Pathfinder Press

Pathfinder Families,

Can you believe it? August is already here! As the new school year approaches, the excitement is building. This newsletter is bursting with important details about preparing for the year, the First Day of School, and Pathfinder's policies and procedures. We can't wait to see you at Meet the Teacher night this Thursday, August 15th, from 5-7 PM!

-Dr. Bohn & Mrs. Miller

Pathfinder Elementary is so excited to welcome all of the new staff to the building!

Megan Finney- 1st Grade Teacher

Nicki Rockert- 1st Grade Teacher

Christine Paeth- 3rd Grade Teacher

Kylie King- 3rd Grade Teacher

Hannah Prather- 3rd Grade Teacher

Jessica Holman- 4th Grade Teacher

Ray Killion- 4th Grade Teacher

Kaseylee Lewis- 5th Grade Teacher

Lexie Fitch- 5th Grade Teacher

Sam Stuteville- Music

McKenzie Worman- Process Coordinator

Barbara Paeth- Permanent Substitute

Barbara Elliott- Math Interventionist

Pam Dang- Special Education Teacher

Darcy Lippman- Special Education Teacher

Danielle Lewis- Paraprofessional

Erica Tumblin- Paraprofessional

Dillon Humphreys- Behavior Support Specialist

Jacob Schwant- School Resource Officer

Get ready for an exciting year at Pathfinder Elementary, a proud Leader In Me school! Each year, our students pick a fun theme, and this year's theme is "The 7 Habits Are Our Game Plan"—a sports extravaganza! Every student will get a fantastic Leader In Me themed shirt, generously provided by our amazing Pathfinder PTA. These shirts will be worn at student assemblies, when celebrating their Wildly Important Goal (WIG) achievements each quarter, and on Lead Days. We'll be collecting your child's T-shirt size during Back to School Night, so make sure to stop by and give us the details. Let’s make this year the greatest show on earth!

Mark you calendars and "save the date" now for Thursday, August 15th from 5-7 PM for Pathfinder's Meet the Teacher Night.

As we work to continuously improve our processes, we are going to be doing Teacher Reveal Letters a little bit differently this year. Families that have completed the enrollment process and proved their residency will find out who their teacher is for the 2024-25 school year at Meet the Teacher Night! (Think "old school", when you had to press your nose up against the window and try to find your last name on the posted lists!) When you arrive that evening, you will receive your Teacher Reveal Letter on the way down to the classroom. This will be your only time to drop off supplies prior to the start of school.

We are hopeful this change in process will help eliminate frustrations and generate excitement about our Meet the Teacher Night ever! Please note, if you are unable to attend, you will be able to find out your teacher on Friday morning by checking your parent portal.

We can't wait to see you all there!

• If you haven't already, please sign up for the PowerSchool Parent Portal. Parent Portal allows parents access to class schedules, attendance, homework, grades, and will have links to meal payments and fees.
  
• Parents should receive their initial Parent Portal Access ID and Password (for each student) during registration or by calling your child's school.
  
• Click here to create an account and login.
  
• Students will be able to login to Student Portal using their school email address and password.
  
• Click here for a Guide to Parent Portal.

Parents of incoming 4th Graders, we wanted to make you aware that we got approval to add a section of 4th Grade over the summer to reduce class sizes. This means we will have four sections of 4th Grade for the 2024-25 school year, instead of three.

Parents of incoming 5th Graders, we wanted to make you aware that 5th Grade students will not be rotating amongst teachers this school year. In an effort to maintain an elementary environment, strengthen relationships and behavior management with the homeroom teacher, and increase student achievement, 5th Grade students will remain in their homeroom classes for all primary areas of instruction (reading, writing, math, etc.). Similar to prior grade level structures. While this team of teachers may choose to share students for small group intervention and enrichment, we believe that allowing teachers to know their students in all academic areas will result in greater success all around.

Re-enrollment is required for ALL students.

How do I get started?

Log on to your PowerSchool Parent Portal. From the Parent Portal:

1. Select the student you wish to register along the top.
2. Select the Returning Student Registration 2024-25 Icon on the left side.
3. Agree to the terms and conditions.
4. Enter the student's date of birth.
5. Complete forms.

I can’t remember my login for the PowerSchool Parent Portal or have never signed in to Parent Portal.
If you aren’t able to retrieve your login credentials using the “Having trouble signing in?” link on the Sign In page, please contact Laura Hulett at hulettl@platteco.k12.mo.us.

Do I have to answer all the questions?
No, but some questions are marked "Required" and must be answered before you can submit your form.

I’ve completed the form, now what?
Once you have finished entering your information select “Submit.” This will send all of the information you’ve entered to the school. If you cannot select this button you will need to make sure that you have answered all required questions.

What if I have more than one student in the district? Do I need to do this for each child?
Yes, you will need to provide information that is specific to each child. We recommend that you complete and submit one form and then start another. This will allow you to share selected family information, which saves you time.

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 benefit from homework enrichment, physical activity, and small and large group activities with a focus on building community, youth voice, and leadership. Full-time and part-time Y Club is available at each of our elementary buildings (Barry, Compass, Pathfinder, and Siegrist), 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. Registration is now open.

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

The first day of school for the 2024-25 school year will be Tuesday, August 20th!

The first day of school is an exciting time filled with a few tears and possibly a few nervous butterflies. To help ease the anxiety of the first day, we do allow parents to walk their child into school on the first day. We do ask that parents park their cars in one of the parking spots or at Barry-Platte Park and walk over to Pathfinder. We need to make sure the front curb and south curbs are not blocked for our car rider and bus arrivals.

If you are picking your child up at the end of the day, please make sure that has been communicated to the front office and follow our dismissal process. We ask that parents stay in their cars and not walk up to the front of the building or get out of their car to buckle in their child. There is an area specifically designated for buckling up your child once they are loaded in the car. A visual of our dismissal process for car riders is shown below.

If your child is a bus rider, please expect delays the first few days. Our bus drivers will be ensuring that every child is getting on and dismissing at the correct stop. This process will take some time, and on average our afternoon buses are typically delayed approximately 15 to 20 minutes during the first few days of the school year.

Thank you for your patience as we work through the first day processes!

If parking permits, 1-2 parents/guardians may park and walk their child to the classroom door on Tuesday, August 20th (the First Day of School) only! We do ask that parents park their cars in one of the parking spots or at Barry-Platte Park and walk over to Pathfinder. We need to make sure the front curb and south curbs are not blocked for our car rider and bus arrivals.

Staff members will be stationed all throughout the building to assist students in getting to their classrooms. In order to begin our school day in a timely fashion, we will ask that all parents exit the building by 8:55 AM.

Pathfinder's doors will open at 8:30 AM on a daily basis, including on the First Day! If your student is a bus rider, they will be escorted into the building via the south doors. If your student is a car rider, please refer to the map below for our car rider drop off procedure. In order to keep all traffic off of 87th Terrace, we need your help in adhering to this traffic flow! Please stay in your car for both drop off and pick up. Staff members will assist your child out of the car and into the building each morning.

Breakfast will be available from 8:30-8:50 AM in the Pathfinder Cafeteria daily. Students that arrive to the building or the cafeteria past the time of 8:50 AM will bring a grab-and-go breakfast to the classroom. The daily breakfast menu can be found on Nutrislice (through our website) and costs for school breakfast are as follows:

• Elementary Breakfast: $2.00
• Reduced Price Breakfast: $0.30

Students are not permitted to bring breakfast food or drinks from home or outside vendors (QuikTrip, for example) into the building. Please talk with your student about whether or not they should be going to breakfast each day before heading to their classrooms!

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. Pathfinder is equipped with several bottle refill stations throughout the building. Please note that sodas, juices, sports drinks, etc. are not permitted. Just water, please!

Each day, students will have a 25 minute lunch in the Pathfinder 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: $2.80
• 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.

In order for our staff to establish lunchroom processes with our students, the first day parents can attend lunch with students is September 3, 2024. There will be a sign up capping the number of adult visitors each day per grade level. Keep your eye out for that Sign Up, coming soon in an upcoming edition of the Pathfinder Press!

K-12 Payment Center is now Linq Connect, where parents can deposit money for meal transactions. Parents can access Linq Connect through this link or when signing in to PowerSchool Parent Portal. In addition to allowing for better and faster service to students during meal times at school, the online portion of this system allows guardians to set up scheduled meal deposits or deposits to accounts when falling below a certain amount. Please be advised that 2023-24 balances will carry over to 24-25.A transaction fee will be applied based on the amount of funds added. The Fees are 3.95% of the transaction total with a $2.85 minimum to be paid by the parent/cardholder.

To set up your student's account, you'll need their student ID number, which can be found on your Parent Portal. Parents can still deposit money for meal transactions by sending payment via check or cash to their child's school.

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

f your student is a car rider, please refer to the information map below for our car rider pick up procedure.

• Please do not arrive to Pathfinder prior to 3:35 for car rider pick up. We begin dismissal at 3:43 and the line will begin moving at that time.
• Enter the car rider line by the marquee (green smiley on map below) and follow the orange line
• A staff member will direct cars into one lane in front of Pathfinder. We anticipate that this will limit the traffic that backs up on 87th Terrace.
• Please refrain from entering the Barry traffic flow notated in red below.

Again, if you are picking your child up at the end of the day, please follow our dismissal process. We ask that parents stay in their cars and do not walk up to the front of the building or get out of their car to buckle in their child. There is an area specifically designated for buckling up your child once they are loaded in the car. A visual of our dismissal process for car riders is shown below.

If you have any questions regarding our car rider dismissal call the Pathfinder Elementary office (816) 436-6670.

All transportation changes need to be made by calling the office (816-436-6670). We will not take your child's word for any transportation change. All changes need to be made prior to 3:00 each day.

Family members are critical in supporting the educational environment. Volunteer opportunities will be available at our school. Please watch for communication (building newsletters, teacher newsletter, and PTA communication) to highlight these opportunities.

We believe that birthdays are an important time in a child’s life, and Pathfinder students will receive a Birthday Book in celebration of their special day. 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.

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

Moving into the 2024-25 school year, Pathfinder's commitment to supporting the whole child remains steadfast. That being said, we have seen an uptick in disruptive and physical behaviors over the last two years that are not conducive to learning. As parents, we want you to know that our greatest commitment is to your child's safety and wellbeing, which are prerequisites to any meaningful learning. In an effort to ensure a safe and caring environment that supports our learners, here are some of the steps our district and building are taking this year:

• Safe & Civil Schools Professional Development: "Safe & Civil Schools" is being implemented district-wide. This professional development focuses on creating calm, structured learning environments for all students and equips teachers to be able to do so.
• Staffing / Reset & Reflect Room: Our District Office approved the addition of two Behavior Support Specialists at Pathfinder Elementary. These staff members will work alongside students who are on a structured plan for behavioral support outside the classroom. Mrs. Wolters (our former Library Aid, whose position has been reallocated in order to support this effort) and Mr. Dillon (a new staff member) will work in the brand new Reset & Reflect room to provide support for students outside of the classroom.
• Board Certified Behavior Analyst: Our District Office is also contracting with a Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA) from Summit Behavioral Health to consult on individual cases at Pathfinder. This individual will help build out and execute behavior plans as needed.

It is our expectation that all students and staff are safe at school. Please know that if your student is struggling with disruptive or physical behaviors, we will be reaching out to partner with you as the parent. If you have additional questions or concerns, please reach out to Dr. Bohn at bohn.anna@pcr3schools.org.

Thursday, September 5th will be Fall Picture Day at Pathfinder Elementary! Stay tuned for more communication on how to order your student's photos!

A district communication medium is our School Messenger system that we use for phone calls and text notifications. As with any school district, PCR-3 must often contact hundreds of parents quickly for sudden changes in schedules due to emergencies, cancellation, or just important announcements.

If you have provided a cell phone number, parents can opt in to receive text alerts and messages. Simply text "YES" to 67587 (standard text messaging fees apply). New families should have received an opt-in text this week.

Want to be part of our awesome team at PCR-3 like Scarlett? We are looking for a few more bus drivers to join us!

We offer: $20.72/hr starting rate, Board-paid medical insurance, summers off + paid-time off.

Children who have turned five years of age by July 31, 2024, are eligible for kindergarten for the 2024-25 school year. Families are encouraged to view the Attendance area boundary map linked here, or call the District office at 816-858-5420 for confirmation of attendance area.

2024 Kindergarten Information Form

Starting this fall, all tickets for PCR-3 athletic events will be digital. Fans will purchase tickets online through GoFan or by presenting a card or mobile payment option at the ticket gate. All major credit cards are accepted, along with Apple Pay and Google Pay. Prices remain the same; a regular season game is $5 for adults and $3 for students. PCHS students and fans aged 55 and older are admitted free with a valid ID. More information and a link to purchase fall tickets and sports passes will be shared soon.

The PCR-3 Treasure Chest is a stocked resource center providing food, milk, and toiletries for PCR-3 students and families in need. Qualifying families will receive a weekly form via email to sign up or can call 816-858-7001 for assistance.

Families will receive an email with approval to come to the Treasure Chest on Wednesdays from 4-6pm at the new Treasure Chest site (south side of Paxton building).

• August 15- Meet the Teacher Night. 5p-7p.
• August 15- Board of Education Meeting. 6p.
• August 20- 1st Day of School.
• September 2- NO SCHOOL. Labor Day.

Click on the image below to access a printable Parent Calendar that includes all of our important dates, our Specials rotation, and upcoming events! We will continue to include this in subsequent issues of the Pathfinder Press at the bottom of each edition.

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There is still time to order your child's 2024-25 school supplies to be delivered directly to school in time for Meet the Teacher Night in August! Pathfinder Elementary is partnering with School Toolbox for the 2024-25 school year to make ordering school supplies that match your teacher's selected list as easy as 1-2-3!

• Put your Zip Code in the box at SchoolToolBox.com
• Make sure you select the Pathfinder Elementary
• Select your child's new grade level for the 2024-25 school year
• Order away!

The Platte County Health Department distributes food every 2nd Thursday of the month from 1-2:30 pm.

We want families to stay connected to all Pathfinder information. In addition, we invite you to visit our social media and platforms below.

• Like us on Facebook
• Follow us on Twitter
• Visit our Website

You can always pick up the phone and give us a call anytime. The school number is 816.436.6670. If you have a specific question for administration, please email us at bohn.anna@pcr3schools.org (Dr. Anna Bohn, Principal) or miller.emily@pcr3schools.org (Mrs. Emily Miller, Assistant Principal).

Email: bohn.anna@pcr3schools.org
Website: https://pathfinder.plattecountyschooldistrict.com/
Location: 1951 NW 87th Terrace, KCMO, MO, United States
Phone: 816-436-6670
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pathfinderelementary/
Twitter: @pathfinderelem

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