Dear CST Family,

This past week was the beginning of the girls’ basketball season. Our teams had two home games on Tuesday and Thursday and will hit the road next Tuesday at Summit Trail for their first road game. It was great to see so many of our students at the game cheering on our wildcats. It’s going to be a fun season for our girls and an experience that will leave them with lasting memories.

Aside from girls’ basketball, we have 7/8 band concert next week (Thursday). We are two weeks away from the musical and there are other concerts on the horizon. We have some club activity in the building and our classrooms are filled with energy and engagement. As I think about the memory making events during a school year, I also think about how we just completed our first quarter reporting period. While these Q1 report cards reflect grades in a class, they don't reflect the memories made or the "experiences" of middle school. There is an important piece of the school experience that involves connections, before/after school events, activities, interactions, classroom funnies, a-ha moments, etc etc....none of these are on a report card, yet all of these are what will make the lasting memories. My hope is for academic success, of course, but also for students to be a part of the experience of middle school; an experience with lasting positive memories that resurface when they're older and reminiscing about their time at CST. There are many opportunities for all of our students to become connected and create a middle school "experience". We are here to help connect them to the building in some way, shape, or form...feel free to reach out to any CST staff member if you'd like more info and some direction in helping your child...we are here to help!

It's the last week of October...have a great one!

Rick

If you missed our picture retake day on October 22, please reach out to Jennifer Adamo (Jennifer.Adamo@strawbridge.net) to schedule a time that works for your family!

If your family is interested in receiving weekend snacks to go home in their student's backpacks on Friday, please email rjiuli@olatheschools.org or amrodden@olatheschools.org.

Rachel Iuli & Ashley Rodden

School Counselors
Olathe Public Schools

Chisholm Trail Middle School

913-780-7240

• While seated on the bench during games players should be masked
• Coaches and managers should be masked at all times
• While playing, players are not required to mask

Cheer

• While cheering on the sideline or performing a routine on the floor, cheerleaders do not need to mask
• All other times (sitting on the bleachers, entering and leaving the gym, meeting with coach) cheerleaders should be masked.
• Coaches should be masked at all times

Dance Team

• While performing a routine on the floor, dancers do not need to mask
• All other times (sitting on the bleachers, entering and leaving the gym, meeting with coach) dancers should be masked.
• Coaches should be masked at all times

All spectators

• Students, parents, visitors, workers, staff all need to be masked at all times while attending a game

Parents,

As our students are well underway with their WIN time choice boards, we are going to reward students for their hard work! Teachers will nominate hard working students who'll then be entered into a drawing for a prize. Below is a link if you'd like to contribute toward our prizes for students. If you have any questions please reach out to assistant principal, Krista Dueringer at kdueringercst@olatheschools.org.

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/20F044CAAA62CAAFC1-wintime

In the weeks ahead, we'll begin providing literacy intervention for students identified through our MAP testing and reading fluency assessments in the building. This intervention will be provided during our WIN class period (8:44-9:18) and students will work in groups of 5 or less with CST teachers. All students will still be eligible for the WIN prizes described above, but may spend WIN time with one of our building literacy interventionists (one of 13 CST teachers) while they receive literacy intervention targeting any of the identified literacy gaps. This intervention time is being utilized in our Olathe Schools and achieves the state literacy mandate.

In addition, beginning Monday, all CST students will begin to receive daily phonics lessons for the first 5 minutes of their science class. This, too, is part of a district wide effort to help close any gaps that may have occurred through any of our kids' schooling. Daily phonics lessons will be fulfilled by your child's social studies teacher beginning in January.

A nationwide trend has recently made its way into local schools. Unfortunately, CST has not been exempt from this trend, nor have the other Olathe middle schools and high schools. The trend has been credited to TikTok and involves vandalizing schools and posting the video evidence on the social media platform. This has resulted in various acts of vandalism in Olathe including broken bathroom stall doors, mirrors pulled down from walls, soap dispensers ripped from walls, trash cans turned upside down, etc. Some have been caught as a result of their posted video making rounds. Of course, these actions can result in both school and legal consequences. The first story below features Olathe North principal, Jason Herman, who was interviewed by the KC Star.

The other articles are informational, but recent, and deal more with the mental health impact social media can have. Even working in schools as an administrator, I was not aware of some of the information below. As more focus and attention is given to the mental health of our children, the various social media platforms and their influence on the developing teenage brain is an important part of the conversation. My hope is that the links below will provide awareness of current trends and more about outside influences on our kids. Even better if these promote discussion at home.

Johnson County school has bathroom doors and toilet seats stolen, following TikTok trend (featuring Olathe principal) (9/15/2021)

https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/education/article254240178.html

TikTokers Are Stealing From Their Schools in a New Trend (9/10/2021)

5 Things Parents Need to Know about Tik-Tok (Updated 2021)

https://kidmatterscounseling.com/blog/5-things-parents-need-to-know-about-tik-tok/

https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2021/09/14/facebook-knew-instagram-could-bad-teens-mental-health/8340578002/

The links below require a Wall Street Journal subscription but may be found in summary on other social media awareness sites.

How TikTok Serves Up Sex and Drug Videos to Minors (9/8/2021)

https://www.wsj.com/articles/tiktok-algorithm-sex-drugs-minors-11631052944

Inside TikTok’s Algorithm: A WSJ Video Investigation(7/21/2021)

https://www.wsj.com/articles/tiktok-algorithm-video-investigation-11626877477

Our CST library app has been fixed! Students may use the CST Library app (from Classlink) to access tutorials to get ebooks and audiobooks from Destiny and/or Axis360, browse book trailers and booktalks, use databases for school research, etc...

Also, bookfairs are returning!! Our fall bookfair will be the week of October 18th and the Spring bookfair will be the week of February 14th. Both of these weeks are the week after conferences and the fairs will be in the library. This year we will be using Scholastic Book Fairs. More details to come as we get closer...

https://sites.google.com/students.olatheschools.com/cstlibrary

Receptionist: Chrissy Walters

Assistant Principal's Secretary: Angie Peterson

Attendance Secretary: Connie Bray

Bookkeeper/Principal's Secretary: Sara Harris

Data Operator: Melynda Marquardt

School Nurse: Jennifer Ross

Please keep info updated (email, phone number, medical, etc.). Contact the office at 913-780-7240 if you are concerned you may be missing communication or need to update your family's information.