Dragon News for Families

School Hours: 7:30 am - 2:00 pm

School Phone: (816) 359-4510

Principal: Tara Kalis

School Based Therapist: Matthew Fey

Administrative Assistant: Amy Rockey

Nurse: Melissa Coleman

Sept. 2: Labor Day (no school)

Sept. 23-26: Parent Teacher conferences

Sept. 27: No school

Oct. 1: Fall Pictures

Oct. 17: End of first quarter

Oct. 18: Teacher workday (no school for students)

Oct. 29 - Fall Family Festival (TBA)

In Makerspace, we are building a school community out of Lego bricks inspired by the book If I Built a School by Chris Van Dusen. We utilized the Russell Jones remodel blueprints to inspire our own school room planning.

Many parents ask, “When is my child sick enough to stay home from school?” This is not always an easy question to answer! We hope that these tips can help! A child who is sick will not be able to perform well in school and is likely to spread the illness to other children and staff. We suggest making a plan for childcare ahead of time so you will not be caught without a comforting place for your child to stay if he/she is ill.

YOU SHOULD NOT SEND YOUR CHILD TO SCHOOL IF HE/SHE HAS

• Fever in the past 24 hours
• Vomiting in the past 24 hours
• Diarrhea in the past 24 hours
• Chills
• Strep Throat (must have been taking an antibiotic for at least 24 hours before returning to school)
• Bad cold, with a very runny nose or bad cough, especially if it has kept the child awake at night

If your child becomes ill at school and the teacher or school nurse feel the child is too sick to benefit from school or is contagious to other children, you will be called to come and take him/her home from school. It is essential that the school health office have a phone number where you can be contacted during the day and an emergency number in the event you cannot be reached. Please be sure that arrangements can be made to transport your child home from school and that childcare is available in case of illness. If your daytime or emergency phone number changes during the year, please notify the school immediately.

Please call the School Health Office if you have any questions or concerns.

Melissa Coleman,LPN

Russell Jones Education Center - Nurse

colemanm@parkhill.k12.mo.us

Office: (816) 359-4514

Russell Jones one of the 6 schools in the district that are implementing Restorative Practices this school year. We are excited to be a part of the cohort 1 schools in Park Hill. Restorative Practices help strengthen relationships between individuals and build community among students, staff, and families. This year, we will be focusing on proactive circles. More information can be found HERE.

Park Hill School District uses Infinite Campus as our student information system. You can access your child’s essential school information and district information quickly! This includes Attendance, Grades, Schedule, Bus Information, Technology Fees and School Communications.

Infinite Campus - Parent Portal

You can also use the FirstView® bus-tracking app, provided by our transportation provider, First Student. You can download the FirstView® app on your smartphone or use the app on your computer by visiting firstviewapp.com.

Using FirstView®, you can track your child’s bus in real-time, set up alerts to notify you when their bus is at a certain location, and you can link up to three email accounts. The app is password protected, to keep your child safe.

FirstView - Getting Started

Students may bring their lunch from home or purchase a school lunch from the cafeteria. Students also have the option to purchase a breakfast upon arrival to school.

All enrolled students have an active school meal account in Park Hill. Parents are encouraged to register for a SchoolCafe account (attaching all students in the household to the account) to monitor meal account balances, set low balance notifications, set ala carte/snack restrictions, apply for family meal benefits, and make payments to student(s) meal account(s).

When registering for a SchoolCafe account, parents will need their student’s ID (“S”) number (5-digit number), minus the “S”. This number can be found on Infinite Campus.

Classroom Treats: To protect the health and safety of our students, homemade treats will not be distributed to students in the Park Hill School District. Due to allergies and other food intolerances, only birthday favors listed below are allowed.

Birthday Favors: Students may bring a birthday treat or favor to school to share with their classmates, as long as they come from our list of treats that contain none of the eight (8) major allergens - milk, wheat, egg, soy, peanut, tree nut, fish and shellfish.

Thank you for understanding that all classroom treats must come from this list, because we do not have the staff capacity to check for allergens that could threaten the health of some students. Please bring birthday treats ahead of time (two hours after the start of school, at the latest).

• Stickers

• Erasers

• Pencils

• Crazy straws

• Blow Pops

• Juice boxes

• Popcorn

• Smarties

• Dum Dum lollipops

• Jelly Belly

• Nerds

• Ring Pops

• Skittles

• Sour Patch Kids

• Starburst

• Swedish Fish

• Life Saver Gummies

If you need access to services to support your family, please reach out to our School Based Therapist, Matthew at (816) 359-6914 to seek more information or access the link below.

Parents can purchase additional insurance protection for accidents that may occur during school classes and while students are away from school, at home, during weekends and vacation periods, including the summer months. For information regarding this optional coverage, visit www.kidguardinsurance.com for additional benefit and on-line enrollment information.

Families who think they qualify for the Free/Reduced Lunch Program will need to apply after August 1, 2024. This is a program you must reapply for each school year. If your child is eligible for free or reduced meal benefits, you can also receive additional benefits at Park Hill High School such as fee waivers, activity passes, free screenings and more.

Click HERE for more information.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to our school social worker, Matthew Fey at feyj@parkhill.k12.mo.us or at 816-359-6914

If you need the application translated, please use this link. https://www.fns.usda.gov/cn/translated-applications

The Park Hill School District PTA runs a clothing center that provides free, gently used clothing, plus new socks and underwear to district students. Please visit our Facebook page for updated information.

The PTA Clothing Center serves all Park Hill School District students from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade. The PTA asks you to bring proof that you are currently enrolled in the Park Hill district. This could be a student ID, dated letter from a principal or social worker, class schedule, or enrollment form. You can also show us the district portal with student information in it.

The Park Hill Clothing Closet is available to all Park Hill Families on the following dates and times during the 2024-25 school year:

• September 3rd & 17th 10am-12pm and 5pm-7pm

• October 1st & 15th 10am-12pm and 5pm-7pm
• November 5th & 19th 10am-12pm and 5pm-7pm
• December 3rd & 17th 10am-12pm and 5pm-7pm
• January 7th & 21st 10am-12pm and 5pm-7pm
• February 4th & 18th 10am-12pm and 5pm-7pm
• March 4th & 18th 10am-12pm and 5pm-7pm
• April 1st & 15th 10am-12pm and 5pm-7pm
• May 6th 4pm-6pm

The Jones Center uses Positive Behavior Intervention & Support (PBIS) as a systems approach to establishing the whole-school social culture and intensive individual behavior supports needed for schools to achieve social and academic gains while minimizing problem behavior for all students.

PBIS has helped us decrease behavior, improve our school climate, and overall provides us a safer school community and allows more time for meaningful instruction to occur. Students positive behaviors are reinforced through Dragon Dollars. Students get to use the Dragon Dollars they earn to purchase items from our school store. If you have questions about our PBIS implementation, I encourage you to ask your student about it, then follow up with their classroom teacher to learn more!

The Matrix below identifies the expectation for each area in our building. The expectations focus on:

• Being Safe
• Being Respectful
• Being Responsible

Our employees are the real deal and the reason we are so successful. We would like to recognize them for all they do for our students. Each month, the district recognizes a pre-K or elementary teacher, a secondary teacher and a support staff member. Nominate an employee for this award by clicking the button below.

Student Hours: 7:30 am - 2:00 pm

Office Hours: 7:00 am - 3:00 pm

Principal: Dr. Tara Kalis, (816) 359-6305

Social Worker: Matthew Fey, (816) 359-6914