Happy Friday!

We hope you had a truly wonderful Thanksgiving break with your friends and family! Mrs. Page is back from her maternity leave and is so happy to be back with her Compass family!

Please reach out if you have any concerns or questions! We are here to partner with you.

Thank you for your support and partnership in your student(s) education. Have a truly wonderful and relaxing weekend!

Dr. Kim Archer, Compass Principal

archerk@platteco.k12.mo.us

Mrs. Allison Page, Compass Assistant Principal

pagea@platteco.k12.mo.us

Help Your Child Succeed In School

Build The Habit of Good Attendance

Research shows that good attendance helps students achieve in school. In the following months, we will highlight our Compass average student attendance. At this age parents, guardians, grandparents, and others are instrumental in helping to make sure our students are in attendance. The state and district goal for attendance is 90% of the students in attendance 90% of the time, or greater.

DID YOU KNOW?

• Starting in preschool and kindergarten, too many absences can cause children to fall behind in school.

• Missing 10%, or about 2 days each month over the course of a school year, can make it harder to learn to read.

• Students can still fall behind if they miss just 1 or 2 days every few weeks.

• Compass has an attendance committee, made up of school administrators, a school counselor, the school social worker and an administrative assistant. We review student attendance data that falls below 90% each month. It is important that parents know if their child(ren)’s attendance falls below 90%. School personnel work with the student and family to help improve school attendance.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

• Set a regular bedtime and morning routine.

• Lay out clothes and pack a backpack the night before.

• Ask questions about your child’s school day…How was your day? What did you do today? Tell me something you talked about or learned in school today.

• Ask to see what students are bringing home in his/her take home folder.

• Look forward to reading your teacher’s newsletter, it has critical information about what your child is learning/doing.

• As the season is changing and the weather is getting cooler, please review the districts’ snow day policy and check to make sure you are getting the notifications from district via email and text to prepare for the upcoming change in weather.

• If you have concerns, or need anything, partner with your child’s teacher, school counselor, school nurse or administrator, we are here to help your child be successful!

Month Average Attendance:

• August 2022: 96.45%
• September 2022: 94.93%
• October 2022: 93.65%
• November 2022: 88.97%

We would love your assistance to support our Pirates during lunch in the cafeteria. Please follow the link below to sign up for a time between 10:30 am - 12:00pm or 11:45 am - 1:30pm. Please bring in your ID when you arrive.

**on all early-release days, we will not be able to have cafeteria assistance**

The Innovation Team at Compass Elementary is working on a Career Fair for our Compass students sometime following MAP Testing in 2023.

The team would love and appreciate your feedback for parents who may be interested in participating!

Below is the link, if you are interested in providing feedback to the team on our Career Fair 2023! Thank you for your time and consideration!

We are excited to welcome you to visit your Pirate at lunch! If you are ordering a lunch to eat with your student, please call ahead or confirm your order as you sign up with the link below.

Compass is starting our Watch D.O.G.S back up! We are starting smaller this year with an hour one Friday a month from 8:15-9:15am at Compass. We are hopeful to increase this going into the next school year (23/24) to what we had been doing in previous years of half-day options for dads.

Compass will have Watch D.O.G.S sign-up once a month. Below are the dates for the remainder of the 22/23 school year:

• December 16
• January 20
• February 24
• March 17
• April 21

Look for the signup below!

When the current weather reports states the feels-like temperature is 20 degrees or below, students will have inside recess that day. When the weather has a feels-like temperature of 95 degrees or higher, students will be inside.

As the weather is changing, please ensure your student is dressed appropriately for the weather. We cannot share coats from the lost and found. If you have any coats you would like to donate, please send them to the front office.

Don't forget that our Winter Parties at Compass have changed. It was on the 21st but due to the 3-hour early release the parties are now schedule for the afternoon of December 20th.

The parties are being organized by our amazing PTA. Only classroom volunteers signed up on PTA's sign up genius are able to join in person. Stay tuned for the PTA sign-up. The PTA is not asking for any donations-PTA will be covering all party supplies and snacks.

We believe that birthdays are an important time in a child’s life. However, for several reasons including increased food allergies, preservation of the instructional day, and student equality, students are not allowed to bring treats from home or a store or have flowers/balloons or other items delivered to the classroom for birthdays, going-away parties, or other personal events. If a student receives a delivery at school, the student will be notified to come to the office to view the item. Parents will be responsible for transporting the item home. Birthday party invitations may only be distributed if invitations are given to every student in the class.

The school year has started, but we still have some openings across our District, including bus drivers, custodians, paraprofessionals, and lunch monitors. If interested in joining our team, click here to apply! Specifically at Compass Elementary, we have openings for a Lunch Monitor and Custodian.

Compass Elementary utilizes the Leader in Me framework as our school’s leadership initiative. A goal of the Family and Community Action team here at Compass is to provide additional education to families about the 8 different habits that your student(s) are taught to empower them to lead their own learning. Each month, your child’s teacher will provide education in their weekly newsletter about a habit for the month. Along with the habit for the month, there will be a family worksheet for each student to complete with their family. If a student brings that worksheet back to school, your child will earn a prize donated by Nodaway Bank to our very own Compass PTA!

Leader in Me founder, Steven Covey, once said, “Family is the most important organization in the world.” We appreciate your partnership is building healthy, happy kids at school, at home, and in the community!