CK8 Parent News
September, 2022
An "A" Rated School for 18 Consecutive Years
ARRIVAL AND DISMISSAL REMINDERS
Ask any school leader or parent what the biggest issue their school faces, and you will likely hear the car rider line and traffic. If you take a moment to reflect, however, you will realize that our school is able to safely clear over 1,800 faculty, staff and students in twenty minutes on most days. That is substantially better than many of the roadways in our area and might even be Disney-worthy traffic control.
Our arrival and dismissal procedures are created with the safety of our students and staff as our first priority. We also considered the impact our traffic has on our neighbors and community. Keeping that in mind, we ask that you help us by following our procedures as designed. It is far better for your child to be tardy than to be put at risk due to unsafe driving or drop off/pick up.
Our two drop off and pick up car lines are on Campus Street for VPK - 2nd grade students who are either single car riders OR who have a sibling in VPK - 2nd grades. It is also used our students with special needs who have special arrangements with the administration. All other car riders should go to the gym. Each car and student has been given a number to help speed up dismissal. You can help us by:
- remaining in your car,
- displaying your car tag until your child is in the car,
- pulling forward so we can load more cars at once,
- focusing on your driving in case a child (or adult) near the road is not paying attention.
There is only one gate for walkers and bike riders. The Mulberry Gate provides our walkers and bikers a larger area for ingress and egress and allows us to safely block the roadway to prevent vehicular traffic. We understand that many families use this gate as a "walker" gate when they park their car and walk to the gate to pick up their child. This creates traffic issues for our community as many cars are illegally blocking side streets or crosswalks or are allowing their children to jump out in the middle of the street. It also forces teachers to park blocks from school as our school parking lot is extremely small. If you find parking and walking to the Mulberry Gate the best way to get your child to and from school, PLEASE be considerate of our community and please follow all traffic laws.
Like any strong community effort, when we work together for the good of all, everyone benefits!
CLASSROOM UPDATES (WHY ARE CLASSES BEING CHANGED?)
This week, you may notice there will be changes to classes for some students and teachers. Each year, we are allocated teachers during the spring based on projected enrollment. It is common at this point in the school year for the district to look at student attendance and readjust teaching allocations based upon the number of students who actually show up.
Changes that will affect our school are as follows:
- Mrs. Harder and Ms. Irizarry's dual language class will be combined due to low numbers. Ms. Irizarry will remain with the dual language class. Mrs. Harder will move to a Kindergarten co-teach with Mrs. Barber Campos. Parents have been informed if this affects their child.
- Mrs. Hernandez's 2nd grade co-teach will be turned into two separate classes. Students from other 2nd classes will be placed into the new classroom. These students will receive math/science instruction from Mrs. Hernandez and reading instruction from the new teacher being hired for that position. Parents will be notified of any changes as soon as our new teacher has finished processing through our HR department.
- Mrs. Zavieh was moved to a new self-contained class. Students have been moved from all other 4th grade classes to form the new class. The majority of parents have been notified if this affects their child.
We understand changes are always difficult at this time of year. We try to minimize changes to classes for our students as much as possible while working within the confines of budget and class size law.
SPORTS NEWS
- MS Athletics Remind code is @cmsteams22
- Elementary Athletics Remind code is @ck8ele
- Text the code to #81010 or search for it on Remind
CK8 Middle School Sports
HOME/SCHOOL COMMUNICATION
We are continually working to improve our home/school communication and we are excited that we now have a new Parent Liaison, Mrs. Monica Pinheiro, who has worked at Celebration K8 for many years working with our ELL students. Mrs. Pinheiro is fluent in English, Portuguese, and Spanish and is now working in our office to assist administration with questions and concerns you may have. You can reach Mrs. Pinheiro by phone at 407-566-2300 or by email at monica.pinheiro@osceolaschools.net. If she is unable to answer your questions, Monica will get you to the proper administrator quickly.
If you need to communicate with your child's teacher, we have multiple ways to reach out. The majority of our teachers frequently use Remind to send out regular communication to parents. Each teacher has a unique Remind code, so please contact the teacher if you need the code.
Teachers also use the agendas provided by our PTA to communicate individually with parents regarding assignments and individual notes regarding your child.
Lastly, you can always follow us on Facebook @CelebrationK8 where we showcase the exciting things going on at our school!
Email is a wonderful way to get in touch with your child's teacher, but please remember that teachers usually only check their email before or after school or during their planning during the day. Teacher emails can be found on our school website under staff directory. We have had some difficulty with phone extensions and our system is currently being repaired. Once all extensions are working, we will update our staff directory with ever teacher's phone number.
Focus, our student information system, has educational information for your child at your fingertips including grades, attendance, and discipline. If you do not yet have a parent account for Focus, you can follow the link below to register for Focus.
NO EARLY RELEASE WEDNESDAYS
Please mark your calendars that there will be no early release on the following Wednesdays due to testing.
- October 12
March 22
May 10
May 3
BEGINNING OF THE YEAR FORMS
Please remember to return your beginning of the year forms if you have not already done so. Data from these forms will be uploaded into Focus acknowledging your choices for photo release, etc. It is always a good idea to check your phone numbers and emergency contact names and numbers in Focus regularly. Please notify us of any changes so we may have your most up-to-date information in case of an emergency.
If you have not yet submitted proof of 7th grade immunizations, please do so immediately as students who are not immunized will not be permitted to come to school beginning September 12th.
UNIFORMS AND UNIFORM EXCEPTIONS
We follow our district uniform guidelines regulating student dress code. Uniform guidelines can be found here or by clicking the button below. In addition to the district's uniform, we allow students to wear either hunter green or gold polo shirts. On Wednesdays, students are permitted to wear either college or military shirts as part of our AVID program. On Fridays, students are permitted to wear a Celebration spirit. Spirit shirts can be purchased online through our PTA Spirit store by clicking here or on the button below.
Important Dates
September 2022
Sept 5 Labor Day, No School
Sept 7 Early Release Day, 3:20 p.m.
Sept 7 Middle School Soccer Game, 5:00 p.m. @Westside K8
Sept 8 Elem/MS Cross Country Meet, 5:30 p.m. @Poinciana High School
Sept 12 Progress reports are published in FOCUS this week
Sept 13 Picture Day (Uniforms are worn for Fall Picture Day)
Sept 15 Elem/MS Cross Country Meet, 5:30 p.m. @Westside K8
Sept 20 Elem/MS Cross Country Meet, 5:30 p.m. @Celebration High School
Sept 23 Instructional Professional Development Day (Student Holiday)
Sept 27 MS Cross Country Meeting, 5:30 p.m. @Poinciana High School
Sept 30 MS Band @Celebration High Football Game
October 2022
Oct 4 MS Cross Country Championships, 6:00 p.m. @Austin Tindall Park
Oct 10 Columbus Day, School is in session
Oct 11 Picture Day Makeup, Uniforms required
Oct 11 Carrabba's Dinner Concert (MS Band), 5:00 p.m. in the CK8 Cafeteria
Oct 13 End of First Quarter
Oct 14 Teacher Work Day (Student Holiday)
Oct 24 Report Cards go home