• February 5th-Cheer on the Chiefs RED FRIDAY
• February 8th-Wear PINK in honor of our Zoom visit with cartoonist Duane Abel
• February 12th- Valentine's Day Parties
• February 15th- No School President's Day

* Please call in transportation changes before 2 p.m.

Cartoonist Duane Abel will be visiting with Sunflower students on February 8 via an all-school Zoom.

From Duane's website:

Duane presents an all student assembly that promotes GOAL SETTING, the power of LITERACY and importance of EDUCATION with the four words required for success that all students need to hear!

We look forward to visiting Duane and want to welcome him by wearing pink in honor of Zed, one of his cartoon characters!

Hello Families,

First, Sunflower wants to thank all the staff, students and parents working so hard to make this unique school year a success! It’s been exciting to have kids back in school! This year, more than ever, it’s important the school and families partner together. We wanted to send out a reminder to parents the importance of calling the school the morning your child is absent if your child will be not be in school that day. Here are some important tips and reminders:

• If your child is going to be absent from school, please notify the school before 8:30 am THAT SAME DAY. This will prevent the school from having to mark them as an unexcused absence.

• It is best practice to notify the school via email. Please email your child's teacher along with the attendance clerk in the front office ( office-attendance@usd368.org ) to let them know your child will be gone and how the absence should be marked (ill, out of town, etc...) To avoid a call from the attendance-dialer, be sure to include the office-attendance in your correspondence.

• When you contact the school, if you anticipate an extended absence due to quarantine, please note length of the absence then be sure to send a doctor’s note upon your child returning.

• If you are not able to email, please call the school at 913-294-8040.

Your partnership in notifying the school the day your child is absence, will help the school prepare for your child’s absence in organizing their missed work. It will also help families avoid unnecessarily receiving an unexcused absence letter from the school outlining state truancy laws. (Although, state truancy laws are important for families to know: An unexcused absence in Kansas is when a parent does not notify the school of their child’s absence that same day. When a child has 3 consecutive unexcused absences, 5 total unexcused absences in a semester or 7 total unexcused absences in a school year, the child is considered truant by Kansas state law and the school is required to report them as such).

Thank you so much for your continued partnership in making this a great school year!

Mask Protocol

Thank you for your cooperation with the mask protocols that are truly working to help keep our staff and students safe. Reminder.....an appropriate mask should cover the nose and mouth completely and stay securely in place. Please make sure masks are being washed and/or changed daily.

COVID Precautions

We are grateful that we continue to have in person learning here at Sunflower. Continue to help us in this endeavor by being symptom aware and keeping your student home if they are sick or experiencing COVID like symptoms. Our policy requires any student demonstrating one primary symptom or two secondary symptoms to be excluded from school.

Primary Symptoms (any one):
 New Onset Cough
 Difficulty Breathing
 Loss of taste/smell
OR

Secondary Symptoms (any two):
 Fever of at least 100.4
 Extreme Fatigue
 Chills
 Congestion/Runny nose (count as only one)
 Nausea/Vomiting/Diarrhea (count as only one)
 Sore Throat
 Headache
 Muscle or Body Aches

Contact the school nurse for return guidelines if you feel your student meets these criteria.

Free COVID testing continues to be available in Paola at Rockers Pharmacy and the Adult Education Center.

Glenda Kinaman, RN

USD #368, District Nurse

http://miamicountyresourceguide.weebly.com/miami-county-resource-guide.html

Lisa Wilson, LSCSW

Sunflower Elementary

School Social Worker

913-294-8040 ext 3311