Teachers: All teachers return tomorrow, August 11th.

Classified Staff: All classified staff members received communication from me or Morgan with your 2023-24 work hours. If you did not receive this communication, please let us know. If you are interested in attending any of our pre-service days below, please reach out to Vanna or Morgan. We would LOVE to welcome classified staff to any of these meetings!

CONVOCATION: Tuesday, August 15th @ Hyvee- Arena @ 7:30 am. (refreshments will be available at 7:30 am)

• ALL staff are required to attend this event!
• Wear Graden New Leadership Shirt
• We will sit together (a seating chart below)

MORNING:

8:00 am - 11:00 am - Welcome Back to School

We will begin our meeting in the Graden gym promptly at 8:00 am on Monday, August 14th. Snacks and drinks will be available throughout the day. We will welcome everyone back, introduce new staff, engage in teambuilding, and dive into PBIS with Cari Gittemeier and ELD training with Jessica Elfrink from 8:00 am - 11:15 am.

11:15 am - 12:15 pm - Lunch on Your Own

AFTERNOON:

12:30 pm - 3:30 pm - Graden and Prairie Point Collaboration @ Prairie Point

All certified staff will meet at Prairie Point at 12:30 pm for an afternoon of collaboration, learning, and fun. We will begin our afternoon in their gym and then will move into an hour of "choose your own" PD.

• Please access the PD flier below to see the professional development choices for the afternoon.
• To help us plan for locations, please access the PD sign-up below and let us know what two sessions you will attend during this time. You will be able to change your mind on the 14th, but having a list prior will help us determine room size.

2:30 pm - 3:30 pm - Team Building at Chicken and Pickle

All certified staff will meet upstairs at Chicken and Pickle to engage in some healthy competition and teambuilding. We will team up in grade level/work group teams (with Prairie Point) and play music BINGO. Certified staff are required to attend until 3:30 pm, but can stay after and continue the fun if you would like. Music BINGO will go until 4:30 pm

***Appetizers WILL be provided

Please dress comfortable for this day!

What to Bring:

Laptop

Something to Write With

Collaborative Spirit

AFTERNOON:

Staff will have department meetings from 12:30 pm - 3:00 pm Find your workgroup and location below.

Classroom Teachers:

K-3 will engage in an hour of Reading Fluency PD and then move into grade level department meetings. All grade level teams are required to meet together this afternoon and work in their teams. Please ensure you schedule time to work on and complete the items below:

• Setup PBIS Rewards - PBIS Rewards How To
• Create a PBIS Rewards Store
• Complete Grade Level Schedule and Send to Vanna, Nikki, Angy, and Morgan. This will be placed in our Graden Shared Google Drive (Graden Hub) for our special services department
• Watch What is Dyslexia video
• Plan/Project for the Year

3:45 pm: Maria Rusboldt's Baby Shower (See Invitation Below)

District level professional development from 8:00 am - 3:30 pm. You may wear jeans this day. Lunch will be on your own from 11:30 am - 1:00 pm.

K-2 - Hopewell

3-5, Specials, SPED - Tiffany Ridge

Access the link below to view logistics, locations, and expectations for the day. Morgan will be at Hopewell and Vanna will be at Tiffany Ridge.

Thursday will be an ALL DAY WORK DAY for staff. We will welcome all of our families back for Back to School night from 5:30 pm - 7:00 pm (see below).

Dress comfortable to work in your room.

Wear your new yellow Strive in the Hive shirt and jeans for Back to School night.

Back-to-School night will be Thursday, August 17th. Students and their families will come to Graden anytime between 5:30 pm - 7:00 pm to visit the building, meet you, see their classroom and drop off supplies.

Dinner will be provided at 4:00 pm. Access the meal choice communication from Nikki and let her know what you would like.

Date: Thursday, August 17th

Times: 5:30 pm - 7:00 pm

Who: All students K-5th grade and their families

What to Wear: Strive in the Hive Graden Shirt

Staff Expectations:

• All certified staff should plan to attend
• Classroom teachers will be in their classrooms greeting families
• Other staff will be assigned a location in the building to greet/direct families (see chart below)

MORNING:

We will begin our time at 8:00 am in the gym on Friday, August 18th. Snacks and drinks will be available throughout our time together. We will engage in AVID Year 2 Training, Equity and Inclusion PD, go through our beginning of the year nuts and bolts and provide an opportunity for you to select your 2023-24 BSIP team.

Afternoon:

Work Time

Dress comfortable for the day

What to Bring:

Something to write with

Charged Laptop

All certified staff need to complete a professional development plan (PDP) through the NEE system. There are two building PDP options this year - PBIS and AVID. If you would like to use the PBIS or the AVID plan, please access your choice below and copy/paste the information into the NEE system. You may choose your own topic. If you choose to design your own PDP, please meet with Morgan or Vanna prior to submitting for approval.

PDPs are due Friday, September 15th.

***Remember to save and then save and submit.

Class lists will be sent home to all families that have proven residency on Monday, August 14th. You will find the pink and blue forms in your mailbox when Angy completes class placement for your class. All teachers will have access to updated class lists today.

**** I know that you are eager to create class lists, name tags, labels, etc. but please try to wait until the 14th or later to complete these items on your to do lists as there may be changes to lists.

Below you will find the link to our daily lunch count document. Each morning please take roll in Infinite Campus and complete lunch count by 9:30 am each day. The lunch count document can be found in our Graden Shared Google Drive (Graden hub below). Access the document and pin it to your taskbar for quick, daily access.

Morgan splits her time between Graden and Hawthorn. Each week our bulletin will have her schedule included so that you know where she will be.

Certified staff are required to attend a total of 6 evening activities for the school year. This year each certified staff member will have an opportunity to sign up for evening events to fulfill this requirement.

The Sign-Up Genius below has evening activities from which to choose for the 2023-24 school year. Each certified staff member is to sign up for enough activities to equal a total of 6 evening activities for the school year.

Please keep in mind that attendance at the following events counts toward the 6 evenings and are mandatory for the staff identified below:

1. Back-to-School Night 8/17/23 (all teachers)
2. Parent Orientation 9/7/23 (all teachers)
3. Grade Level Music Program (grade level teachers)
4. Spring Showcase/Art Fair/Book Fair 3/13/24 (all teachers)
5. Carnival 4/25/24 (All staff EXCEPT for kindergarten)
6. 5th Grade Parade TBD (5th grade teachers)
7. Kindergarten Kick-Off 5/2/24 (Kindergarten, Specials, SPED, Building Support)

Evening events included in the Sign-Up Genius that fulfill the 6 evening activities are:

1. PTA Meetings
2. Mathletics Competitions

***Kindergarten through fourth grade teachers, SPED, Specials, Building Support please sign-up for 1 event.***

Are you interested in hosting a club this school year?

All certified and classified staff members can host clubs. Your club can be something you are passionate about that will help you connect with our Hornets outside of the classroom. At this time, we are looking for general interest in club sponsorship, not a formal commitment. Clubs can have a mixture of students from different classes and grade levels. Some ideas include:

• soccer, basketball, volleyball
• dance
• No Place For Hate
• books and breakfast
• trading cards
• gardening club
• mindfulness/yoga
• board games
• celebration club

Certified staff now have 3 personal business days to use for the year. There is a slight change to approval for personal business. Personal business leave must be pre-approved through WillSub 48 hours prior to the leave. If leave is requested less than 48 hours before, a formal email will need to be sent to Dr. Dillon and Vanna for approval.

Mark your calendars! Graden Happy Hour at Johnny's Tavern on Friday, August 25th at 4:45 pm.

Please enter all absences into willSub as soon as you know of your absence.

Please ensure that you have recorded a voice prompt in willSub. Without a voice prompt, the substitutes do not hear a grade level or subject and most will not accept the job if they do not know this information. This is an expectation for all teachers and needs to be completed before the first day of school. Directions for how to record a voice prompt are below.

On June 22, the Board of Education voted to approve changing the start and end times for schools in the Park Hill School District. This impacts Graden by moving back the end of our day by 10 minutes. Click here to see a summary document from the Board Meeting.

We will NOT be making significant changes to our master schedule. This additional time will allow you to focus on AVID components, closing meetings, goal setting reflection, etc. We will begin dismissal around 3:55 pm.

• Plan for all back to school trainings and meetings
• Read the weekly bulletin each week
• Place all required posters and items in your classroom (See Above)
• Join us to Celebrate Maria and Allison
• Complete all items listed above on August 15th.
• Sign-Up for two session to attend on August 14th when we partner with Prairie Point
• Sign-Up for your 6th required evening event
• Work with your team to prepare for Back to School Night
• Consider hosting a club
• Plan to join us at Johnny's Tavern on Friday, August 25th at 4:45 pm to celebrate the first week of school
• Begin thinking about your Certified PDP

4th: Tiffany Wilson & Sara Chen

9th: Shelby Cronin

10th: Melany Smith

29th: Jen Koyn

Student Contact Hours: 9:10 am -4:10 pm

• Doors open at 8:55 am
• Dismissal begins at 3:55 pm

Certified Staff Hours: 8:45 am -4:25 pm