CAC / SFTJH Parent Informer
November 2014
A Message from Mr. Flax – I keep hearing that autumn is here. And then I go outside in t-shirts and
shorts, and it feels great. I am kind of stingy at my house, so there has been no air conditioning since early
fall, and there will be no heat until much later. Fortunately, that hasn’t been an issue, as the temperature
has been so moderate. Last Saturday I was at a college football game and couldn’t believe it was the end
of October. Everyone was dressed so summer-like. Fall is my favorite time of year, so I am hoping we get
some fall weather and that we don’t just jump into winter. Anyway, we will be getting close to
Thanksgiving and the winter holidays soon. I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving, surrounded by
family and friends. Keep safe this fall.
Evacuation Drill – This past Friday the students and staff practiced a very important drill. We evacuated
the building as if there was an emergency situation. During the summer I worked on updating our
building crisis plan, and with the assistance of then-SRO Derrick Feliciano, we created an evacuation plan
to our football field. There are lots of factors to consider when working out the details. We believe that
we have a sound plan for a building evacuation. I am going to have the evacuation plan posted on the
CAC page of the district website in the future. I believe it is important for you to know how we plan to
keep your children safe away from the building. The crisis team met both before to review roles and
procedures, and after to debrief from the activity. Of most importance is that we had the entire building
evacuated to the football field and every student accounted for within approximately seven minutes. The
successful practice of that drill is due to the work of the staff and the crisis team. I am hopeful that we
will never have to use the plan in an actual emergency, but I am equally confident that we are able to do it
swiftly and safely if it was necessary. We will be having a lock-down drill in the building next week as
well, under the guidance of our resource office and the sheriff’s department.
School Alerts – For the past few years we have been having parents participate in an end-of-year survey
to get your perspective on different facets of the district. One of the items on which we receive feedback
consistently is that of communication between school and home. Some believe we send too much
information out, and others believe we do not send enough. Administratively we have been looking to see
how we can improve that. Over the past few months we have been working with a communications
system called Dewsly. Administration has been trained as well as a few of the district teachers. We plan
to introduce and phase in this program during the rest of this and next semester. By next fall this will be
our main method of sending alerts and news items out to you all. There are several points about Dewsly
that seem to make it a better system for us and you. Among those are: 1) you as patrons select the method
you wish to receive our messages. That can be via text, email, phone or a combination of those; and 2)
you do not have to receive messages about the entire district unless you choose so. You can determine
that you only want to get messages from CAC, or from another building, or from a combination of
buildings. So, for example, if you do not have children at OAC and SAC you can choose to not receive
messages for those buildings. All district-wide alerts would go to all patrons who have signed up. As we
get closer to the implementation of the system you will receive more information on how to sign up. And
you will have to sign up for this, as we cannot do that for you. Be assured that when that time comes we
will make sure you have all the information you need to get signed up successfully. We are very hopeful
that using Dewsly will be a positive step in district communication. A vital point in the success of this is
that we have your correct contact information regarding phone numbers and email addresses. Again, you
will be hearing more about this during the school year.
Aspire – We have completed the five subtests of the ACT Aspire tests for grades 5-8. While it took us a
while to get the testing window open (not our issue) and then get the technology piece to work (our issue)
we ran into a snag with more technology (not our issue). Finally after a two week delay we were able to
complete the first session of testing. Once we got things rolling, the rest of the sessions went off without
any serious issues. We are still looking to have students complete an interest inventory. This is an
important piece as we begin working with the junior high students in planning for their high school
classes and scheduling. We will have the results of these tests by the end of first semester. Our parentteacher conferences in the second semester will be when we share these results with you all. A change for
junior high students and parents will be that those conferences will be scheduled individually, so we can
make sure we meet with the parents of each and every student. We believe that the information we can get
from these tests is vital as you as families plan for your children’s future education.
Activities Update – We have just completed the fall sports seasons. Football, volleyball, and cross
country are all done for the year. The cross country teams did very well in their competitions, with a
couple of students placing at or near the front of the pack at every meet. Killian Spoonemore, a seventh
grader, was the Pioneer League champion. The seventh and eighth grade volleyball season ended at the
league tournament at Osawatomie on the 4th of October. The seventh grade finished in sixth place, and the
eighth grade finished in fourth place. The Pioneer League ends its football season with a bowl series for
both seventh and eighth grade. Last Tuesday the seventh grade team traveled to Wellsville for a three
o’clock game, playing for fifth place. They were defeated so finished at sixth place in the league. The
eighth grade bowl series was played at SFTHS last Thursday. Having finished the regular season in
second place, they earned a rematch with Burlington for the conference championship. Burlington proved
to be too tough and defeated the Chargers 26-6, thus the boys finished in second place. We had lots of
exciting moments in all of the sports, and are looking forward to wrestling and girls’ basketball, both of
whom have started their seasons already. Be looking for an update on their seasons in the next newsletter.
School Resource Officer – We have been fortunate to gain a new school resource officer this last month.
As you know, Derrick Feliciano had served us for the past two and a half years, but has since moved to
another position. Our new SRO is Stephen Hudson, and he has stepped right in to assist us here and at the
SAC building as well. Officer Hudson is a 2004 graduate of Santa Fe Trail High School, and he and his
wife live here in Carbondale. He has assumed many responsibilities, and will begin doing classroom
lessons with the students sometime late this or early next semester. We have been keeping him busy,
along with giving him time to become familiar with all of the students and staff. If you are in the building,
don’t hesitate to ask me to introduce you to him. I am grateful that our district is able to secure the
assistance of law enforcement as a valuable partner in our mission. Welcome, Officer Hudson.
Thanks to all the parents and staff who provided dinner for the parent-teacher conference evening last
Monday. It was all delicious, and I know because I tried everything that was brought in by you all.
USD 434 Mission Statement: The mission of Santa Fe Trail USD 434 is to support individual student
needs in preparation for successful lifework.
Items for Your Calendars – The following items are (at least most of them) found on the district
calendar. I just want to give a reminder for your attention.
11/3
11/3
11/4
11/4
11/6
11/8
11/10
11/11
11/12
Site Council Meeting in CAC Conference Room 6:00
8th Grade Band/Choir Concert in Gym 7:00
Girls’ Basketball at Central Heights 4:00
Wrestling at SFT 4:15
Girls’ Basketball vs. Burlington at CAC 4:15
League Wrestling Tournament at Prairie View 9:00 a.m.
Veteran’s Day Assembly 1:30
Girls’ Basketball at Prairie View 4:15
BOE Meeting at DAC 6:00
11/12 CAC Lock-Down Drill with Sheriff’s Department
11/13 Wrestling at Anderson County 4:00
11/15 Wrestling at Silver Lake 8:15 a.m.
11/15 7th Grade Girls’ Basketball at CAC 9:00 a.m.
11/15 8th Grade Girls’ Basketball at Rossville 9:00a.m.
11/17 Wrestling at Baldwin 4:30
11/18 Girls’ Basketball vs. Osawatomie at CAC 4:15
11/20 Girls’ Basketball at Wellsville 4:00
11/21 7th Grade Band/Choir Concert in Gym 7:00
11/24 Girls’ Basketball vs. Anderson County at CAC 4:15
11/25 Wrestling at Washburn Rural 3:30
11/26-28
Thanksgiving Break
HAVE YOU READ TO YOUR CHILD TODAY? HAVE YOU READ WITH YOUR CHILD
TODAY?