4th Quarter

Welcome back from Spring Break!  Here we are, three quarters down and one to go! I know most of us have contracted Madness this March and have basketball on the brain, but this morning I had football on my mind.

If you have attended a football game--at almost any level--you know that when the 4th quarter arrives players on the sideline hold up four fingers. Many colleges claim this tradition's origination as their university, but most agree--especially Alabama fans--that it began with Bear Bryant's Alabama teams in the 60's and 70's. Regardless of the origin, the gesture stands for teams claiming, "the fourth quarter is ours!" In sports this is important because no matter how you played in the previous three quarters, you can lose the game by playing poorly in the final quarter. The reverse is also true.

As we start the 4th quarter at CKS, I explained to our students how this can apply to them at school: it is important to have a strong finish to the school year.  The way they spend this fourth quarter will leave a lasting impression as they remember this entire school year. Three quarters of hard work, good grades and a great attitude can be over-shadowed by a lackluster final quarter of slacking off and no motivation.

Consider a goal set at the beginning of the year that hasn't been met; the fourth quarter is the time to reach it! There are many days of school left this year and the fourth quarter has just begun, through the intercession of St. John Bosco and Mary, Help of Christians, let's make it the best quarter yet, Lions!

Surprise Visitor

We had a special visitor at CKS recently:  Sister Karen Dunn visited campus Friday afternoon, was here for mass on Sunday and met with me on Monday. Below, you can see a picture of Sr. Karen and me visiting our Kindergarten students this morning. Sr. Karen served as the CKS principal from 2001 to 2005--the last Salesian sister to serve in that role for our school.  She now leads the Salesian Sisters in the Eastern Province as the Salesian Provincial in New Jersey.

For those of you who don't know the history, the Salesian Sisters (or more formally, Daughters of Mary Help of Christians) served at CKS for almost 30 years and gave us our deep devotion to Saint John Bosco.  Find more information here about Salesian Sisters and you'll know why we continue to dedicate ourselves to being a Salesian school!

I was filled with Joy this morning when I met with Sr. Karen, and she mentioned that, although the buildings had changed since her time at CKS, the presence of Don Bosco remains alive. She felt it near the statue in the courtyard outside the cafeteria, she felt it among the various art pieces inside the building, but she said she felt it most in the warm smiles and welcoming words from our students and parents as they greeted her.

It is important to me, as a former CKS student and current principal, that we preserve that Salesian spirit and treat each other with loving kindness, the hallmark of the Salesians. I realize that we are imperfect people, living in an imperfect world corrupted by sin. We will face adversity, we will face unkindness and we will get hurt. What matters most is how our community responds to adversity -- that we continue to find Joy in God, and celebrate and demonstrate our Salesian spirit!

As we prepare for a much needed Spring Break, I wish you a joyful, restful time with your families and hope you make time to be with God.

I Heard It Through the Grapevine...

I am sure most of you know that last Friday we celebrated our Grandparents and Special Friends at CKS. This event highlights, for me, the biggest strength of our school community, family--and it is quite a large family! We received RSVPs for just over 400 guests and were happy to entertain over 550 guests who came for the event. An event of that size cannot happen without help, and 45 volunteers showed up to make this happen under the direction of our Advancement Office--Danielle Welsh and Ali Campbell, along with our Chairpersons--Cheri Morales and Carolina Curran. If the smiles of our guests were any indication, our volunteers created a memorable event for our visiting grandparents and special friends.

Here are the top three things I overheard from our guests on Friday:

"The Food was Amazing"

From my own experience with my grandparents, if you keep them fed you keep them happy! We certainly did that. I am not sure how many schools can list a professionally trained chef as an employee, but we are so lucky to have one at CKS. Wendy Hartmann prepared all of the food for the event and the rest of our amazing staff--Sheila DeLoach, Ann Mosher and cafeteria manager, Carol Laratta--came in on their day off to help. 

"I Loved the Program"

If you have somehow managed NOT to see our admissions video, take a quick moment and view it here. We showed this to our grandparents to give them a glimpse of a day in the life of a CKS student. Mrs. LeFloch also worked with our Kindergarten and 1st Grade students to perform a few songs from their performances--who can resist those precious faces and voices. We also gave our guests a preview of our upcoming middle school musical, Godspell Jr, which impressed everyone with passionate singing. 

"You Know, I Went to School Here" 

More than just a school family, we are a multi-generational school family. Events like this remind me how intertwined our school is within the lives of our families. Some of our grandparents attended CKS as students, sent their children to CKS and now have grandchildren attending here--one family has been involved with the school in one way or another for over 40 years. However, I found most impressive a man who rushed over to me during the event to tell me that he was an altar boy at the first ever mass at Christ the King (which was actually held at the Academy). 

I feel blessed to be a part of this school community.

Why-a, Why-a, Why-a, Do We Even Take the Iowa

Next week is Iowa week--or as my children like to call it, No Homework Week. This is when our students in 2nd through 8th grade take the Iowa Assessment--a norm referenced standardized test which provides a percentile ranking for our students in reading, math, science, and social studies. For more information about the test, please look at the "Featured Post" on the left. You can also check-out the newsletter for some good preparation tips for your students.

The most common question I hear from parents is "Why do we take the Iowas?" Here are my top three reasons:

1) Tracking Student Progress

Although the test measures what a student knows compared to what other students know rather than measuring what a students knows against content taught, taking the same type of standardized each year allows us to track individual student progress. Each administration of the test provides a data point--that taken over time--can show a trend. Teachers then use this information for grouping within the classroom.

2) Evaluating Our School Programs

It is important to remember that we teach to a set of standards and NOT to a standardized test. Effective teaching of the standards, however, should prepare students for any standardized tests. The score reports provided to teachers indicate how students scored within subcategories for each major subject. In small groups, at the end of the school year, teachers analyze this data. They look at data for their current students to find possible areas where they need to improve teaching for next year. They also look at data for their incoming students to see if there are any areas in which they need to spend more time based on their needs. 

3) Course Placement

In middle school, the Iowa scores, along with teacher recommendation and placement score results are used to help determine whether or not students should take an accelerated math track, allowing them to take high school algebra as a 7th grader. Our local public high schools use Iowa scores to place students into ability grouped classes and for determining acceptance to magnet and IB programs. While our private high schools use scores on their entrance exams for placement in ability grouped classes, our students Iowa scores are used when the student is on the cusp. 

Comparisons

I purposefully left this off the list. The tendency when looking at scores is to compare our scores to those of other schools.  We must be cautious, however, in making these comparisons. Just as students are not a sum total of their test scores, schools are not a sum total of their assessment results. For example, is it helpful to compare the results of a school with less than 5% of its students qualifying for financial aid to a school where 75% of its students do qualify? Also, is it fair to compare the total grade level average for a school with 50 students in the grade to a school that only has 10? 

At Christ the King, we are blessed to have students that should perform well on standardized tests: basic needs met, parents are college educated, access to books is provided, and opportunities for cultural enrichment occur. Instead of comparing ourselves to other schools we compare our results from year to year. I like the golf analogy, we are not competing against other players, we are competing against the test. Given the support they have at home and the education they received from their teachers, out students are a group I am happy to compete with any day!

Stay Healthy, CKS!

As we enter pollen season and the peak of flu season, I wanted to give you some information on allergies, colds and the flu so that we can work together to keep our students healthy.

Lori Ossi, RN

CKS Minute Clinic

Three things to remember before sending your child to school with any symptoms:

1 - A thermometer is a good investment.  As much as we like to think that a mother’s touch can accurately take a temperature, it is not a definitive indicator.  If you think your child may have a fever, please use a thermometer to find out.

2 - The CKS Minute Clinic does not stock over the counter medications. If you would like any over the counter or prescription medication dispensed to your child, you must provide the medicine with a signed medication authorization form. This includes medication taken to treat cold or allergies, including antihistamines.

3 - Students must be fever-free (temp < 100.5) for 24 hours before returning to school.  

Please read below for some helpful information from the CDC:

Signs and Symptoms of Allergies

• Sneezing
• Itchy, red watery eyes
• Runny nose
• Headache
• Cough
• Sore throat
• Nasal congestion
• Sore throat 

Signs and Symptoms of Flu 

• Fever or feeling feverish/chills
• Cough
• Sore throat
• Runny or stuffy nose
• Muscle or body aches
• Headaches
• Fatigue (very tired)
• Some people may have vomiting and diarrhea; this is more common in children than adults

How Flu Spreads

Most experts believe that flu viruses spread mainly by droplets made when people with flu cough, sneeze or talk. These droplets can land in the mouths or noses of people who are nearby. Less often, a person might also get flu by touching a surface or object that has flu virus on it and then touching their own mouth, eyes or possibly their nose.

Preventing Flu

The first and most important step in preventing flu is to get a flu vaccination each year. CDC also recommends everyday preventive actions (like staying away from people who are sick, covering coughs and sneezes and frequent handwashing) to help slow the spread of germs that cause respiratory (nose, throat, and lungs) illnesses, like flu.

What is the difference between a cold and the flu?

The flu and the common cold are both respiratory illnesses but they are caused by different viruses. Because these two types of illnesses have similar symptoms, it can be difficult to tell the difference between them based on symptoms alone. In general, the flu is worse than the common cold, and symptoms are more common and intense. Colds are usually milder than the flu. People with colds are more likely to have a runny or stuffy nose.

How can you tell the difference between a cold and the flu?

Because colds and flu share many symptoms, it can be difficult to tell the difference between them based on symptoms alone. Special tests that usually must be done within the first few days of illness can tell if a person has the flu.

Useful links and apps:

AllergyAlert for iphones

American Academy of Allergy Asthma & Immunology http://www.aaaai.org/

www.cdc.gov

Please Pass the Tape

Next Friday, February 17, if you happen to come by school, you are sure to find me hanging around the Pavilion...literally. Our students brought in their spare change over the last month as part of a homeroom competition to raise funds to off-set the cost of meals for our hunger project this past Friday.

                               Duct taping test run today to let us know how many rolls of tape we'll need!


I am so proud of our students, who organized bake sales, sold water/snacks during Gasparilla and scoured the depths of their couch cushions to bring in money for Feeding Children Everywhere. All of that spare change meant we got to package over 40,000 meals that will be distributed to food banks locally and to our partners in Haiti.

The homeroom that produced the most change, 4A, will be duct taping me to to a column or wall in the pavilion as a reward.  Although I thought duct taping Mrs. Lowrey would have been a much better reward, they didn't agree. I did agree to stay suspended one minute for every $100 raised. Even though the final meal has been packaged (40,320 was the final count), the money is still coming in to the office, so I am not sure exactly how long I'll be taped, but I do know it is long enough that if you stop by, feel free to toss me a bottle of water!

                             

#CSW2017

Today marks the start of National Catholic Schools Week--a time when we celebrate the teachers, students and families that make up our school community. Some of the events at CKS include Salesian Spirit Day tomorrow, the Feast of Don Bosco Mass celebrated on Wednesday and our Feeding Children Everywhere school-wide service event on Friday. 

As we celebrate Catholic Schools this week, I also want to begin the follow-up process on the recent parent and student surveys. We used the "Ultimate Question" format to allow respondents to express their own feelings rather than pushing responses towards a predetermined agenda. Although slightly harder to categorize and analyze, we have received some good, thoughtful feedback. 

One obvious place to begin analysis is with the ranking. Of the 135 parents that responded (a response rate of approximately 45%), 76% rated the school a 9 or higher on a scale of 0-10. That number jumps to 90% when you look at those who gave a response of 7 or higher. The follow up question allowed people to dig a little deeper by asking for an explanation of the ranking. Survey Monkey ran a text analysis to determine most commonly used words:

Parents Most Frequently Used Words

Mrs. Lowrey and I also surveyed our students in 5th-8th grade using a similar electronic survey.  Of 219 students, 36% ranked CKS above a 9 (students are a tough crowd), and that number jumps to 84% when ranking a 7 or higher. See below for words students used most: 

Students Most Frequently Used Words

These word clouds are obviously just a snapshot...  a first impression rather than a detailed analysis.  While I am pleased with this first glance and think CSW is the perfect way to celebrate the successes of our school and show our Joy for CKS, I believe it is also a time to reflect on how our school community can continue to grow.

I appreciate that so many of you took time to give us your feedback and look forward to sharing more information about the survey in future communications.

Thank you for your continued support of Catholic Schools and CKS.