Life at The Mill
November 3, 2023
(Special) Shout-out:
To the "Lew Crew" (Ms. Chambers, Ms. Cook, & Ms. Lewensten) for spreading holiday cheer this Halloween! We appreciate how these ladies go above and beyond supporting their students and spreading cheer throughout the building!
Important Dates
Nov. 7th - Capped Teacher Workday - De-escalation w/ Kiley Donnell
Nov. 8th - SIT Committees
Nov. 9th - PLC+ at CMES
Nov. 10th - Veteran's Day - no school
Nov. 13th - 4th and 5th to Arts Council
Nov. 14th - 2nd Quarter Progress Reports in Google folders
Nov. 14th - 5th Grade School Spelling Bee - 8:30 in cafeteria
Nov. 14th - 4th grade performance @ 6:30 - Group 1
Nov. 16th - 4th grade performance @ 6:30 - Group 2
Nov. 17th - Movie Night
Nov. 20th - Campus Evacuation Drill
Nov. 21st - 3rd grade Balloon Parade @ 2:15 pm
Nov. 27th - 4th grade Camp Flintrock on campus
Nov. 29th - SIT Meeting
Nov. 30th- Staff Holiday Market (Gym) 4-530pm
Upcoming Assessment Dates
Nov. 7th - K-3 DIBELS progress monitoring for ALL Core students due
Nov. 29th - Reading Benchmark 2 (3-5)
Dec. 5th - Math Benchmark 2 (3-5)
Dec. 6th - Science Benchmark 2 (5th)
Nov. 27th - Dec. 15th - iReady Mid-Year Diagnostic (K-5)
Jan. 4th - 26th - MOY DIBELS Assessments (K-5)
Nov. 7th PD - De-escalation with Kiley Donnell
Our Nov. 7th capped workday will be in the media center from 8:00-12:00. Kiley Donnell, Behavior Coordinator for CCS, will lead our team in de-escalation strategies. This pd is in response to our SIT goals 1 and 3. SIT Goal 1 of Student Wellness addresses management of student emotions and challenging feelings. SIT Goal 3 to decrease student office referrals. If you have not registered in NCEES, please do so by enrolling in course #25485. The registration date closes 11/7/23.
Nov. 8th Committee Meeting
Veteran's Day
As we honor all Veterans, let's celebrate and honor these special Veterans, near and dear to our Cox Mill Elementary Family's hearts!
Dustin Ballentine: Army, 8 years of service
Tim Beane: Navy, 6 years of service
Angel Bravo: Marines, 6 years of service
Stephanie Finlay: Air Force, 4 years of service
Kevin Finlay: Air Force, 4 years of service
Kimberly Martin: Army, 4 years of service
Jimmy Phillips: Navy, 8 years of service
Mathew Starratt: Marines, 24 years of service
Brian Trice: Air Force, 5 years of service
Michael White: Army for 6 years and Air Force National Guard for 2 years of service
Our Bus Drivers:
Ed. Shafer (regular sub and field trip driver): Air Force, 14 years of service
TLT Team Nov.9th
Our TLT+ team will be meeting Thursday Nov. 9th on campus. As our school representatives we will be conducting classroom walks and visiting PLCS (K-2) to enhance and strengthen our instructional processes through the TLT framework. This is not an evaluative process, our team is identifying instructional practices currently used.
Upcoming holidays and workdays
Great news! The district has granted a work from home option (Code 61) for December 18, 19, 20th for certified personnel. (YAY) Flex time OR Code 61- verification of hours can be used. If you are wishing to use work from home, please code your time (Before Dec. 15 @12pm) in Timekeeper. If you have not done this in timekeeper before Dec 15th, we will assume you are coming to work. Please use this goolge doc. to share what you will be working during these days if you are using the code 61 work from home option. If you do not want to work from home the building will be open on December 18,19,20. This option is not available to hourly employees such as TAs, clerical positions, custodial or administration. Teachers, please plan to leave a few items for hourly personnel to complete during this time.
Transportation Changes
If you are made aware of a change of transportation for a student, please communicate that information with the front office. If a van rider has a change of transportation, you can include the front office, Sandie, Adrienne, and the grade level TA on the communication.
A Note from the Custodians
Please do not send students to the Lost and Found from 1:30-2:00pm each day. This is when the custodian crew has mopped the cafeteria floor and it is wet. We do not want students to fall on the wet floor.
Avalanche Coffee Truck
Avalanche Coffee Truck will be on coffee/tea again on Nov. 13th. Teachers will need to place an order or a group order. The PTO will be here to help run orders to classrooms.
3rd Grade "Balloon's Over Broadway" Parade
On Tuesday, November 21st at 2:15 pm, 3rd grade will be parading through the school with their balloon creations that they will be making after reading, Balloons Over Broadway, a true story about the inventor of the first balloons in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Their route will take them up and down the 2nd, 1st, and Kindergarten hallways and then loop back through the glass hallway to the long hallway. Please feel free to line the hallways to help recreate our own mini Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade!
Sink Storage + Health Inspection
Just a friendly reminder from your custodial team... please do NOT store any materials in the cabinet(s) under your sink (for those of you with sinks in your classrooms). This is something the health inspectors look for (and mark us down on) when they do their inspections.
Why is Cox Mill special??
We were able to capture just a few of the small things that make a big impact and contribute to the special place that is Cox Mill. Look at the special relationship Hao has with Mrs. Beers' class with the bag dance ritual and an appearance of the Bag Man on Halloween. Then there is the ultimate compliment when you are chosen as the model for the Halloween costume. Officer Drummond has a special relationship with the Lew Crew. #priceless #relationshipsmatter