The KJHS Spirit Wear store featuring KJHS wear with the 20th birthday design closes on 9/5/23.

As was presented in our opening sessions, our equity goal centers around reducing the number of students tardy to class. At the end of each month, we will share the tardy counts, both overall and by grade level via the Tardy  Dashboard. The August statistics have been entered and we are excited to share that we have already seen a 22.12% decrease in the number of tardies in August 2023 (324 tardies) as compared to August 2022 (416 tardies). 

It is absolutely imperative that you take attendance every hour you have students assigned to you. Eighth hour classes have the highest non-compliance rates. Administration will begin reaching out to teachers who are struggling on a regular basis to take attendance. 

Extra Curricular

Drama Co-Director: Last year, we had over 50 kids involved in our Drama Club and spring musical. Because of the success of last year's show and the high interest already shown in this year's Disney Showcase, Miss Peterson is looking for some help behind the scenes. Most specifically, we are looking for a Tech Director to work with the awesome tech crew. Last year, the kids took over running lights and sound (with the guidance of the professional we hired), music, props, etc, but we are in need of an adult to help manage those things. If you are interested in learning more about this position, please contact Miss Peterson.

Schedule B

CARES Case Manager: KJHS is in need of one additional CARES Case Manager. CARES Case Managers are paid for each CARES case they manage. Please notify Elisa if you are interested. 

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

We have a new paraprofessional, Lakeisha Banks, starting with us on Tuesday, September 5. Due to this addition, we have updated the paraprofessional schedule on the 23-24 KJHS Master Schedule. A more detailed breakdown of paraprofessionals' schedules can be accessed via a link on the master schedule. 

Here is the September KJHS Family Connection, which was sent out to our KJHS families last week. 

Your school ID will get you into most Unit 5 activities for free. Exceptions are play off events and special productions like school plays/musicals. 

Please complete this TRS-IA survey based on your viewpoint of Kingsley Junior High School. Feel free to skip any question you do not feel that you can answer accurately. The KJHS Building Leadership Team will be using these results to prepare activities for upcoming PD sessions.  

We have a lot of technology option available to assist students with learning. Please show your students these short videos in tutorial or advisory to help them get the most out of their technology devices. 

Jenny Snyder has put together a menu of different things she can collaborate with you on to improve your teaching practices through instructional coaching. Please take advantage of what she has to offer! 

1. Food Days: Team Food Days each month was one of the top vote getters on the Social Committee Survey.  Teams/Grade Levels/Departments can (and should) join together to provide a staff lunch/breakfast/snack day during a given month....(bonus points for a theme :)

• By popular demand the main office, kitchen staff and guidance office will be providing the Baked Potato Bar in September....specific date TBD.

• The 6th Grade will continue with Pi Day lunch in March.

Let Anita  or your committee rep. know if your group wants to participate, a month, and a theme if there is one so we can get it on the social committee calendar for the year.

2. Food Truck: Mo's Front Porch Food Truck will be at KJHS on Friday, October 20th. 

1. ISU Concessions Fundraiser: The PTO is working concessions at the September 23rd ISU football game and needs 20 adults to help serve  (10am-1:30pm or 1pm-4:30pm)  . Please sign up if you are available to volunteer. 

2. The PTO is selling Papa Murphy coupon cards for $5. If you are interested in purchasing one, please let Elisa know. 

3.  The Gobena Coffee Fundraiser is an ongoing one and an excellent opportunity to try some new, local coffee. 

4. Want to request PTO funding for a classroom project? Use this form please. 

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. 

It is with great pleasure that we would like to share that Joan Fee, a retired NCHS guidance counselor, is going to be helping to support KJHS students this school year. She and Tim Penhollow will each be serving in the guidance office two days a week, giving our students some much needed support. 

Here are the current team rosters (as of 4:07 pm on 8/25/23). We are monitoring team numbers to equally distribute students based on impact on class sizes. The goal is to keep the average class size as equal as possible between the two teams at each grade level. KJHS is currently running 5% above our predicted enrollment for the year. If you need more multi-folder folders ordered due to an increased number of students, please let Elisa know. All schedule change requests should now be directed to Kim Johnson. 

1. When you are requesting a sub in AESOP, please remember to choose a.m., p.m., or full day ONLY - please do not change the times that are listed.  If they do not go along with your needs, please put the times in "Notes to Substitute".   

2. Tyler has removed the ability for approved staff to add absences for employees. Please see the "Submit Time Off Request" guide for guidance on how to do this 

From Monica Wilks, Director of HR...

As you may know, Illinois and Federal law mandates that the District provide specific training to staff. This mandated staff training differs based on grade level, job function, and when they must occur. 

The District will continue to use the online web-based platform, Global Compliance Network (GCN). In the next week, you will receive an email from GCN with your login instructions. The email will come from "support@gcntraining.com." 

Unit 5's organizational ID (163053m) will be included in the email, as well as your User ID and a link to log in. If your email does not contain a User ID, you will need to select the option in red that says, “I was not given a user ID.”

After you log in, you will see a list of your "required" tutorials. To start a tutorial, you will click on "Start" to the left of the title. 

You should have time within your work day throughout the year to complete the training. Time may also be available during School Improvement days for training. The deadline to complete all required tutorials is May 22, 2024, though you are encouraged to complete the training as soon as possible.

From Ed Hafermann...  

Happy Friday!

Teachers, please archive last year's Google Classrooms Classes. Students this year still have them on their menu and are unable to leave or archive them.  It is very clustered on their end and is causing some confusion.

To archive the classes, go to the main menu and click on the three vertical dots.  You will see that "Archive" is located at the bottom of the pop-up menu. 

Please try to use Production Services for your copy needs. It costs us a lot less than running copies in the building and, with the rising cost of paper, using that district service will help our supply budget go further. Thanks!

If a class with a student who has any health condition listed above is planning a Field Trip, they MUST have a trained person attend the field trip. It is the administrator’s responsibility to ensure this is in place before approving the field trip. Nurses will not be able to attend field trips.  If a trained person is not able to go and serve as a delegated care aide, the field trip will not be able to continue. Parents can not legally waive this school responsibility. Any willing staff member (teacher, TA, EOP) is also encouraged to be trained as a delegated care aide and can do so at any point during the year by completing the online course and session with your nurse.

KJ administration is recommending that one member of every core team get trained as there is no guarantee that administrator will be available to go on trips. 

For those of you who love to get everything on your calendar, here are some key dates...

Emergency Drill Schedule

Assessment Windows/Data Days

Unit 5 Calendar

PBIS Calendar

From Amber O'Day...

Welcome back to a new school year and our August Instructional Tech Updates.   Tech has been very busy with updates this summer and we are really hoping for a smooth transition.  Google Classroom should sync with Clever and IC to get the most updated class roster and there are some new features in Google Classroom that I think you will be interested in. 

Make sure you take a look at the Beginning of the year Tech Updates, there is a ton of information in there.  We also included several AI resources for you. GoGuardian is back and will be syncing with your class lists.  Make sure to check your instruction sheets on how to accept those classes.  Infinite Campus has some cool new tools I think you will all like and IC resources website got an update.  Book Creator is in a full swing pilot and Canva has been synced up with Clever for district login. 

Lots in there, take some time to read through it and watch the many videos.  As always, if you have questions contact your  Tech Coach and fill out a helpdesk ticket.  

NIKKI BRIENEN !!!!!!

Many thanks to Janel Sebeny for her leadership over the past years and thank you to Nikki for taking the torch to continue us moving forward. 

Please review the 23-24 KJHS RSO listings and let Elisa know if you have any changes that need to be made. We have highlighted those clubs that currently do not have a sponsor. 

The Back to School Edition of the Kingsley Family Connection was sent to KJHS families at the beginning of August. 

In an effort to protect your planning periods, administration is asking for teams to create a team Google calendar and mark your availability. Please feel free to mark key planning periods as "busy". We will use these calendars to schedule meetings. Please note that administration can only schedule regular meetings on Mondays or Tuesdays due to other commitments. Thanks to all of you who have already shared!