Dear Graden Families,

As we move into November, it is very important for me to thank each of you for always supporting Graden and myself. Our students have shown amazing growth in each academic area. I am so proud to walk the halls of Graden and see our students highly engaged in learning opportunities, and I feel very fortunate to be a small part in their educational journeys. Thank you for sharing your students with us each and every day.

Students will be out of school Monday, November 25th, through Friday, November 29th, in observance of Thanksgiving. I hope you are able to cherish these days off with your family.

Upcoming Dates:

• Monday, November 11th - PTA Meeting - 6:00 pm - Library
• Tuesday, November 19th - DEIB Council Meeting - 5:30 - Library
• Thursday, November 21st - 4th Grade Musical - 6:30 pm - Gym
• Friday, November 22nd - Hornet Pride Day - Wear your Grade Level Shirt
• Monday, November 25th - Friday, November 29th- No School

It's a GREAT DAY to be a HORNET!!!

Dr. Easley

Principal, Graden Elementary - Home of the Hornets

Our next DEIB Council meeting is November 19th at 5:30 pm in the media center. We are so thankful for our family and staff members who were able to join us in September! At that meeting we worked through feedback from last year and began the brainstorming process for charting our work. On November 19th we will begin drafting a chart of work for Graden. If you are interested in joining us, please do so! We will be providing dinner this month for all attendees. Feel free to bring your student(s) as well. We would love to increase student voice in our work!

If you plan on attending please RSVP here.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out to Dr. Megan Brethower, Assistant Principal at (816) 359-5970 or brethowerm@parkhill.k12.mo.us.

Hornet Pride Days will replace early release days for the 2024-25 school year. Once a month we will celebrate our Hornet Pride with a full day of team building, class building, student celebrations, assemblies, and interest groups.

Our next Hornet Pride Day is November 22nd. Don't forget to wear your grade level Hornet Pride Shirt.

Hornet Pride Days:

Nov. 22 (Interest Group) - Orange Easel Assembly

Dec. 19 (Q2 Celebration)

Jan. 31 (Interest Group)

Feb. 28 (Interest Group)

March 19 (Q3 Celebration)

April 25 (Interest Group)

May 23 (Q4 Celebration)

Students may bring birthday treats into class to celebrate their birthday as long as they come from our list of treats that contain none of the major allergens.

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.

Each classroom celebrates birthdays at a time that is conducive to their schedule. We do not allow parents or families to join classrooms for birthday celebrations as these are opportunities for students to celebrate with the teacher and classmates.

Approved Birthday Treats:

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

We are looking forward to having parent volunteers support our classrooms this year. If you would like to volunteer in your child's classroom or on field trips, you will need to complete the volunteer screening process below.

Volunteer Screening Information:

• Any volunteer who will be alone with students must have a full screening, which includes a criminal background check, a check of the child abuse and neglect registry, and a check of the sexual offender registry. Volunteers must complete the paperwork (attached below) and return to the Park Hill Communications department or to the Graden office.

• Any volunteer that plans to attend a field trip with students must have a full screening completed which includes the above information.
• If you completed a background check with Park Hill before March 2020, you must do it again, because the earlier screening process did not include the criminal background check.
• If you have completed the full screening, you will NOT need to do it again.
• All volunteers must read and agree to the rules in our policy and procedure, and each volunteer will sign in and reaffirm the rules each time they arrive at a school to volunteer.
• The district will receive updates if a volunteer’s screening status changes. Someone’s volunteer status can change at any time.

• The district must pay a fee of $42.75 for each background check, as required by the state. If you would like to donate to help defray this expense, please enclose a check made out to the Park Hill School District for this amount with your screening form. This donation is not required.

The screening process can take up to two weeks or longer, depending on the time of year. Please be aware of this when submitting your application in anticipation of volunteering for specific events.

Lunch visitors are welcome each day at Graden. If you would like to join your Hornet for lunch, please bring your license upon check-in at the Graden office. If you plan to purchase a school lunch, please have funds in your student's account or bring payment with you.

Just a reminder, due to student allergies, you may only bring food items for your own child.

Visitors may also join recess after lunch. Please head immediately to the Graden office after recess to check-out.

Graden Lunch Schedule:

Kindergarten: 11:00 am -11:20 am

1st Grade: 11:20 am - 11:40 am

2nd Grade: 11:40 am - 12:00 pm

3rd Grade: 12:20 pm - 12:40 pm

4th Grade: 12:00 pm - 12:20 pm

5th Grade: 12:45 pm - 1:05 pm

Happy November Hornets!

The hornet community support has been amazing this year. In the first two months, we raised more than $500 at our first two fundraising nights. Our November fundraising night is at Culver’s! Culver’s night is on November 5th from 5:00-8:00pm. This is the favorite fundraising night of the year for the student hornets because the students get to be food runners! There are a few spots open to be a food runner. The adult hornets sit in a booth together and the students put on a Culver’s apron and deliver food to the tables! https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0E4FABAA2EA5FCCF8-52374326-culvers#/

The money raised at these fundraising nights goes directly back to our student and teacher hornets. In October, PTA paid out $100 teacher grants to 19 teachers! We also sponsored a Stone Canyon dinner for teachers during parent teacher conferences!

We have been enjoying PTA so much this year. Our next meeting is on November 11th in the media center from 6:00-7:00!

Upcoming Dates:

Culver’s Fundraising Night 11/05

PTA meeting 11/11

K & 1st Grade Gift of Time 11/14

Chipotle Fundraising Night 12/05

PTA Board Members:

President: Brittany Conklin

Vice President: Angie Liberty

Treasurer: Brooke Harvey

Parliamentarian: Betsy Verhoeff

Secretary: Marissa Sundeen

Teacher Representative: Maggie Wright

Brittany Conklin

Mom of K and 2nd Hornets

Conklinb@parkhill.k12.mo.us

School Office (816) 359-4340

School Fax (816) 359-4349

Attendance Line (816) 359-4341

First Student Bus Company (816) 359-4560

Adventure Club (816) 359-5015

Email: easleyv@parkhill.k12.mo.us
Website: https://graden.parkhill.k12.mo.us/
Location: 8804 NW Highway 45, Parkville, MO 64152
Phone: (816) 359-4340