Kutz Cougar Courier Times
KUTZ ELEMENTARY SCHOOL'S NEWSLETTER
April 8, 2022
Important Dates
- Monday, April 4- Monday, April 11- Human Growth and Development lessons (grades 4-6)
- Monday, April 11- Home and School General Membership Meeting at 12 PM (see information below)
- Wednesday, April 13- Spirit Day- Super Hero Day
- Thursday, April 14- No School
- Friday, April 15- No School
- Monday, April 18- No School
- Monday, April 18- Last day to order a yearbook (see information below)
- Sunday, April 24- My Buddy and Me Event (see information below)
- Tuesday, April 26- ELA PSSA (grades 3-6)
- Wednesday, April 27- ELA PSSA (grades 3-6)
- Wednesday, April 27- Spirit Night at Owowcow- 5-7 PM (see information below)
- Thursday, April 28- Celebrate YOU Day (see information below)
- Friday, April 29- ELA PSSA (grades 3-6)
- Saturday, April 30- Last Day to Order Lenape Gear for 6th Grade Students (see information below)
- Tuesday, May 3- Math PSSA (grades 3-6)
- Wednesday, May 4- Math PSSA (grades 3-6)
- Wednesday, May 4- Star Wars Day
Home and School Meeting Reminder
PLEASE SAVE THE DATE!
Kutz First and Third Grades will proudly present their Spring Concerts on Monday, May 23rd in the Kutz Gym. Families are welcome to attend at the times listed below.
First Grade: 10 AM
Third Grade: 2 PM
RSVPs will be coming home in a few weeks to help the office plan, and we hope you can join us!
Device Reminders
- Students should be transporting laptops (both to and from school and also when traveling through the school) in the laptop bags the district provided to students. We have had a lot of broken laptops because students drop them when carrying them somewhere. Please encourage students to use their device bag any time they are moving from one room to another with their device.
- Students should not use their devices on the bus, while walking to their classroom from the bus in the morning, or walking to the bus from their classroom in the afternoon.
- Students should be charging their devices every night at home. Students should bring their charger each day in case they need to charge mid-day.
- Students should shut down their devices once or twice a week to make the device run for efficiently.
- If students see a little orange dot on the bottom right corner of their laptop, the laptop is missing critical updates and the computer needs to be restarted.
Thank you for your help in keeping our devices safe and ready to support student learning!
CB Cares – March Winners and April Asset
Congratulations to our two Boomerang winners for the month of March: Gage and Carter!
For April it’s time to recognize all of our fabulous readers! April’s Boomerang Asset is Reading for Pleasure.
Please nominate the spectacular reader you know by emailing Michele Putnam (mputnam@cbsd.org) by April 27th. Please include a brief description of why your student should be recognized for their fantastic reading.
A Note from the Home and School Association
Dear Parents,
The Home and School Association is looking for volunteers for the next school year, including two positions on the H&S Board – co-president and co-treasurer. Becoming a board member is a great way to become deeply involved in your child’s school. While being on the board is a two-year commitment, this experience is an opportunity to brainstorm, collaborate, and make decisions about ways to enrich our school community. Board members work in collaboration with other parents and Mrs. Adelberger to support teachers, staff, and students while creating extra opportunities for fun and learning within our school. Below is a short description of each position. Terms start in July 2022.
CO-PRESIDENT (main job responsibilities but not limited to):
· Regularly attends meetings and chairs meetings as needed
· Liaison between parent community and Home and School Board and principal
· Supports current co-president with responsibilities
· Utilizes any other skill sets to take on additional responsibilities that suit your talents and availability
*Candidates for co-president must have previous involvement on a H&S committee.
CO-TREASURER (main responsibilities but not limited to):
· Enters payment information into computer tracking system
· Deposits payments for activities
· Withdraws funds for special payments
· Consults with and attends Home and School meetings
· Ad hoc duties as necessary
Please contact Heather Laphen (heatherlaphen@hotmail.com) for more information about the co-president position and Laura Murray (lcgmurray13@gmail.com) for more information about the co-treasurer position.
There are also plenty of other ways to be involved in our H&S – being a homeroom parent, serving on a committee, donating food or drinks to H&S events, attending H&S meetings – and so much more. Contact Abby Kube (abigail.kube@gmail.com) for more information!
Thanks for supporting our school!
Current 5th grade families: We are also looking for a new 6th grade coordinator committee for next year. An email will be sent to 5th grade parents on April 12 asking for volunteers.
Thank you!
Home and School Board
PSSA Update!
Dear Kutz Parents and Families,
The information within this letter provides an update to families regarding PSSA testing and scheduling at Kutz this year. The Pennsylvania Department of Education requires all school districts to administer PSSA testing for the 2021-2022 school year. The Pennsylvania System of School Assessment is aligned with the PA Standards. The English Language Arts and Mathematics PSSAs are administered in grades 3 through 8 and the Science PSSA is administered in grade 4 and grade 8. Students learn all skills, concepts, and content necessary to take the assessment within their daily reading, writing, mathematics and science instruction. The specific dates for the English Language Arts, Mathematics, and Science Assessment are listed below.
Students will use their district issued device to take the assessment online. Please make sure your child’s device is FULLY charged coming to school each day. Please also send your child in with their laptop charger, in the event they need to charge the device during the testing window or during the day. Please make sure your child’s charger is labeled with their name.
Each year there is a question regarding whether students must take the PSSA. Chapter 4 of Title 22 of the Pa. Code (22 Pa. code 4.4) provides for the right of any parent/guardian to excuse his/her child from the state assessment if the assessment conflicts with his/her religious beliefs. The Pennsylvania Department of Education requires schools to have policies to ensure parents or guardians may review a state assessment in the school entity during convenient hours for parents or guardians to determine whether a state assessment conflicts with their religious belief. This is the only reason the state allows students to opt-out of an assessment. If after reviewing the test, parents or guardians find the test to conflict with their religious belief and wish their student(s) to be excused from the test, the right of the parents or guardians will not be denied upon written request to the applicable school district Superintendent. Parents or guardians considering opting their child out of the test should contact Christina Adelberger (cadelberger@cbsd.org) and Liz Niszczak (lniszczak@cbsd.org) to make arrangements to review the test. Parents requesting to opt-out their child from testing must submit a request by Tuesday, April 19, 2022.
One of the most frequently asked questions we receive about opting out is whether PSSA test data is used for accelerated math placement in grades 5 and 6. Although it is one criterion we consider, it is not required for your child to be considered for accelerated math. Furthermore, PSSA data is not used to determine grade level promotion or teacher placement.
If you have further questions or concerns, please contact me at 267-893-3900.
Sincerely,
Christina Adelberger, Principal
Kutz Elementary School
Family Fun Events Update!
The Sweetheart Dance is tonight! Check in begins at 6:30pm at the gym entrance. This is a ticketed event, so advanced registration is required.
Registration for the "My Buddy and Me" event at the YMCA is open in MyPaymentsPlus. Capacity is limited to 200 people and spots are going fast!
Note- This event is for Kutz students and their adult buddy. This is not a drop off event nor an event with your child's assigned buddy from school.
See the flyer below for more details.
Thank You,
Family Fun Committee
Upcoming Events!
Order Your Yearbook Now!
Attention 6th Grade Families!
District/Community Opportunities
Sparks- Counselor Information
Below is a Sparks newsletter article we sent out almost two years ago. The topic is still very relevant. Please take the time to watch with your children for some interesting and needed discussion.
In today’s world we are all trying to know what is best for our children but it is difficult to see what lies ahead for them. The Sparks video below gives some economic insight into the past, present and future. Please share your reactions to this video with you children for their own understanding of future possibilities.
Success in the new economy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zs6nQpVI164
For comments or questions, please contact Ginny Barrett at vbarrett@cbsd.org.
Attendance
Click here for PDF directions for how to input the absence, tardy, or early dismissal.
Click here for video directions for how to input the absence, tardy or early dismissal.
Requests made using the parent portal will also serve as the excuse for the absence. Parents will not be required to submit an excuse either electronic or written.
Parents and guardians can also still call the school to report an absence, but emails will no longer be accepted.
In addition, when a student is absent from school, but the school did not receive communication from the parent or guardian, the following communication will be sent:
- A text message will be sent midmorning notifying the parent or guardian of the absence
- An email will also be sent at the end of the school day reminding the parent or guardian that the student was marked absent.
Thank you for your attention to this.
District Information
New Student Registration
If you will have a new student (kindergarten, first grade) attending Central Bucks in the fall of 2022, now is the time to register. Enrollment for all new students (grades kindergarten through 12) is now ongoing. It is strongly recommended that you submit your application no later than June 1, 2022.
Registering students now ensures that buildings plan for appropriate staff and resources for the coming year. Visit www.cbsd.org/register to complete the process online. If your student is currently enrolled, it is not necessary to re-register them, this process is for new students only.
Visit www.cbsd.org/register for more details, including necessary documents to gather in order to register children. Please consider as soon as possible to aid the district in its planning for 2022-2023.
CBSD Technology when Traveling
Currently, the Technology and Innovation Department blocks Microsoft Office 365 logins to Outlook, OneDrive, ClassLink, and Canvas from foreign countries. This aids in protecting our CBSD user accounts and organization from malicious computer attacks from outside of the United States.
Students who travel cannot assume their devices will work once they leave the United States. For student out-of-country access requests, please know that access to technology for vacations will not be approved at this time.
Kutz Passive Fundraisers
Breakfast and Lunch Programs
In April 2021, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food and Nutrition Service extended the program that will provide for free meals for all students, regardless of income, for the 2021-22 school year. This has been made possible by nationwide waivers that provide for free meals for all students through June 2022.
All menus are available to be viewed online up to 2 weeks in advance by visiting www.cbsd.nutrislice.com.
Students are entitled to one complete reimbursable breakfast per day and one complete reimbursable lunch per day. Any second entrée will be charged to the students’ lunch account. We encourage all families to put money on their students account through MySchoolBucks.com as there will be no cash transactions this year in an effort to serve the students as safely and swiftly as possible.
Kutz Information
Daily School Hours
Kutz is a "B" School
- Arrival begins at 8:30 AM
- Student Day Begins at 8:50 AM
- Student Day Ends at 3:30 PM
- Dismissal Ends at 3:50 PM
- For early dismissal days- dismissal begins at 12:10 PM
- For 2 hour delay days- arrival begins at 10:30 and the student day begins at 10:50
Kindergarten
- Morning Kindergarten begins at 8:50 AM (arrival begins at 8:30 AM) and ends at 11:25 AM
- Afternoon Kindergarten begins at 12:55 PM and ends at 3:30 PM
- Beginning in the 2019-2020 school year, we will implement a “modified kindergarten” schedule on weather delay days. The schedule will be as follows for Kutz: AM Students 10:50 AM – 12:35 PM and PM Students 1:45 PM – 3:30 PM
Student Directory 2021-2022
The student directory for the 2021-2022 school year is on the Kutz website! Click here to access it. This is a password protected document. The password was sent in a separate email on October 11th.
Kutz Student/Parent Handbook
Below is the Kutz Parent and Student Handbook for the 2021-2022 school year. This handbook provides a comprehensive summary of school and district policies and programs for students and their families. We hope you will find this to be a valuable resource.
Reminder for Volunteer Clearances
The 2021-22 school year brings back opportunities to volunteer in school. If you have not already done so, please click here (https://www.cbsd.org/volunteers) to learn more about the process and requirements to volunteer in CBSD. New this year is the App Garden Volunteer Tracker (https://appgarden5.app-garden.com/VolTrackPA92102.nsf/VolApp.xsp), a contactless application and paperwork submission process. Sign-up is required for both new and returning volunteers.
Clearances expire five years after approval, so please check your CBSD Volunteer card to make sure yours are still current. If you have additional questions about volunteering in our district, please contact Florence at fhughes@cbsd.org or at 267-893-2086.
Thank you for supporting our staff and students by volunteering your time!
Food Service Information
Want to view our lunch menu? Need to add funds to your child's account? Looking for nutrition information? Need to apply for free and reduced breakfast/lunch? Click here to learn more about Food Services in Central Bucks.
Child Care Program
Looking for more information on our Before and After School Programs? Click here to learn how to register your child.
About Kutz
Kutz Character Traits: Perseverance, Integrity, Respect, Responsibility
Email: cadelberger@cbsd.org
Website: www.cbsd.org/Kutz
Location: Kutz Elementary School, Turk Road, Doylestown, PA, USA
Phone: 267-893-3900
Twitter: @CBKutzElem