Tuesday Talk with Dr. Dain
Dear Pirate Nation,
March…. comes in like a lion and out like a lamb! It seems like just yesterday I was packing my kids’ Valentine’s care packages, but here we are just a few days short of Spring Break! Soon we will “spring” our clocks forward for Daylight Saving Time and unpacking our t-shirts, shorts, and flip-flops! And while we will enjoy more sunshine and green grass, please know that there is still much work to do the last quarter, and you have my promise that we will finish strong!
Last night was the March BOE meeting, held a week early due to Spring Break, and our supportive Board of Education was hard at work ensuring that students and educators have the tools they need to be successful!
Highlights from the BOE Meeting are as following:
Community Recognitions
Biz Fest
BizFest is a four-day intensive life-skills and business techniques training event for LatinX high school students from immigrant families in the Greater Kansas City Metropolitan area. Students attending the KC BizFest, receive entrepreneurial experience, economic literacy, and improved skills in math, reading, writing, and verbal communication while gaining workforce readiness when creating feasible business plans. College scholarships are available to participants in the 2023 Bizfest. This year's festival took place from February 15-18. I am so excited to share that this year’s Grand prize winner was Piper High School senior, Annalia Escalante with a scholarship of $2500. She will be attending the University of Kansas this fall and they have agreed to match this scholarship. Thank you to Chantel Nicolay, PHS Business Teacher, for supporting Annalia in this endeavor!
Piper High School State Debaters
Piper Debate competed at the 5A State Championships in January. They took four teams to the 2-Speaker Championships. Seniors Brandon Dark, Deanna Jones, and Faith Nunez qualified and competed at the tournament along with underclassmen Emilio Holden, Hayden Raynor, Jack Seals, Isabelle Trujillo, and Jack Wells.
All teams ended the tournament with winning records. The teams of Wells and Seals, and Dark and Holden each won 4 of their 6 rounds and missed breaking to their Octafinal round by a single speaker point (in debate terms, that’s the smallest possible difference). These results show massive improvements over the team’s record last year and make us very excited for the future.
Debate is not necessarily a spectator sport. The dedication, drive, and determination exhibited by debaters is easily missed when compared to other activities. That doesn’t mean that it isn’t there though. These students spend countless hours preparing for and competing at tournaments that frequently begin after school on Friday and don’t end until Saturday evening. This year, students debated the role of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization as it engages with emerging technologies, requiring students to become fluent not just in international politics, but also nascent technologies and their applications. Their successes represent academic problem-solving skills in addition to strategic and competitive drive that is simply amazing to witness. We are so proud of these debaters and their coach, Tori Denault, and everything that they represent.
Piper High School State Wrestlers
Piper Wrestling capped off a record-breaking season by sending 8 boys and 2 girls to the state tournament. Seniors Payton Mills, Jay’von Simmons, Nick Hoover and Sawyer Vas all completed a successful wrestling career at Piper by qualifying for state. These seniors helped set the standard for our program moving forward.
Makao Groneman, Keith Slaughter, Ruben Escalante, and Jacob Patrzykont qualified and will return next year to lead the way for our boys’ team as we look to build on this year's success.
Maia Dolinar and Malia Martin both qualified in their first year of high school wrestling. These girls have set a new standard for our growing girls wrestling program.
We are proud of all these wrestlers and look forward to continuing the growth of Piper Wrestling through our kid clubs during the offseason and into our high school season next year. A special thank you to Head Coach Todd Harris and Assistant Coaches James Thompson and Madelyn Turner.
Piper High School State Bowling Champions
The Piper Bowling Team had an awesome outing at the State Tournament. Cambria Anderson competed in the morning and placed 50th in the state with a score of 485 (161.67 average)! Great work, Cam!
Our Boys Bowling team handily won their Regionals and qualified for State. WE PLACED FIRST IN 1A-5A! They bowled a total of 3,522 (220.125 average) through three regular games of bowling with four Baker games included! Congratulations to them for putting in their time and effort during the season and beyond.
Here are their individual scores:
- Darron Spak 732 (244 average) 3rd place in state
- Coltyn Bard 698 (232.7 average) 6th place in state
- Landon Dissmeyer 627 (209 average) 28th in state
- Brandon Dark 597 (199 average) 42nd in state
- Brody Merrick 566 (188.67 average) 52nd in state
- Major Macias 434 (144.67 average) 89th in state
Homefield/Overland Park Rotary Club
On Monday, December 12th, County Commissioner Mike Kane, along with The Overland Park Rotary Club and Homefield Kansas City delivered over 2,400 books to Piper High School. This donation equated to three brand new books to every high school student in the district. This project was achieved by the efforts of Overland Park Rotarians Mike Meyer and Brad Vaughan along with President of Homefield Kansas City, Dustin Lewis, and his staff. In 2022, the Overland Park Rotary, along with Homefield KC, delivered Wyandotte County schools over 25,000 new books. With the new Homefield Youth Sports Complex opening in late 2023, Homefield KC is committed to supporting the Piper School District with multiple educational programs and opportunities for Piper students and their families.
The Board of Education received two presentations last night; one from the Unified Government’s County appraiser regarding the anticipated Tax Base for Wyandotte County, and one from Mrs. Polly Vader, Real World Learning and CTE Coordinator, regarding the 8th Grade Academy Night which was conducted in February to help 8th graders and their families as they transition to 9th grade.
Additionally, the Board of Education approved the following items:
- Updated Out of District Field Trip Policy
- Rescheduling the April BOE Meeting from April 17th to April 24th
- Electing Desi Fergus and Kim Brown as BOE representation for the District Negotiations Team
- Approval of the PHS Construction Bid Package 3
- Approval of the PHS Pay Application 3
- Purchasing of additional security cameras at the CTE Building
- Purchasing of Athletic Uniforms as part of the annual purchasing rotation
- Purchasing of carpet for Piper Prairie Elementary
- Purchasing of new lunch tables for Piper Middle School
- Approval of adding Advanced Placement Precalculus into the PHS Course Guide and offering it for the 2023.2024 school year
- Approval of Administrative Contract Renewals
Construction Junction
Lastly, the updates were shared regarding construction progress on Phase II of Piper High School. Click the link below to view the updates shared.
Our next BOE Meeting will be Monday, April 24th at 6:00 PM at the CTE Library. Patrons interesting in addressing the Board of Education should contact our Board Clerk, Mr. Mitch Nutterfield, by end of day on Monday, April 17th.
Proud to be a Pirate!
Dr. Jessica Dain
Superintendent of Schools
Negative Food Service Balance Alerts
Payments made to a negative Food Service account any time after 3:30 p.m. on Friday or over the weekend will still receive a negative balance phone call. When the team returns to the office on the next available business day, a report will be run that will update the automated phone calls. If families make a payment between 3:30 p.m. on Friday and 9:30 a.m. on Monday and have checked that their food service account has a positive balance, then they can disregard the automated negative message. If families want to confirm that everything is okay, please email Sarah Dunn at sdunn@piperschools.us and she can check your account(s) and get back to you with confirmation.
The district has automated Negative Food Service Alerts thanks to Skyward and School Messenger. These alerts go out every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday evening for accounts with less than a $0.01 balance in the form of phone call. If you have a family account with 4 students associated with that account, you will receive one call for each student.
Piper Early Childhood Community Needs Assessment
Piper USD 203 shares a focus on early childhood and a commitment to strong community partnerships as essential to achieving our state’s vision for education. We are honored to serve the early learners in Piper and value meeting the needs of our community. We invite you to take a brief survey in order to help us prepare for our future Piper learners. Click here to take the survey.
Enrollment for the 2023-2024 School Year opens February 13!
Just a reminder that 2023-2024 enrollment opens Monday, February 13th. Please log in through your family Skyward account and complete the returning student enrollment for each of your returning students. The 2023-2024 fees will not be available nor applied until after the first week in July in order to give families the opportunity to complete the 2023-2024 Child Nutrition Free/Reduced Application which is available July 1st. More information to come on that closer to July 2023.
Enrollment Process: All enrollment PreK-12 is done online. Please scroll down to find forms and instructions for either "Returning Students" or "New Students".
During online enrollment, you will be able to upload copies of various required documentation (i.e. proof of residency, birth certificate, Kansas physical and immunization records). If you do not have scanned copies, you may instead deliver a physical copy of these documents to your student's school. For instructions on uploading required documents, please click here. This year we will have a couple of different open enrollment days/evenings at each school to provide assistance for those who do not have a computer or internet at their home. More information to come on this.
Fees: 2023-2024 school fees will not be available for parents to pay until after July 1st. This allows families to apply for Free/Reduced Meals which will be available until July 1st. The $25.00 Pre-School enrollment fee can be paid by cash check in person at Piper Early Childhood Center, or with a debit/credit card which may be completed online. A list of fees can be found in a downloadable document below. The enrollment process is not complete until fees are paid in full. In the meantime, please make sure that all of 2022-2023 school year fees and all food service account balances are paid in full prior to July 1st.
Proof of Residency: Proof of residency at the time of enrollment must be provided for all new and returning students. Proof must be current (within the last 60 days). To see the current policy, please click here.
Join Our Team!
Are you interested in joining the Pirate Nation Team? Know of any great candidates? Please visit the website at www.piperschools.com/jobs to see our current openings.
COVID-19
We will continue to have COVID-19 tests available should your child become ill at school, and you wish to provide consent for them to be tested. If your child is exhibiting 2 or more COVID-19 symptoms, our nursing staff would highly recommend having them tested. As always, best practice is to keep your child home if they are feeling unwell.
Should your child test positive for COVID-19, we will be following CDC recommendations for exclusion. The date of the onset of COVID symptoms will count as day zero and your child will need to remain home for five additional days beyond the date of symptom onset. Your child may return to school as long as they are fever free for 24 hours without medication.
Upon return to school, your child will have 2 options regarding masking per CDC guidance. Option 1 is to wear a mask through day 10 following the onset of symptoms. Option 2 calls for testing on day 1 of their return and day 3 of their return. If both tests are negative, mask-wearing can be discontinued following testing on day 3. Please visit with your school nurse if you wish to pursue the testing option.