Corgi Tales | December 2023

Dear Crossroads Community,

Our November events were all a success! Thank you to our Veterans Day committee, led by PTA’s Kellee Cook , for all the hard work to help our students understand our need to appreciate our Veterans. The celebration was a huge success! For our annual Thanksgiving Family Luncheon, our cafeteria staff, led by Mrs. Nussbaumer, served 984 meals.

I’d like to send a shout-out to our amazing House Leaders for providing service and hard work. They helped out at each of the events. Their hard work didn’t go unnoticed. They received many positive compliments. Thank you for serving at each of these events!

I am so thankful for the crew we have here at Crossroads. Thank you, students! Thank you, parents! Thank you, staff! Thank you, PTA! Thank you, community!

Thank you! Have a great December!

Dr. Damian Fay & Ms. Kristen Henson

damianfay@wsdr4.org

kristenhenson@wsdr4.org

Twitter:@Corgi_Tales

P.S. Parents, at arrival please do not let your children out of your cars until a staff member opens the door of the school. We have been having children congregate at the doors and they are unsupervised. Thank you!

We had three amazing teachers on our ballot for the 2023-2024 school year: Caylee McGlasson, Susan Green, and Candi Mesnier.

Caylee McGlasson is one of our music teachers. One staff member shared:

• Caylee is an amazing part of our CRE family. To see the kiddos excited and truly wanting to go to music is an unbelievable sight. Caylee has transformed the music experience here at CRE in so many ways that has created such a positive and rewarding atmosphere for the kiddos. Caylee is always in a happy mood, and that mood is definitely contagious. I love Caylee’s attitude and we need more of that at CRE.

Susan Green is one of our reading interventionists. One staff member shared:

• Susan has gone above and beyond for our school community this year. She has made Crossroads a warm and inviting environment with helping create cute meeting benches, initiating painting, and making our school more fun to be in. Susan works long after hours to get things prepared for students and staff training. These are things she has done for our school in addition to engaging and teaching young minds to read.

Candi Mesnier is one of our kindergarten teachers. One staff member shared:

• She is positive, a team worker and always greets others and students with a smile. She continually strives to be a better teacher and is willing to learn new things to help her students grow. You can tell she loves her job, her students and coworkers. She is fun, kind, a hard worker and goes above and beyond for her students.
  

Congratulations to our Teacher of the Year: Susan Green!

Please help us celebrate each of these wonderful staff members for all they do to make Crossroads more and more amazing each day!

Dear Parents and Guardians!

We have hit the time of year with headaches, coughs, orthodontics, and more. I have had a lot of people reaching out about the medication policy and what needs to be done. I thought I would give a quick review.

If you are wanting/needing your student to have medication at school INCLUDING over the counter medication such as Tylenol and Motrin it still requires a doctor’s order as well as parent signature. There are forms on the district website in Student Health Forms. The filled out form can be brought to me, faxed at 636-445-5324, or emailed to me at amandawhiteaker@wsdr4.org. Once I have the order, I ask that then medication is brought in. Students are not able to transport medications, even over the counter medications. An adult must be the one to drop off any medication.

Students are able to bring cough drops to school, but they should be kept on them or in their backpack. If you do have a younger student please do let the teacher know so they can help make sure they are not being used in PE or recess times. Water is always a great option for sore throats and coughs as well. I encourage everyone to have a clean water bottle with them at school each day! Lip balm is also encouraged to have in the student’s backpack for these dry months.

Final note is to please keep your student home if they are ill. My goal is to keep our students healthy. The best way to stop the spread of illness is to keep kids home when sick and to wash hands. We all appreciate your help.

Students must be educated to be healthy and healthy to be educated!

Maddie Whiteaker

RN BSN

School Nurse

amandawhiteaker@wsdr4.org

636-625-4537, extension 44233

Fax 636-445-5324

All children who will turn five before Aug. 1, 2024, are eligible to attend kindergarten for the 2024-25 school year. View registration event dates, starting as early as Jan. 11, and get more information here.

PTA Update

Hi Corgis!

Happy December Corgis! November was a busy month but it sure was a lot of fun! Thank you to everyone who came to our Chipotle dining night last month! It was a huge success and our biggest

this year. For December, we are partnering with Raising Cane’s in Cottleville. We hope to see you there on December 6 from 4pm – 10pm. Come out to support our school and don’t forget to tell them that you’re there with Crossroads!

Last month we also had our Veterans Day assembly. What a special day at Crossroads as we honored our Veterans and hosted the assembly and lunch for them. We were inspired and taught to march by our special guest speaker Josh Gilliam, US Army Specialist E-4 Retired, moved by our video tribute and a few tears were shed as all of the Veterans paraded onto the stage as our students serenaded them. The day was filled with heartwarming moments as the Corgi Chorus performed a flag routine and sang to the Veterans, and students read essays about their connections to the military. It was a day we'll never forget. After the assembly, we showed our appreciation for our Veterans by serving them lunch donated by our community partners. The amazing meal would not have been possible without the support of the following: Blue Sky Café, O’Fallon; Chick Fil A, Lake St. Louis; Dierbergs, O’Fallon; Divine Taste, O’Fallon; Hot Box Cookies, St. Charles; Lowe’s, O’Fallon; Massa’s, O’Fallon; Mr. Goodcents, O’Fallon; Nothing Bundt Cakes, St. Peters; Pickleman's Gourmet Cafe, O'Fallon; Starbucks, O’Fallon; Town Square Pub & Grub, Dardenne Prairie; The Sweet Spot, O’Fallon; Twisted Sugar, O’Fallon. Our long-standing partner, O'Fallon Printing, supported us by printing our programs for free. Thank you to all who joined us for our celebration. As always, nothing is possible without the support of the school and our incredible volunteers who make everything possible, especially our incredible event chair, Kellee Cook. We were so proud of our students and our community.

On December 13, we have our next Corgi Store during lunch time. After they’ve eaten, students will have an opportunity to shop at our school store. We will have spirit wear for sale, but most items will be $5 or less. The Corgi Store is always a student favorite and we look forward to seeing their smiling faces on that day. This is a cash only store.

Our online corgi store is also available. CRE spirit wear makes a great holiday gift! If you are interested in purchasing spirit wear, you can shop our store at: Online Corgi Store.

As you are doing your holiday shopping, please keep in mind an easy way to support Crossroads. If you love to give personalized gifts or photo cards, check out minted.com and not only will Crossroads get a percentage back when you use our code, FUNDRAISECROSSROADSPTA, but you will get a 20% discount! Talk about a win-win!

Tis the Season

It's back! The Annual Crossroads Staff Goodie Grab (formerly known as the cookie exchange) is a favorite among the teachers and staff. We love this event because it gives us a chance to treat the team and show them just how special we think they are. We are looking for donations of a variety of goodies to spoil our staff this holiday season! Homemade or store bought. You do what's easiest for you and your family!

Please go to the CRE Goodie Grab Sign Up linked below to sign up for a slot. One sign up slot equals one dozen goodies. The more the merrier! You’ll notice that this year we are expanding beyond cookies and sweet treats. We want to give our team a variety of goodies to choose from. Please have your donations to the front office by the morning of Friday, December 15. If you have any questions, please email crecookieexchange@gmail.com.

CRE Goodie Grab Sign Up

We will also need some help putting together this event. You will see volunteer slots available on the sign up as well. Please sign up to join us for this fun afternoon!

Stay tuned, we’ve got lots of fun events coming up!

12/6 – Raising Canes Dining Night

12/13 – Corgi Store

12/15 – Staff Goodie Grab

1/10 – Tacos 4 Life Dining Night

1/17 – Corgi Cares Food Drive begins

2/7 – Corgi Store

2/8 – Chick Fil A Dining Night

2/24 – Parent’s Social Event

Keep an eye out for emails and social media posts for more information!

If you want to stay informed about the PTA, make sure to follow us on Facebook and Instagram.

Talk to you next month!

The Crossroads PTA

St. Charles County public school district students have automatic access to library materials and online resources through the St. Charles County Library. This year, our families were provided the opportunity to opt out of this automatic access when completing annual forms at the beginning of the year. If desired, parents may opt out by working with their school librarian mid-year.

Our next late start day is Monday, December 11 The WSD will be providing supervision for K-5 students who need to be dropped off at the regular start time on scheduled Late Start Days this school year. This is separate from our Before Care Program through Chautauqua. To register your student, visit https://wsdr4.revtrak.net/ and select your student's elementary school, followed by clicking "Late Start Registration" and completing the form for your student (see the graphic below). Please register each student attending separately.

23-24 School Calendar

• WSD 2023-2024 Academic Calendar

December 11

• Late Start

December 12

• PTA Executive Board Meeting

December 13

• Corgi Store open during lunches

December 14

• 5th Grade DARE Graduation at Liberty High School Auditorium 7:00 PM

December 19

• Corgi Chorus Concert at Crossroads in the gym 6:30 PM

December 21

• Early Release at 1:35 PM
• Winter Parties (1st/2nd/3rd/5th @ 10:00-11:00 and K/4th @ 11:30-12:30)
• End of 2nd Quarter/1st Semester

December 22-January 4

• WSD Winter Break

This time of year can be a busy one! School, winter activities and sports are well underway. It’s

important to not let the habit of reading get pushed to the side. Here are some tips to continue

reading even when time is limited:

1. Have your child carry a book at all times. Your child can read on the way to practice or while watching a siblings’ practice.
2. Think ahead about your schedule. What nights can your child sit and devote 20 minutes (ormore!) to uninterrupted reading? What nights will you need to be creative?
3. On nights when time is limited, can your child listen to an audiobook on their tablet or phone? Could you listen to a book as a family?
4. Some reading (20 minutes) is better than none.

CLICK HERE for the link to the WSD Reading Website for ways to support literacy at home.

One of our Crossroads Building Goals this year is focused on attendance. Our goal is:

Crossroads Elementary School will increase attendance to the Target tier range of 90-100%.

The core purpose of having your student at school is so they can benefit from all of the learning opportunities so they can improve and grow!

We want our students to be in attendance this school year as much as possible. While we know perfect attendance is difficult to accomplish, we would like our students to be here between 90-100%. Let’s run the numbers on this. There are 174 school days in the 23-24 school year. So, a student can miss no more than 17.4 days of school in order to make our goal of all students having attendance of 90-100%.

Thank you for taking your child’s attendance seriously. Please check out the image below for a few stats to see what learning a student could miss:

All of our car riders and our daycare van riders will go to the gym at the end of the day. Once in the gym, a staff member will call students’ names over the radio for them to come out to meet their vehicle. A staff member will escort students to each car.

PLEASE READ: We are no longer allowing parents to walk up to get their children. You will need to drive through the pick-up line.

We sent home bright yellow car tags with all students on their first day of school. Please check with the office if you need a car tag. ***PLEASE USE A THICK MARKER TO FILL THESE OUT***

When you drive through the car lanes, please have the bright yellow car tag on your dashboard where we can see the names of your students. If you do not have the car tag, we will have to check your ID, radio the office, and wait for them to clear you before we can call your child out. As you can imagine, this will slow down the process for everyone.

A few other things to keep in mind with this process: Please remember, we do not accept dismissal changes after 3:00 p.m. Also, our primary focus is student safety and 3:20 p.m. is a critical time when children can potentially get lost in the shuffle; it is imperative that we streamline the secretaries’ time to focus only on emergencies that arise. With that in mind, please understand that we will not permit access to the office after 3:20 p.m. to check out a student. Please plan accordingly so we aren’t caught in the position to have to tell you no.

Also, remember that you are responsible for calling in to change if your walker will become a car rider during the days with inclement weather. We no longer send a text message about rainy day dismissals.

The expectation is all parents will have the bright yellow car tags ready to go by August 23.

Please review our arrival and dismissal maps below:

Arrival Map

Dismissal Map

Cafeteria Information

• Link to Child Nutrition page on the WSD website
• All meals will be eaten in the cafeteria
• Breakfast served 8:20 am to 8:35 am

Buying Lunch

• Students will enter a lunch pin number
• Teachers have a card with the pin number on it for the first few weeks of school
• Teachers will send home the pin number and a practice number pad

Bringing Lunch

• Label all lunch bags with student name
• Send items students can open by themselves
• Anything opened will be thrown away

Recess Information

• Supervision is provided by our noon duty staff and classroom teachers
• Dress for the weather
• Label clothing items with student name
• Avoid parking along the playground
• Visitors are not allowed at recess

Tips from the office

• All adults visiting Crossroads must sign in at the office and obtain a visitors sticker
• Please have your driver's license ready to sign in to our Raptor system.

• When you arrive in a WSD building as a visitor, you will be asked to scan your ID, take a photo and complete the management system’s check-in process.

• Raptor will screen the information against sex offender databases and locally customized lists of banned or potentially threatening individuals, instantly alert school officials to a threatening presence, and maintain a searchable log of all visitors.

• Once approved, you will get a customized visitor badge to wear while in the building.

• Call the office by 9:15 am if your child is absent
• If your child arrives after 8:35 am, please walk them into the office
• Let the office know of any dismissal changes before 3:00 pm
• Students cannot be checked out from the office after 3:20 pm
• Be sure to update any changes to your contact information in the office

Parent Portal - FAQs

SIS Parent Portal

How do I make changes to my contact information and email address?
Parents may make changes through the parent portal for their email, telephone numbers and emergency contacts. Addresses must be changed in person with office personnel.

Can I call and give my email address over the phone?

Email addresses may not be added over the telephone with the office staff.

What if I have forgotten my Parent Portal password?

Your username is your email address, and you can choose forgot password.

23-24 School Calendar

• WSD 2023-2024 Academic Calendar
  

23-24 School Supply List

• WSD School Supply Lists

Breakfast K-12 ~ $2.00

Elementary Lunch K-5 ~ $3.10

Secondary Lunch 6-12 ~ $3.15

Reduced Price Meals

Breakfast ~ $0.30

Lunch ~ $0.40

Applications for free & reduced price meals are available here or at any school office. In an effort to assist families as we transition back to paid meals, the USDA has increased the income guidelines used to determine eligibility. Click here to see the income guidelines. If you believe your family would qualify for this program, please fill out an application. Applications can be returned by the following methods:

Returned to your child's school

Scan & email - marysanzottera@wsdr4.org

Fax - 636-327-3961

Mail - Child Nutrition Services, 101 Support Service Dr., Wentzville, MO 63385

If you have questions or need assistance filling out the application, please call our office at 636-327-3858 ext. 21330.