Dear CST Family,

As we conclude our month of gratitude this week, I want to thank you, our parents, for a great start to the year and for your support on all we do at CST. The work we do at CST is a community effort and partnership with parents, a partnership for which I'm truly grateful.

I'm grateful for our staff who have worked through two of the most challenging years in education. I wish I could adequately describe to you the efforts our staff make daily for our kids. So much goes into their class and our programs and it's through thoughtful consideration of our staff to how best reach all of our students. Their work is a daily inspiration for me.

Finally, I'm grateful for our students. They are why we're here, they are the motivation, they bring the energy...make our job fun. I'm grateful for so much with our students...their hard work, their laughs and joy, their successes, their productive failures (we learn so much through mistakes!), their positivity, their grit, their kindness, and on and on. I'm grateful to have a part in their middle school experience.

Simply, I feel blessed to be at CST and I am grateful for all who have a role in the work we do for our kids.

I wish you all a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving break and some special time with those closest to you.

Rick

6th and 8th grade parents,

Hearing and vision screen day is Wednesday, November 17th. Please remember to wear your glasses or contacts. 7th grade will be screened for vision at a later time.

• While seated on the bench during games players should be masked
• Coaches and managers should be masked at all times
• While playing, players are not required to mask

Cheer

• While cheering on the sideline or performing a routine on the floor, cheerleaders do not need to mask
• All other times (sitting on the bleachers, entering and leaving the gym, meeting with coach) cheerleaders should be masked.
• Coaches should be masked at all times

Dance Team

• While performing a routine on the floor, dancers do not need to mask
• All other times (sitting on the bleachers, entering and leaving the gym, meeting with coach) dancers should be masked.
• Coaches should be masked at all times

All spectators

• Students, parents, visitors, workers, staff all need to be masked at all times while attending a game

In the weeks ahead, we'll begin providing literacy intervention for students identified through our MAP testing and reading fluency assessments in the building. This intervention will be provided during our WIN class period (8:44-9:18) and students will work in groups of 5 or less with CST teachers. All students will still be eligible for the WIN prizes described above, but may spend WIN time with one of our building literacy interventionists (one of 13 CST teachers) while they receive literacy intervention targeting any of the identified literacy gaps. This intervention time is being utilized in our Olathe Schools and achieves the state literacy mandate.

In addition, beginning Monday, all CST students will begin to receive daily phonics lessons for the first 5 minutes of their science class. This, too, is part of a district wide effort to help close any gaps that may have occurred through any of our kids' schooling. Daily phonics lessons will be fulfilled by your child's social studies teacher beginning in January.

A nationwide trend has recently made its way into local schools. Unfortunately, CST has not been exempt from this trend, nor have the other Olathe middle schools and high schools. The trend has been credited to TikTok and involves vandalizing schools and posting the video evidence on the social media platform. This has resulted in various acts of vandalism in Olathe including broken bathroom stall doors, mirrors pulled down from walls, soap dispensers ripped from walls, trash cans turned upside down, etc. Some have been caught as a result of their posted video making rounds. Of course, these actions can result in both school and legal consequences. The first story below features Olathe North principal, Jason Herman, who was interviewed by the KC Star.

The other articles are informational, but recent, and deal more with the mental health impact social media can have. Even working in schools as an administrator, I was not aware of some of the information below. As more focus and attention is given to the mental health of our children, the various social media platforms and their influence on the developing teenage brain is an important part of the conversation. My hope is that the links below will provide awareness of current trends and more about outside influences on our kids. Even better if these promote discussion at home.

Johnson County school has bathroom doors and toilet seats stolen, following TikTok trend (featuring Olathe principal) (9/15/2021)

https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/education/article254240178.html

TikTokers Are Stealing From Their Schools in a New Trend (9/10/2021)

5 Things Parents Need to Know about Tik-Tok (Updated 2021)

https://kidmatterscounseling.com/blog/5-things-parents-need-to-know-about-tik-tok/

https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2021/09/14/facebook-knew-instagram-could-bad-teens-mental-health/8340578002/

The links below require a Wall Street Journal subscription but may be found in summary on other social media awareness sites.

How TikTok Serves Up Sex and Drug Videos to Minors (9/8/2021)

https://www.wsj.com/articles/tiktok-algorithm-sex-drugs-minors-11631052944

Inside TikTok’s Algorithm: A WSJ Video Investigation(7/21/2021)

https://www.wsj.com/articles/tiktok-algorithm-video-investigation-11626877477

Our CST library app has been fixed! Students may use the CST Library app (from Classlink) to access tutorials to get ebooks and audiobooks from Destiny and/or Axis360, browse book trailers and booktalks, use databases for school research, etc...

Also, bookfairs are returning!! Our fall bookfair will be the week of October 18th and the Spring bookfair will be the week of February 14th. Both of these weeks are the week after conferences and the fairs will be in the library. This year we will be using Scholastic Book Fairs. More details to come as we get closer...

https://sites.google.com/students.olatheschools.com/cstlibrary

Receptionist: Chrissy Walters

Assistant Principal's Secretary: Angie Peterson

Attendance Secretary: Connie Bray

Bookkeeper/Principal's Secretary: Sara Harris

Data Operator: Melynda Marquardt

School Nurse: Jennifer Ross

Please keep info updated (email, phone number, medical, etc.). Contact the office at 913-780-7240 if you are concerned you may be missing communication or need to update your family's information.