Principal’s Post for August 13, 2023

Unpack Your Backpack/Meet Your Teacher on August 21st

The 3 YO PS and K-8 Unpack Your Backpack/Meet Your Teacher is on Monday, August 21st.  (Four/five YO preschoolers and parents have individual meetings with the teachers.)

These “drop in” sessions are not scheduled this year, but we would still like to stagger people throughout the whole evening so each family can have some individual attention.  We, therefore, ask families to “drop in” any time within the 30 minute time slot according to the students’ last names.  If your family is too large, and you can’t make it to each homeroom within your 30 minutes, don’t panic; it will be OK to dribble over into another time slot.:

• • A-D 5-5:30
  • E-J 5:30-6:00
  • K-P 6:00-6:30
  • Q-S 6:30-7:00
  • T-Z 7:00-7:30

The office will also be open for dropping off immunization records and other forms or conducting other business.

Individual Preschool  Parent Meetings Begin this Week

Don’t forget the preschool meeting that you signed up for.  If you haven’t made an appointment, please do so now:

• • 4/5 Year Olds in the parish center at the south end of the building
    • Aug 16 7:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. and 1:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.
    • Aug 21 4:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.
  • 3 Year Olds in the classroom, entering through the ECLC/PS door
    • Aug 16 7:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.

New Technology Systems for 2023-24

Scott County Catholic Schools are still in the midst of transitions to new technology systems, including the following:

• PowerSchool, our main student information system
• Kinvo, the communications system connected to PowerSchool
• Blackbaud, the online tuition, bill paying, and accounting system
• EduTrak, the lunch program

Throw in the online pre-registration system and Odyssey, for processing ESAs, and it’s quite the handful.  Getting all the systems to “talk” to one another and play nicely together is keeping many people quite busy.  By the time we add in new systems for just staff, and it’s hard to keep up!  Some of the new systems were because of the merger to SCCS, but others were from the state departments of education and revenue and the Diocese of Davenport.  Enduring so many changes this year, hopefully things will be a breeze by next year.  What still gets me, however, is that for as many times as parents have had to enter email addresses into one or more new systems this year, one would think that pushing communications out via email would be easy!  I can’t wait for all the systems to “talk” to one another!

Enrollment/Registration Steps for 2023-24

Complete the enrollment/registration steps for 2023-24.  If you missed our weekend and evening office hours and need to complete some items in person, we are now open at least 8:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.

PS-8 Pre-Registration Process:  All preschool, kindergarten, returning and new families will need to enter information through the pre-registration/application survey.  To access the survey, click HERE.  

PS-8 Immunization Records:  Preschoolers, kindergartners and other students new to JFK will need to provide evidence of immunizations prior to school beginning.  There are also two boosters, TDaP and meningococcal conjugate vaccine,  required for 7^th graders prior to school beginning.  We can accept faxed or emailed copies.  Iowa law says that students cannot be enrolled without up-to-date immunization information provided to the school, and schools must exclude students without proper immunizations.  There are minimal exceptions.

K-8 Home Language Survey:  Kindergartners and other students new to JFK need to complete a Home Language Survey (HLS).  Many kindergartners already submitted these in February.  The HLS is available under the “Policies & Forms” heading of the “For Parents” section of our website, for anyone who needs it.

PS-8 Tuition Payment System:  Parents need to complete several steps in the Blackbaud tuition management system, arrange for payments to be made, and, by now, begin making payments.  Remember that tuition is billed at the gross amount, and then deductions like parishioner discounts, multi-child discounts, “private pay” discounts, etc. are shown.  It is believed that the invoices are correct, and all of the discounts have been posted.  As of last weekend, around 600 families with children attending SCCS had not completed the needed steps within Blackbaud.  If you have questions, please contact Rose Strickland at the SCCS business office at AHS:  rose.strickland@sccsiowa.org or 563-326-5313.  No one at JFK has access to your account information in Blackbaud.

K-8 ESA Recipients:  There are multiple steps even after having been approved by the state for an ESA:

• Go back into Odyssey to designate JFK as the school you want your children to attend.  We can then verify that the student is enrolling at JFK (see above steps) and have tuition and fees posted to your ESA account.
• Go into Odyssey again to approve of the tuition and fees.  Once this step is completed, the state can transfer funds to the SCCS business office, and the payment can be applied to your SCCS tuition account.

PS through age 12 After school care and wrap around care forms:  After school care and wrap around care are licensed by the Department of Human Services and provide supervised activities for students who have not yet turned thirteen.  The preschool wrap around rate is included in your tuition bill for either full-time or part-time care.  The rate for K through age 12 is $5 per hour per child, which is a decrease at JFK.  The registration fee is $25 per student.  A childcare registration form is required for each student.  The blank form is available at the school or on our website.  Students cannot attend aftercare or wrap around care without the DHS program paper/pencil forms complete.  

6th-8th Catholic League athletics:  Forms are available under the “Policies & Forms” heading of the “For Parents” section of our website:

• • Sign the athletics waiver/participation contract
  • Sign the athletic concussion form
  • An annual physical form is also required. The athletic physical form is also available on our website.
  • Pay the SCCS per participant fee

5th-8th Band:  Fifth through 8th graders can be in band.  The fee is $75 per semester or $150 for the year

7th-8th General music/choir:  Seventh and 8th graders have the option to take choir or general music. The default will be choir.

Finalizing Payments for 2022-23

Open Positions at JFK for 2023-24

JFK still has open positions for 2023-24:

Instructional aide/support position:  We are looking for a “jack of all trades” person to help in preschool, supervise recesses, provide instructional support, and care for students in aftercare and/or wrap-around care.  On some days, one might start as early as 7:10, and, on other days, one might work until 5:30.  The total is about 39 hours per week, and the rate is $12 per hour.  If interested, please send me a cover letter, resume, and references, and/or stop by the school office for an application.

Instructional aide positions:  Help teachers and provide instructional support for students in K-8.  Multiple positions are available.  If interested, please send me a cover letter, resume, and references, and/or stop by the school office for an application.

Substitutes:  Substitutes are always needed for both long-term assignments (like maternity leaves) and short-term assignments (like when a teacher needs to stay home with his/her own sick child).  You do not need a teaching degree to work as a substitute.  A minimum of an associate’s degree may be enough to qualify.  The process to become a substitute teacher includes completion of a 15-20 hour workshop, multiple background checks, and applications with the Iowa Board of Education Examiners and JFK.  Workshops are being held almost every week throughout the state, and many of them are virtual so geography does not need to be a limiting factor.   If you are interested in being a substitute, please contact me and/or the Mississippi Bend Area Education Agency at 563-359-1371.  We would also like to thank our current substitutes:  Kayla Mason, Jen Kira, Amy Jackson, and Dianne Longenecker.

PE Uniform

JFK’s gym clothes policy has been tightened up for grades 5-8.  Fifth-8th graders may still wear their PE clothes rather than their school uniform on days when they have PE, but they will now need to wear a PE uniform on those days.  The PE uniform consists of a gym t-shirt and gym shorts, both of which must be purchased through the school identified vendor.  (Sixth-8th graders already have the black shorts, but those students needing new shorts will have to order them from the new vendor.)  Instead of the gym shorts, students may wear gym sweatpants or loose fitting athletic pants purchased through the school identified vendor. JFK and St. Paul’s are both using Handicapped Development Center as the vendor for gym clothes.  The link to HDC’s site for JFK, which includes more information about the gym clothes policy, is HERE, or you can use the following: http://handicappeddevelopment.org/jfk/   If I have this right, shirt sizes seem to be running small, pants are running big, and shorts are somewhere in the middle.  I would encourage you to try on the items at JFK or at HDC before ordering.

Uniform Policy/Dress Code

Now is also a good time to review the dress code, especially for hair color.  Some of those fun colors or Kool-Aid dyed tips can be a real challenge to get out and often required a hair cut as well.

Parking Lot Traffic Patterns

It’s also not too early to review the parking lot traffic patterns.  A few reminders are below:

• Proceed SLOWLY and cautiously through every location.  Little kids are hard to see by cars.  What one makes up in time by speeding through the lot will matter little if someone is hit by a car!
• Be attentive to your driving.  Talking on a cell phone, even handsfree, can be a distraction when one’s attention is needed most to watch for kids and pedestrians.
• Only use handicapped parking spots if qualified.  Handicapped parking spots are reserved for those who need them throughout the entire day, including morning drop off, mid-day pre-school pick up and drop off, and pick up at the end of the day.  We reserve one of our handicapped spots, in particular, for wheelchair access for a student.
• Accompany younger students to/from the barriers, if you park in the lot and are not using the drive-through lanes.  Parents who are standing and waiting for their little ones should stand on the school side of the barriers.  All children should be supervised.

A photo of the parking lot patterns can be found using the following link: Parking lot traffic patterns, 2023

• Red arrows are the drop off/pick up zones.  Note that the main one is at the north, but there is also one that can be used at the south.
• Blue arrows are the one-way pick-up lanes.
• Orange arrows are one-way lanes.
• Green arrows indicate where traffic goes in both directions.
• Note that in some areas there are two lanes going in the same direction:  one lane is just driving through (orange arrows) and the other lane is the pick up lane leading to the drop off/pick up zone (blue and red arrows).

Calendars

Multiple calendars are available on our website, www.olvjfk.com.  On the school side of the website, a one page summary calendar is on the front page.  Detailed calendars can also be reached by clicking on the calendars heading.  Check out when your child’s K-8 parent meeting is scheduled.  Those parent meetings begin as early as August 24th.

Chad