Congratulations to Mr. Rich for being named the Technology Education Association of Illinois Middle School Teacher of the Year! It is a well deserved recognition and we are all so very proud of you! Mr. Rich will be recognized at the upcoming board meeting on 10/19.

The online store is open to order staff jackets! Orders will be accepted through 10/24/22. Elisa has a sample jacket in her office if you want to try one on.

Kingsley has been awarded a Gap Attack grant to provide tutoring services to students. We are looking for staff members to serve as tutors as well as a staff member to serve as the program coordinator. The program coordinator will work with administration and the Building Leadership Team to outline the framework of the program. They will then match tutors and students together, collect and submit payroll sheets, order supplies, etc. The program coordinator will get paid the hourly rate per the UFEA contract. Tutors will be paid the hourly rate according to the UFEA or UFSPA contract, whichever one applies. Anyone interested in the position of program coordinator should email Elisa by Friday, October 21st. We will send out a Google form for interested tutors the last week of October.

A reminder about sending students to guidance...

If students are in need of immediate service due to a safety concern or emotionally distressed and are a disruption to the classroom environment, please call down to guidance to inquire if Kim or Michele are available. Otherwise, for all other issues, please refer students to the student/counselor appointment form or the what's up kingsley form. Guidance will send a pass for them when they become available.

For this year's Veterans Day celebration, the following school-wide happenings are planned...

• Flags will be displayed out front of the school down Kingsley Street.

• KJHS News will be doing a special Veterans Day edition to be shown in classes on 11/11.

• A slide show display featuring KJHS associated veterans will be displayed during the lunch hours. If you or a member of your family served in the military, please send their name, picture, branch of the armed forces, rank, and years of service to Elisa by Monday, November 7th.

Teams are welcome to make their own plans for Veterans Day as well.

Just a reminder about the overall structure of the Check In, Check Out process...

• Students pick up their sheet and/or clipboard from their designated adult before their 1st hour class.

• Students should confer with you at the end of class. You should circle the number that indicates the student's performance towards each goal during that class period.

  • This is a great opportunity to talk about why a certain rating was given.

  • This is also a great time to give out any kind of reward you want to if performance matches the student's goals.

• Students should drop off their the sheet and/or clipboard at the end of the day to their designated adult.

The KJHS is having pop mums sale this weekend at Owen Nursery and Florist! Owen will donate $5 to KJHS PTO for every 2 gallon mum purchased. Just mention Kingsley Junior High PTO when you check out!

If you have not done so already, please complete the KJHS PTO Staff Needs and Interest form.

The PBIS Celebrations Committee is working on information regarding the structure of the Restore rooms (re the "stay back" rooms). This information will be sent to staff next week along with the lists from administration of students that received lunch detentions, ISS, and OSS during the first quarter.

In case you missed it, here are your October Instructional Tech Updates. In addition, IC will be updating this weekend. Please check out the IC Tech Tips & Updates slide deck Amber made to help us navigate these changes.

Courtney Knowles has graciously agreed to be the GSA sponsor for this school year. We are hoping to find a co-sponsor to assist her. If you are interested, please let Courtney know. Thanks!

In lieu of individual student costumes, we are asking KJHS grade level teams to choose dress up themes for Monday, October 31st. The team with the most students and staff in theme costumes will win prize. Staff members not on a grade level team can either choose a theme with their staff team or use the theme of the grade level team with whom they teach advisory.

The Kingsley PTO has a new online Spirit Store open now through November 4th! Check out this LINK to see what is available and place your order.

All items purchased will be delivered to the school and will be available for pick up by December 1st. All proceeds from these orders will be used by PTO to support the students and programs at KJHS. Happy shopping!

Here is a tentative outline of the activities for the early release day on Wednesday, October 26th:

• 11:45 - 12:45 - Lunch

• 12:45 - 1:45 - Building Based SIP Time

• 1:45 - 2:15 - Review of e-learning expectation and planning

• 2:15 - 3:45 - PLC Time

We have been asked by the district office to remind staff that while discussions of election events and processes are certainly welcome in the classroom, there should be no promotion of specific candidates or parties by staff. This does include room decorations.

So much October fun awaits us!!!!

11th-TShirt Tuesday.....favorite color

14th- Cunningham's Caramel Apples!

20th-Dress Alike Day....olive green and black

21st-Faculty Meeting......Mr. T will be available for Team Photos

26th-Room Service during PLC time....yay it is back by popular demand

31st-Team Challenge Dress Up Day(more details soon)

There is an all school cafeteria competition for the month of October. Each grade level starts with 1,000 points. The challenge is to keep as many points as possible. Grade levels lose points for exhibiting unwanted behaviors in the cafeteria during the lunch hour. Here are the behaviors students lose points for: cell phone/electronics use, excessive volume, being out of seats unnecessarily, messy tables, untucked chairs, and being tardy to lunch. If a grade level's point balance falls below 200 points, they will be given the opportunity to earn back points through service.

The winning class will be awarded a lunch party with a dj on Friday, November 11th.

Per e-mail from Dayna Brown on 10/6/2022:

As you may already be aware, Unit 5 will have a referendum question on the November 8, 2022 ballot. The informational message below will go to parents later this evening, and we wanted to share with staff members, as well.

We also wanted to remind everyone that Unit 5 has adopted board exhibit 2.30-E1 , which pertains to actions employees can take as related to the referendum.

Restrictions cited in that exhibit center around using school/district/taxpayer resources to campaign for the referendum. The district and its employees may not advocate for (or against) the referendum using district resources. District employees should not use their distinct issued devices (laptops, phones, etc), paper, or copying machines to create or distribute items that try to persuade voters for or against the referendum.

The district, and its employees, may speak to the referendum and the items within the referendum in an informational, fact-based, unbiased manner at any time, as these are considered voter education activities. They may also encourage people to participate in the electoral process, such as voter registration and “get-out-the-vote” drives, as long as these are conducted in an unbiased manner.

When not being paid by the district, such as during breaks or off-school hours, district employees are considered private individuals. Private individuals and organizations are under no such restrictions and may advocate for the referendum as much as they wish as long as they are not using district resources or on district property, though there are specific restrictions on charitable organizations that are detailed below.

______________________________________________________________

District e-mail sent to families on 10/6/22:

Good evening

To put Unit 5 on more stable financial footing and ensure our students continue to have access to the quality education they deserve, Unit 5 will have a referendum on the ballot in the upcoming November 8 election.

Here is a link to a presentation by Superintendent Weikle explaining some factual information regarding the referendum.

If successful, Unit 5 will be able to:

• Responsibly Solve Unit 5's Financial Challenges

• Avoid Having to Increase Class Sizes, Decrease Staff, or Cut Programs

• Provide Safer and Improved Learning Environments for All Students

To learn more about the proposed plans, Unit 5 is hosting information sessions:

• Tuesday, October 11, 6 p.m. - Normal Community High School

• Tuesday, October 25, 6 p.m. - Virtual (information on signup will come closer to the date)

Here is a link to additional information

Please call (309)557-4000 district@unit5.org if you have questions.

Here is the October Family Kingsley Connection.

Update from Mrs. Dierkes...

If you are offering virtual family/teacher conferences please let me know what time the virtual conferences will be offered. Let me know if you are sending links to families or if you are using 1 link with a waiting room. If you are using one link, I will send that link to the families on your behalf. If you'd prefer each family have their own link, please send those to each family. If you have questions please let me know.

Family/Teacher conferences will be November 7, 2022 8:00am - 4:00pm.

Please send Jennifer Dierkes the following information by October 3, 2022:

• Conference type (regular, student led, tea, or open house)

• Conference schedule

• Lunch and break times

• Meeting room #

We will launch the conferences on October 17, 2022 at 8am . Information will be linked to the KJHS website and a school reach call will be sent out. If the parents do not have internet access, they can call the guidance office at 309-557-4899 to set up an appointment.

On the note you send home, please state what type of conference the parent is invited to and if they need to sign up for a conference. The parents do not need to sign up if they are invited to a tea or open house. Please ask the parents that you are wanting to meet with to register using the online scheduler link on the KJHS website. Please email Jennifer Dierkes a copy of the note you are sending home and the list of students invited to the open house/tea so she has it to reference if parents call with questions.

Here are the directions for the online conference scheduler that will be put on the website:

Again this year we are using an online scheduling system to schedule family/teacher conferences. Click on the link under Cougar News or the link under the Parents tab on the KJHS website. Select the conference you want and then enter the student's name, your name, and email address. Next, an email will be sent to you inviting you to sign up for conferences. Click on the link and select the conference(s) you prefer. If you are going to attend a tea or open house you do not need to sign up.

Jennifer has the option of putting in all the teacher’s email addresses so the conference scheduler will send your family/teacher conference schedule to you weekly. If you do not want your email added, please let her know.

From time to time, a student safety issue comes up that we feel we need our KJ families need to be aware of and this is such an issue. There is a new version of fentanyl targeting school aged students. The narcotic is designed to look like candy, often described as looking like Sweet Tarts. The DEA has issued an alert that can be reviewed here and there is an image of the candy in the article. They are generally stamped with the letter 'M' or the number '30'.

We would like to be clear that we have not seen any evidence of this at Kingsley. We just want to make staff aware as this is a highly dangerous substance and is being marketed to target school aged students, especially through platforms like SnapChat.

Infraction Tracker: The PBIS Committee is finding the minor classroom teacher-managed data to be helpful in determining targets for KJ. Here are some reminders about the infraction tracker:

• Tracker will reset Monday, Oct. 3.

• If you want to make a new tab at the bottom of your team's tracker, go for it.

• Students will be ineligible to attend the PBIS Celebration if they have 3 classroom detentions (in all) by Wed., Oct. 26. (Separate from ISS or OSS)

Cougar PRIDE: October is "I" for Integrity month. Lesson(s) on this Cougar characteristic will be sent out soon.