Chase White is our new ISU safety intern. He will be walking the building and he should be wearing his ISU Student ID to help him stand out amongst the junior high students.  His hours for the semester are as follows:

M/W/F : 10:45-2:00

T/TH : 8:25-11:15

Please mark your calendars for the following KJHS social events:

• January 26th: Hot Cocoa Bar & Fill Their Cup Event (all day; MSR)

• January 27th: Staff Dinner @ Destihl (6:00 pm)

• February 2nd: Soup & Chili Contest (12:00 pm; MSR)

• February 10th: Family Bowling (details TBA)

The PBIS PRIDE focus for January is on participation. With this, we'd like the students to participate in their learning by reflecting on their grades and learner characteristics from the first semester, and then set a goal for 2nd semester.   We'd like this lesson to be taught on Monday, January 22 during Advisory. The lesson and two versions of the reflection sheet are linked below. They are also linked on the direction slide (slide 5).

PBIS January Lesson

Printable Reflection Sheet

Digital Reflection Sheet

8th-grade teachers, there is a special slide (slide 6) for our students that they should use when completing the reflection sheet. It'll help them understand what letter grade they are currently earning and how it translates to high school.

I hope this semester is off to a great start for you and your writers! I have attached the testing window dates, prompts, and scores HERE as the next date is approaching. 

If you are a team that switches sections of students, you may want to meet as a team to score together so you can discuss student progress and recommendations. This will be helpful as you move forward in deciding if a student who flags on the benchmark should move on to the diagnostic to dig further.

All resources are located in our LA Google Classroom (code: hv3buze). In fact, if you have not checked that out lately, I would encourage you to utilize the dashboard for all things LA. 

Please reach out if you have any questions and stay warm! 

Sincerely, 

Janel Sebeny

Chiro One Wellness Center is hosting a wellness clinic from 10:00 am - 1:30 pm on Tuesday, January 23, in Main Street Retreat. Stop by for a 10 minute posture screening, de-stressing techniques review, and pick me up treat session. 

Here is the January KJ Family Connection, which was sent out to Kingsley families this past weekend. 

The K-Cart will run on the following dates.... 

South End: 2/9, 2/23, 3/15, 4/5, 4/19, 5/3

North End: 2/16, 3/8, 3/29, 4/12, 4/26, 4/10

From Tayler Musselman...

I want to create some sort of resource page for gen ed teachers to utilize to help modify and/or accommodate students, especially those who do not have any co-taught sections at all. 

If you use some sort of website or app that helps you modify assessments/ classwork or helps you to accommodate students and are willing to share, please email me back (just me ;) ) with a link.

Example: https://rewordify.com/    

- Helps you to reword text that may be too high for some students. 

Thank you for your collaboration!

The PBIS celebrations team met this week to discuss K-Cash incentives that are school-wide and team-based since the K-Cart isn't running right now. As of now, here are two things we can promote: half-time raffle at sporting events and team stores.

Students can spend $5 K-Cash to get into a sporting event. Using K-Cash, students can enter a raffle to earn free candy, soda, or chips from the concession stands. Who doesn't love free food?!

To help teams incentivize students and use their K-Cash, below I have linked a couple of examples of team store ideas that are free or low-cost.

Team Store Example 1

Team Store Example 2

Looking ahead, we do plan to offer bi-monthly raffles starting in February. More details on those specific items and experiences as we get closer to February.

The 2023-2024 5Essential Survey window is scheduled to open on January 23 and close on March 29.  You will be receiving emails soon about completing this survey and we will provide time during an SIP day for you to complete it.  

We're going to move the date of the winter open house back to February 21st with a start time of 6:00 pm. I apologize for the late announcement of open house and whatever angst is may have caused in feeling a need to rush in planning it. Attendance at the event is expected but, if a staff member cannot make it, I would ask that they talk with me and we will arrange what they can leave for parents in their absence. As with all after school activities, please feel free to have your children with you. We will be allowing families to bring their children as they need to. We do not want lack of childcare to be a cause of nonattendance for both staff and families. Staff will have time to prepare for the open house during institute day on February 20th and a schedule will be shared by January 26. 

Many people have indicated that they would like some guidance as to what they should be presenting during the open house time. Families will be following their student's schedule, spending 8-10 minutes in each class and having 3 minutes between classes. KJHS Administration is planning on hosting some general information sessions that include things like communication, MTSS, Infinite Campus, discipline & restorative practices, etc. We recommend that teachers talk about the following items....

•  communication (what's the best way to communicate with you? what are the general communication practices? under what circumstances do you normally contact families?) 

• infraction trackers (how do these work? how will they know when their student has an infraction? how does the student know?) 

• curriculum (what are you doing now and what will you be doing for the remainder of the year?)

• grading (how long do students have for retakes? how do they arrange retakes? when should families be concerned about a grade? etc. )

Grade level teams may want to consider looking at the common, team-wide topics and dividing those up so each teacher on the team spends 3-5 minutes talking about that topic and then 3-5 minutes talking about their own classes and what is happening. 

The January grade level team meetings with Elisa will focus on looking at the academic goal data compiled during our SIP time on 1/8 as well as the equity goal data (tardiness)  as it pertains to the team/grade level. 

Team 6-1 has taken a strong lead in the Healthy Eating Bingo challenge with a participation rate of 78% for the first week. Don't worry though, there is still plenty of time for your team to catch up if you want to be in the running for a treat from administration and your team's name on the coveted "P" trophy. 

Congratulations to Nikki Brienen, our lone Kingsley Kudos awardee for this month so far. Nikki was nominated by Maxine Quakenbush for leading the charge to put on "one of the best assemblies so far". 

Has a fellow Cougar gone out of their way to help you? Have you seen a staff member who goes above and beyond to make Kingsley a better place to work and learn? Reward them by nominating them for a Kingsley Kudos! It's quick, painless, and brings joy to you and the recipient. 

KJHS students averaged more tardies per day (37.7) in December than they did all school year. In comparison, the average number of tardies per day in December 2022 was 24.9. We'll be revisiting what we can do as a staff to encourage students to be on time to class during our time on January 8th. Even with the increase in tardiness in December, we ended the first semester with 8.4% fewer tardies than in Fall 2022. 

Normal Community West agriculture teachers and students will be visiting KJHS during 8th grade lunch on 1/22/24 to preview agricultural classes available for students attending Unit 5 high schools and answer questions students may have about their course options. 

1. The PTO is selling Papa Murphy coupon cards for $5. If you are interested in purchasing one, please let Elisa know. 

2.  The Gobena Coffee Fundraiser is an ongoing one and an excellent opportunity to try some new, local coffee. 

3. Want to request PTO funding for a classroom project? Use this form please. 

Check out what instructional coach Jenny Snyder has been working on and is planning to do this semester! We are so proud to see that so many KJHS are taking advantage of her support to up their teaching game! 

Here are the Instructional Technology Tips for January.

From Candid in Payroll...

As a reminder, due to the changes this year with the current PPO Gold and PPO Silver plans, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois will issue new ID cards for all members. In saying this, there is a delay in employees receiving their new cards this year, due to the large quantity of cards being issued. 

The fastest way to get your new ID card is by utilizing the Blue Cross mobile app or by logging into Blue Access for Members to print/view a temporary card. The attached instructions will help guide you to access your BCBS member portal or the app. 

If you have any questions or need assistance obtaining a temporary card, please contact me.

From HR... 

District staff,

All absences beyond 3 days must be reported to Human Resources. To notify HR of an absence beyond 3 days, please email Molly Rohde, HR Coordinator. For a planned leave, please fill out the Leave of Absence Request form .

Applicable reasons to fill out the form are as follows:

• Personal illness (including surgery, maternity leave, or injury)

• Caring for an ill or injured family member

• Military caregiver leave / Qualified exigency leave related to a military family member

• Placement of a child through adoption or foster care

Human Resources will determine if the employee requesting leave is eligible under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and provide the appropriate documentation and counseling to the employee. If the employee is ineligible for FMLA leave, Human Resources will inform the employee of the applicable leaves they can use or request.

If you have any questions regarding this procedure, you may contact Molly Rohde, Human Resources Coordinator at rohdem@unit5.org or 309-557-4400 ext. 74044.

Employees requesting Emergency Leave, Family Hardship Leave, Parental Leave, Professional Leave, or any other leave outlined in their contract, must email their direct supervisor, Monica Wilks, Molly Rohde, and their union president for their leave request to be approved. 

With utmost respect,

Your Human Resources Team

We are excited to announce that Natalie Greenfield will be joining Team 8-1 as their new LBS 1 for the second semester. Natalie is a recent ISU graduate and student taught this fall in a middle school behavioral program. 

Campus Optimizer (the automation of our HVAC system) is now live at KJHS. Please complete the KJHS Building Use Request form for any KJHS space you are using after 5 pm during the week or any time on weekends. We need to indicate that the space is being used on one of our room Google calendars to ensure heating/cooling is turned on. 

From Bradley University... 

Greeting teachers and administrators!

Bradley Athletics is proud to support local teachers, administrators and their families to enjoy an afternoon of Bradley Basketball when the defending Missouri Valley Conference champion Braves take on Missouri Valley Conference opponent Belmont Jan. 20 at Carver Arena. Teachers and administrators may purchase discounted tickets throughout the upper bowl ($6) and lower bowl end zones ($10) using a dedicated purchasing portal through the link below.

We are proud to support our teachers and administrators and hope you join us on January 20th at Carver Arena!

If you have any questions regarding tickets, please contact Bradley Athletics Ticket Representative, Colten Kahler, directly via e-mail at ckahler@fsmail.bradley.edu or via phone at 309-677-2768.

Get Tickets Here!