The Compass Notes for Families

Dear Compass Families,

We hope this message finds you enjoying a wonderful and restful summer! As the start of the new school year approaches, we are eagerly preparing to welcome your children back to a year filled with learning, growth, and exciting opportunities.

We are excited about the new school year and look forward to partnering with you to make it a successful and enjoyable experience for your child. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to reach out to our office.

Enjoy the remaining days of summer, and we can’t wait to see you soon!

Warm regards,

Mr. White and Mrs. Page

July 31- August 7: New Student Enrollment at Compass 8:00-3:00

July 31: New Student Enrollment at Compass 12:00pm- 7:00pm

August 15: Back to School Night - 4:45-7:00 pm

(Last Names A-F: 4:45-5:30 p.m., G-M: 5:30-6:15 p.m., N-Z: 6:15-7:00 p.m.)

Tuesday, August 20: First Day of School

Monday, September 2: No School- Labor Day

If you need information related to school in Platte County, please see the button below. It will direct you to the Platte County website, specifically for parents!

At this time we are still planning for Back to School Night at Compass. Back to School Night is scheduled for the evening of August 17th. In order to have adequate parking for our families, we would like families to stagger their attendance times based on our students’ last names. The schedule for Back to School Night will be:

Back to School Night Times:

• 4:45-5:30-Students with last names A-F
• 5:30-6:15-Students with last names G-M
• 6:15-7:00-Students with last names N-Z
  

We are hopeful this will continue to make parking on this night easier for our Compass families. The police department has asked that we please do not park on Kentucky Avenue. This is a no parking area and may result in a parking ticket. We don't want this to happen to anyone.

At Back to School Night your child will be able to visit his/her classroom and meet his/her teacher for the upcoming school year. This is also a great time for families to drop off your child’s school supplies. If you have ordered your supplies online, they will be in your child’s classroom at Back to School Night.

You will also be able to deposit lunch money into your child’s account, join PTA, sign up for Y-Club, drop off medicine with the nurse, and browse various community vendors that will be here. We can’t wait to see your child and family as we get the new school year underway!

Our number one goal for arrival and dismissal is to get students to and from 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. 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.

2-If you arrive before 3:25 p.m. at dismissal, we will direct cars to enter our driveway 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 3:30 pm.
2. Families with car rider tags 36-70 arrive at Compass no earlier than 3:35 pm.
3. Families with car rider tags 71-105 arrive at Compass no earlier than 3:40 pm.
4. Families with car rider tags numbered higher than 105 arrive at Compass no earlier than 3:45 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 3:33 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.

Visitors to the building: you will always need to bring your ID with you when you come into the building. We will scan your ID into our safety system Platte County uses to ensure the safety and security of our students.

Enrollment:

Parents of returning and incoming new students: If you haven't already done so, please complete online re-enrollment forms and electronic proof of residency as soon as possible. This will be completed in our new student information system called PowerSchool. Click here to first create a PowerSchool account, then follow the steps to complete the New Student Registration 2024-2025 forms for each student. If you have any questions or need assistance, please contact our office at (816) 858-0172.

**Your child will not receive a 2024-25 teacher assignment until this is completed.**

Please make sure all student immunizations and records are current. We want all students to come to school on the first day and enjoy getting to know their teacher and classmates. The last thing we want to do is to have to send a student home because their immunizations aren't current. However, it is state law that students must be compliant and are not allowed to interact with other students if their immunizations are not in compliance. Mrs. Murphy, our school nurse, thoroughly reviews all shot records at the beginning of each year and will make phone calls to those families whose students are not in compliance. We want to give all families time to get immunizations should they need to prior to the first day of school. If you are unsure, you can contact Mrs. Murphy at 858-0172.

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 whitee@platteco.k12.mo.us (Mr. White, Principal) or pagea@platteco.k12.mo.us (Mrs. Allison Page, Assistant Principal).

Please follow this link to see the school supply lists for each of our grade levels at Compass.

Here are some tidbits of important information about Compass Elementary:

Our SUMMER office hours (beginning on 8/2/24-8/13/25) 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.

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, tylerj@Platteco.k12.mo.us and bealla@platteco.k12.mo.us.

Students will be receiving letters, not postcards, for the reveal of their classroom teacher for this school year. Letters will be sent out August 13th for those families who have completed Proof of Residency.

If you have not completed the Proof of Residency process, please complete prior to receiving this year's class assignment. The timing of the mail delivery may be different for various locations.

The Treasure Chest is our school district resource center. It is a stocked pantry providing food, clothing, toiletries, and other household supplies. All items in the Treasure Chest are free to PCR-3 students and families who participate in the Free or Reduced School Lunch Program. The Treasure Chest is open for shopping every week of the calendar year on Wednesday evenings from 4pm-6pm.

Families must register at the following link or call 816.858.7001 weekly so we can appropriately plan for resources. Once approved, families can drive through at the original Treasure Chest site (in the north parking lot of PCHS). Identification must be provided in order to receive food.

Use the link below to register.

Please take a look below if you are interested in being a Compass Watch D.O.G. this year!

YMCA Y-Club enrollment is underway for the new school year!

The Before and After School Program available to families in the Platte County R-3 School District is Y Club. With Y Club before and after school, children in kindergarten through 5th grade will enjoy and benefit from homework enrichment, physical activity, and small and large group activities with a focus on building community and youth voice and leadership. Full-time and part-time Y Club is available at Compass, along with Y Club on days when school is out of session for inclement weather, seasonal breaks, and other days off (enrollment permitting). Operating hours are each weekday from 6:30 a.m. until school begins, and again after school until 6:00 p.m.

Spots are limited so please complete the 23-24 Y Club Enrollment Form at KansasCityYMCA.org/Yclub to secure your spot.

If you have any questions about the Y Club program, please contact YMCA at 816-360-3390.

Email: whitee@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