Contents
New Items
Resources for Constitution Day – for K-12 Principals
ESL SIT Addendum Process – for All Administrators
The KCKPS Welcome Center is Closed on Thursday, September 13, and Friday, September 14
Posted Monday, September 10, 2018 – for All Administrators
Previous Items
Staff Use of Communication Devices – for All Administrators
Parents’ Right to Know – for All Principals/Administrators
A Reminder to Help Improve the KCKPS Website – for All Administrators
SRP Plan – for All Administrators
Infinite Campus Parent Portal – for All Principals
PACT Referrals and Contract – for All Principals
4th Friday College & University Days At KCKPS – for All Administrators
New Items
Resources for Constitution Day
From Teri Fulton
Monday, September 17 is Constitution Day, and the beginning of “Celebrate Freedom Week”. Please share this information with all classroom teachers who teach Social Studies.
Resources for Constitution Day (Word Document)
ESL SIT Addendum Process
From Kristen Scott
Attached is the updated ESL SIT Addendum Process. Any EL student that is of concern should go through this process prior to any referral to SIT. If you have any questions please email Kristen Scott.
ESOL – SIT Addendum Process PDF
The KCKPS Welcome Center is Closed on Thursday, September 13, and Friday, September 14
Posted Monday, September 10, 2018
From Kristen Scott
Due to technical issues, the KCKPS Welcome Center will be closed this Thursday, September 13, and Friday, September 14. Thank you for your understanding and patience.
Previous Items
Staff Use of Communication Devices
From Melissa Fears
As part of your monthly review of the school district policies with staff, it is a good time to review the school district???s policy regarding the use of cell phones, smart phones, iPads, tablets and other portable devices during work hours.
The district prohibits employees from using any communication device that interrupts or disrupts the performance of duties by the employee or otherwise interferes with district operations, as determined by the employee???s supervisor.
Please ask your staff to take the time to familiarize themselves with details about the use of portable devices in ???Staff Use of Communication Devices??? under Section G Personnel, Number (or subsection) GAT of the Kansas City, Kansas Public Schools??? Board Policies or click here. The school district???s polices are available on the BoardDocs website.
If you have questions about this policy, please speak to your supervisor or Human Resources.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Parents’ Right to Know
From Bridgette DeSmet
The District is required to notify parents any time their child has gone four weeks without a highly qualified teacher in the classroom. To assist us with this reporting obligation, please send the attached template letter out to your families anytime a long term substitute has served four or more consecutive weeks in a classroom. Once you send the letter out, please provide Bridgette DeSmet with a signed copy on school letterhead. Please do not hesitate to contact Bridgette if you have any questions.
Parents’ Right to Know Letter (Word Document)
Parents’ Right to Know Letter – Spanish (Word Document)
A Reminder to Help Improve the KCKPS Website
From Mike Keener
Kansas City, Kansas Public Schools is embarking on a project to redesign its website (kckps.org) to enhance the user experience. Your input on the Kansas City, Kansas Public Schools Website Survey will help us improve our site and provide the information you want and need in a user-friendly format. Click here to take the brief survey. The website survey deadline is 5 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 12.
Additionally, look over the public site (as well as the staff site) to ensure that any information regarding or from your specific department is up-to-date and current. Email any changes, additional pages and/or documentation, or page removal requests to Mike Keener.
Thank you for helping us improve your future experience on kckps.org, the district???s website.
SRP Plan
From Raquel Ayala
If you haven’t done so already, please turn in a copy of your 2018/2019 SRP or Emergency Operation Plan. Please note a new section was added this year titled, “Missing Student”.
If you have any questions, I can be reached at 279.2218.
SRP Emergency Operation PlanPlan (Word Document)
Infinite Campus Parent Portal
From David Rand
The purpose of this e-mail is to provide principals with guidance for supporting parents with the Infinite Campus Parent Portal.
Currently, there are almost 6,000 parent accounts and nearly 10,000 of our students have a parent with an account. When every student has a parent with an account, there will be over 15,000 total parent portal accounts. Unfortunately, it is not feasible to support this many accounts from a central location and as a result, each school will be responsible for supporting parents with setting up their account and navigating the portal.
We are asking each school to develop a plan that will outline how you plan to share the portal with families and support with log-ins and navigation questions. In an attempt to make this as easy as possible for schools, we are providing some recommended options for supporting parents and have created a set of step-by-step directions for parents. Please see the attached document and 3 recommended options for support below. We will be scheduling training sessions throughout September for the staff identified to support the portal, starting with sessions from 2:00-4:00 on September 11, 13 and 14 (click here for sign-up).
Please let me know what option you will select and send me the names of the staff members identified (you don???t need to send teachers names if you select that option) for support. Also, please let me know how you will share this information with parents. We don???t want this to be a burdensome process; an example of what you should send is below.
Hi David! We are so excited to support our families with the portal!!! We will be selecting option 2 and Alan King, Sara Reiter and Samantha Bradshaw will be on our team. We will be sending a letter home to parents along with these wonderful directions and will be planning a time before September 30th where parents can come in and get support with getting their accounts. Thanks for adding another thing to our plate!!! Just kidding!
If you could send me this information by Friday, September 21st, it would be greatly appreciated. If you have any questions, please let me know. Thank you very much!!!!
Recommended Options
Option 1 ??? Office staff provide first line of support for parents – In this option, the district would provide training directly to school office staff and they would support parents with creating their account, log-in issues and accessing student academic information. They would elevate any issue they are unable to resolve to the ic.support account.
Option 2 ??? Schools select staff members to form a parent portal team – In this option, the principal would select a 2-5 person team (depending on enrollment) to provide support to parents. The district would provide training directly to the team and they would support parents with creating their account, log-in issues and accessing student academic information. We would not recommend using classroom teachers for this role, unless there are enough other team members to ensure that there is someone available to assist parents by phone or in person across the school day. We would recommend involving any of your family engagement people that you may have at your building if you select this option.
Option 3 ??? Teachers provide first line of support for parents – In this option, the classroom teacher would be the first point of contact for parents, but the school would need to identify 1-3 people to be the data administrators with access to change passwords and edit accounts. The teacher would support parents with navigating the portal and accessing information and elevate any issue they are not able to resolve to the data administrators, who in turn would elevate any issue they are unable to resolve to the ic.support account. The district would provide training to the identified data administrators, who would then train the teachers in their school on how to support parents with creating their account and accessing student academic information. At EC-5, this would be the homeroom teacher(s) and at secondary it would be the family advocate.
Infinite Campus Parent Portal Instructions (PDF)
PACT Referrals and Contract
From Rosie Rodriguez
Please fill out this form?? and save the link for all PACT Referrals. Families should also have already signed the PACT contract (attached).
Let me know if you have any questions.
4th Friday College & University Days At KCKPS
From Melissa Fears
I wanted to make you aware of a new program that will be rolled out this week to staff.
Beginning on September 28, KCKPS is dedicating the 4th Friday of each month to colleges and universities.
Wear your college or university T-shirt, sweat shirt, or hat to promote awareness of higher learning institutions locally, across the country and around the world. It can be a college or university attended by you, a family member or even one that you like.
It???s the school district???s way of spurring conversation among staff and students about colleges and universities. So, pull out your college wear and help us spread the word about continuing education and all of its opportunities.
Employees should remember to adhere to school district policies regarding professional appearance as well as check with their supervisor about participating. Participation in this activity does not mean a free jeans pass day. Sorority and fraternity items are not considered the same as university and college apparel.