KJHS Administration is partnering with ISU Athletics to provide KJHS students the opportunity to win a pizza lunch with ISU athletes. The first lunch is this coming Thursday, November 16th. Students can enter by submitting KCash with their name on it during the lunch hours. Winners will be drawn at the end of each lunch on Wednesday, November 15th. For more information, check out the Redbird Raffle announcement. 

Don't forget to submit your Fitness Bingo results for this week by Sunday night!

ISU has added a link to their new website that will allow teachers to easily access a survey and express interest in hosting a Clinical Student for the spring semester. This survey will allow teachers to volunteer for clinicals across our Secondary, Teaching & Learning, and Special Education programs! Once you visit the Lauby Center website, you'll click the "Faculty and District Partners" tab and scroll down to Resources. Once there you will find "McLean County Unit-5 Clinical Interest". Included is a screenshot so you can see exactly where the link is on the page, and below is the URL that will take you directly to the website.  The survey will remain open through Friday, November 17th. At the middle school level, they are looking for placements in art, health, science, and social studies. 

Campus Optimizer (the automation of our HVAC system) will be going live at KJHS soon. Here are two things you can do to help make this process as seamless as possible...

1. Please complete this initial Customer Comfort Form survey. 

2. 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. 

Congratulations to this week's Kingsley Kudos recipients: 

• Courtney Knowles

• Maggie Quist

• Lakshmi Kommuri

• Charlene Parsons

• Danny Tanner

• Tricia Reckers

• Erik Rich

• Carl Torbeck

• Deanna Quick

From Candid...

Hello Unit 5 Employees,

       On Monday, November 6, you will receive an email from Employee Navigator announcing the beginning of open enrollment for 2024 for all eligible employees. Please review this email carefully for important information regarding the Unit 5 Health Insurance Plans and the Open Enrollment period. 

Important Reminders

• The Open Enrollment window will be open from noon on Monday, November 6, 2023 through midnight on Wednesday, November 29, 2023. You may log in and make changes to your elections as many times as you need during the open enrollment period.
  
  

• It is mandatory open enrollment for all employees. Current elections will not roll over to the new year. Every eligible employee should log into Employee Navigator and either elect or decline benefits.

• Custodial employees can elect life insurance during this open enrollment period only.

• Rates attached are just an overview. Please login to your Employee Navigator portal to view specific coverage amounts next week during open enrollment.

• If you are unable to log in to Employee Navigator or have questions, please submit a Help Desk ticket and we will reach out to assist you.

New for 2024

After researching our claims for the past 12 months, we found that 99% of the claims dollars spent were from providers in both the BCO and PPO networks. Adding the BCO network will allow our self-insured health plans to save substantial amounts of claims dollars. Although not all providers will be in both the BCO and PPO networks, we have designed the plans to minimize the cost differential between the BCO and PPO networks.

• The PPO Gold Plan will be changed to a three tier network utilizing the Blue Choice Options Network (BCO), Blue Cross PPO Network (PPO), and out of network providers.  To maximize benefits, be sure to use Blue Choice Options providers. The maximum out-of-pocket will be increased $1,000 to $6,000 for either BCO or PPO services.

• The PPO Silver Plan will be changed to a three tier network utilizing the Blue Choice Options Network (BCO), Blue Cross PPO Network (PPO), and out of network providers.  To maximize benefits, be sure to use Blue Choice Options providers. The maximum out-of-pocket will be increased $1,000 to $7,000 for either BCO or PPO services.

• The Silver HSA Plan will continue to be a two tier network plan utilizing the Blue Cross PPO Network and out of network providers. To maximize benefits, be sure to use PPO providers. The deductible and out-of-pocket limit will increase to $5,000 for PPO services

Additional note:  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 members. In saying this, you may not receive your new card by January 1, 2024, due to the large quantity of cards being issued. The fastest way to get your new ID card, for the new year, 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.

During open enrollment, we will be in the buildings to assist staff with questions. Information will be provided next week on the day and time for your building. Additional staff resources for Benefits will be available on the Payroll website on Monday, which can be found here. 

Please feel free to contact myself or Clemens, if you have any questions regarding Benefits. Clemens can be reached at (309) 662-2100. Please ask to speak with Dave Underkoffler or Kaleigh Vaughn when calling. 

Have a wonderful weekend!

--

Candid Omachel

Payroll Manager

McLean County Unit 5 Schools

P:(309)557-4045 

Just a reminder, according to our Pepsi contract, we cannot serve competing products (including Coke products. It does not matter whether we give them away or sell them. Doing so would be a violation of our contract and we could be fined. Competing products can only be for individual use and cannot be photographed or displayed in public places. 

There have been several changes in HR staffing this semester. Here is an updated HR "Who Do I Contact?" guide to help you navigate these changes. 

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! 

Want another way to talk with your students about engaging in class? Try using the Continuum of Engagement Framework as a way to get your students thinking about how engaged they are in their own learning. 

Here are the Instructional Technology Tips for October.

Nov. 13  National Kindness Day...wear a kindness t-shirt if you have one; do something kind for someone

Nov. 16th  Social Hour at Fiesta Ranchero by Farm and Fleet

Chess Coach: KJHS is in need of a chess coach. Please notify Elisa if you are interested. 

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. 

4. KJHS PTO is doing a concessions fundraiser at the IHSA state volleyball tournament on 11/11/23. Want to help? Sign up here. 

We have several staff teams to serve on. Please check out the 23-24 KJHS Committee descriptions. Please note that you can be on the Wellness Team or 20th Birthday Team without joining the Building Leadership Team. 

The KJHS Tardy Dashboard is updated with the October stats. Overall, tardies for October were down 5.8% from Sept 23 and down 33.8% from October 22. In September, we averaged 47 tardies per day and in October we averaged 42 tardies per day. Admin will follow up with teams during team meetings regarding grade level trends. Well done all! 

Student referrals went up 17.5% in October 23 (188) in comparison to October 22 (160). Eighth grade had 81 referrals, 7th grade had 65 referrals, and 6th grade had 42 referrals. The top 5 incidents were insubordination/noncompliance (26), disruptive behavior (25), disrespect to peers/students (20), unauthorized area (20), and excessive tardies (16). 

For those of you looking to up your fitness game in November, check out Down Dog. Here's the review from our very own Amber O'Day...

"I normally would not send this out, but I use this app ALL the time and I love it.  You can customize the amount of time you have to exercise,  adjust all the extras such as hip or neck/shoulder area to stretch.  You can make the warm up shorter or longer, and so many other things.  You have to try it and no I don't make a commission on this.  I just love it and they are offering it free to teachers.  I use it 2-3 times a week, and every workout is a little different so you do not get bored. "

Ready to get started? Anyone can create an account with a .edu or .ac email address and get it free automatically. Just look up the Down Dog app in App Store or Google Play or go to https://www.downdogapp.com/. 

KCart will resume operations next week, visiting classrooms during 1st, 2nd, 6th, & 7th hours.  Here is the general schedule:

• Thursday, 11/2: Tutorials in south end classrooms

• Friday, 11/10: Music rooms in north end 

• Friday, 11/17: Tutorials in south end classrooms

• Friday, 12/1: Music rooms in north end 

• Friday, 12/8: Tutorials in south end classrooms

• Friday, 12/15: Music rooms in north end 

Please review the latest Production updates to see what services are being provided and how to access such services. 

There are now scanners in the Main Office, Guidance Office, and Nurse's Office to record students' presence in those places. Students will be required to scan their IDs when entering those spaces. The exception to this is in cases of emergency or a quick stop to take medicine. If you send a student to one of these places or they are called down, please remind them to take their ID with them. These scanners can also scan IDs off of cell phones. If you are sending a student down because they are in the "red" zone, do not feel that you have engage them in further conversation re their ID. We will hand enter their presence into the system. 

The focus of October's PBIS lesson is on integrity and the top two infractions- disruptions and disengagement. Core teachers, if you did not do so last week,  please find time this week to teach the lesson. While PBIS created these slides for the whole school, please always feel free to tailor them to fit your team's style and needs. 

1. Please remember when entering absences in AESOP, you mark half or full day but you need to put actual school times (i.e. 8:45 - 3:45) in the notes so a sub knows when they need to be at school. 

2. Please be conscientious about running copies or coming into the main office to ask questions prior to 8:00 am. We are usually busy preparing for the day and are happy to meet your needs after 8:00 am.