The Resilient Cardinal
Because You Matter
November 2021
Miniature Therapy Horses at the Middle School!
Welcome Ellen Reilly!
BIO
First off, please allow me to express how excited I am to have the opportunity to be working with all of you. Like you, my passion is working with kids and families, making community connections, and seeing others succeed despite all odds. I have a BA and MA in criminal justice and am finishing my doctorate in business administration. I have 12 years of experience working in an adolescent treatment facility and over 20 years in a large K-12 school district. My areas of expertise include K-12 social-emotional development, bullying prevention and intervention, youth homelessness, PBIS, youth mental health, and suicide prevention/intervention. On the personal side, I grew up in Wisconsin and after 30+ years living and working in Iowa, wanted to be close to my son and grandkids, who live in the Eau Claire area. I also must mention that I have a miniature dachshund named Elizabeth Taylor, Liz for short, and she is my constant companion and confidant. I am looking forward to meeting and working with the people of Chippewa Falls Schools and the community of Chippewa, and learning all about you!
POSITION OVERVIEW
Assist students within the Chippewa Falls Area Unified School District (CFAUSD) to reach their academic, social, and emotional potential by providing a variety of supportive services to parents, children, and school staff. The person in this position provides services to families at all elementary schools in the District, and maintains office hours at 3 schools (Parkview, Halmstad, and Southview).
POSITION RESPONSIBILITIES
a. Assist parents to enhance their skills related to their child’s education.
b. Make appropriate referrals to families, help them access needed resources and community
agencies, and continue to act as liaison between the family and these agencies as needed.
c. Assist teachers in making the parents of at-risk students aware of their child’s academic and social-emotional needs.
d. Make home visits to families to obtain significant information regarding students as well as providing crisis intervention and supportive services to families.
e. Assist parents and students who are transitioning between elementary buildings and from
preschool programs within the district.
f. Serve as a liaison between parents and school in situations concerning truancy, families in
crisis, children in foster care, and those with serious social/emotional adjustment challenges.
g. Consult and collaborate with other school personnel in gathering and sharing appropriate
information, crisis intervention, and supportive services to families.
h. Participate in IEP meetings, Truancy meetings and Parent/Teacher conferences as appropriate and requested, and other conferences to assist in the placement and review of students on the caseload.
i. Collaborate with School Counselors, School Psychologists, and School Administration.
j. Participate on the PBIS teams as needed/requested by building principals.
k. Participate in Head Start/BB4C transition as requested by site.
l. Kindergarten Registrations – attend Southview, Parkview, and Halmstad registration.
m. Serve as the Homeless Liaison for the 6 elementary schools and coordinate with the
CFAUSD High School Homelessness Coordinator and community agencies regarding services for families who are homeless.
n. Partners for Children – serve as contact point for law enforcement officers calling regarding domestic violence incidents affecting children.
o. Assist with student groups as able.
p. Provide educational offerings to school personnel as opportunities arise.
October PD Information
Information about PD days:
On the October 28th and January 24th professional development days our district will be training over 200 staff members in Youth Mental Health First Aid. Elementary non-classroom teachers, Central Office Staff, Cardinal CLC staff, and possibly some bus drivers will be trained on October 28th, and Food Service Staff will be trained on January 24th.
There have been several changes that have taken place in this training to make it virtual. One of the biggest changes is that there needs to be 2 hours of pre-work done before the training takes place.
Your pre-work needs to be turned in before you can join Zoom for the training.
Each presenter will be given a list of staff members that are assigned to them. The presenter is in charge of enrolling those staff members into the Youth Mental Health First Aid database. The list of participants was done on an alphabetical basis.
You should be receiving an e-mail with instructions on what to do for your pre-work, and how to log-in to your zoom training. Please do not disregard any e-mails you will be getting about Youth Mental Health First Aid.
Here is what the schedule for the day will look like:
8-10:30am: Work time to finish your pre-work
10:30am - Virtual Session begins
12:00pm-12:45pm Lunch Break
12:45pm-Virtual Session resumes
2pm-2:15pm break
2:15-Virtual session resumes
3:30-Virtual session ends
October 29th: Cardinal Connections from 10:00-11:00 Information:
Cardinal Connections is a virtual gathering that offers an opportunity to network via Zoom. It is hosted by the Chippewa Falls Area Unified School District.
We will utilize small break out rooms for introductions and networking. Attendees will be assigned to a few small break-out rooms during the event in order to meet a wide variety of community partners.
Benefits to joining this event include:
*Learning about resources and programs
*Connecting with community partners
*Great opportunity to put faces to names
Join Zoom Meeting
https://zoom.us/j/92149042274?pwd=TGJ2SmsrNTlQcll4ZjhWVDg4bU0ydz09
Meeting ID: 921 4904 2274
Passcode: FNfQ1Q
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Meeting ID: 921 4904 2274
Passcode: 322193
Find your local number: https://zoom.us/u/abu1sHxN5I
Love and Logic Offering
This is a very unique and exciting opportunity to reach more families. This
curriculum helps increase the supply of young people equipped with the character, compassion, and problem-solving skills essential for becoming good neighbors to all.
Over the last four decades great pride has been taken in giving specific techniques that work
when the "rubber hits the road"; Parenting the Love and Logic Way™ represents a "how-to";
approach to parenting.
The participants will learn:
- How to avoid un-winnable power-struggles and arguments
- How to stay calm and empathetic when their kids to incredibly upsetting things
- How to set enforceable limits
- How to avoid enabling and begin empowering
- How to help their kids learn from mistakes rather than repeating them
- How to raise kids who are family team members rather than demanding dictators
- And much more!
There’s no greater time than now to hone our parenting skills and raise quality citizens for our
communities! See you soon, virtually!
Please fill out this form to Register. Please register by January 1st to guarantee your
seat and workbook.
District and Community Leadership Team (DCLT) Meeting
Here is a link to a recording of the meeting.
Here is a copy of the agenda.
Here is a copy of the DCLT action plan for the 2021-2022 school year
Helpful Flyers
Helpful Links
Links to Past Resilient Cardinal Newsletters
October 2021 Resilient Cardinal
September 2021 Resilient Cardinal
August 2021 Resilient Cardinal
February 2021 Resilient Cardinal
January 2021 Resilient Cardinal
December 2020 Resilient Cardinal
November 2020 Resilient Cardinal
October 2020 Resilient Cardinal
September 2020 Resilient Cardinal
August 2020 Resilient Cardinal
EAP Information
To schedule an appointment with the Employee Achievement Program (EAP):
*Call 1-877-256-9302.
Counseling
Counseling services are available to employees and their immediate family members.
To see a list of affiliate counseling agencies, CLICK HERE. Once you have the agency and location you prefer, call our 24/7 Call Center at 1.877.256.9302 for an authorization number to schedule your appointment(s).
Professional Coaching
REALiving offers professional coaching services to help you be the best in all aspects of your life. These services are provided in person, via telephone, or via video. REALiving coaches can assist you in skill exploration, building strengths, and other skill development to enhance your work performance. Click here to learn about each one of the REALiving coaches available.
To access other information or REALiving materials visit:
Username: CFAUSDistrict@realiving.com
Password: cfausd_employee
Other Support Available
Professional Coaches available within district
Jamie Ganske : ganskejl@chipfalls.org x3007
Amy Erickson: ericksae@chipfalls.org x2463
What is a Professional Coach?
As a professional striving to be your BEST, you may seek someone at times to help you achieve a goal or improve your performance. A coach is there to help with professional development in areas such as organizational skills, leadership development, communication skills, and work/life balance. Important questions to ask yourself as you start the coaching process are: "What do I want to get out of this? What abilities and skill sets do I want to discover and master? How do I want to show up differently so I am my BEST?
A BESTology Professional Coach can also help you navigate setting up EAP resources.
CONSULTATION AVAILABLE!
Any staff member can call 855-838-7170 at any time for consultation. This means you can call and ask for support if you are seeing a student with high behaviors or if you see a trend in your classroom. REALiving can help give you some ideas of what to do.
If you are feeling overwhelmed or distressed over COVID-19, you can call a distress line at
1-800-985-5990 or text TalkWithUs to 66746.
Text HOPELINE to 741741
Northwest Connections Crisis Line 1-888-552-6642
Suicide Prevention Lifeline 1-800-273-TALK (8255)
Chippewa Valley Free Clinic 715-839-8477
Open Door Clinic 715-720-1443
Wellness Shack 715-855-7705
HSHS Sacred Heart Hospital Outpatient 715-717-5899
L.E. Phillips Libertas Treatment Center 1-800-680-4578 or 715-723-5585
HSHS Sacred Heart The Healing Place 715-717-6028 *Not currently available*
Marshfield Behavioral Health 715-858-4850
Mayo Health System Outpatient 715-838-5369
Chippewa Cty Mental Health and Recovery Services 715-726-7788
If you have additional questions about mental health resources in the
Chippewa Falls Area Unified School District, please see www.cardinalcare.info
Jamie Ganske
Email: ganskejl@chipfalls.org
Website: www.cardinalcare.info
Phone: 715.726.2414 3007