Dear CST Family,

I write this having just completed the first day back with our teaching staff...what a day! It was so good to see everyone again, to welcome a few new staff, and to deliver some welcome bags to our new 6th graders! We spent some of the day training on our new positive behavior system (CST R.O.C.S.), enjoyed a nice lunch together, and finished the day designing a new "CST ROCS" shirt for a debut in the coming weeks. More than anything, the catching up with our CST Family was wonderful and the room was filled with laughs and positive thoughts (and a little bit of singing) for the new year ahead...CST is feeling closer to "right" again!

Welcoming staff back is a big day, but our eyes are on Thursday and Friday of this week when our students return. This is what we're here for after all! Our staff are excited and ready and looking forward to connecting with your child this year. Our goal is to assist in making this the best year yet for your child and to promote a middle school experience you can be happy with and proud of as a parent here at CST and Olathe Schools. I can't wait to get the year started!

Be sure to join us at Back to School Night this Thursday, August 11th. The evening begins at 6pm in your child's WIN class. More information is below but I hope this event works with your schedule so you can meet your child's teachers and hear about the year ahead.

Have a wonderful weekend and I hope to see you all next week!

Rick

Please be aware of staff training occurring throughout the building on Monday and Tuesday this week during the building access times.

On August 8th, beginning at 5pm, an informal social will be held at CST for 6th grade students. Students and parents are free to come up any time during this window of time, check out their locker, walk through their schedule, and connect with friends. Families are invited to stop in the gym for a brief pep assembly beginning at 6pm. This is also a good time to drop off tissue boxes and/or Clorox wipes (table drop off in the MPR).

There's also ice cream for our students as they exit!

Join us for the 22-23 Back to School Night at CST! The night is Thursday, August 11th beginning at 6pm. This is a time to meet your child's teachers and hear about what's planned for the school year in each class! You'll also have an opportunity to meet admin, counselors, and hear about parent opportunities. We hope you plan to attend this fun evening!

BTSN Schedule (6:00-7:39pm)

Wildcats WIN Time--6-6:15pm

1st—6:19-6:27

2nd—6:31-6:39

3rd—6:43-6:51

4th—6:55-7:03

5th—7:07-7:15

6th—7:19-7:27

7th—7:31-7:39

The primary guardian of all registered bus riders will receive an individual subscription to Stopfinder, the free parent app with real-time GPS tracking for each child’s route. Parents are encouraged to download the free app and watch the Stopfinder English Tutorial or Spanish Tutorial for user instructions. We will no longer utilize Textcaster for late bus notifications!

7th and 8th grade students NEW to CST are invited to attend a new-student-orientation at 10am on Thursday, August 11th. They will meet with counselors, eat a school lunch, and meet other new CST students. Students will also get a chance to meet some of their teachers. This event is optional, but beneficial and recommended to our new 7th and 8th grade students. Students will be dismissed at 12:20pm. This event is intended for students only. Please RSVP by August 9th by calling 913-780-7240 with your child’s name and grade.

The first day of school for all 7th and 8th graders (2nd day for 6th graders) is on Friday, August 12th. This is a regular school day from 7:50am-3:10pm.

The 2 maps below identify our arrival and dismissal traffic pattern. For the safety of our students and staff, it is important for all car-rider traffic to follow this pattern. This is different from years past and uses a new cut-through installed just upon entering the lot from 159th street. In addition, please note the walker/biker paths identified by the purple dotted arrows. These routes for them will avoid crossing all traffic in the parking lot.

HEADS UP: A particular issue at the end-of-day-departure, cars will not be permitted by the city to "sit or stand" on 159th or Mur-Len. Signs were installed by the city along 159th street in front of CST prohibiting this practice and is expected to be enforced.

Main points of note with the new pattern...

• One-way entrance on 159th Street
• All car traffic will stay right and make a big loop in the east parking lot (all students dropped with sidewalk on their right
• One-way exit at the SW corner of CST lot onto 159th Street--left and right turn lanes
• No entry to the lot from Mur-Len
• Dogs are invited to the car line and may even receive a treat
  
• See maps below for all details
  

(original communication from 8/1 weekly)

You may have noticed some parking lot work at CST this summer. Along with general maintenance, we also had a new "cut-through" created in preparation for a new traffic pattern. Working with the city of Olathe, district personnel designed a traffic flow to reduce, or fully eliminate, traffic back-up on 159th and on Mur-Len--especially during afternoon pick-up. Below is an aerial shot of CST with the new cut-through. Next week's Weekly Wildcat will have a more detailed map and information for the new traffic pattern (spoiler: all will enter CST from 159th and leave at the far west 159th exit.)

CST WEB leaders had two nights of training this past week in preparation of working with our 6th grade students. Each 6th grade student will have 2 WEB leaders (current 8th grade students) who they'll be grouped with on the first day of school (as well as follow up activities throughout the year). The WEB students will lead 6th graders through various activities on the first day to help them get acquainted with CST and its routines. The picture below shows some of the work they did this past week in preparation for the 6th grade arrival!

Whether you have a scheduling question, concern for your child, or would like direction to some resources, you can reach out to our amazing counselors, Mrs. Rachel Iuli (left) and Mrs. Makaela King. Mrs. Iuli begins her second year as CST counselor and is excited to see CST students again. Mrs. King joins us from Wellsville Middle School where she served as counselor for the past 3 years. Mrs. King is excited to join the Olathe and CST Family!

While your child will be assigned a go-to counselor based on team, both counselors work with all our students throughout the year on various topics. Please don't hesitate to reach out!

Counselors

Rachel Iuli: Green Teams-6,7,8

rjiuli@olatheschools.org

Makaela King: Silver Teams- 6,7,8

mcking@olatheschools.org

We are fortunate to have community partners who support Chisholm Trail and its staff and students. Below is a list of those who have and continue to actively support CST throughout the year. This newsletter will continue to update the efforts provided from these groups/individuals as the year continues.

• Journey Bible Church--Mark Hinojosa
• State Farm Insurance--Jim Martin
  
• Farmers Insurance--Wesley Phillips
• Carmen's Cocina II

In addition, we have so many other individuals, groups, organizations, who have offered to support in a variety of ways including donations, time, financial contributions. We have an amazing Olathe community and this immediate CST community is just so wonderful as well.

Thank you a million times to all who support Chisholm Trail.

Schedules are available beginning on Friday, 7/29. The master schedule is created based on student course selection in the spring which then results in seat counts and the student schedules released now. Student schedules, while based on their own spring course selection, is also impacted by other factors such as "automatic" electives (i.e. grade level music classes, cheer, dance), required classes (i.e. PE, advanced math classes, select music courses, etc.), special programming (guided study, special education, etc.), and/or demand for a particular class. Student schedule changes are limited to those with scheduling errors or other extenuating circumstances requiring office consideration.

Please contact your child's counselor if you have schedule questions.

All students will be assigned a locker, but students will have the option to carry their backpack from class to class. Whether locker use is regular or intermittent, students will be expected to keep their coats, jackets, and other bags in their locker. In addition, all students will receive a CST drawstring backpack to encourage lighter travels between classes.

Reminder: Combinations operate on a "right-left-right" pattern along with skipping the middle number once.

Example: 05-42-19---spin dial to the right a few times to get started, turning right, stop precisely on the "05". Spin left passing the "42" once until you get back to 42 where you'll stop on the 42. Turn right until you get to "19" where you'll stop and lift the handle.

Locker issues?

There will be a locations in the office and halls to write down locker concerns. Concerns may include combination issue, need a bottom locker/can't reach top hooks, etc. Students are expected to keep their combination private and to not share with anyone.

Your child will have access to their course schedule beginning Friday, 7/29. On their schedule they'll have their locker number, combo information, and their courses along with teacher assignments. Their schedule has 8 periods listed. The 8th period on their schedule is known district-wide as Academic Extension with Intervention time, but it's known as "WIN" (What I Need) at CST. This period will take place after 7th hour (see schedule below).

This time will occur daily for all students and is a time to receive a variety of learning, including: social emotional learning (2nd Step), reading and math MTSS intervention, silent reading, school-themed lessons and information, content-related materials, choice learning, and opportunities to receive support on homework.

CST Bell Schedule

1st—7:50-8:43 (AM announcements)

2nd—8:47-9:37

3rd—9:41-10:31

4th—10:35-11:25

5th—11:29-12:44 (lunch)

6th—12:48-1:38

7th—1:42-2:32

WIN—2:36-3:10

1) I send a weekly email through Blackboard with a link to an online parent newsletter called The Weekly Wildcat. Important information regarding the next week and beyond is included in this newsletter. Watch for the first Weekly Wildcat the first week of August.

2) The link to The Weekly Wildcat will also be available on the CST website as well as all past newsletters for the year.

3) Unless necessary, I try to limit communications to only the weekly newsletter.

If you have concerns of missing communications from the school or district, please contact CST at 780-7240 and ask for data operator, Melynda Marquardt. She can update/verify your information on the Synergy student info system.

Go to the link below for various district calendars for the year...

https://www.olatheschools.org/Page/2#calendar1/20220729/month

Below is an email from assistant principal and athletic director, Krista Dueringer, about a new online process for completing physicals, transportation permissions, and substance abuse acknowledgement. Paper physical forms are still downloadable from the CST website and available in the office, but this process will eventually replace the paper process.

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Forms to be turned in online

We have an opportunity to streamline the forms process this year with the ability for parents to now turn them in online. This includes the transportation form which is needed for field trips and athletes, concussion form, substance abuse form and the physical will now be uploaded into the system.

ALL STUDENTS WILL NEED TO HAVE A TRANSPORTATION FORM ON FILE EVEN IF YOU DON'T NEED TO TURN IN A PHYSICAL.

Forms need to be completed by August 12th.

In order to simplify the process please see the instructions below for the Student Transportation forms:

1. Forms can be found in TouchBase https://ks-olathe.intouchreceipting.com/(where you pay school fees)
2. Log into TouchBase and click on your student's name
3. Under the Shop tab, click on Registration
4. Pick from the available programs, click on the 2022-2023 Transportation Form
5. Complete the form and submit

Sports Physicals and Paperwork

Five Steps for Online Physical Registration

1. Print the pre-participation physical form and take it to the physician's visit.
1. Print English pre-participation physical form (PDF)
2. Imprima el formulario de preparticipación física en español (PDF)
2. Log in to Touch Base, choose your student and then choose Registrations.
3. Choose Register next to the sport or activity for your student, then choose Manage.
4. Complete and sign the concussion, student transportation, and substance abuse forms.
5. Upload the completed Pre-Participation Physical as one document and submit. You will be notified by email of acceptance. This is required only once, regardless of multi-sport tryouts.

Those who don't have a scanner can use their smartphone for the Pre-Participation Physical Form.

• Download a scanner app
• Snap a picture of each page of the document
• Save all five pages as one document and upload it from your computer or phone

Physicals must be dated after May 1, 2022.

The due date for fall sports paperwork is Friday, August 12th. Tryouts and Practices for Volleyball and Football start on Monday, August 15th. Cross Country starts on Tuesday, August 16th.

Music Students

KSHSAA requires that anybody in a Music class (Band, Choir, or Orchestra) must submit a substance abuse form (as well as the transportation form).

In order to simplify the process please see the instructions below:

1. Forms can be found in TouchBase https://ks-olathe.intouchreceipting.com/(where you pay school fees)
2. Log into TouchBase and click on your student's name
3. Under the Shop tab, click on Registration
4. Pick from the available programs, click on the tab 2022-2023 KSHSAA Clubs & Activities not requiring a Physical, KAY, Music
5. Complete the form and submit

The PDF below was sent to CST families on 7/18. This has much of the information included in this letter, but is a one-stop-shop for pre and beginning-of-year events.