001welcome USD 264 parents patrons staff community members and anyone that's watching this on YouTube uh Welcome to our year uh as we get started in year number two for me and the school year getting kicked off uh so we want to welcome you to August of 2024 in our Volume 11 of clear water Clarity I hope the summer found you to have a restful and relaxing summer and as we gear back up and get started uh we are excited and we had many projects going on and we're going to update you today on some upcoming activities uh but as we always do we always want to start with understanding kind of the why why are we doing this so again our Clear Water Clarity we're trying to provide some really consistent relevant communication which is
002uh part of our strategic plan so we want to make sure everyone understands why we're providing this information um and then next we're going to really talk about what what are we going to do so we're going to really share some important dates and times and some upcoming things as we get started here in August today and then finally how can we all go together and working as one team one family and one District to achieve uh some of these goals so really we're looking at the what part is we're going to welcome back we have a new year but we have uh same expectations so we're really going to talk about some of those opportunities that we have uh and welcoming everybody back to the new year um so what we're going to be
003able to look at here first is just some important uh dates as we get started so in August our new staff new certified staff will start on August 6 so we're going to welcome about 13 new uh staff members some of them not really new some of them just transitioning positions uh within the district some moving from some pair of positions into the classrooms uh so we're excited about that and they will be reporting on August 6th then all staff uh certified and classified will start on August 9th and we will have our convocation uh we are also excited to welcome Mr Buddy Barry of imminence uh schools out of Kentucky to come be our Kyo speaker that day uh he is a very exciting entertaining and energetic speaker and he's going to talk about
004how to set our schools on fire not literally uh but figuratively with some of the things that we can do to make sure students want to come to school make sure they're engaged when they're at school and making sure that we're all having a good time uh students first day is August 15th so we're really looking forward to that opportunity for students to get the day started uh on that Thursday and then fall practices for All Sports whether it's cross country football um volleyball and all other sports will start on August 19th uh also we've got open houses and meet the teacher nights that will be starting the week of August 12th and then the last thing we really want to talk about is we started pre-enrollment or enrollment back in May so that we
005could use that data to help us set for our non-resident enrollment policy that we were required to do by the state and then as of uh this point in time now we need to start finishing our enrollment and paying our fees so we can really solidify our numbers and organize our class sizes so if you haven't had the opportunity to enroll yet uh please do uh you can go to usd26.28 Power School Parent Portal and get started uh at that point in time if you do have any questions please reach out to your uh building's office whether it's at CW Sims or at the high school uh some of the things that we're going to talk about that are changes for this year where we have some same expectations but we have a little bit
006of different uh changes uh first is the response to behavior so as we reviewed previously last year uh the board adopted and approved a response to behavior plan a four tier plan uh that all buildings will be enacting this year and be utilizing for uh helping to understand how to respond to behavior and what are some minor and or major conse or major behaviors and what are the potential consequences uh for those so if you have some questions about that or uh don't remember what we discussed last spring uh please review the student handbooks uh as you're going through this year uh next thing that we're going to talk about is attendance changes uh for 2425 so next month's uh Clear Water Clarity will go into more depth and more Det detail but what we
007do know is that students that Miss 10% or more of schools are considered chronically absent and when students are chronically absent um their ability to graduate on time with their peers their ability to stay on track with their peers academically as well socially starts to dramatically fall off and so we're going to start uh having some stronger communication practices between the buildings and parents as to how many dates uh students have missed um and so we'll be able to go over that more in depth in detail and really talk about the import importance of making sure students are coming to school now again some of these attendance pieces do are only for uh non-academic reasons so students are absence due to Athletics due to U FCCLA uh due Scholars Bowl forensics things like that school
008activities that does not count against their attendance these are only for non-academic reasons such as being sick out of town um vacations those types of things and so we'll talk again more in depth about that next months uh doing that uh there are some unique differences in each building a little bit with some of the attendance and the behavior in terms of the response so do make sure that you check with each building about those specific changes uh but for the most part all three buildings have the same language in terms of um how many days are allowed to be missed before we we start requiring doctor's notes Andor notes from wherever the visit was uh to and also the same thing with our four tiers of behavior with having two minors and two major
009uh levels the last thing that was really kind of a change as we get started it'll be for the class of 2028 so it's this year's freshman and younger there were some graduation requirement changes that were made by ksde um we approved those back in March February and March of last year um the changes do not change a whole lot for uh USD 264 a lot of the main changes are going to be around financial literacy is required for all students now instead of uh as an optional class um you also have to take three and a half credits um of electives that are geared toward boards their individual plan of study um and so there's some of those unique changes that we'll be going through and so the counselors at the high school will
010be able to help students with that as well when so here's some important dates as we're coming up uh getting started through these first couple weeks in August the first one that we really want to mention is August 13th so Elementary West will have their Meet the Teacher Night at 5:00 P PM uh so please come out and meet the teacher uh be able to drop off your um school supplies in the room and see the building and then be able to also visit with Mrs loots and her staff as well as I'll plan on being there that night as well if you want to come up and visit with me also on uh August 13th the high school and middle school fall Sports parent meeting will be happening at the high school in the
011High School auditorium starting at 6 pm. so if you have a son or daughter that is participating in a fall sport this year for the high school or the middle school you'll be encouraged to attend that also on August 14th uh cims Intermediate Middle School will be having their open house starting at 5 :30 p.m. so we encourage all families and students to be able to attend that on August 14th also the Freshman uh CHS freshman so that class of 2028 will be having their orientation from 8:00 a.m. to noon and so all freshman will be going through that time as the National Honor Society and stuco members uh take the students through some morning activities to get them used to the building and get them excited about coming to school and then August 15th
012and 16th so that Thursday and Friday while everyone is starting school uh prek will be having their meet the teacher time for prek parents and students to be able to come in and take a look at the building and meet their teachers uh for that as we mentioned we're also excited to say that we added a fifth section of prek um due to the amount of numbers that we have so we will actually be having three morning sections of prek and two afternoon sections of prek we're excited about that growth um there so this year our theme has changed a little bit we're still sticking with uh being one uh so we're still one team one family one District as our vision statement is but this year we're going to focus on being one degree
013more and we're really referencing the difference there between 211° F and2 degrees Fahrenheit so 21 degrees Fahrenheit water is extremely warm but it doesn't do anything it's just hot at 22 degrees when water starts to boil that one degree difference it can power a steam engine and make a a you know massive locomotive move and so that's what we're talking about this year is we want to be one degree more take ourselves one degree more so we can move from just hot water to Boiling Water and Power steam engine again if you have any questions or if you'd ever like to visit just contact me my email address is there my office phone number is there also you can follow us on Twitter to be able to kind of keep up with updates and as
014always our social media on Facebook Instagram and Twitter from the district is constantly updated with new information so we look forward to getting the school year started year two for me uh I'm also excited about this opportunity of now being in the community for a year now being here full-time and being able to understand uh what the Community Values and be able to continue to strive for greatness and Achieve our strategic plan goals that the board has set so again thank you and have a great time and we will hope to see everybody out at open houses and meet the teacher nights