The 8th Grade Dance & Activity Night is on Friday, May 2nd. If you are willing to serve as a chaperone, please indicate this on the Sign Up Genius. We will pay staff for supervising this event. 

Carley Pfleger - Carley is returning to KJHS as our math interventionist. Carley currently teaches 6th grade math at Evans. 

Jenny Burns - Jenny is joining the KJHS staff as our literacy interventionist. Jenny currently teaches 4th grade at Carlock Elementary. 

The KJHS Spirit Wear Store is open until April 19th and orders will be delivered to KJHS by the second week of May. 

Emily Castrejon will be the KJHS Advisory Building Leader for the 25-26 school year. Many thanks to Emily for stepping into this leadership role!

Janel Sebeny!

Janel will be serving as the Unit 5 Secondary ELA Curriculum Coordinator next year. Best of luck to Janel in this next professional adventure! 

Emily Castrejon is replacing Kim Johnson as the KJHS PBIS Tier 2 coach. Many thanks to Kim for her years of service in this position and thanks to Emily for stepping into this leadership role!

As we proceed throughout this second semester, we are continuing our work on "maintaining our composure and rational detachment throughout the school year in order to handle escalations in student behavior in a healthy manner".   To date, we have utilized sessions with Abby Lyons and the district-wide de-escalation training to help support these efforts. 

We are back with another one of Bruce Perry's video series, Insights for Educators. This fifth video, Taking Care of Educators,  talks about how districts/schools need to are for their teacher in order to improve student outcomes. Want to win a gift card? Be among the first 2 staff members to email Elisa the  answers to these two questions... 

1. What are the 3 things that schools can do to increase a district's performance? 

2. One tenant of the KJ Admin Team is that we are teacher-centered so the school can be student centered. What do we mean by this? 

The KJHS Admin is sponsoring lunch from Chik Fil A on 4/17. If you have issues that would prevent you from joining in this meal, please let Elisa know so we can get you an alternative lunch. 

Please note that there are more openings listed online. These are internal postings that will move to external postings after 10 days.

Cross Country Coach

Golf

7th Grade Boys Basketball Coach

8th Grade Boys Basketball Coach

Due to absences in the office staff, we are reaching out to see if there are any KJHS staff members who would like to cover the greeter's station during their planning period. You would simply need to sign students and guests in and out of the building and we will provide training. You would, of course, be paid for your time. 

Here is a draft of the 25-26 Master Schedule. We are currently working on individual staff schedules and hope to have that draft out by May 2.  

Here is the lesson for April. It includes quarter 4 celebration information and a student-created lesson that reviews the school rules students tend to "forget" this time of year.

Out of the Blue will be on April 16th during Advisory. We will target tardies. For this, you all will get blue K-Cash that is worth 5K! This will be dispersed as we get closer to the date.

Here is the PBIS Determination form. Nikki will accept names until April 30th. The winners from last month will be announced on Friday.

If you are interested in attending the conference below, please let Elisa know. We can use SIP funds to pay for the cost of the conference as well as a daily stipend for attending. You will receive 45 CPDUs for attending. 

Illinois State Writing Project Summer Institute

Monday, June 9 – Friday, June 13

8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.

Illinois State University Campus & Surrounding Community

Start Small, Think Big: Writing Possibilities for Consequential Futures

Join others—teachers of writing and teachers who use writing in support of their content area teaching—as together we stretch the boundaries of our thinking about writing’s role in motivating and engaging in hopeful futures—within and beyond our classrooms. Give yourself the gift of time and space for summer pause and rejuvenation. All are welcome. Come as you are. Engage. Inquire.

• Join a collaborative community of K-16 cross-disciplinary teachers.

• Practice new skills you can use with your students.

• Build your own identity as an educator and writer.

• Expand the ways you use writing in your classroom. 

• Design small-scale writing opportunities for big impact.

Thank you to everyone for allowing Katie to talk with your teams and observe the magic that is happening in your classrooms.  Many of you have asked about how to connect with Katie so below is her information.

Email:  drkatiemcknight@gmail.com 

Website: https://www.katherinemcknight.com/ 

Subscribe to her newsletter! 

We will be updating you soon about how we can take our kids to next level literacy skills through alignment and evidence-based practices!

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. 

Join us for the 4th Annual Unit 5k presented by Commerce Bank!

When: Sunday, May 4, 2025

Where: Maxwell Park

Time: 2 pm one mile walk/run; 2:30 pm 5k

Cost: $10 per participant; If you want a race t-shirt its an additional $10

This event is open to the public. We are hoping several staff members will want to participate. Bring out the whole family!

This is also a great chance for school teams and groups to come out and show their Unit 5 pride. 

All proceeds benefit the Unit 5 Educational Foundation.

Here is a link to sign up.

Register Today!

Here is the April Kingsley Family Connection that was sent out to families this past week. 

 AI isn't magic; it's a tool created by humans.  You're using it.  Your students are using it.  This poster has been designed to elicit conversations between students and teachers, so they can have conversations about the use of AI.  The posters are available in the teacher work room. The AI Task Force is also working on AI literacy resources for teachers and students as well as professional development for the upcoming school year.

From the U5 Instructional Technology Coaches...

We have been piloting Hapara this semester with several of our teachers in multiple buildings.  Hapara is a classroom management software for K-12 schools, focusing on tools that enhance digital learning and student safety.  Very similar to GoGuardian, but with some different enhancements. 

The consensus is they really like it.  We would like to expand the pilot to anyone who would like to try Hapara for the rest of the school year, and to ask that you use this Getting Started, problem/Solution guide to get started.  

The student support team and truancy committee are working diligently to improve student attendance. One of our Tier 1 strategies is to message KJHS families weekly with different attendance messages. Want to know what they are? Check out the KJHS Attendance Matters Calendar. Many thanks to Breanna Schwarz for creating this tool. 

The Illinois Retired Teachers Association is offering Excellence in Education Grants for Teachers.  Applications are due June 1, 2025. 

The window for Summer 2025 tuition waiver requests is now open and will close on April 30, 2025, at midnight. Here are the procedures outlining the distribution process for tuition waivers. 

Here are this week's instructional technology tips. 

Discipline referrals dropped 30% from Quarter 2 to Quarter 3 this year, which is the complete opposite of last year, where referrals rose 21% from Q2 to Q3. Moreover, discipline referrals for Q3 of 2025 were 26% lower than Q3 of 2024. Thank you for all you've done to contribute to this shift in student behavior! 

Please be sure you are working on your GCN modules, which are required annually by state code. Elisa emailed those staff members who still have a large number of modules to complete. 

Here are helpful BRISK links, compliments of Eric Stegemann... 

Getting Started

• Basic Setup

• Getting Started from Brisk

• Getting Started from District

Tech Tuesday about Brisk from Amber

More Advanced Features

• How to: Brisk Student Extension

• Follow Brisk Bites on YouTube

• Become Brisk Certified

Still have questions? Try the Unit 5 Question and Answer forum!

• Q&A Forum

Just a reminder that if you want to use rooms other than those assigned to you during the school day, you need to complete the Building Use Form or the Gym and Outdoor Space Use Form. IMC reservations during the day are managed by Courtney Knowles. Usage of common spaces (cafe, gym, etc.) outside of school hours also require a reservation. If you have any questions regarding building reservations, please talk to Kaleigh. 

One of your benefits as a Unit 5 employee is access to our Employee Assistance Program. We encourage you to check out the program site to see if any of the many resources can meet your current and future needs.