IAR testing will be on March 16, 17, & 20. Seventh and eighth grade teams should be aware that testing should not go past 7th hour on March 16th as the 7th and 8th grade choirs will be heading out to the Unit 5 all district choir event after 7th hour. Please note that there will be no advisory due to IAR testing on 3/20/23. 

As part of the February 21st School Improvement Day, the district will be providing an equity training session along with a collaboration, application, and learning session in the afternoon at Kingsley Junior High School.  Everyone will attend the equity training based on responses to the survey linked below.  Staff will also have a choice as to what collaboration, application, and learning session they sign up for so please take a moment to review the session information in the sign-up form linked below and complete by the end of the day on Tuesday (February 14th) next week.  

February 21st Session Sign-Up Form

There have been many questions regarding the Schedule B reductions for the 23-24 school year. Clarification about these reductions will be coming soon from the Unit Office. 

Hello LA teachers, 

Just a reminder, our Winter Benchmark Assessment deadline is February 17. By this date, you will have administered, scored, and documented in EduClimber your scores. Please communicate with your LBS1s any names of students who scored red in the chart on Google Classroom that you recommend need a diagnostic. All resources can be found in Google Classroom (hv3buze) and on the Shared Drive. 

Happy to help score, discuss next steps with this data, or anything else you may find helpful to you and your writers. 

Sincerely,

Janel Sebeny 

There will be 3 different summer school options this year for middle school students: Extended School Year (ESY), regular summer school, and Freedom School. ESY is reserved for students with IEPs, summer school is for those students who struggles academically during the school year, and Freedom School focuses around literacy connected to African-American History and Civic Engagement. ESY will be hosted here at KJHS and summer school and Freedom School will be held at CJHS. Here are key dates & events surrounding the 2023 summer schools: 

• Postings for Summer School Administrators - week of 2/6

• Select Summer School Administrators -  week of 2/20

• Posting for teachers, supervisors, and administrative assistant - week of 3/13

• Set-up interviews for internal and external applicants - week of 4/3

• Create and send out letters to parents of recommended students inviting them to the summer program - week of 4/10

• Send a final list of summer school students with appropriate data to the First Student - April 28th

Check out the February Instructional Tech Update. Here are the highlights:

• Unit 5 started a podcast series called Inside Unit #5 for our community to listen to which is linked.  This is hosted by our very own teachers in Unit 5.  

• IC Updates:  There have been lots of questions about score copier, so it is included.

• Black History Month is the whole month of February, so there are lots of instructional resources for this month you can use. 

• Canva - Canva's premium is available to all teachers and students in education.  All you have to do is register your education account.  The instructions are included, as well as an activity for you to create your own Canva banner for Google Classroom.  

• Phet Simulations have been around for a while, but they have been transitioning these to HTML 5 over the last several years.  Check this resource out there is lots to find here! 

Students should be given time during their February 13th Advisory class to complete the survey. Please share the link in your advisory classrooms that day. Please read these Student Survey Instructions prior to Feb. 13th, there are directions that need to be read aloud to students. Students will need their Student ID (they can find this in IC, click on TODAY tab and their ID  is under their name). All students must take the survey. Remember we need 95% completion rate.

Families: The following message went out to Unit 5 families on Thursday, January 26th... 

5 ESSENTIALS

Teachers, parents, and students across Illinois have an opportunity to participate in the Illinois 5Essentials Survey.

This survey is designed to generate a detailed picture of the inner workings of your child's school.

Your participation in the parent portion of the survey will help us understand the environment at your child's school. Your identity and survey responses will be kept completely confidential and will never be connected to you or your child.

 The Illinois 5Essentials Survey will be conducted through Friday, March 31, 2023.

To take the survey:

1.     Visit https://survey.5-essentials.org/Illinois/

2.     Click on "Start here" under the Parent category

3.     You may enter your email address but that is not required. It is completely optional.

4.     Enter "McLean" for the County

5.     Begin typing your child's school name and you should see it pop up. Click on the appropriate school.

Please take a separate survey for each school where you have a child enrolled. 

The survey is also available in Spanish.

The Illinois 5Essentials gathers data related to five indicators that can predict important student outcomes. These five indicators that affect and predict school success are

• Effective Leaders

• Collaborative Teachers

• Involved Families

• Supportive Environments

• Ambitious Instruction

Research in more than 400 schools has shown that schools strong on at least three of these indicators were 10 times more likely to improve student learning gains in math and reading than those that were weak on three or more Essentials.

Unit 5 students in grades 4th-12th will be given the opportunity to take this survey. If you do not want your child to take the survey, please contact your child's principal by Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2023.

Please be aware that under the Protection of Pupil Rights Act. 20 U.S.C. Section 1232(c) (1) (A), you have the right to review a copy of the questions asked of your student(s). Survey questions can be found on the Illinois 5Essentials Support Center ( Illinois 5Essentials Survey Questions).

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact 5Essentials Client Services at 1-866-440-1874 or impact-surveys@uchicago.edu. 

In the next few weeks, Elisa will send out a messaging you can pass on to KJHS families to encourage completion of the 5 Essentials Survey. We appreciate your help in this endeavor!

The PBIS Data and Instructional Teams joined forces to discover Tech Violations were the highest infractions in the month of January. We discussed focusing on "time and place" for this month's focus. We also had a conversation about students' impulsivity and overuse of screens. Therefore, we have created a lesson and a tech free challenge. We are proposing all staff (except Digital Media, Computer Skills, BELT, and GTT) to try out a tech free day of instruction. We have chosen Valentine's Day, 2/14, and ask staff members participate as well. So except for attendance, we will model a tech free day for our students. Students will have a bookmark, which will be distributed to you by PBIS, to track how often they have the urge to play a game, text, check notifications, etc. Please plan to teach the lesson prior to 2/14 on your teams and see a PBIS member if you have questions. Thank you!

PBIS Tech Poster

E-mail sent by Stacy Keiser on 1/30/23:

Hi Everyone,

It’ s that time again!

The cutoff for coursework for salary movement is February 22 and I will accept coursework up to 4:00 pm.  Any received after that date will be returned and can be resubmitted in September.  If you have enough credit hours to move on the salary schedule the increase will show on your March 15th check. 

Attached is the procedure for reporting coursework, please review it as it has examples of how to record your classes.  Please follow the example as close as possible.

It also lists the documentation that will be accepted for classes taken.

If you have any questions, please let me know .  I’ll be happy to help!!

Stacy Keiser, SHRM-CP

Human Resources/Legal

McLean County Unit District No. 5

(309) 557-4044

The KJHS PTO is hosting a Referendum Information Session on Tuesday, February 28th at 5:30 pm in the KJHS IMC. Dr Weikle will be presenting information to families regarding the referendum that is on the ballot in April. 

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 

We will be having a spring PBIS assembly on on the early release day of Friday, April 7th during 7th & 8th hours. This will be a staff vs students assembly. If you are interested in participating, please complete the Staff Spring Assembly Participation Form by Friday, February 17th. 

Hearing things about ChatGPT? Here is an excellent resource created for educators by educators explaining this Open AI resource.

When writing referrals, please be sure that time on the referral is the time the incident happened and not the default time of when you wrote the referral. Accuracy in time of incident is important as it helps us track when students are having issues during the school day. This then allows us to implement interventions that have a better chance of supporting these students. 

Janel Sebeny!

Janel has received the Award of Meritorious Service from the ISBE "Those Who Excel" award program. Janel will be recognized at the Those Who Excel and Teacher of the Year Award banquet in April. Congratulations Janel on this state wide recognition of all you do for KJHS!

Many thanks to Michelle Lamboley for working out a support schedule for the admin team while Dennis is at Chiddix for the next two weeks. Here is the support staffing:

2/7 starting at 9:30-Shane Hill

2/10-Shane Hill

2/14-Dennis will return after training at 10:30

2/17-Dan Lamboley

We are so thankful to Mr. Lamboley and Mr. Hill for their willingness to support KJHS during this time!

Have you heard rumblings about ChatGPT? Perhaps you've been approached on your perspective as an educator. While I have seen and followed a lot of chatter about this new arrival, it is clear some are for it and some are skeptical. This link is a blog post full of not only a ton of resources for you to consider but also lesson ideas. I encourage you to check it out! If you are interested in furthering this conversation, I would love to chat. 

Janel Sebeny

Per email from Megan Peterson on 2/2/23:

Good afternoon!

This afternoon you will receive an email from mail@onlineformretrieval.com with a link to access your 1095 tax document electronically. This is not spam and it is safe to click the link contained in the email. A copy of your 1095 will also be mailed to your home address.

Thank you!

Megan Peterson

Assistant Director - Human Resources

McLean County Unit District 5

309-557-4033

Fundraiser: Social Committee will be running the Super Bowl Squares this year.....thanks Darrin for letting us borrow it from you this year. Once the 2 teams are determined this weekend we will begin and run up until the Friday before the Big Game. Last day to purchase a square is February 9th. 

$5 a square (100 squares)

We will have 4 quarter winners at $100/quarter

Should it go into overtime, each quarter winner will win $75 and the final score winner will get $100.

This is a small fundraiser for the social committee ($100).  To continue to do all the things we do at KJ, we need a few extra funds to take us through the end of the year. Thanks for understanding and participating!

The KJHS Social Committee

Upcoming Dates: 

Feb. 10: Jersey Day

Feb. 14:  Parapro Appreciation Day

Feb. 17: National Random Acts of Kindness Day

Students are not allowed to leave the cafeteria during the lunch hour unless they have a pass from a staff member. If you want a student to come to your room during the lunch hour, please give them a pass to show to lunchroom supervisors. 

The January Family KJ Connection was sent out to Kingsley families on January 16th. 

Band: On Friday, February 17th KJHS Band students will be playing at the IGSMA Organizational Contest. Here is the info for the 7th and 8th grade teachers. 

-7th Grade: 7th grade band students report to the band room first thing that morning, and will get on a bus to leave by 9:00. They perform at 10:00 at BJHS. 7th graders will be back at KJHS for 4th Hour. 

-8th Grade: 8th grade band students report to the band room first thing that morning, and will get on a bus to leave by 9:00. They perform at 11:45 at BJHS. Since they will miss their lunch hour, we will be getting lunch out and will return to KJHS for 7th Hour. 

Thanks to everyone for being so flexible and letting our students attend this contest. I will also need someone to sub for my classes on Friday, February 17th for 1st and 2nd Hour if someone is willing and able! Thanks again!

-Tyler Harr

Orchestra: 

KJHS 8th grade orchestra will be playing at the IGSMA Organization Contest on Friday, Feb. 17th at 12:30. Our warmup time starts at noon, so we plan to leave around 11:40. We should be back around 1:30pm, which is in the middle of 6th hour. 

We plan to have 8th grade eat during our class time (4th hour) and will notify the lunch supervisors that some students will need to get their lunches during 6th grade lunch. Further details will be provided once we get closer to the 17th. 

Thanks so much, 

Daria

As of January 1, 2023, Unit 5 began offering vision insurance through EyeMed. This is an exciting new benefit and we wanted to share additional information you may find helpful. 

Finding Vision Benefit Information

Attached is a summary of the new vision benefits for quick reference. You can also find EyeMed details (and all benefit plan information) on Employee Navigator at any time by following the steps below.

1. Log in to Employee Navigator

2. Click on ‘Resources’ in the top right hand corner

3. Click on ‘All Documents’

4. Click on the document of your choice to review plan details

EyeMed Cards

EyeMed cards were mailed out earlier this month. However, you do not need a physical card to use the benefits. Your eye care provider can retrieve your coverage information from EyeMed without a card.  You can also register on the EyeMed mobile app to view benefit information and access your insurance card. Contact Megan Peterson in HR with any questions. 

The admin team will be following up with core teams on the work started during our institute time on January 3rd. If your team has not yet completed your plans/goals for students on the Spring 23 Academic Needs Analysis sheet or the F22 Behavior Needs Analysis sheet, please do so. Elisa will be examining academic needs with teams during her monthly meetings while Sylvester and Dennis will be examining the behavior needs during their bi-monthly meetings. 

Here is the Q3 PBIS Celebrations information that was sent out last week. Sixth grade will have their Q3 PBIS celebration on 3/23 and 7th and 8th grade will have their Q3 PBIS Celebration on 3/24.