JCS Staff Newsletter

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During our Board of Education meeting on Monday, December 5, your Johnson City Board of Education voted to provide a bonus for all full and part-time employees. The bonus is a gross amount of $750 for all full-time staff and $375 for all part-time staff. This will come as a separate deposit from finance on Tuesday, December 20. The Board expressed their appreciation for your dedication and hard work. With the current level of inflation and the ability to consider a bonus due to a strong fund balance, the Board wanted to express their appreciation for your work with a bonus before the holiday season. I hope you have a good a productive end to the semester and a good, well deserved, winter break.

Thank you,

Steve Barnett, Ed. D.

Superintendent

Johnson City Schools

Before we even share it with United Way officials, we wanted thank everyone who contributed to the 2022 United Way Campaign. This was our strongest campaign in years, as we raised $26,286.24. These dollars will fund vital community service organizations in our area.

If you contributed a qualifying amount, look for your jean coupons during the third week of January. If you did not have a chance to contribute, but would like to, contact Collin Brooks at BrooksB@jcschools.org.

We hope that everyone enjoys the Holidays. As a heads-up, January is School Board Appreciation Month. Also, looking forward, students will have a half-day on Tuesday, December 20.

Click here to view Printable Calendars for 2022-2023 & 2023-2024

JC Schools provides for full-time employees life insurance equal to the employee’s annual salary or double the employee’s annual salary after 2 years. The IRS requires that the portion of life insurance above $50,000 be treated as a taxable benefit to the employee. This was done for 2022 on the 12/5/22 paycheck. Many of you may have noticed your net pay was less than normal as a result. You can find more information on how this is calculated by reviewing the IRS’s Publication 15-B, Employer’s Tax Guide to Fringe Benefits.

The end of the year is right around the corner. Please make sure if you have had an address change in the past year that you have submitted your new address to the Finance Department.

The next time you log into Skyward, you should see the option to receive a printed or electronic copy of your W-2 once it is ready in January. If you do not select a choice, the system will default to your selection from previous years. W-2s will be available by January 31, 2023.

We recently became aware of a phishing email that appears to be coming JC Schools Payroll Department. JC Schools will never ask for you to provide your direct deposit information through email. To make direct deposit changes, a Direct Deposit Employee Form must be completed, signed, and submitted to the Finance Department. If you are unsure if an email is legitimate, verify the email address the email has been sent from

Due to the upcoming Winter Break, the second regular paycheck for December will be paid early on December 16th. Any supplemental pays and the one-time bonus will be paid the following week in a separate direct deposit.

Click this link to fill out the form and order you Patriot Puppy Pal Dog Treats.

Liberty Bell Comprehensive Developmental Classroom students are not the only ones excited about the treats they are making. They also seem to be getting a lot of tail wags. The CDC class started a classroom business, Patriot Puppy Pal Treats, under the direction of CDC teacher Kelly Hernandez. The classroom business allows students to learn business skills while also building their independence.

“Our whole goal here is for our students to be independent when they leave us. Programs like this provide our students with the life skills they need to be independent,” Hernandez said. “We really break it down for the things that we take for granted, that we have learned through life that they are not always exposed to.”

The students made organic dog treats and it has allowed the kitchen to become their classroom as the teachers use functional academics to teach life skills that many of us take for granted. For instance, they do math when they measure the ingredients and they use reading as they gather the ingredients to cook. The students also have the opportunity to learn money skills and map skills as they navigate the hallways to deliver the orders.

Read more - www.jcschools.org/3/News/333

Johnson City Schools' Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund documents are available for review through this link. At the bottom of the page, there is a link to a Google form where we ask for feedback from all of our stakeholders. Every six months we will use this feedback for our ESSER 3.0 Public Plan-Federal Relief Spending Addendum. Please feel free to review these documents and provide us with feedback.

Johnson City Schools is hiring custodians, Educare assistants, and instructional assistants. Current job postings can be viewed at www.jcschools.org/jobs. Johnson City Transit is in need of bus drivers. Please visit this page for more information about open Bus Driver positions.

If you have any questions or concerns about Bloomz, feel free to reach out to at BrooksB@jcschools.org with any questions.

Bloomz On-Demand Training for Teachers

• Beginning with Bloomz: Teacher Basics

• Beginning with Posts/Announcements/Alerts/Messages

• Beginning with Events, Sign-Ups, and Conferences

The next Johnson City Board of Education meeting will be held on Monday, January 9 starting at 6 p.m. inside the Board Room at Central Office (100 E. Maple Street). Board meetings can be viewed on the Johnson City Schools' YouTube channel.

Johnson City Schools has enrolled with STOPit, the leading technology platform for schools that deters and controls harmful or inappropriate conduct. STOPit empowers students with an easy app to safely and anonymously report anything of concern to school officials – from cyberbullying to threats of violence or self-harm. STOPit empowers students to stand up for themselves and others while giving our schools the insight we need to keep students safe. Students can download the App from the Apple Store or Google play store on their mobile device and then search for their Johnson City School. While the reports are anonymous, there will be severe consequences for anyone who is found to have made a false report.

Read more - www.jcschools.org/News/463

Johnson City Schools loves celebrating the accomplishments of our students, staff, and community. If you know of any events, awards, programs, or other compelling stories involving the Johnson City Schools' community, please fill out this form or reach out to Collin Brooks at BrooksB@jcschools.org

We will distribute this newsletter on the Wednesday following the monthly Board of Education meeting. This newsletter will have information from District Departments and other helpful tips. If you have suggestions for content in this newsletter, please send them to Collin Brooks at BrooksB@jcschools.org.