Renner Family Newsletter
January 26, 2022
Park Hill District Shutdown: No School on Thursday (Jan. 27) and Friday (Jan. 28)
Renner Information
Renner Elementary School
School Phone: 816-359-4350
Office Hours: 7:15-3:45 PM
Student Hours: 8:15 AM-3:05 PM (students are late after 8:15)
Principal: Sasha Kalis
Assistant Principal: Allison Page
Social Worker: Tara Davis
Counselor: Kevin Bland
Important Dates
February 1: PTA Chipotle Night (code: AFKNVPW)
February 2: 100th Day of School
February 2: Early Release at 1:05
February 10: Board of Education Meeting at 6:30 PM
February 11: Friendship Party Donations Due to the Office (labeled with teacher's name)
February 11: Progress Reports Distributed
February 14: Friendship Parties at 1:45 PM
February 17: PTA Meeting in Renner Libary at 6:00 PM (or join virtually)
February 21: No School - Presidents' Day
Early Dismissal at 1:05 PM (Once a Month on Wednesday)
February 2
March 2
April 6
May 4
News and Information
Attendance and Tardies
Birthday Treat Guidelines
Approved Birthday Treats:
Birthday treats are allowed as long as they come from our list of treats that contain none of the major allergens.
Thank you for understanding that all classroom treats must come from this list, because we do not have the staff capacity to check for allergens that could threaten the health of some students.
Please bring birthday treats ahead of time (two hours after the start of school, at the latest).
- Stickers
- Erasers
- Pencils
- Crazy straws
- Blow Pops
- Juice boxes
- Popcorn
- Smarties
- Dum Dum lollipops
- Jelly Belly
- Nerds
- Ring Pops
- Skittles
- Sour Patch Kids
- Starburst
- Swedish Fish
- Life Saver Gummies
Community Food Kits
At Park Hill know that this shutdown was sudden and may lead to some unexpected hardships. Our district has partnered with Feed Northland Kids to distribute Community Food Kits every Wednesday from 2:00 pm -5:30 pm at the Support Services building at 9501 N. Seymour Ave.
The food kits will feature dry goods and bread. Families of 4 or fewer will receive one kit. Based on the number in the household, larger families may receive two or three kits.
If you are not able to make it to the distribution this evening and are still in need of food resources, please see the table below for local food pantries.
Curriculum Connections for January
Free COVID Tests
We hope our Renner families are staying safe and healthy! Should you need COVID tests, please see the following information:
Every home in the U.S. can order 4 FREE at-home COVID-19 tests. The tests will be completely free—there are no shipping costs and you don’t need to enter a credit card number. Order here:
Friendship Parties
- Blow Pops
- Juice boxes
- Popcorn
- Smarties
- Dum Dum lollipops
- Jelly Belly
- Nerds
- Ring Pops
- Skittles
- Sour Patch Kids
- Starburst
- Swedish Fish
- Life Saver Gummies
Friendship Party Donations Needed!
We need donations for our PTA Friendship Parties! Parents are encouraged to donate using the Sign-Up Genius links below or making a monetary donation to the PTA using Venmo or Paypal.
- Venmo - @RennerPTA
- Paypal - www.paypal.com/paypalme/rennerpta
Inclement Weather Option: AMI Days
If there were to be a "snow" day this year, students would continue to learn from home by having an AMI day. The state allocated five AMI (alternative methods of instruction) distance learning days, which means that on bad weather days, all students will learn from home from 9 AM-3:40 PM. On the sixth bad-weather day, we will call a snow day, which would mean all students, even Park Hill Online Academy students, will not have school.
Here are specific details for AMI Days at Renner:
- Students will learn from home from 9:00 AM-3:40 PM, with a lunch break from 12:00-1:00 PM.
- Mrs. Kalis will email all Renner familiies at 8:00 AM with informaiton.
- Classroom teachers will communicate learning plans for the day, including information for Microsoft Team meetings, by 9:00 AM.
- Renner Adventure Club students will attend Adventure Club at Tiffany Ridge.
Inclement Weather Option: Late Start Day Information
In addition to the option to hold AMI Days in case of inclement weather, Park Hill may announce a two-hour delayed start for students if there are dangerous weather, temperature or road conditions in the morning that are forecasted to improve later in the day.
On a later start day, school will start two hours after normal time at every school, and morning bus pick-up times will be two hours after the normal pick-up times. School will end at its normal time, and afternoon bus drop-off times will be the same as usual.
Here are specific details for Late Start at Renner:
- School will begin at 10:15 AM and dismiss at 3:05 PM. There is no early drop-off.
- Breakfast will be a grab-and-go option.
- Students will have a regular lunch and recess time.
- Bridges will be canceled on late start days.
- Adventure Club will be available at Renner for families who have already signed up.
Park Hill District Shut Down, January 27 and January 28
The Current Situation in Park Hill:
We continue to have an extremely high number of staff members who are getting sick, so we are still in a staffing crisis. As this situation continues, we cannot sustain the current pace throughout the whole week, with more and more staff falling ill. We will not have enough staff to properly supervise students during the school day by the end of this week.
Next Steps:
We will shut down on Thursday and Friday, January 27 and 28, during the school day. All our schools, offices, facilities and programs will close during their regular hours. This includes the Park Hill Online Academy, Adventure Club and tuition preschool.
Evening activities might be available, on a case-by-case basis, if we can find enough staffing. Each building will communicate with participating families about these activities as they work through the staffing issues.
We will not use any of our five AMI (alternative methods of instruction) days to go to virtual learning, because we will not have enough healthy staff members to do this. We will not make these two days up at the end of the school year.
Staff will get paid for this time according to their usual schedule, pending Board of Education approval on Thursday night.
How You Can Help:
Many of you have kindly offered to help during this crisis. You can make a difference in two ways: please keep your children home when they are sick, and please consider applying to be a substitute in our district.
We understand that this will be incredibly challenging for our families, so we want you to know that we exhausted every option before we got to this. We will continue to monitor the situation to try to make the best decisions possible for our students, our staff and our families. Thank you for your support and understanding of the Park Hill School District as we face these challenges together.
Park Hill Star
Our employees are the reason we are so successful here in the Park Hill School District. If you would like to recognize them for all they do for our students, please click on "Nominate a Park Hill Star" button below.
PTA
Joining Renner PTA is a terrific opportunity to support our school! Please visit the Renner PTA Website for membership info. We look forward to working together to make Renner the best it can be!
January Game Winners:
- 3rd-5th – Claira Stinson from Mrs. Goed’s class
- K-2nd – Cameron Evans from Mrs. Shuey’s class
Next Meeting: February 17 @ 6:00 PM in the Renner Library or through Microsoft Teams
Spelling Bee: Registration Open for Park Hill Spelling Bee
The Park Hill spelling bee will be Saturday, February 19, 2022, at Park Hill South High School. Park Hill is now sponsoring our own spelling bee, so the winner of the district bee will advance to the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Maryland.
Students in fifth through eighth grades may sign up for the spelling bee through the link below between Monday, December 20th through Friday, January 28th. Different from years past, this link will take you to the Scripps site to register for a computerized online school level assessment that will allow you to advance to the oral portion of the bee. This assessment can be taken from home anytime between February 14 – 18 2022.
The top 60 students after the computerized exam will advance to the spelling bee at 2 p.m. February 19 at Park Hill South High School. The top ten finishers will earn medals, and the top three will receive trophies. The winner will receive a trip to the national bee.
Spirit Wear: Now Only Online
Please fill out this form to purchase items from our spirit store. Once you have filled the form out, please Venmo our Renner PTA account @RennerPTA. Once we get notified that your payment has gone through, Mrs. Vutich and her 5th Grade leaders will deliver the items to your student that day! Thanks for shopping! If you have any questions, please call or email Mrs. Vutich at 359-6928 or VutichH@parkhill.k12.mo.us
Visitors and Volunteers
We still need to minimize the number of outside people in our schools, but starting in January, we will start to allow some volunteers. This will include guest speakers, volunteers during the school day who do not have any contact with students, and volunteers for after-school clubs or activities who are never left alone with students.
Contact your child’s school/classroom teacher to see if there are any available volunteer opportunities, which could be up to two hours per week. Volunteers will need to meet our screening requirements.
For now, we cannot allow visits, such as at lunchtime. We will reevaluate these rules again at the end of third quarter.
Yearbook Orders
***Please note, we do not order extra yearbooks, so you must order before the deadline.
Resources/Information
Renner Elementary School
Website: https://renner.parkhill.k12.mo.us
Location: 7401 Northwest Barry Road, Kansas City, MO, USA
Phone: 816-359-4350
Facebook: www.facebook.com/RennerElementary
Twitter: @parkhillrenner