WILDCAT WORD

• October 11: End of Quarter - No School
  
• October 14: No School
• October 14: Football Game vs WR @ WR
• October 15: Cross Country Meet at Shawnee Mission Park
• October 16: Wrestling and Basketball Parent Meeting
• October 16: Parent Teacher Conferences from 5:00-8:00
• October 18: Parent Teacher Conferences from 8:00-4:00 (lunch between 11:30-12:30)
• October 22: Fall Band Concert @ TR
• October 25: Picture Retake Day
• October 30: Wrestling match @ SMN

Click Here to access the SMSD Calendar

Click Here for Trailridge's Athletics Calendar

Greetings, Wildcats,

It is hard to believe that we are wrapping up our first quarter. We ended the week with our quarter celebration day and all-school picnic. We could not have asked for better weather, and our students seemed to really enjoy the day.

Next week, we will have conferences on Wednesday night and during the day on Friday. Wednesday night will be on a first-come, first-served basis, while Friday will be by appointment only. If you would like to schedule an appointment with one of your student's teachers, please reach out to them, and they will get you scheduled. Also, please make sure you are using Canvas to monitor your student's progress in their classes.

Also, this week's newsletter contains a lot of important information and flyers of upcoming events. This includes information on picture retake day, vaccinations, an upcoming PTA guest speaker and more. Please scroll through to see the added information!

Thank you for such a wonderful week!

Sincerely,

Matt, Cara and Ericka

Trailridge Middle School Administration

#ShowUpShowOut!

We are excited to announce our annual Career Fair for the 24/25 school year and are seeking enthusiastic volunteers to help make the event a success! If you have a passion for guiding students and sharing your professional experiences, we would love to have you join us. Your support will inspire our students as they explore various career paths. Below is a flyer with more information as well as a QR code linked to our sign up sheet.

Our student highlight will run throughout the year to showcase the amazing things our talented students are doing outside of the school day. Examples may include community service, sports accomplishments, awards, and more! If your student is involved in something that deserves recognition, please email Mr. Engler at matthewengler@smsd.org with a short description and a few pictures.

Dear Families,

We thank you and your family for being our valued partners as we work together to educate our students. As you may already be aware, building our social-emotional learning skills is an important goal for our school this year. On October 28th and 30th your student(s) will be completing the Panorama survey to better understand these concepts and to reflect on how they perceive these skills in themselves. Consent to complete these surveys was included with online enrollment. If you did not give consent your student will not participate.

We will be asking for your child to reflect on their own mindsets and approaches to learning via an online survey they will be completing during Wildcat Hour and will not impact any academic learning time. The survey shouldn’t take more than 20 minutes to complete.

We are asking that all of our students participate in the surveys, as their responses will provide invaluable insights into their experiences and how we can improve and adapt our district to their needs. If a student doesn’t feel like they have enough information to answer a question, they will be able to skip the item altogether. The responses to these surveys will be completely confidential. We are partnering with a third-party vendor to support us in administering these surveys.

If you have any questions about the Panorama survey, please don’t hesitate to contact us!

Have a great weekend!

• Elisabeth Johnsrud (8th Grade Counselor) elisabethjohnsrud@smsd.org
• Kristin Warner (7th Grade Counselor) kristinwarner@smsd.org
• Anna O'Connor (School Social Worker) annaoconnor@smsd.org

This past week was National Bullying Prevention Week. Our Wildcat hours defined bullying and learned ways to respond when it’s happening. Please visit CharacterStrong’s website to learn more information about how to recognize and respond to bullying.

Here is a video from CharacterStrong.

Trailridge Athletics Information

24-25 School Year Physicals

Student athlete physicals for the 2024-2025 school year must be completed after May 1st, 2024. Here is the updated KSHSSA Physical Packet that must be completed. Please note that the date on the bottom right-hand corner of the form is 3/2024. Every physical packet turned in must be using the updated packet. If you have any questions, please contact Ericka Corrado at erickacorrado@smsd.org.

Student Athlete Handbook

Attached is the Trailridge Student Athlete Handbook. This handbook reviews policies and procedures for being an athlete at Trailridge. Please review this handbook at your convenience.

Click Here to access the Trailridge Student Athlete Handbook.

Athletics Calendar

Be sure to visit our calendar page, and download the app to stay up to date on all Trailridge athletic activities: CLICK HERE

FOOTBALL

BYE WEEK

VOLLEYBALL

Monday, Sept. 30 Trailridge (HOME) vs. Indian Hills. 5:00, 6:15, 7:30 PM

Wednesday, Oct. 2 Trailridge (AWAY) @ Indian Woods. 5:00, 6:15, 7:30 PM

CROSS COUNTRY

Tuesday, Oct. 1 Trailridge (AWAY) @ Indian Woods 5:00 PM

WRESTING, GIRLS BASKETBALL, BOYS BASKETBALL PRE-SEASON PARENT MEETING

Wednesday, Oct. 16 4:45 PM in the MPR (prior to parent/teacher conferences)

WRESTLING

Our wrestling team will practice at Trailridge this year. First day of practice begins October 17. Wrestling is open to 7th and 8th grade boys and girls.

GIRLS BASKETBALL

First day of tryouts/practice begins October 21.

BOYS BASKETBALL

First day of tryouts/practice begins January 6.

Contact Information

Athletic Director: Ericka Corrado, erickacorrado@smsd.org

Athletic Coordinator: Kelsey McCall kelseymccall@smsd.org

Football: Larry Benson, larrybenson@smsd.org

Volleyball: Reece Lovitt, reecelovitt@smsd.org

Cross Country: Michael Scott, michaelscott341@smsd.org

Wrestling: Justin Andrews, justinandrews387@gmail.com

Girls Basketball: Rachael Baumgartner, rachaelbaumgartner@smsd.org

Boys Basketball: Brandon Hoch, brandonhoch212@smsd.org

Boys and Girls Soccer: Ben Archacki benjaminarchacki@smsd.org

Athletic Trainer: Josh Hardy, jhardy2@kumc.edu

Middle School Events:

Students that would like to attend athletic events need to be accompanied by a parent/guardian for the duration of the event. We do not have a Pep Club at this time, so students are expected to sit with the parent/guardian that accompany them to games. This applies to home and away games and all games played at district stadiums. Students should not be dropped off or left without a parent/guardian chaperone at athletic events.

High School Events:

If your student plans to attend a high school sporting event, the cost is $5 per student. Free admission is only for high school students with a school ID. Any middle school student who does not have the $5 entry fee will not be permitted to enter the game.

Please make sure your student is taking care of their device. Below is the fee structure should the MacBook be unintentionally damaged:

• 1st Incident: $100 charge
• 2nd Incident: $150 charge
• 3+ Incident: ~$750 charge (full device replacement)

If a device is intentionally damaged the student may be responsible for a full device replacement cost of approximately $750.

If you have not logged into your parent portal of Canvas yet, I would highly recommend doing so. Canvas is the learning management system that SMSD uses. It allows you to view assignements, assessments, grades, schedules and many more important items regarding your student's day at Trailridge.

Here is the link on how to access your Canvas parent portal. If you need additional assistance, feel free to contact the office.

Our PTA is very active in supporting students and staff at Trailridge through grants, assemblies, student activities and celebrations, and more and while our events and activities will undoubtedly look different this school year, our commitment to supporting our students, staff, and families is as strong as ever! Please consider joining and getting involved in your Trailridge PTA as we find new and creative ways to support our students, staff, and families in 2024/2025!

The Trailridge Spirit Wear Store is live!! Visit the PTA website for a link to the store and to check out all of our new designs! Items are shipped directly to you and you can order anytime.

Please use the link or the QR Code to access the PTA website:

https://www.trailridgepta.org

Attendance Line: 913 993-1012

If your child is going to miss a class for an appointment or any reason, please make sure you are calling the attendance hotline listed above and leave a message for the attendance clerk. This is important so that we can excuse the absence.

Early Pickup for Appointments:

If your student will need to be picked up early, please call the main office (913-993-1000) when you are on the way to pickup your student. We will immediately call them down so that they are ready when you arrive. Please avoid calling too far in advance.

INFORMATION ABOUT TRUANCY

The administration of Trailridge may begin to request documentation for all absences after the 10th absence in a school year. Absences without a doctor's note or administrative approval may be recorded as unexcused. A student with three consecutive unexcused absences, five unexcused absences in a semester, or seven unexcused absences in a year is considered TRUANT according to Kansas State statues. A truancy report may be filed with the Johnson County District Attorney's office.

We have now enabled the ability for parents and guardians to report student absences online through Skyward. If reported through Skyward, you would not need to call the attendance line or office to report. Multiple schools and families have reported this system is very easy to do and quicker. We hope it makes reporting absences easier for our families as well.

Below are the step-by-step procedures on how to do that.

• FRONT OFFICE 913 993-1000
• SECRETARY: Angie Marsh 913-993-1002
• ATTENDANCE CLERK: Francy Johnson 913 993-1012 (Absences should be reported by 9:30 AM)
• SPANISH INTERPRETER: 913 993-1062 Ms. Veronica Simonetti
• DS BUSING: 913 384-1190
  
• BOOKKEEPER: Ms. Gina Bristow 913 993-1003
• NURSE: Ms. Darla Denny 913 993-1007

Email: trailridge@smsd.org
Website: trailridge.smsd.org
Location: 7500 Quivira Road, Shawnee Mission, KS 66216
Phone: (913) 993-1000
Facebook: facebook.com/trailridgemiddle
Twitter: @Wildcats512