Prairie Point Points

Website: http://prairiepoint.parkhill.k12.mo.us
Location: 8101 Northwest Belvidere Parkway, Kansas City, MO 64152, USA
Phone: 816-359-4380
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PrairiePtElem
Twitter: @Prairieptelem

Friday, January 15

• End of Second Quarter
• Deadline to sign up for January MTSS Meeting

Monday, January 18

• No School - MLK Jr. Day

Tuesday, January 19

• First Day of 3rd Quarter/Start of 2nd semester
• Fire Drill

• NWEA Winter Window Opens

Wednesday, January 20

• Report Card finalized and due to Danny by 4:00 pm
• January MTSS Meeting

Friday, January 22

• Report Cards Available to Families
  
• F & P's Due

Monday, January 25

• Education Foundation Grant Applications Due

Wednesday, January 27

• Academic RtI Meetings

Friday, January 29

• NWEA Winter Window Closes

• If you are interested in a grant from the Education Foundation, start working on those so you don't miss the deadline.
  
• New Morning Duty Spots will start on Monday!
• Teachers Only- NEE Principal and Assistant Principal are Available 1/4/21 - 2/1/21
  
• Teachers - Make sure you are completing your F & P's
  
• Teachers - Fill out this form to let us know when you completed your fire drill walk-through

Please remember to send Danny or Sarah Staff Shout-outs by Thursday each week to ensure that they are included.

This week, kudos goes out to...

• Robin Jones for practically re-enrolling our entire school in a very short amount of time.
• Terri Fennelly for being a huge help in the office. She has filled in by answering phones, covering the office and helping with arrival/dismissal.
• Mr. North for working to keep out school clean and also helping to keep the sidewalks clear when it snows.
• Karisa Davis and Jess Faron for braving the blizzard conditions to pass out materials to online students.
• The entire staff for filling in/covering jobs when we need help. Whether we've acknowledged you directly or not, it doesn't go unnoticed when people step in without being asked to help out. We are a great TEAM!

We have made it through half of the 2020-2021 school year! Enjoy your long weekend and we look forward to smashing the rest of this year.

• Perhaps you'd like to set up a zoom meeting with your new families
• Gather transportation information for your new students from families and/or confirm bus numbers
• Update any communication rosters by deleting student information for those leaving your room and adding new student information
• Welcome new students with introductory activities during morning meetings, get to know you activities, etc.
• Re-establish classroom norms for expectations, procedures, and routines
• Do you want to try out our new PBIS Rules? Be Safe, Be Kind, Be Responsible
• Prepare desks and learning materials for new students

Dates

The NWEA Winter Window for testing is January 19 - 29, 2021. Grade levels can decide when they will be assessing and test at the same time (online classes can test whenever works best with your schedules).

We would like all grade levels to administer the tests by Wednesday, January 27, 2021, so we can ensure we have enough time for make-ups.

By Wednesday, January 13, 2021, please enter in the chart (with specific times) of when you are testing. This will give our “testing blitz”/small group proctors time to look at the schedule and plan for when they are testing their small groups.

Tests

We will be testing the following subjects and populations:

• We will administer NWEA reading and math. We will not test NWEA science or language this school year

• Face-to-face elementary students will test in person. Elementary Park Hill online students will test remotely from home

On Tuesday, January 19 we will have a Fire Drill. You will once again use this presentation to talk through the drill. We understand that this is the first day of a new semester but since we are just talking through the drill, we thought it would be good for our new friends to join us, and also not to disrupt the NWEA Winter Window.

Later on that week or the following week, we would also like you to fill out THIS FORM to indicate when you actually practiced the drill. We want to ensure social distancing, so you may do this whenever is convenient for your class. With new students coming and the potential for roster changes, we want to ensure that each student knows the specific instructions for their class. Please have this completed by the end of January.

If you have any questions, please see Danny or Sarah.

Survey's for teachers to evaluate Administrators are scheduled to open in NEE on 1/04/2021 @ 7:00am and end on 02/01/2021 @ 4:00pm. Teachers can take the survey anytime within this window. When you log into NEE you will see the menu, simply click on "Teacher Surveys" - you should see a survey for Danny and Sarah.

Please take the time to complete this survey. We take time to look over our results and reflect on our performance.

ELA Curriculum Connection- January

Math Curriculum Connection-January

SS/SC Curriculum Connection- January

February is Black History Month. Please see the below resources shared by Marla Anderson, maybe they will spark some great ideas to celebrate next month.

• 2021 BLACK HISTORY THEME: THE BLACK FAMILY: Representation, Identity, and Diversity (resource/link from ASALH website)
• 20 Black History Month Activities for February and Beyond (resource/link from We are Teachers website)

Recently, the CDC announced changes to its guidance for the length of quarantines for people who have no COVID-19 symptoms.

We are working with the Platte County and Kansas City health departments, who determined that we will use the 10-day option. This means that if someone has no symptoms, they may end their quarantine after 10 days, but they must wear their mask and monitor symptoms for the entire 14 days. Our local health departments decided not to use the CDC’s seven-day option, which would require a test. They said this is due to the high community prevalence and the additional strain on community testing.

We will start this new protocol in Park Hill with any direct exposures that occur on or after December 23.

As COVID-19 vaccines start to become available, we will continue to monitor guidance from the CDC and work with our local health departments. If we find out anything that will impact our school community, we will notify you.

Need some help understanding how to use Microsoft Teams? Click here to visit a tutorial that was put together by the Park Hill Tech Team. The videos are very short and easy to follow!

Needing to brush up on some other technology resources? There is an entire website dedicated to Park Hill Teachers. Click here to explore the resources that are available to you!

Marla Anderson

Ali Baker

Ally Swisher

Melissa Sickman

Sarah McQuinn

Danny Todtfeld

This week at team meetings, we shared that our PBIS Matrix has been reorganized to better align with where Prairie Point is today. Based on staff feedback, most people were ready to move on from "SOAR."

The new PBIS Matrix has been organized to show that:

Proud Pioneers are Expected to:

Be Safe

Be Kind

Be Responsible

And Do Their Best Everyday!

You can preview the draft of our new matrix by clicking here.

Fountas and Pinnell Benchmark assessments are due by Friday, January 22nd. However, you may want this information for report cards, which the 2nd quarter ends on Friday, January 15th. Below is the criteria for who is given an F&P in this Winter Window. While we do not have NWEA scores yet, think about those students who you have concerns about and start with assessing them first. Remember, when in doubt on whether or not to test a student, err on the side of instruction and give a test.

Are you thinking of writing a grant through the education foundation?
If so, the deadline is January 25th @ 5pm.

If you are interested, let Danny know and the applications are located on the PH website!

The A+ Coordinator, Ellen Reys, would like to start a Reading Buddy program between the A+ students and elementary classrooms. Our high school students could Zoom into a class 2-3 times per week to either read to a group of students or the whole class. This may have the potential to expand into math tutoring, or small group help if we can find the right matches.

Logistics

1. Fill out the Request Form
2. Ellen Reys will match the classroom teacher with an A+ student
3. Classroom teacher must communicate with the A+ student about expectations and do a trial run of reading a book online.
4. Reading Program begins!
5. A+ students will keep a log of their volunteer time and classroom teachers will be asked to confirm the total hours.

Reading Buddy Request Form

As we have done for a number of years, any fliers we receive will be uploaded to Prairie Point's E-Backpack can be found on the Prairie Point Website under the "Parent Resources" tab. Click here for a direct link to the E-Backpack.

Please consider reminding your parents about the E-Backpack in your next newsletter.

Our Vision

Prairie Point Elementary School provides all children with a safe, caring educational environment that focuses on high expectations and promotes lifelong learning.

Our Mission

To create a safe and caring student centered environment, to empower students to be independent learners, problem solver, and responsible citizens in the 21st Century.

At Prairie Point School, we value:

• Keeping the focus on the student
• Continuous learning and professional growth
• Warm, caring, open-minded environment
• High expectations for all students and adults
• Team work and collaboration
• Empathetic approach with our actions.