Corgi Tales | February 2025

Dear Crossroads Community,

Hello! The month of January flew by with us coming back from Winter Break a week later than anticipated. We really appreciate how well everything went with the snow days and with the AMI days. We had just about 93% of our students complete their choice boards. That is great!

This week we will celebrate our 100th day of school. We are joining our kindergarteners with making it a super day. Be sure to dress up like a superhero or wear superhero shirts, hats, PJs, etc. It's sure to be a BLAST! Each day of this week will have dress up theme days. Please see the image below for all of the details.

Please encourage your children to continue working towards their goals with becoming a better reader and mathematician. Ask them about their iReady MyPath time and how they can increase it by spending time upon it at home.

Please always reach out to your child's teacher if you have any questions or concerns.

Have a great February!

Dr. Damian Fay & Ms. Kristen Henson

damianfay@wsdr4.org

kristenhenson@wsdr4.org

Twitter:@Corgi_Tales

We celebrated our December Leaders of the Month on January 13 and 17. The students were recognized for a variety of reasons, including exceptional behavior, positive attitude, and reaching a goal. We are so proud of the work our students are doing here at Crossroads each and every day!

On January 21, we held our annual Crossroads Spelling Bee. Classroom bee winners from each of our 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade classes participated. They all did a fabulous job!! Join us in recognizing and celebrating our classroom winners and alternates.

We'd also like to congratulate out top 3; Viraj Donthu - 3rd place, Lincoln Teson - 2nd place, and our winner Devagna Chodisetti!!

Dear Parents and Guardians:

The peak of the cold and flu season is upon us and WSD has been experiencing a noticeable increase in illness. We have seen many cases of colds, flu, strep throat, and stomach viruses. The custodians have taken additional measures to increase their cleaning routines. and now we are enlisting your help. To prevent widespread flu in the school, we recommend that your child stay home from school if he/she experiences flu or cold symptoms. To decide whether or not to send your child to school, please consider the following guidelines:

Consider keeping your child at home for an extra day of rest if he/she exhibits the following symptoms:

• Very stuffy or runny nose and/or persistent cough

• Mild sore throat (no fever, no known exposure to strep)

• Headache

• Mild stomach ache

DEFINITELY keep your child at home for treatment and observation with these symptoms:

• Fever (greater than 100 degrees by mouth)

• Vomiting (even once)

• Diarrhea

• Chills

• General malaise or feelings of fatigue, discomfort, weakness or muscle aches

• Congested (wet) or croupy cough

• Lots of nasal congestion with frequent blowing of nose

To help prevent the flu and colds, teach your children good hygiene habits:

• Wash hands frequently

• Do not touch eyes, nose or mouth

• Cover mouth and nose when sneezing or coughing, coughing or sneezing into their bent elbow, not their hands

• Avoid close contact with people who are sick

Colds are the most contagious during the first 48 hours. A child who has a fever should remain at home until “fever free” for a minimum of 24 hours (taking no medications for 24 hours to reduce fever). A child who has started antibiotics needs to be on the medication for 24 hours before being able to return to school. Often when a child awakes with vague complaints (the way colds and flu begin) it is wise to observe your child at home for an hour or two before deciding to send him/her to school. Your child should be physically able to participate in all school activities on return to school. Keeping a sick child at home will minimize the spread of infections and viruses in the classroom. Thank you in advance for helping make the rest of this year at school as healthy as possible.

**If your child is diagnosed with influenza by a physician, please let the office know when calling in your student. We will be tracking it over the next few weeks.

Please reach out if you ever have any questions or concerns. Thank you!

Maddie Whiteaker, RN BSN

School Nurse

amandawhiteaker@wsdr4.org

636-625-4537, extension 44233

Fax 636-445-5324

Yearbooks are on sale now through Friday, February 28 for $16.99. We will have a limited supply of extra yearbooks for sale in May. If you would like to guarantee your child has a 2024-2025 yearbook, please order one online today! All yearbooks must be purchased online or via phone. Go to www.yearbookordercenter.com (#16944) to place your order today or call the order center at 1-866-287-3096!

PTA Update

During Winter Break, the PTA completed a much needed secret refresh of the CRE Teacher's Lounge! They replaced the countertops and sink, purchased a new refrigerator, cleaned and decluttered the room top to bottom. They also set up a hydration station and snack bar area for our teachers to enjoy. The teachers returned to this fresh, new space after the long break and were pleasantly surprised!

If you would like to help keep the lounge stocked with snacks and drinks, please visit the AMAZON link in our bio or go to https://a.co/9LgSm2K

**CORGI STORE***

Tuesday, February 11 during lunch time

Students will have an opportunity to shop at our school store. We will have spirit wear for sale, but most items will be $5 or less. This is a cash only store. If you are interested in spirit wear, our online Corgi Store is always open.

Online Corgi Store

***PTA Meeting***

Wednesday, March 12, 2025, 7 p.m.

Crossroads Elementary Library

***COMMUNICATION***

Keep an eye out for emails, texts and social media posts for more information! Follow us on Facebook and Instagram!

~The Crossroads PTA

This year, WSD's summer school intervention will be held June 3-26 and will be invitation only. Families of students who qualify will be sent an invitation on Feb. 21, and enrollment will be open Feb. 24-March 14. Be on the lookout for more information in February's issue of Inside the WSD and keep an eye out for program invitations later this month.

Be the first to know about the latest WSD happenings by connecting with our school district on social media! Follow Wentzville School District on Instagram @wsdschools for fun and relevant content. You might just stumble upon a spotlight of your student. instagram.com/wsdschools

Pre-K Enrollment for the 2025-2026 school year will begin in February:

• February 10-21: Currently enrolled and returning Pre-K families and WSD employees.

• February 24: All Wentzville School District residents.

To enroll in our tuition-based preschool program, students must be 3 years old by July 31 of the year they are starting preschool.

For more information or to register, please visit the District Website.

All of our car riders and our daycare van riders will go to the gym at the end of the day. Once in the gym, a staff member will call students’ names over the radio for them to come out to meet their vehicle. A staff member will escort students to each car.

PLEASE READ: We are no longer allowing parents to walk up to get their children. You will need to drive through the pick-up line.

We sent home bright orange car tags with all students on their first day of school. Please check with the office if you need a car tag. ***PLEASE USE A THICK MARKER TO FILL THESE OUT***

When you drive through the car lanes, please have the bright orange car tag on your dashboard where we can see the names of your students. If you do not have the car tag, we will have to check your ID, radio the office, and wait for them to clear you before we can call your child out. As you can imagine, this will slow down the process for everyone.

A few other things to keep in mind with this process: Please remember, we do not accept dismissal changes after 3:00 p.m. Also, our primary focus is student safety and 3:20 p.m. is a critical time when children can potentially get lost in the shuffle; it is imperative that we streamline the secretaries’ time to focus only on emergencies that arise. With that in mind, please understand that we will not permit access to the office after 3:20 p.m. to check out a student. Please plan accordingly so we aren’t caught in the position to have to tell you no.

Also, remember that you are responsible for calling in to change if your walker will become a car rider during the days with inclement weather. We no longer send a text message about rainy day dismissals.

The expectation is all parents will have the bright orange car tags ready to go by August 21.

Please review our arrival and dismissal maps below:

Arrival Map

Dismissal Map

Bus Transportation

• Kindergarten students that ride the bus must have an adult at the stop to get their student off the bus at the end of the day
• You must have a picture ID to show the bus driver before your child will be released

Cafeteria Information

• Link to Child Nutrition page on the WSD website
• All meals will be eaten in the cafeteria
• Breakfast served 8:20 am to 8:35 am

Buying Lunch

• Students will enter a lunch pin number
• Teachers have a card with the pin number on it for the first few weeks of school
• Teachers will send home the pin number and a practice number pad

Bringing Lunch

• Label all lunch bags with student name
• Send items students can open by themselves
• Anything opened will be thrown away

Recess Information

• Supervision is provided by our noon duty staff and classroom teachers
• Dress for the weather
• Label clothing items with student name
• Avoid parking along the playground
• Visitors are not allowed at recess

Tips from the office

• All adults visiting Crossroads must sign in at the office and obtain a visitors sticker
• Please have your driver's license ready to sign in to our Raptor system.

• When you arrive in a WSD building as a visitor, you will be asked to scan your ID, take a photo and complete the management system’s check-in process.

• Raptor will screen the information against sex offender databases and locally customized lists of banned or potentially threatening individuals, instantly alert school officials to a threatening presence, and maintain a searchable log of all visitors.

• Once approved, you will get a customized visitor badge to wear while in the building.

• Call the office by 9:15 a.m. if your child is absent
• If your child arrives after 8:35 a.m., please walk them into the office
• The attendance email is: attendance.crossroads@wsdr4.org
• Let the office know of any dismissal changes before 3:00 p.m.
• Students cannot be checked out from the office after 3:20 p.m.
• Be sure to update any changes to your contact information in the office

Parent Portal - FAQs

Focus School Software Parent Portal

24-25 School Calendar

• WSD 2024-2025 Academic Calendar
  

24-25 School Supply List

• WSD School Supply Lists

One of our Crossroads Building Goals this year is focused upon attendance. Our goal is:

Crossroads will improve the proportional attendance rate from 88.2% to 89.4% by the end of the 2024-2025 school year.

The core purpose of having your student at school is so they can benefit from all of the learning opportunities so they can improve and grow!

We want our students to be in attendance this school year as much as possible. While we know perfect attendance is super hard to accomplish, we would like our students to be here between 90-100%. Let’s run the numbers on this. There are 174 school days in the 24-25 school year. So, a student can miss no more than 17.4 days of school in order to make our goal of all students having attendance of 90-100%.

Thank you for taking your child’s attendance seriously. Please check out the image below for a few stats to see what learning a student could miss:

Breakfast K-12 ~ $2.00

Elementary Lunch K-5 ~ $3.10

Reduced Price Meals

Breakfast ~ $0.30

Lunch ~ $0.40

Applications for free & reduced price meals are available here or at any school office. In an effort to assist families as we transition back to paid meals, the USDA has increased the income guidelines used to determine eligibility. Click here to see the income guidelines. If you believe your family would qualify for this program, please fill out an application. Applications can be returned by the following methods:

Returned to your child's school

Scan & email - marysanzottera@wsdr4.org

Fax - 636-327-3961

Mail - Child Nutrition Services, 101 Support Service Dr., Wentzville, MO 63385

If you have questions or need assistance filling out the application, please call our office at 636-327-3858 ext. 21330.

Dear Crossroads Elementary Families,

Throughout the duration of the academic year, the Wentzville School District partners with community agencies that specialize in providing students, families, and educators with preventative education. Agency presenters are credentialed, coordinated through the District, and under the supervision of building administrators. Presentation topics are targeted toward specific grade levels. All students will participate in each program, unless you choose to opt your child out of the lesson(s). If you are interested in opting your student(s) out of presentation(s), please click the appropriate link(s) below.

Kindergarten Opt-Out Form

First Grade Opt-Out Form

Second Grade Opt-Out Form

Third Grade Opt-Out Form

Fourth Grade Opt-Out Form

Fifth Grade Opt-Out Form

If you have additional questions, please reach out directly to your student’s school counselor.

Thank you,

Damian Fay, Principal

Kristen Henson, Assistant Principal

Amy Walton, Counselor K-2

Tim Burkemper, Counselor 3-5

Inclement Weather & AMI Update

As we approach the colder months, we want to re-share the District communication that has information regarding the WSD's inclement weather procedures for the 2024-25 school year. This year, snow days one and two will be traditional snow days. After our second snow day this year, we will switch to AMI (alternative methods of instruction) for snow days three through seven. Read more on what to expect this winter here. View AMI assignments here.

Wentzville Wow Factor Award

Has your child's teacher made a significant impact on their education and life? Do you want to recognize a staff member who goes above and beyond? The WSD rolled out a new way to honor our staff, and it only takes a few minutes to do. Nominate a teacher or employee for a Wentzville Wow Factor Award anytime throughout the school year to let them know they are making a difference! Nominate a Staff Member.

Peachjar

The Wentzville School District cooperates with community groups and organizations that sponsor activities of an educational/enrichment nature for students by distributing materials electronically via Peachjar. You can find our school link here.

February 6

• PTA Dining Night Out - Chick Fil A

February 11

• PTA Executive Board Meeting at 7:00 pm
• Corgi Store Open During Lunch

February 17-18

• No School, President's Day and Professional Development Day

Crossroads Elementary is being recognized as one of the Best Elementary Schools in the country by the US News & World Report. Congratulations to the entire Crossroads staff, students and community on earning the US News & World Report award for being one of the best elementary schools in the country. This is a tremendous honor and all of us should be very proud!