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Friday, January 15, 2021

The Principals’ Office newsletter has a new name:

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Communications

Parents as Partners Workshops

Hello Principals,

We want to make you aware of the upcoming Virtual Parents as Partners Workshops we are hosting this year to address many of the questions parents have had about remote learning.

There will be a workshop in English and Spanish from 6:00 pm to 7:30 on Thursday, January 21st (English) and Wednesday, January 27th (Spanish).

We ask parents to register online at https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMpdeqtqDkiE9ck4jk03W2bzRGZpJBfU3UQ and to select the breakout sessions they want to attend in advance. After registering, they will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

The Communications Team is promoting the Virtual Parents as Partners Workshop through all of our communications platforms. We will be sending out another communication to parents this week through BrightArrow and want to make sure you all were aware of the upcoming workshops in case you receive calls from parents inquiring about the initiative.

Please feel free to contact the communications office if you have any questions.

Curriculum & Instruction

All Administrators
Attached/Linked are the locations for the District Inservice on Monday, January 25th from 8:00 am to 11:00 am.  Please share this with your staff.  Also, please note:  the locations for district in-service may now also be found on the Staff Links page of the district website AND on the scrolling calendar on the main district web page near the bottom.

Grading Window Open and Second Quarter Grade Adjustment Extension
re: ALL School Administrators
 

The Grading Window for Second Quarter is now open and will close at 11:30 pm on Monday, January 25th. Therefore, all grades must be entered by then. Reports cards will be printed at Central Office and sent to families. Principals will be notified when Report Cards have been sent out. 

We will continue to post grades on January 25th for the second quarter, and those grades will appear on the students’ report cards. However, to help ensure students have an opportunity to make up missing work or to allow for more time to master content standards, we are allowing for assignment/activity grades to be adjusted starting on January 26th. At this time, we will extend that adjustment window to 4-weeks (Monday, February 22nd, 2021). Students who return missing work or improve their grade/score on a previous second quarter assignment can have the second quarter grade/score adjusted to reflect that change. Teachers will need to ensure that they are not creating a new assignment but modifying the assignment/activity grade in the second quarter window on Infinite Campus.

Elementary Principals

Re: Elementary GVC Survey

The Curriculum and Instruction Department is seeking input from elementary staff in order to improve our current elementary GVC to ensure that it is accessible for all stakeholders and determine needed adjustments. Please forward the survey to all elementary staff. 

To access the survey, use the following link: https://forms.gle/o4R6hWL7xaWPZ2mG9

Thank you in advance for your participation. If you have additional questions please do not hesitate to contact the Elementary C & I team (allison.rice@kckps.org– ELA, marica.rhone@kckps.org– Math, and cheryl.beyer@kckps.org– Science/Soc. Studies) for additional support.

DERA

–High Schools Only:  -Corrections to ACT and WorkKeys enrollment lists were due to Ben on Wednesday.  There is still time to add any new students who might still enroll in your buildings, but they won’t have bar-code labels.  To verify your lists are correct, and all corrections have been posted, please login to testadmin.act.org. Select reports, operational reports, and students.  The “student org enrollment report” is best, but you can choose any number of reports to run.  Please see the Kansas ACT website, which contains the schedule of events, and additional information: https://www.act.org/content/act/en/products-and-services/state-and-district-solutions/kansas/the-act.html.  This website also has links to WorkKeys testing schedules, and instructions for ordering Pre-ACT materials also.

Equity and Inclusion

Knowing that adult social emotional wellness is just as important as student social emotional wellness, we would like to offer space for KCKPS employees to process, have discussions, and gather resources around current events from members of the Student Services team and our Coordinator of Equity and Inclusion on Wednesday January 20th and Thursday, January 21st from 7:30am-2:00pm. This will in the format of an open office: come when you have time, leave when you are ready, no appointments necessary. Here is the Zoom link: https://zoom.us/j/4966668660?pwd=Z0FjbDlXOGIzTEpPV3ZoZ1JTNks1QT09.
Please share with all staff.
Equity and Inclusion Building Rep Meeting Monthly Meeting Recap:
For the month of January, we focused our conversation on 3 things. First, we spent time processing our own emotions related to the events at the capitol. Secondly, we discussed how we did or did not address the events in our classrooms. And thirdly, we discussed ideas around how to better equip teachers to have these conversations in their classrooms and how to have these conversations among all staff. You can find their ideas here.
February we will be meeting on the 8th at 4pm or the 9th at 7:30 am to discuss intersectionality. As a group we are currently focused on self-exploration and self-growth.

ESOL

Onsite pre-screening testing will resume January 11, 2020. We will continue to test students utilizing testing plan and guidelines. Buildings MUST have pre-screening assessments COMPLETED no later than February 12th. This is a non-negotiable date as it has been set by the state and is required for compliance.

KELPA testing window is February 15th through March 31st. The KELPA scores from last year have been released from the state. ESL and DERA are working to get these uploaded to Infinite Campus.  As a reminder the KELPA assessment must be taken on-site. We are still working through different plans for on-site testing. KELPA Test Training is scheduled for January 21st 2020 at 1:30. All admin and Test Coordinators are required to attend.

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89812420131?pwd=OWRyNVpOVDFLQ0kwZVBCYTFMa0NkZz09

Meeting ID: 898 1242 0131
Passcode: 168975

Student Services

First Call 

KCKPS has partnered with First Call to bring their prevention services to our KCKPS community!  For a list of services provided, scope and sequence of their school based educational programs, and a permission form that can be used to gain parent permission prior to implementing a program visit this folder: First Call School Based Programs

Additionally, they have a great resource finding tool on their website: https://www.firstcallkc.org/resources. Please share this information with your school community for their own resource bank.

KSDE Safe and Secure Schools Conference

KSDE is hosting a FREE virtual Safe and Supportive Schools Conference January 25th-29th featuring  keynote speakers Adam Holden, Brian Mendler, and Dr. Randy Watson. Breakout Session descriptions and presenter bios can be found here. To register for the keynotes and breakout sessions please go here.

Kansas School Social Work Association 

KSSWA is accepting nominations for School Social Worker of the Year and Champion for Children. The Champion for Children Award recognizes a non-school social worker, who supports the school social work profession and has demonstrated dedication promoting social work services in the school. You and your schools are encouraged to nominate as many people as you believe deserve recognition for these awards! To nominate please use the following linked forms: Champion For Children Nomination and School Social Worker Nomination.

Attend to Achieve – for All  Administrators

A2A is committed to support your school with any attendance needs. Please see some important updates below:

  1. Attendance Meetings and ongoing support
    • Mandatory Attendance Clerk training will take place soon. Please know that anyone who supports attendance is welcome to attend, including all principals. Access information to the meeting is below:   We also are sending it directly to all Attendance Clerks.  Please share with any additional staff:

Attendance Clerk Meeting

Time/Date: January 25th, 1:00pm

 Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85755844641

Meeting ID: 857 5584 4641 / Passcode: D1MG6X

 

  • We will continue to host a biweekly check-in with Attendance Clerks and anyone who supports attendance (anyone is welcome!). During this time, we will share important updates on attendance, answer any questions, as well as provide ongoing support. Information is below;

 

Attendance Clerk Bi-Weekly Check-in

First and Third Wednesday of the month 

Secondary: 10:00 am

Elementary : 11:00 am 

 

  • We are also available to meet with any building that needs additional support. If you want us to facilitate a meeting about attendance at your building, please contact me (naomi.tolentino@kckps.org) to coordinate.

 

  1. A2A Team
  • Last semester we welcomed a new staff member to our team and we are getting ready to welcome another one. Jonathan Wilson joined our team as our first Full-Time Truancy Monitor.   He will be the point person for any question related to truancy. Soon we will be welcoming our new Social Worker, also Full Time! More information about that coming soon. Feel free to reach out to Jonathan Wilson or me if you have any questions related to attendance. Please know that Brynn Wardado is no longer part of our team.