The Compass Notes for Families

Monday, September 5: No School- Labor Day

Thursday, September 8: School Picture Day

Wednesday, September 14: 2-Hour Early Out at 1:50 pm

Friday, October 7: Homecoming Early Out at 12:50 pm

Monday, October 10: No School for Students

Wednesday, October 19: 2-Hour Early Out at 1:50pm

Friday, October 28: Report Cards go Home

Saturday, October 29: Compass Trunk or Treat

Wednesday-Thursday, November 2 & 3: Parent/Teacher Conferences

Friday, November 4: No School for Students

We would love any volunteers to help in our cafeteria this next week, if you are available!

Click the sign-up link below to come in and assist our students in the cafeteria. You will need to bring your ID and check-in with the front office upon arrival.

If you are a car rider in the morning, please pull all the way around to the last 'lettered' spots on the sidewalk.

Please try to arrive as close to 3:35 as possible. We don't have students dismissing from their classrooms until 3:33. This will help alleviate the backup of our car rider line onto Kentucky.

Our car rider times change each quarter!

1. Families with car rider tags 1-35 arrive at Compass no earlier than 3:35.

2. Families with car rider tags 26-70 arrive at Compass no earlier than 3:40.

3. Families with car rider tags 71-105 arrive at Compass no earlier than 3:45.

4. Families with car rider tags 106- higher arrive at Compass no earlier than 3:50.

• Bricks4Kidz

Wednesday, Sept 14 - Oct 19
7:30 - 8:30 am

• 4-H Art Club

Tuesday, Sept 13 - Oct 18

3:50 - 4:40 pm

• Animal Kingdom

The Platte County School District has several part time positions open as well as full time classified positions available. Specificially related to Compass Elementary, we have 2 Lunch Monitor positions open as well as a Paraprofessional position open.

Salary may vary depending on experience.

The hours for the Lunch Monitor position would be from 10:30-1:30.

If you are interested, please check out the district website for more information, under the "Careers" heading.

First Home Football Game and Pirates ROCK Community Tailgate - Friday, August 26

Friday, August 26 is the Pirates first home football game (Pirate Stadium, 7 p.m. kickoff). Before the game, Price Chopper in Platte City is hosting our Pirates ROCK Kickoff and Community Tailgate! Come join the community before the Pirates take on the Kearney Bulldogs for the Highway 92 Showdown. Tailgate is from 5-7 p.m.; performances by PCHS drumline, cheerleaders, and dance team from 5-6 p.m. Free hot dogs, chips, water, popcorn, and FUN!

Pirate football games are a time for us all to gather and enjoy some fantastic company and great sports. Please remind your students that the football stadium is an extension of the classroom, and appropriate behavior and good sportsmanship are expected.

Due to our construction, the North Gate at Pirate Stadium will be the only entry. Click here for complete football gameday information.

Football game reminders: As we gear up for our first home football game at Platte County High School, we want to remind all middle school and elementary parents that their students need to be accompanied by an adult to enter Pirate Stadium. There will be a section where middle school students can sit with their friends at the south end of the stadium and we ask that all elementary students be supervised by an adult at all times. We want our students to be there, be loud, be proud and cheer on their Pirates, but in a way that respects all in attendance. Thank you and GO PIRATES!

We are starting our Sign-Up Genius for visitors during lunch!

Below is the link to the Sign-Up Genius if you want to eat with your student(s) during lunch!

The 2022-2023 Parent/Student Handbook is below in a PDF attachment. Please review this document with your student(s).

The last page of the handbook will be sent home in your student's 'take home folder' on Friday night (the 26th). Please sign it with your student, and return it to school. We are collecting these to ensure families have read and understand our policy handbook for the current school year.

The handbook is also located on the district website. It is linked below.

If you have missed a previous Parent/Family Compass Newsletter, please click on the link(s) below to take you to our previous newsletters.

• July 29, 2022
• August 12, 2022
• August 18, 2022

There is one Wednesday every month when we dismiss two hours early for district staff meetings. During a 2 hour early dismissal, car riders and walkers will be dismissed at 1:33 p.m. Bus riders are dismissed at 1:50 p.m.

If you are picking your child up as a car rider, please do not arrive prior to 1:20 p.m.

We believe that birthdays are an important time in a child’s life. However, for several reasons including increased food allergies, preservation of the instructional day, and student equality, students are not allowed to bring treats from home or a store or have flowers/balloons or other items delivered to the classroom for birthdays, going-away parties, or other personal events. If a student receives a delivery at school, the student will be notified to come to the office to view the item. Parents will be responsible for transporting the item home. Birthday party invitations may only be distributed if invitations are given to every student in the class.

Our number one goal for arrival and dismissal is to get students from and to their cars safely. Our second goal for arrival and dismissal is to keep as many cars off of Kentucky Avenue as possible. It is important that we do not have a back up to the round-a-bout on 4th street. Crowding the round-a-bout could cause an issue should emergency personnel need to get through that area in the event of an emergency. We continue to take measures to absorb as much traffic onto our own property and off of Kentucky as possible. We are asking for a few things during arrival and dismissal to help us out:

1-Please don't arrive at school prior to 8:20, preferably 8:25. This will help the back up of traffic waiting to start the opening of car doors in the morning. We will not start opening doors prior to 8:30 so you will be waiting if you arrive earlier.

2-If you arrive before 3:25 p.m. at dismissal, we will direct cars to enter our drive way and continue past the school and line up at the yield sign that is located on the drive exiting the school. We recommend that you not arrive before 3:25 p.m. Please reference the map below for car rider drop off and pick up.

3-We have spoken with the Platte City Police Department and they have asked that In the event that traffic does get backed up into the round-a-bout, please do not proceed into the round-a-bout until traffic progresses to the point that you will be able to make it fully back out of the round-a-bout. If the round-a-bout is clear, emergency vehicles will be able to make their way through. If the round-a-bout is blocked, this could cause a major issue for them. Please take turns as best you can when entering the round-a-bout when traffic is full and be aware of blocking the area.

To try and evenly spread out our flow of traffic for car dismissal we will implement the following rotation below. We are going to be using a tiered dismissal process. We understand that this may take a day or two to work through the process, but we feel that this can help to alleviate the backup of traffic on to Kentucky and into the roundabout.

To implement this rotation we are asking for the following:

1. Families with car rider tags 1-35 arrive at Compass no earlier than 3:35 pm.
2. Families with car rider tags 36-70 arrive at Compass no earlier than 3:40 pm.
3. Families with car rider tags 71-105 arrive at Compass no earlier than 3:45 pm.
4. Families with car rider tags numbered higher than 105 arrive at Compass no earlier than 3:50 pm.

We will rotate this schedule quarterly so that different numbers have the opportunity to arrive earlier. It is very important that we follow this schedule as arriving early will result in traffic becoming backed up onto Kentucky and into the roundabout. We do not release students to vehicles until 3:35 pm, so arriving too early simply creates a line of traffic that can not move because students are not being released yet.

There are two other processes that will help us in our efficiency while supporting the needs of our families. We have designated the lettered loading zones for families:

• Who need time to buckle their child in a car seat or need to get out of their vehicle to help their child.
• Whose child has not yet arrived at their number, but the car line is moving forward.

We want to try and make this process efficient for all of our families and honor your time with a safe, simple, and effective process that will get our dismissal process completed while also respecting the need to minimize the traffic on Kentucky Ave. We sincerely appreciate your help with this process and if you have questions, please feel free to contact our office at 816-858-0172.

Electronic communication devices (such as cell phones, personal gaming devices, and smart watches) should remain in backpacks while students are in the school building. Failure to comply may result in a disruption to the learning environment. In those situations, electronic communication devices may be taken to the office for a parent or guardian to pick up.

After Labor Day, parents will have the option to sign up to come have lunch with their student. At this time, all visitors will be asked to check in with the office upon arrival at school prior to entering the school. Hall Pass Visitor Management system has been installed in all of our schools to improve overall building safety/security and visitor management. The Hall Pass Visitor Management system will:

• Conduct a screening on each visitor using the sex offender registry

• Will log in volunteers to track their hours

• Will be used to document late arriving students.

Whenever any non-student or non-district employee requests to enter any area of the building where children are accessible, essentially beyond the front office, they will be asked to produce a government issued ID:

• State driver’s license

• State issued ID

• Passport

• US Military ID

• Permanent resident card

The ID will be scanned and a badge will be given to visitors. This process is key to continuing to maintain and improve a safe and caring environment for our students and staff. A visitor’s badge needs to be worn at all times while visiting the school.

We want families to stay connected to all Compass information. We invite you to use the buttons below to visit our social media and platforms.

You can always pick up the phone and give us a call anytime. The school number is 816.858.0172. If you have a specific question for administration, please email us at archerk@platteco.k12.mo.us (Dr. Kimberly Archer, Principal) or pagea@platteco.k12.mo.us (Mrs. Allison Page, Assistant Principal).

Each day, students will have a 25 minute lunch in the Compass Cafeteria. Each morning students will be asked to select from the following:

• Home Lunch
• Salad
• Hot Lunch Choice 1
• Hot Lunch Choice 2

The daily lunch menu can be found on Nutrislice (through our website) and costs for school lunch are as follows:

• Elementary Lunch: $2.60
• Reduced Price Lunch: $0.40
• Extra Milk or Milk by itself: $0.55

Students that bring a home lunch may bring items that contain peanuts or tree nuts. We will have a separate allergy table for each classroom grouping to avoid any issues. If you are sending your child with a home lunch, please help us ensure an efficient and positive experience by double checking that the items included are largely items that your student can open independently.

The Platte County R-3 School District has established best practices regarding extremely high or low temperatures as these relate to outdoor and indoor recess. The guidelines are:

• Indoor Recess will be held when the temperature or heat index is above 95 degrees Fahrenheit
• Indoor Recess will be held when the temperature or wind chill is below 20 degrees Fahrenheit

Here are some tidbits of important information about Compass Elementary:

Our SUMMER office hours (beginning on 8/2/21-8/13/21) are 8:00-4:00.

Regular school day office hours run from 8:15 am - 4:30 pm.

• Students can enter the building: 8:30 a.m.
• Official start of school-8:50 a.m.
• Dismissal-Car Riders, Walkers and Y-Club-3:33 p.m.
• Dismissal-Bus Riders-3:50 p.m.
• Two hour early release days-Dismissal starts exactly two hours earlier from above times.

The District, as well as Compass Elementary, uses text messaging and automated phone calls to notify parents of upcoming events and days off, school closings due to weather, and emergency situations.

Newly enrolled families will automatically receive an opt-in message from 67587. If you missed it, simply text "Yes" to 67587 to receive these text messages.

Please defer to your teacher's communication regarding snacks in the classroom. All snacks must be peanut/tree nut free (as they will be eaten in classrooms). Please pack your child something that is minimally disruptive to the learning environment and (ideally) something they can open themselves.

Students may always have a water bottle with them in the classroom. Compass is equipped with several bottle refill stations throughout the building. Please note that sodas, sports drinks, etc. are not permitted. Just water, please!

If your child is not going to be at school, please let both the teacher and the front office staff know as soon as possible. If you choose to email, please include multiple people so that in the event that the teacher or one of the front office staff is gone, your message will still be received. Please include the following in your email: classroom teacher, and at least two of the following- schultzd@platteco.k12.mo.us, mascalc@platteco.k12.mo.us and bealla@platteco.k12.mo.us.

In order for our staff to establish lunchroom processes with our students, the first day parents can attend lunch with students is Tuesday, September 6th.

Due to space limitations, this will be on a rotating schedule by grade level and there will be a sign up capping the number of adult visitors each day. Keep your eye out for that Sign Up, coming soon in an upcoming edition of our Parent Newsletter!

Email: archerk@platteco.k12.mo.us
Website: https://www.plattecountyschooldistrict.com/site/Default.aspx?PageID=15
Location: 401 Kentucky Avenue, Platte City, MO, USA
Phone: 816-858-0172
Facebook: Facebook.com/CompassElementarySchool
Twitter: @CompassElemPCR3