Crossroads Parents,

We are a few weeks into our second semester and have been working hard with our students to continue with a growth mindset for improvements both academically and behaviorally. One thing we need help with is our students' attendance.

Why talk attendance? When a student misses 2 days per month on average, that equates to 20 days a year, missing 30 hours of math a year, missing 60 hours of reading and writing a year, and if they do it every year: They will miss over 1 year of school by graduation. Missing a day of school here and there may not seem like a big deal, but absences add up.

At Crossroads we are doing pretty well with our attendance, but we can always do better. Obviously, if your child is sick they need to stay home. If your child ever needs help with getting to school for any reason, please do not hesitate to reach out. Whether it be they are worried about things at school, motivation is low, or any other reasons; we are here to help.

Next week, on 2/7/23, we will celebrate our 100th day of school! We are going to have a dress-up day to celebrate with our Kindergarten students with the theme of, "Building Our Learning for the first 100 Days!" We are going to dress-up like construction workers. Think hardhats, work vests, tool belts, carpenter pants, etc. Please leave the tools at home so nobody accidently brings in any sharp tools. Let's have some fun with it!

We have a great evening event coming up on March 2. Please save the date for our Crossroads Literacy & Van Gogh Experience Night from 6-8 p.m. Please see the images below for more information about the event and the dress up days for our Read Across America Week from 2/27-3/3.

Have a fantastic February!

Dr. Damian Fay

damianfay@wsdr4.org

kristenhenson@wsdr4.org

Twitter:@Corgi_Tales

Instagram: crecorgi_tales

We'd also like to congratulate out top 3, Liam Campbell - 3rd place, Visal Satvakrishna Chitturi - 2nd place, and our winner Arjun Patel!!

Crossroads' Kindergarten Screening and Registration has been rescheduled for Wednesday, March 29, 2023.

WSD Kindergarten Screening & Registration

Please share this with any friends or neighbors who have children needing to enroll for kindergarten at Crossroads for the 2023-2024 school year.

Thank you!

Children's Dental Health Month!

With February being Children’s Dental Health Month, I wanted to take a moment to review with you why it is so important.

Did you know?

• Tooth decay is the number one chronic infectious disease affecting children in the United States according to the American Dental Association.

• By age 5 approximately 60% of children will be affected by tooth decay.

• Children with health problems are THREE TIMES more likely to miss school due to dental pain than those with no oral health problems.

• Poor dental hygiene can lead to other unexpected health consequences. Alzheimer's disease and heart disease have been linked to poor dental health according to a study in 2010 (University of Florida, 2016).

But the great news is that it is mostly preventable. Remind your students to brush their teeth 2x daily for 2 minutes, floss daily. Have a fluoride varnish applied to help strengthen your child’s teeth. Have your child’s dentist apply sealants to help prevent cavities on the chewing surfaces. Even chewing sugar-free gum between meals will help clean out food and help neutralize acids in the mouth. See the dentist every 6 months.

In an effort to help promote dental health Crossroads is fortunate enough to partner with two different groups. Compass Health Dental provides screenings and fluoride applications. Big Smiles is a visiting dentist that can provide cleanings and can even fill cavities all while your student is at school.If you want more information, contact Nurse Maddie at amandawhiteaker@wsdr4.org

Be like floss; don’t let anything come between you and your teeth.

Maddie Whiteaker

RN BSN
School Nurse

Hi Corgis!

We had a fantastic turnout at our Tacos 4 Life Dining Night last month! Thank you to everyone who supported the event. Not only did we earn over $300 for Crossroads, but our purchases also resulted in 295 meals being donated to hungry kids. For February, we are partnering with another new restaurant, the new Lake St. Louis location of Freddy’s. We hope to see you at Freddy’s on February 15 from 5–9pm for our next dining night. If you order online or through the mobile app, please make sure to use the code GIVEBACK so that Crossroads will get credit for your purchase.

Another big thanks to everyone who bounced the afternoon away at our Rockin’ Jump event. It was a huge success! We sold them out and had to add a second shift for Crossroads families. Thanks to you all, we raised over $800 and had 162 happy, tired jumpers. We are hoping to be able to do this again since everyone had so much fun.

On February 7, we are excited to be bringing back the in-person 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 still available. If you are interested in purchasing spirit wear, you can shop our store at: https://crossroads-corgi-store.square.site/

We were blown away by the results of our Corgi Cares Food Drive last month. We collected over 3500 items to support Operation Backpack! The entire school really showed up but Onore won our house competition and earned 250 house points. Thank you to everyone who donated and an extra thank you to Josh Hess for organizing the event!

Mark your calendars for our Meet the Candidates night on March 14 at 6pm. We will be inviting all of the candidates for Wentzville School Board to attend to answer questions and share their thoughts about our district.

Rhythm of the Night

Please join us on February 25 for our Dueling Pianos Night! Doors open at 6pm and the pianos start at 7pm. Bring your favorite drinks and snacks, and get ready to sing along as we have a blast with our dueling pianos. There will be a table decorating contest and a costume contest so grab your friends, pick your favorite artist, decade or music genre, and get ready to have an amazing night. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit www.crossroadspta.org. This event is for adults only.

We Want You!

Are you interested in being more involved with the PTA? Now is the perfect time! We’ve just started the process for electing our officers for the 2023-2024 school year. Information on how to apply will be sent out soon. Elections will be held at our general meeting on 3/14. This will be our biggest meeting of the year and a great first meeting to attend. If you aren’t interested in being an officer, we have many committee chair positions available for next year as well. We hope to see you at the meeting! Please email us at corgipta@gmail.com with any questions.

AmazonSmile Update

As you may have heard, Amazon is discontinuing its charitable giving program, AmazonSmile. Crossroads PTA is very grateful to all of those who have supported us over the years through this program. Any AmazonSmile purchases made before the program ends on 2/20/23 will still benefit Crossroads. Again, thank you for all of your Amazon support!

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

2/7 – Corgi Store

2/15 – Freddy’s Dining Night

2/25 – Rhythm of the Night - Dueling Pianos Night

2/27-3/3 – Book Fair

3/8 – Duke’s Dining Night

3/14 – Meet the Candidates Night

3/14 – General PTA Meeting

4/4 – Town Square Pub & Grub Dining Night

4/11 – Corgi Store

4/14 – Movie Night

4/17 – Baked Bear Pop Up

5/1-5/5 – Staff Appreciation Week

5/9 – General PTA Meeting

5/16 - Oberweis Ice Cream & Dairy Store, That Burger Joint and Woodgrain Neapolitan Pizzeria Dining 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

Meal charges resumed on the first day of school, August 22.

Breakfast K-12 ~ $1.95

Elementary Lunch K-5 ~ $3.00

Secondary Lunch 6-12 ~ $3.10

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.

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 will be sending home lime green car tags with all students on their first day of school, 8/22. (They will also be available at Meet the Teacher night.) ***PLEASE USE A THICK MARKER TO FILL THESE OUT***

When you drive through the car lanes, please have the lime green 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 pm. Also, our primary focus is student safety and 3:20 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 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 will no longer be sending a text about rainy day dismissals.

The expectation is all parents will have the lime green car tags ready to go by August 29. If you have any questions or thoughts, please let us know.

Please review our arrival and dismissal maps below:

Arrival Map

Dismissal Map

The Wentzville School District Board of Education has three open seats in the election on April 4, 2023.

For information on the candidates who have signed up to run for the WSD Board of Education, please see the District website.

Please see the District website for more information.

Cafeteria Information

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

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
• 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
• 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 a.m. if your child is absent
• If your child arrives after 8:35 a.m., please walk them into the office
• Let the office know of any dismissal changes before 3:00 p.m.
• Students cannot be checked out from the office after 3:15 p.m.
• 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.

• WSD 2022-2023 Academic Calendar

February 1

• WSD Placeholder Board Meeting

February 6

• WSD Late Start

February 7

• 100th Day of School: Building Our Learning for the First 100 Days!
• Corgi Store open during lunches

February 20

• No School--Presidents Day

February 21

• No School--Professional Development Day

February 23

• WSD Board of Education Meeting 6:30 p.m.

February 25

• Crossroads PTA Event: Rhythm of the Night (Adults only)

February 27-March 3

• Read Across America Week (See flyer above for dress-up days)

March 1

• WSD Placeholder Board Meeting

March 2

• Crossroads Literacy & Van Gogh Experience Night 6-8 p.m.
  

ARE YOU LOOKING FOR WORK? ... The WSD is hiring a variety of full-time, part-time, and substitute positions to serve our students:

- - Before/After Care

- - Bus Drivers & Bus Aides

- - Child Nutrition

- - Custodians

- - Instructional Assistants

-- and more!

For information and to apply - Join our Team!

Also, students are not allowed to pass out birthday invitations through Crossroads. Please do not send any invitations in nor ask your child's teacher to email the class for you.

Thank you for your understanding.