Just a reminder that we have an early release on Tuesday, September 12. Students who want a sack lunch can pick them up in the cafeteria prior to leaving for the day. The KJHS PTO will be serving lunch for staff from 11:45 am - 12:45 pm in Main Street Retreat. Here is the remainder of the day's schedule:

                                                   12:45 - 1:15 pm: Time for GCN Mandated Training

                                                    1:15 - 1:45 pm : Team Kingsley Meeting (Social committee updates, SIP goals, Tardy Data, Restorative Practices)

                                                     1:45 - 2:15 pm: PLC Training

                                                            2:15 - 3:30: PLC Time

There is a flu clinic in Nurse O'Brien's office from 7:30 - 8:30 am on Wednesday, September 13. Please see the Flu Shot Clinic flyer for further details. 

The online "What's Up?" form is currently working. Please have students complete a paper copy to turn into the office. We hope to get that form working this week and we apologize for the inconvenience. 

Please have one member of your team complete the Vocabulary SIP Survey to better inform the Academic Team as to how you are implementing the vocabulary initiative in your classrooms and what resources may be helpful in assisting you. 

Please have your students take this short survey on Monday, September 11, during advisory. The Equity Team is gathering data from students regarding tardiness, which will help us with our equity goal this year. It should take students around 5 minutes to complete. 

We can now print IDs for students in the main office. Please remind students that the first replacement ID is free and each additional ID card will cost them $3. 

1. There is a social gathering on Friday, September 15th at 4:00 pm at Ancho and Agave. 

2. Please pay dues if you have not yet.  We are at 23% of the entire staff paying dues at this point.  We will not be able to do many of the activities we have planned or to support our entire staff  as we normally do without funds. 

3. Please submit pictures of yourself in 2003 for the bulletin board in MSR, which is going up this weekend. 

~ KJHS Social Committee

The first quarter PBIS Celebrations event will be on the early release day of Wednesday, October 18. Please plan accordingly. 

Students who scored a 16% or below on their recent aMath assessments will be flagged for a math diagnostic assessment. In the fall, this can be a large number of students and the math interventionists have limited time in which to complete the diagnostics. We appreciate your flexibility if a student needs to be pulled from your class to complete a diagnostic. 

Elisa will start having meetings with teams later this month and will be asking about teams' focused tutorial plans. Just a reminder, the purpose of focused tutorial is to help intentionally support students' development of executive functioning skills. Your team's focused tutorial plan should address the following things: 

1.  how the team will provide direct instruction and/or intervention to students as needed. 

2. overall structure for teachers to follow. 

3. support for students' development of Tier 1 executive functioning skills.

4. needs of students not in intervention or students needing enrichment. 

Here are the Instructional Technology Tips for the start of September. 

LA Corner:

Hello! I hope your year is off to a great start with your writers! I will continue the LA Corner this year to keep all teachers who teach LA in the loop with assessments, instructional strategies, trends, and resources. Please reach out at any time if you need anything! My cell is 309-533-1574. Happy to collaborate or answer your questions! In the meantime, here are the details on all things LA Benchmark. . .

Benchmark Scoring Assistance Offering! 

Naomi Kosier and I will be available before and after school next week in order to answer questions you may have about your students' benchmarks. Please feel free to pop by if needed. If these times do not work for you, we would be happy to answer questions via email. 

KJHS 9/11: 8 am or 4 pm in Diana Vissering's room

PJHS 9/13: 8 am or 4pm n Cindy Coyle's room 

CJHS 9/14: 8 am or 4 pm in Denise Goben's room

EJHS 9/14: 8 am or 4 pm in Matt Sherill's room

Benchmark into EduClimber

Please look through the videos and helpful hints in the LA Google Classroom in order to see how to enter scores into EduClimber. All scores should be entered by 9/22. 

Writing Diagnostic

If anyone flags on your benchmark, be sure to reach out to your LBS1 in order to administer a writing diagnostic. In the same section on the LA Google Classroom there is a flow chart to guide you through this process.

Sincerely,

Janel Sebeny

Kingsley Junior High School

Team 7-2 Language Arts

Middle School LA District Chair

IRC Past President

We have not received our field trip budget numbers for the year but we want to make sure that we share bus costs with you if you are considering taking a field trip. Each bus used costs $58.93/hour and we are required to pay for a minimum of 3 hours, even if we do not use the bus for that length of time. 

Have questions or concerns about a  student? Please contact the KJHS Guidance Counselors...

A - K:  Mrs. Kim Johnson ~ johnsonk@unit5.org 

L - Z:   Mr. Tim Penhollow ~ penholte@unit5.org

  Ms. Joan Fee ~ feej@unit5.org 

The tips below from our illustrious counselors are being sent out to Kingsley families this week... 

Teens and Sleep

Recommendations for teens

  8-10  hours of sleep

Causes of lack of sleep

After-school schedules

😴Increased school workload, clubs & sports, social responsibilities, jobs

Exposure to light

😴Electronic screens give off light that slow production of sleep hormones

Excessive caffeine usage

😴Chronic coffee, energy drinks, and caffeinated soft drinks make falling and staying asleep challenging

Anxiousness

😴Deadlines for projects, social drama, and family problems at home cause overstimulation to the brain, making sleep more difficult to attain

Hormonal changes

😴Cause teens to stay up later and sleep longer

Signs and Effect of Sleep Deprivation

• Difficulty concentrating

• Drifting off in class

• Poor decision making

• Lack of enthusiasm

• Moodiness/aggression

• Depression

• Risk-taking behavior

• Slower reflexes

• Clumsiness

• Reduced sport and academic performance

• More sick days

• Tardiness

• Truancy

Strategies to improve sleep

Create a routine

🙂It takes 4 weeks for the brain to associate a routine with falling asleep

Assess sleep hygiene

🙂Is it too noisy, cold, or hot?  Are your pillows, mattress, and blankets comfortable?

Limit screen time before bed

🙂Putting the phone away an hour before bed provides an extra 21 minutes of sleep per night

Maintain similar sleep schedule on weekends

🙂Aim to wake up no later than 2 hours after the time you would normally wake up during the week.

Avoid long naps

🙂Napping more than 30 minutes will affect sleep quality at bedtime.

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. 

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. 

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. 

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! 

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

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. 

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. 

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). 

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.

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