Union Chapel
January 2017
Park Hill Spelling Bee
Registration now open for Park Hill Spelling Bee
The Park Hill District spelling bee will be held Saturday, February 4th at PHSHS with the winner advancing directly to the Scripps National Spelling Bee held near Washington, DC., May 28-June 3. Awards will be presented to the top ten PHSD finishers. All current Park Hill 5th-8th graders are eligible, but students must sign up by January 15th. Register through the link below, or by going to the “Parent Resources” section of the district website.
Watch D.O.G.S. (Dads of Great Students) by the Numbers
Here are some fun Watch D.O.G.S. stats for 1st semester:
- First Day of WD: Thursday, October 6
Last Day of WD: Tuesday, December 20
Total of 48 days of school during the window with 13 days of no Watch DOGS due to special events, early release and right before or after a longer break
73½ day schedules have been created
64 actual visits made
58 families represented with volunteer visits
We appreciate each and everyone of our Watch D.O.G.S.!
Second Semester Donuts with Dads
‘Donuts with Dad’ Event
On Thursday, January 19 from 7:45 until 8:30 a.m., we will have our semi-annual ‘Donuts with Dad’ event at Union Chapel Elementary. You and your students are welcomed to meet in the school cafeteria for FREE donuts and drinks. We will have a brief presentation about our WATCH D.O.G.S.® (Dads Of Great Students) Program and a preview of what is scheduled to take place for the remainder of this school year.
A calendar will be available to give dads a chance to sign up for a day
(or half day) to volunteer at school. Even if you can’t sign up for a day as a Watch D.O.G.S. dad, we encourage you to take this great opportunity to eat breakfast with your child at school before you go to work on January 19th.
If you are able to join the Gators for this event, please fill out an online form at the following link by Friday, January 13: RSVP Link
Sincerely,
Union Chapel Watch D.O.G.S. Top Dog Committee
A note from our Media Specialist Mrs. Hyatt
All Union Chapel students were able to participate in computer coding activities in the library during December. The Hour of Code is a global movement reaching tens of millions of students in 180+ countries. It is an initiative by Computer Science Education Week [csedweek.org] and Code.org [code.org] to introduce students to computer science and programming. We live in a world surrounded by technology. And we know that whatever field our students choose to go into as adults, their ability to succeed will increasingly depend on understanding how technology works. Be sure and ask your child about computer coding. Https://code.org/ is a website they can continue to work on at home, as well.
Parent Focus Group Notes
Mrs. Stacey Sturm held the second Parent Focus Group meeting on Wednesday, December 14th. Continuous Improvement is one of the district and building values and the focus of the conversations were centered around ways to improve some processes and structures. A summary of the discussion items is available for our school community to review here
If there are any questions about the material, please contact Mrs. Sturm at sturms@parkhill.k12.mo.us.
Park Hill School District News: No Tax Increase Bond Issue (April 7, 2017)
Schools in the Park Hill School District are getting crowded.
Many families move to our community just to send their children to our schools, and this means we need to keep up with our growing enrollment.
For several years, we have been planning ahead to deal with this growth. We got feedback from the community, including students, staff and parents, to help the Park Hill Board of Education develop an enrollment-based long-range facility plan. The community told us that it was important to have enough classroom space in our schools, to maintain our existing buildings, to keep class sizes low and to have simple feeder patterns.
The long-range facility plan we created with all this feedback has enrollment targets. Since our enrollment continues to grow and hit those targets, we installed mobile classrooms at several schools this year. However, our community told us they do not want us to use these as long-term solutions to our crowding.
So, in keeping with the next step of our plan, as we hit our enrollment targets, the Board of Education decided to place a no-tax-increase bond issue question on the April 4, 2017 ballot. Voters will decide whether to take on an additional $110 million in debt to pay for facilities to accommodate our growth, including
- A new elementary school
- A new middle school
- A high school innovation studio
- A district warehouse and support services facility to support our classrooms and maintain our facilities
- Improvements to existing facilities
If economic conditions leave enough proceeds from the bond issue, we would also
- Build a transportation center, which could save us money on busing
- Pay for maintenance projects in our existing facilities
It is possible to pay for these projects with no tax increase because of our Board’s careful money management and good financial stewardship of taxpayer dollars. Thanks to good financial management by the district, Park Hill is in a position to ask for a bond without raising taxes. This is a result of aggressively paying off existing debts and refinancing for better rates. Local commercial and residential growth has also helped by expanding the local tax base. Because of these factors, we have room in our state-set debt limit to take on additional debt with no tax increase. We will continue to carefully monitor our debt and interest rates in order to save taxpayer dollars.
Thanks to conservative budgeting, we have enough room in our debt service levy to issue bonds to cover the cost of these new schools and projects with no tax increase.
For more information about Park Hill’s no-tax-increase bond issue, please visit the district’s website at http://www.parkhill.k12.mo.us/cms/One.aspx?portalId=62500&pageId=28238569.
Important Upcoming Dates
January 5 WELCOME BACK! Students resume school after Winter Break
January 6 Spirit Wear - BLUE OR WHITE (WINTER COLORS)
January 9 Fire Drill
January 10 PTA Meeting (6:30 pm)
January 12 Early Release (1:30 pm)
January 13 Fire Fighters visit lunches
January 13 Spirit Wear - TYE DYE
January 19 PTA Cultural Arts Assemblies-Kansas City Zoo
January 19 Donuts with Dad Event (7:45 am)
January 20 Spirit Wear - FAVORITE CHARACTER SHIRT
January 26 2nd Grade Music Program (7:00 pm)
January 27 PTA Family Movie Night (6:30 pm)
Upcoming Early Release Dates
Union Chapel will release at 1:30 pm on the following Thursdays.
Thursday, January 12, 2017
Thursday, February 9, 2017
Thursday, March 9, 2017
Thursday, April 13, 2017
Thursday, May 11, 2017
Remaining 2016-2017 Evening Grade Level Music Programs
2nd Grade Music Program Thursday, January 26, 2017 7:00 pm "Too Much Noise"
1st Grade Music Program Thursday, February 16, 2017 7:00 pm "Go Fish"
Kindergarten Music Program Thursday March 09, 2017 7:00 pm "Music All Over Me"
Park Hill Star
Park Hill Star Award
Our employees are the reason we are so successful here in the Park Hill School District, and we would like to recognize them for all they do for our students.
That is why we present the Park Hill Star award once a month to a pre-K or elementary teacher, a secondary teacher and a support employee.
Anyone can nominate an employee for this award by using the form below. It asks you to share how your nominee demonstrates our district values of continuous improvement, high expectations, integrity, visionary leadership and student focus. You can also share how your nominee supports the goals in our district’s strategic plan.
Please nominate a Park Hill Star today!
Park Hill Star nomination form