKPS).
The Listening Tours will give the KCK Board of Education a chance to hear first-hand about these important opportunities which could help inform future board priorities. It will also give parents, students and the community a chance to meet the new KCK Board.
The following are the Listening Tours in Kansas City, Kansas:
- Saturday, March 10: 1 to 3 p.m. at the South Branch of the Kansas City, Kansas Public Library, 3104 Strong Ave.
- Monday, March 19: 6 to 8 p.m. at Wyandotte High School, 2501 Minnesota Ave.
- Saturday, March 31: 1 to 3 p.m. at Washington High School, 7340 Leavenworth Road
- Tuesday, April 3: 10 a.m. to Noon at the Central Office & Training Center, 2010 N. 59thSt.
Those unable to attend in person, can engage with the board by sharing their comments and/or questions during a YouTube Live event on the school district???s page:??www.YouTube.com/KCKPSTV??.
For more information, contact the Superintendent???s Office at 816.279.2235.
Click here for a printable PDF copy of the flyer in English.
Click here for a printable PDF copy of the flyer in Spanish.
Groundbreaking Ceremonies for Thursday
Previous Items
Culturally Relevant Pedagogy Summer Seminar
From Alan King
This professional learning opportunity has been developed and is offered by own Board of Education Vice President, Dr. Valdenia Winn. Please encourage teachers who you feel would like the opportunity to grow in this area to apply.
Kansas State Board of Education. The seminar is intended to enhance professional competence of individual faculty in Culturally Relevant Pedagogy; to enrich middle and high-school curriculum by developing inter-disciplinary curriculum that is aligned with Kansas standards; and to increase academic achievement, promote college and career readiness and to empower both faculty and students through an Culturally Relevant framework and content. Emphasis will be on Latinos, African Americans, Asians and Native Americans. The Tri-Directors are Ms. Christina Valdivia-Alcala; Director, Tonantzin Society, State Representative Valdenia C. Winn, PhD and State Representative John Alcala. Nationally acclaimed scholars will present the scholarly data and review outcomes.
Experience professional learning and training on culturally relevant instruction with experts in the field. Most expenses are paid and a stipend is available upon completion. Applications are currently being accepted. Don???t delay apply today.
Application can be accessed at https://goo.gl/gWBJpA
A flier for the seminar can be accessed here https://goo.gl/jFQvjc
Standard Response Protocol
From David A. Smith
As we reflect upon the recent tragic events that took place in Parkland, Florida last month, it is important that we remember the importance of our own safety protocols. As you know, in the Kansas City, Kansas Public Schools we use the Standard Response Protocol (SRP) to determine our response to ANY emergency situation. We do this to ensure that we are all following a consistent, appropriate response to any emergency situation.
Will Durant once said: ?????????we are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then is not an act but a habit.??? To ensure that we have a consistent response to emergencies, it is important that we take the time, at every building, to regularly practice our emergency response protocols. We are required by law to have a monthly fire drill (Evacuation) in each of our schools, and we have asked building leaders to conduct at least quarterly Lockdown drills in their buildings. Please ensure that your building practice is consistent with district expectations.
If you are a new administrator, and feel the need for more detailed information about the SRP and its implementation, please reach out to Chief Henry Horn, who can provide you support. In addition, supporting information about the SRP is available on our website, here: http://staff.kckps.org/secretgarden/index.php/srp.
As you know, each classroom and office space should be equipped with an SRP bucket, filled with supplies that might be needed in case of an emergency. If you need either additional buckets or supplies for those buckets, please contact Raquel Ayala in the Superintendent???s Office at (913) 279 2218 or Raquel.ayala@kckps.org.
Thank you for all you do to keep our students and staff safe.
Saturday Academy Information
From Kristen Scott
This is just an FYI. Within the next couple of days we will be delivering the attached information, but in multiple languages, to a designated ESL staff member in your building. We have asked them to coordinate with you and your office staff regarding dissemination and collection. If you have any questions please reach out to me. Thank you.
Activity Consent Form Word Document
Saturday Academy Flyer Word Document