Ms. Simmons' Secondary Scoop

Our fall parent-teacher conferences are Mon, 10/3 from 2:30-8 PM and Wed, 10/5 from 2:30-4 PM. School will be dismissed at 2:15 PM both days. If you haven't already, please click this link to sign up by noon on Mon, 10/3. All conference times will be held in person in each teacher’s classroom. If you are not able to attend on the dates/times listed, we welcome you to set up a different date/time to meet with your students’ teachers. We look forward to visiting with you!

Lunches and breakfasts are not free this year. There is a cost associated with both of these services. We encourage all parents to fill out paperwork for free and reduced lunch and breakfast. You can access those forms here: English and Spanish. There will be office staff available on conference night to take lunch money and help with completing free and reduced forms.

A Parent Portal account is needed to access your lunch balances. This is the same platform utilized to check your student's grades and attendance, and now you can pay to add money to lunch accounts. Please contact Karla Denison (Karla.denison@k12.sd.us) or Bonnie Yackley (Bonnie.Yackley@k12.sd.us) to receive the directions on how to access an account. Please click here for more information on how to access your Parent Portal account. Please make this a priority as many families have negative balances at this time.

The flyers for school picture day have been sent home.

How to prepay for your child's pictures online:

1. Go to www.schoolphotosbymark.com

2. Click on “Order Here”

3. Enter “ELSD ”for the event name, click “search”

4. Click on your school district

5. Click on your student’s school

6. Enter your email address and click “login”. All orders are tracked with the email address you enter.

7. You should now see a page with our photo packages. Choose from any of our packages and/or order ala-carte items.

8. Once you are done shopping, click on the “shopping cart” icon. You will be prompted for your student’s information as well as yours.

Some Things to Know:

• All Picture Packages are on sale through Picture Day!

• A valid email address is required to place an order.

• You will receive a confirmation email once an order is placed.

• All orders placed through Picture Day will be processed and delivered to the student’s school 2-3 weeks following Picture Day.

• If you are ordering for multiple students, you will need to complete an order for each student you are ordering photos of.

• If you are ordering a Class Picture for an elementary student, the Class Picture will be delivered to the school after retake day.

• All portrait orders will be delivered to your student’s school.

For more information, please visit www.schoolphotosbymark.com.

Secondary students in math and ELA will participate in their first round of Interim Comprehensive Assessments (ICAs) next week (10/3-10/7). If your student(s) come home saying they are "already state testing," this is what they mean! The tests are approximately 30-40 questions in length and will take about one class period to complete. Students will take their second round of ICAs in February. This will help both staff and students evaluate their growth from October and identify areas needed for review prior to the "official" state testing in the spring.

As a reminder, Interim Assessments (IAs) are created by the SD DOE for a variety of purposes:

1. They are a helpful tool for teachers to evaluate student understanding and inform instruction.
2. They are available in three versions to evaluate student understanding from various viewpoints ranging from comprehensive (multiple targets) to focused (concepts within a strand). This enables teachers to be flexible in their use.
3. They are scored the same as SBAs: basic (1), developing (2), proficient (3), and advanced (4).
4. Teachers can provide immediate feedback to students.
5. Teachers can share the top five questions answered the best & the top five answered incorrectly.
6. Teachers can view all questions & work through them with students.
7. These reports can be viewed for any of the IAs given.
8. They help build familiarity with the SBAC testing platform, such as manipulating the screen and utilizing test tools (calculator, text-to-speech, reviewing previous questions, etc.).

• JH/HS student handbook

• JH/HS online lesson plans. Click the link below each email address for the staff member/course you’d like to see.

• Link to all school activities

As always, please let me know if there's anything I can do to serve you and our secondary students.

Sincerely in Education,

Website: https://www.elkton.k12.sd.us/
Phone: (605) 542-2541
Facebook: facebook.com/ElktonSchool53
Twitter: @ElktonSchool