Dear Robb Families,

As we step into the festive month of December, it brings me great joy to extend warm greetings to each and every one of our Robb families! The air is filled with the spirit of celebration, kindness, and unity, making this season truly magical for our school community.

Throughout the past months, our students have shown resilience, creativity, and a commitment to learning that inspires us all. As we approach the end of the calendar year, it is an opportune time to reflect on the achievements, growth, and memorable moments that have shaped our school community. Thank you for all of your support of the Robb Elementary PTO and our school, so we can continue to provide such strong core memories of school for ours students.

December is a month of togetherness, gratitude, and spreading kindness. Our school has exciting events and activities planned to celebrate the spirit of the season. This month we are focused on MOTIVATION, as we work through our theme of being a #champion at Robb Elementary. The M in #champion represents "motivation" and many of our students are receiving motivational mail this month from staffulty who want to let students know they are seen, heard and loved.

In this month's newsletter, you can look forward to updates on upcoming events, highlights from recent activities, and important reminders for a smooth transition into the winter break. We encourage you to stay connected and engaged with our school community as we embrace the spirit of the season together.

Thank you for your continued support and partnership. Wishing each of our Robb families a December filled with warmth, laughter, and cherished moments.

Warm regards,

Mr. Barth

December 4-20: Holiday dress themes- see calendar to the right

December 8: Holiday concert 5:30-7:30

December 15 - No School

December 21 thru January 2 - Winter Break

January 15 - No School

January 25 - 3 hr. Early Dismissal

January 26 - Act 80 Day - No School

Elementary schools have moved back to ClassDojo as our messaging app. Please be sure to connect (or reconnect) so you don't miss any important information from your child's school or teachers.

Stay informed about:

• School events and activities
• Family-teacher conferences
• Important deadlines and assignments
• Emergency alerts and school delays/dismissals/closures

Scan the QR code below to receive district-wide notifications which includes:

• Weather alerts/delays/early dismissals/closures
• Emergency alerts
• District-wide events
• Important dates

All elementary schools in the Keystone Central School District are Title I schoolwide schools. That means that all five elementary schools receive Federal Programs Title I money, and we have a series of documentation and meetings that we must provide to families in order to satisfy the requirements of receiving those dollars.

Because of the needs across our district, our district qualifies for the Community Eligibility Provision [this link will explain more about the CEP program], which allows us to offer free breakfast and lunch to our students (as long as they choose a complete breakfast/lunch). This provision allows the schools to rely on sources that have documentation of families receiving benefits, and we no longer have families communicate directly to us regarding their income status. This is a good and a not so good situation, because those Title I federal dollars are generated based on the percentage of low income families throughout the district. What is happening is that although we have a great degree of need across our district, our federal funding is dropping, because many of our families do not choose to sign up for services like SNAP, and they don't report their income as low as what it might be in census and other data collections.

As you participate in our school level federal programs meetings and the intervention team talks about the drops in funding over time, I hope this helps to explain the why behind the reduction in funds.

Your intervention team has been busy holding Policy 917/918 Committee Meetings, conducting at least one meeting per year where we review and revise our community engagement strategies, reviewing our Schoolwide Improvement Plans, and sharing our goals for growth. Your input on our meetings and surveys helps us to determine how we spend our federal program dollars.

At all school levels, we use Title IV federal funds to purchase incentives for PBIS (our positive school-wide behavior supports) rewards, and we emphasize the goal of following school rules in all schools.

Required documents for families:

Right to Request Qualifications of Teachers (see Annual Notices and Policy Review button above) - if you wish to request a paper copy, please contact rmurty@kcsd.k12.pa.us .

Note: If your child is taught for four or more weeks by a teacher who is instructing in a content area for which they are not currently certified, the district must notify you. Four-week notification letters will be added here if that becomes necessary.

Non-Discrimination Statement (see Annual Notices and Policy Review button above) - if you wish to request a paper copy, please contact rmurty@kcsd.k12.pa.us.

Title I District Parent Policy - Policy 918

Coaching Newsletter for Families - How We Teach Reading

Title I Complaint Procedure

School Improvement Plan

#KeystoneCares is partnering with KCSD and Sleep in Heavenly Peace to bring awareness to homelessness.

If you believe that you or someone you know is experiencing homelessness, please reach out to Christina Manning, KCSD Homeless Liasion, cmanning@kcsd.us or 570-893-4900 ext. 2105 or Kyle Galer, KCSD School Social Worker, kgaler@kcsd.us or 570-893-4900 ext. 2341

Look for information coming home with your student about a food drive being held from 11/11 - 11/17. Each grade has been assigned a specific category to donate. The class with the most donations wins a donut party!!

RED is the color for homelessness. We are asking that everyone wear RED on Friday, 11/17 to show your support.

The National Day of Giving is on 11/28. KCSD will be recognizing the National Day of Giving on 11/22. Look for information from our school on how our school plans to give to Sleep in Heavenly Peace. Sleep in Heavenly Peace helps build beds for students in need. Each school will either be collecting monetary donations or donations of pillows and bedding supplies. Please help them ensure that NO KID SLEEPS ON THE FLOOR IN OUR TOWN!®.

Attendance a priority at KCSD!

Help us reach our Attendance Goal of 94.1%.

For the month of October, our students showed up 93.1% of the time.

Remember: Excuses need to be turned in within 3 days of an absence. Use your school's attendance email to make sure that the excuse notes get turned in on time.

Wildcats on the Prowl: AttendanceMatters Now!

If you are concerned about a student for any reason, you can make a SAP referral. The SAP referral can potentially lead to any needed services and/or supports the student may need to be successful.

Click on the picture to make a referral!

We've always heard that if we listen to our five senses (vision, hearing, taste, smell and touch) it will help us to understand a situation more fully. Interoception is the name given to listening to another sense - the sense of signals that come from inside your body (heart beat, breathing, the feeling in your stomach, ringing ears and more). The key with body signals is that they can mean different things for different people. This article opens our eyes to awareness of what our body is trying to tell us and encourages us to listen. It's challenging as an adult to try to figure out what a child's interoception is trying to tell them, and sometimes even the child (or adult) has difficulty understanding what this sense is trying to tell them.

Did you know KCSD has many families who speak a different language at home?! If you would like to check out some multilingual tips to support language and literacy at home, please check out the link below- you can watch it in 8 different languages! Stay tuned for more tips and links next month to better support your English Learner at home.

https://www.smore.com/361wz-keystone-central-school-district#:~:text=VOLUNTEER%20INFORMATION,to%20Clearance%20Page

The link in the button above/QR Code should take you to our Volunteer Application.

You need to apply on-line at https://www.applitrack.com/kcsd/onlineapp/ instead of using a paper form.

Clearances and Mandated Reporter training are also required. Here are the links:

· Clearances

· (Act 34) PA State Policehttps://epatch.pa.gov/home

· (Act 151) PA Child Abuse https://www.compass.state.pa.us/cwis/public/home

· (Act 114) FBI https://www.identogo.com/locations/pennsylvania

Use service code to receive the correct clearance: 1KG6XN

Mandated Report Training http://www.reportabusepa.pitt.edu/

Elizabeth Nace is our Personnel Secretary & Volunteer Specialist, you can use the information below to contact her, and she said she is happy to help you and answer questions!

570-893-4900 x 2319

https://www.kcsd.k12.pa.us/en-US/human-resources-32e72bfe

enace@kcsd.k12.pa.us

86 Administration Drive, Mill Hall, PA 17751

General Link to Clearance Page

If your family speaks a language other than English, the district has access to translators and interpreters that can accompany you in meetings with teachers and school members. If you would like to be connected with a translator or interpreter please reach out to your child’s teacher or the school guidance counselor. The accessibility features in the top right corner of this Smore allow you to translate this page.

Keystone Central School District has School Resource Officers throughout our district for safety and security.

Officer Scott VanGorder - Central Mountain High School

Officer Cory Beaver - Bucktail High School & Renovo Elementary

Officer Luke Motter - Central Mountain Middle School

Officer Mike Fetzer - Elementary district-wide and District Attendance Officer

Officer Todd Brian - District-wide

Did you know the Keystone Central School District offers a full cyber program to students K-12?

Please use the following link to read the upcoming events and information for December/January.

https://www.smore.com/57h4k

Upcoming Assessments

ASVAB- CMHS December 11-12 and BTHS Feb.16 (10th grade students and any 11th/12th grader who still needs a graduation pathway)

Winter Keystone Exams - Jan. 3-17 (Semester 1 Biology, Alg1 and 10th grade Literature Students)

• Jan.4-5- Literature
• Jan.8-9- Biology
• Jan.10-11- Algebra 1

Local Assessment Winter Benchmark - Jan.10-17 (K-8 Math and ELA)

Grade 11 Civics and Government End of Course Exam - Week of Jan.17-24 (Built into course)

Local District Assessments

All students in grades K-8 will be participating in our upcoming local district assessments which will be administered in the Fall, Winter and Spring. Students in K-2 will be tested using the Acadience assessment and students in grades 3-8 will be tested using NWEA MAP assessment. These assessments are administered in the Fall, Winter and Spring and will provide you as well as their teacher valuable information on academic growth. To learn more about our assessment please click the links below.

NWEA Family Toolkit

NWEA FAQ

About Acadience

Need to take the SAT, Click here for upcoming dates and registration

Many questions can arise concerning your child's laptop, internet access, busing information or maybe you'd like to volunteer in your child's school. These links below can help you get answers or point you in the direction of who to speak to.

Elementary Principal: Dr. Breon- abreon@kcsd.k12.pa.us

School Counselor: Mrs. Smith- bsmith@kcsd.k12.pa.us

School Secretary: Mrs. Collins- gcollins@kcsd.k12.pa.us

School Phone: 570-893-2900 ext. 2910