GAP Attack is starting on Tuesday, January 10th. Sessions will be held after school from 3:50 - 4:50 on Tuesdays in the cafeteria. Students will be asked to sign in when they arrive and indicate if they will need transportation home afterwards. If there is a home basketball or volleyball game that evening that they wish to stay for, they will receive free entry into the game and a coupon for a meal from the concession stand (sandwich or pizza slice, chips and a drink). Dates for January & February sessions are 1/10, 1/17, 1/24, 2/7, 2/14, & 2/28.

The GAP Attack coordinator, Anita Holland, will be reaching out to teachers to get some specifics regarding the tutoring needs of students participating in the GAP Attack program.

The PRIDE letter for January is "P" for Participation. Team Kingsley is better when everyone gets involved, including staff. To that end, we are holding an staff advisory team contest. Staff can earn points for attendance at committee meetings (before and after school), club meetings, music events, and athletic events (not practices). Please record the number of events attended each week on the KJHS Staff Participation Contest Google form.

The admin team reviewed behavior expectations with students during lunch on Wednesday and we wanted to share those slides with you as well.

Here is the Q3 PBIS Celebrations information that was sent out earlier this week. While the assembly is over, please be sure that students are aware of what they can use K Cash for (before the K Cart begins circulating again) as well as the Quarter 3 reward and criteria.

There are two "Pack the Place" events in January. See below for details and please share them with students. As always, we would love to see staff there!

Boys Basketball Friday Jan. 13th

Versus Chiddix

5:30

Theme is Black out (clothes, shoes, hats) no face/body painting and no masks

Girls Volleyball

Thursday Jan. 19

4:30 start

Theme is Hawaiian

The KJHS Social Committee is sponsoring a school wide door decorating contest for the month of January. The theme is Board Games. Doors will be judged on 1/30 and awards will be given out the afternoon of 1/31.

While many of us were trimming trees in our homes over winter break, the Unit 5 grounds team trimmed the trees adjacent to the bus lane on the south end of KJHS. The removal of the lower branches increase safety in this area by allowing staff and administration to see through to Dale Street.

Reminder of email sent out on 1/4/23...

Happy New Year!

Supervising teachers, please fill out a help desk ticket to set up your student-teacher with a Unit 5 account. Also, if you want them to have access to the grade book, please fill out the necessary form (building-based). Contact your building admin if you do not know where the form is.

Please pass along the following information to your student teacher about our training next week.

What: Secondary student-teacher technology training

Who: New student-teachers in the district

Where: Normal West IMC

When: Tuesday, January 10th (9 a.m.-noon)

If you have any questions, feel free to contact me.

Eduard Hafermann

McLean County District Unit #5

Instructional Technology Coach (Normal West/ EJHS/ PJHS)

Normal West Head Boys Basketball Coach

Per email from Dayna Brown on 12/6/22...

Have you ever considered writing a Beyond the Books Grant??? Now is your chance.

Beyond the Books Educational Foundation is now accepting applications for grants.

Beyond the Books provides funding for innovative academic programs in Unit 5 and District 87.

GRANT TYPES AND FUNDING AMOUNTS …

• BEYOND THE BOX: One grant in an amount between $7500 and $10,000 will be awarded in this category for an exceptional proposal. The $7500 - $10,000 award is given by a private foundation to Beyond the Books Educational Foundation and BTBEF selects the winner.

• STANDARD: Grants awarded in this category are limited to requests for $801 to $5000. • MINI: Grants awarded in this category are limited to $800 or less.

• You may submit applications with the same proposal in both the Standard and Beyond the Box categories. If you choose to do so, you must use the same title for both applications and within the Beyond the Box application, clearly explain how the extra money would be used. Only one of the two applications may receive an award.

Please note, the maximum size for Mini Grants has doubled from $400 to $800. The Beyond the Books bylaws require that approximately 15% of the total annual allocation be used to fund Mini Grants. Historically, this has resulted in a much higher percentage of Mini Grants being funded than Standard Grants.

Please find more information, rubrics, and details on how to apply at CLICK HERE. Here is a link to grant specifics.

The application deadline is 6 pm, March 6. We strongly recommend not waiting until the last minute.

IMPORTANT TO NOTE... THERE ARE SOME CHANGES THIS YEAR

Last year’s rubric had 8 questions. This year there are only 7.

Notable features of the two versions:

• Question 1 is the same.

• Questions 2-3 from last year have been replaced by a new question 2 this year. Also, where questions 2 and 3 were each worth 5 points last year, this year question 2 is worth 10 points. They did collapse the two old ones into the new one because the content is importantly different.

• Because they have one less question, question 4 from last year is question 3 this year. While the questions are the same, the value of this question has been reduced from 5pts to 3pts.

Get in those applications, and please let me know if you have any questions.

Dayna Brown

Here are the assessment windows for the Spring 23 semester. We will get you updates as soon as specific dates are decided.

• SAEBRS/mySAEBRS: 2/6-2/10

• Winter writing benchmark: needs to be in EduClimber by 2/17

• aReading & aMath: 4/17-5/5

• Spring writing benchmark: 4/28

• IAR: 3/13-3/24

• ISA: 4/11-4/18

• State testing-whole building will follow same schedule for testing times

• Data Day: 3/6-3/10 & 5/15-5/23

We won't be "board" in January

Schoolwide door decorating contest

• Theme: Board Games

• Individuals, pairs, teams, hallways,etc

• Pick a board game (or really any game if you wish)

• Decorate your doorways/hall

• Winners will be selected at end of January.

Chili/Soup CookOff

January 31st (early out day so we can do lunch together :)

Jenny Starkey will be sending out more info and sign up when we return!

Merlot and Masterpiece.......info coming from Mindy.

Social Committee would like to thank all of you for your participation in our first semester activities.

Here are some of the additions to Team Kingsley for the Spring 2023 semester:

1. Caroline Mans, LBS1: Ms. Mans is a December 2022 graduate from ISU.

2. Charlene Bokesch-Parsons, Business Teacher: Mrs. Parsons is an experienced educator with 16 years of teaching experience in a variety of diverse settings. Prior to teaching, Mrs. Parsons served as a Specialist (Combat Signaler) in the U.S. Army Signal Corps.

3. Sheree Conley, Paraprofessional: Ms. Conley comes to us from the B-N Headstart Program.

4. Two ISU students will be joining us as safety monitors as part of their criminal justice internships. Officer Phillips will serve as their supervisor.

5. We are in the process of hiring another lunch hour supervisor. We will let you know when we have further details on that.

Per Dayna Brown...

We are excited to once again offer Unit 5 employees the opportunity to purchase discounted tickets for Broadway plays at the Peoria Civic Center.

STOMP, Legally Blonde, Anastasia, Simon & Garfunkle and we have just added Dear Evan Hansen, are all coming to Peoria and Unit 5 employees have discounted tickets available to them.

Employees can use this LINK to get up to a 40% discount (no taxes and only $1.25 a ticket fee). You can buy tickets at any price level and apply this link.

Just as a quick example of the savings for Unit 5 employees, Anastasia front floor seats with Unit 5 group code is $71.25 and the same seat available to the general public is $80 plus fees and ends up being $108.85!

Please do not share this link, as there are a limited number of tickets available.

Here are the plays and dates available:

STOMP - January 22, 2023

Legally Blonde - March 14-15, 2023

Anastasia - April 11-12, 2023

Simon and Garfunkel - Apr 01, 2023

Dear Evan Hansen - May 30, 31, June 1, 2, 3, 4 (select shows)

Happy Last Day of School 2022!

As we reflect on our first semester of LA this year, what improvements are you looking to make after break? Personally, I am always looking for more effective ways to have students give each other feedback on their writing. CLICK HERE for ready-to-copy templates that will help guide your students through this valuable process. Dr. Catlin Tucker has a ton of fabulous resources for all subject areas, so feel free to check out her other blog posts while you're there!

- Janel Sebeny

Please bring Lost and Found items to the office as we have hangers in the office and bins to organize things. Please do not just throw clothing items over those racks. Barb works hard to keep that area tidy.

Thank you for your help with this!