Coming November 2022

Each year, Olathe Public Schools middle school counselors host the Olathe Career EXPO for our district’s 8th grade students. This will be the thirteenth year that this event has been hosted at the Regnier Center on the campus of Johnson County Community College.

At this event, students have the opportunity to “interview” a wide variety of community representatives regarding their careers. This is a great way for the students to gain information in a fun and enjoyable manner. We typically have 60-80 career representatives from around the metro area who donate their time, talents, and passion with students at this event. They share information about job duties, education, likes and dislikes, and the importance of good communication skills.

Our volunteers let us know how polite, well-dressed, prepared, and excited our students are each year to speak with them. We receive wonderful comments from students as well. They find it to be a fun, engaging field trip that gives them an opportunity they may not otherwise have.

To help our students prepare for this event, counselors will be visiting classrooms a couple of times in the coming weeks. We will be taking students into the Xello program to help them determine careers or career pathways of interest, and also sharing with them our expectations for the Career EXPO. We will be asking our students to dress and conduct themselves in a professional manner, as though this was a job interview!

The 2022 Career EXPO will take place on November 2nd. Please talk with your students in advance and help them determine which career representatives they will try to visit!

Ever wonder what the building looks like while we have kids in session? Mark your calendars!

On Friday, October 28, parents are invited to come into CST and spend a part of the morning with Principal Sola to enjoy some donuts, coffee, learn about CST ROCS, and take a walk through the building to see the amazing things going on at CST. The event will begin at 8am, but you'll be invited to arrive as early as 7:30am where you'll see our ROCS store in action. Donuts and coffee will be available as well as a share-out about the purpose, importance, and success of our new ROCS program at CST. The morning will conclude with a tour of the building with students in session!

Please RSVP at the link--https://forms.office.com/r/Tbu6YwNSu2

Watch this space for updates!

Parents,

Your donations for the CST ROCS (Respect Ownership Compassion Safety) store has been a HUGE hit! We've begun opening the store during lunch on Wednesdays to compliment our Friday morning offering. We are grateful for your donations and continue to keep the store "fresh" with new items and non-tangible items but your continued support is MUCH appreciated! Below is a sign-up link if you're able to bring in items for the store.

As students were shared, the store and tokens are the fun way we're acknowledging and promoting our ROCS behavior system, but we're going to focus on those 4 tenets anyway. So please know your contributions are not simply about prizes but it's a reinforcement for expected behavior in our building. Thank you for helping!

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

Parents--below is informational but you may find important to speak with your child about this. As of this newsletter, this has NOT been seen at CST.

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Parents, Other schools in the district are seeing students in the Nurse’s office after they have partaken in the One Chip Challenge. The "One Chip Challenge" is a nationwide social media trend mostly found on TikTok. It involves eating a chip made with two of the hottest peppers in the world.

Students get challenged at school from others that have bought the chip - (one chip in the package) and as a result, many experience severe abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, sweating and difficulty breathing that can last more than 24 hours and lead to more severe health complications. Some people have even ended up in the hospital. Parents, PLEASE talk with your children about the dangers of this challenge.

Great start to PBIS and CST ROCS this week! We'll operate a store every Friday from 7:15-7:45am. See our behavior matrix below for specific expected behaviors. CST ROCS!

BIG thank you to our parent volunteers this past Friday! See below if you're interested in signing up or donating to the store!

Volunteers for PBIS Store – Fridays 7:15am-7:45am - Auditorium

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

Donations of items for PBIS Store
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/20F044CAAA62CAAFC1-pbis

(Originally in the 8/15 weekly)

Chisholm Trail is launching its new PBIS program this year. PBIS stands for Positive Behavior Intervention and Supports. All Olathe middle schools will eventually have a program. CST will be just the second middle school to implement a program, but CST feeder schools, Madison Place and Sunnyside Elementary, have already implemented theirs. We are so excited launch and for our students to experience this program.

Beginning Tuesday, staff will share lessons with students about expected behaviors at CST (see behavior matrix) in various settings. While posters are placed around the building and in each classroom (example here), the value will be the conversations that take place in acknowledging expected behaviors and how we work through unexpected behaviors. CST will have its own "economy" as students receive tokens various positive behaviors. They will receive a pouch to carry their tokens and will have the opportunity to cash them in for rewards on Fridays from 7:15-7:45am. We have collected prizes through donations and continue to add non-tangible ideas (help with morning announcements, shoot around with a friend and principal, etc.). If you'd like to support, you can click the links below to donate or sign-up to run the store.

(Below was from an 8/8 school email)

CST’s Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS) system

More will be shared at Back to School Night, but CST is launching its PBIS program this year and we are very excited to share this with students. This system will incorporate tokens for positive behaviors and students can use those tokens to “purchase” rewards. This is where we need your help! We’d like to have parents run the PBIS store on Friday mornings from 7:15-7:45am in the CST auditorium. Next, is we’re taking donations for student incentives as part of this program. Click on the links below if you’re interested!

Volunteers for PBIS Store – Fridays 7:15am-7:45am - Auditorium

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

Donations of items for PBIS Store
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/20F044CAAA62CAAFC1-pbis

Office Assistant: Connie Bray

Attendance Secretary/Assistant Principal's Secretary: Angie Peterson

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.