If you received a request from Jen Ritchason to nominate a student for the fall Breakfast of Champions event, please do so right away! This event is an amazing opportunity to recognize students that might otherwise not get recognition and is always appreciated both by the student and their family. There's nothing like watching student after student be recognized for their actions that make Kingsley a great school!

Mark your calendars now for a meet and greet with Dr. Weikle on November 14 at 8 am in the KJHS IMC. 

We are seeking a few more tutors for Gap Attack, which will start in December. Tutors will be assigned 1-2 students and sessions will be on Wednesdays from 3:50 - 4:50. Please let Anita Holland know if you are interested in this opportunity. Tutoring gets paid the "supplemental instruction" rate of $36.89

Looking for some Cougar wear? The KJHS PTO Spirit Wear store is open now through November 15th. Purchases will be delivered to the school in time for the holidays. 

PBIS Integrity Winners

Congrats to the following students who won the PBIS award for the month of October. These students showed a lot of integrity :

6-1: Carly Gulso

6-2:  Olivia Bergfield

7-1:  August Reblando

7-2:  Easton Carter

8-1:  Taylor Beal

8-2:  Erin Shierer

Explore: Karma Davis

November PBIS Lesson: Determination

This month's PBIS theme is "Determination" and the focus of this month's lesson is goal setting as students should be determined do better in an area of challenge. Please teach this lesson in advisory sometime between now and November 20th.  And, if you are one of the first two determined staff members to read this and email Elisa, a gift card of your choice (Starbucks, Jersey Mike's, Avanti's, or Panda Express), will be yours. 

PBIS Q2 Celebrations

Here are the PBIS Q2 Celebrations slides. Please find time during Advisory this coming week to share these with your students. There will not be any kind of alternative schedule or designated location for teams. As we did last year, teams will determine the movies they'd like to offer students and how they'd like to run restore rooms. PBIS will provide the doughnuts in the morning for each grade level. Please talk to Nikki Brienen if you have any questions. 

November

• 13 - World Kindness Day....wear a kindness t-shirt if you have one and maybe try and do a kind act for someone

• 18-22    Drawing for Secret Santa-----Jen Ritchason will be sending out more info soon if you would like to participate.

• 25   Teacher Underground Spirit Day:  Monochromatic Monday

December

• 4         Annual Kingsley Friendsgiving-sign up sheet will be out next week 

• 6       7th Grade treating staff to breakfast!

• 9-13   Secret Santa Week for those participating 

• 16      Kingsley Cookie Exchange for staff 

All Month  Holiday Dress Up Days: Calendar coming at the soon.

Congratulations to this week's Kingsley Kudos recipients: Katie McKee! 

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. 

The window for ISU Spring 2025 tuition waiver requests is now open. The window to apply for waivers will remain open until November 30th. 

Please review the procedures carefully and complete the request for waivers by filling out this form. Requests will not be accepted outside the window.

  You should have received an email from Employee Navigator on Monday (10/28) to enroll for benefit coverage that will go into effect January 1, 2025.  There were no benefit coverage changes, but we did experience a rate increase. Rates and plan information can be found here at the District payroll website. During this open enrollment period, enrollment is recommended to ensure you select the best plan for your benefit needs. If you do not engage during open enrollment, your current plan will remain in place. Plan elections and rate changes go into effect January 1, 2025.

There is a Q&A session for staff : November 8 : 11am - 1:00pm : Click to Join

 Open Enrollment Highlights

• The open enrollment period is October 28 through November 15.

• There were no benefit coverage changes, but we did experience a rate increase.

• This is not a "passive" enrollment. If no action is taken by the employee during the enrollment period, current coverage will remain in place with the new rate starting January 1.

KJHS Administration has started using social probation as a consequence for students who are struggling to meet behavior expectations during the school day. If placed on social probation, a student will not be able to attend any extracurricular events at KJHS. The administrative team will be educating students on this policy via KJ News and lunch discussions and will notify families via the KJ Family Connection. 

Here are this week's instructional technology tips. 

Thanks to all of you who signed up to work games! We could not host these events without you! 

Unless the student is on a behavior contract or plan that dictates to do so, please do not send students to the office for non-disruptive behavior. For example, if a student is 15 minutes late to class, simply write an "out of area" referral. The office will take are of it in a timely manner. 

If you are writing a referral to document an issue you or your team is addressing, please submit it as a minor referral. Major referrals should only be used for issues that the administrative team needs to address. 

Thanks to Drake Orthodontics, we have new chairs in Main Street Retreat! We'll be working on getting new tables in that space as well. 

Unit 5 is providing two Youth Mental Health First Aid training options for staff at the Unit Office this fall. This is a great opportunity for staff to learn about mental health challenges common among their students, how to respond to students experiencing them, and how to connect them to support. Please see the attached flyer and pass it along to staff within your building. The flyer includes a link to the form for you to sign up. 

The training will be broken into 2 sessions. Option 1: Oct 17th & 18th 3:30-4:30. Option 2: Nov 6 & Nov 15th 4:30-7:30. 

The October sessions will be more focused on the elementary level, while the November sessions will be more focused on secondary level. Anyone is welcome to attend either option and will receive training applicable to all levels.

Molly Yerke in HR has created a Retirement Quick Reference Guide, which addresses retirement in all the different organizations that Unit 5 employees may belong to.