The Hornet Buzz

To empower, enrich, and enlighten students to reach their full potential while respecting our past.

Dear St. Elizabeth Families,

We hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving break with your families. I'm not sure if it was the snowflakes on some of our staff shirts today or the snow dance 1st grade did to make it snow harder, but something worked and caused us to have an unexpected 1/2 day snow day. Normally we don't have to test out our weather school closure protocols until January, but today was the day. A huge thank you to our staff for the quick pivot, our bus drivers for making sure students got home safely, our office staff for taking a multitude of phone calls with transportation changes, and to our community for adjusting to quick changes to the school day. We appreciate all of you.

As we enter the final month of 2025, I want to take a moment to reflect on the incredible growth, hard work, and togetherness we’ve seen throughout this semester. December is always a special time in our school—full of learning, celebrations, and opportunities to show kindness.

Please keep an eye on our Facebook page, text caster, and classroom updates for important dates, events, and reminders throughout the month. As always, we appreciate the partnership of our families. Your support at home makes a tremendous difference in your child’s success at school.

✅ Celebrations

• We had several student donors for the NHS Blood Drive.

• SADD has begun their Hot Chocolate fundraiser.

• Basketball season is now fully going and Eugene tournament begins this week!

📅 Upcoming Events

• Picture retakes + Club Photos for Yearbook December 10th

• SCOP Movie Night is December 12

• Christmas Concert for grades PK-5 is December 15th at 6:00

• Finals December 18-19

• Early out on December 19th

• Christmas break from December 20-January 5

💡 Our Focus: Engagement
This year’s theme is Year of Engagement. We are working to engage every student, every day, in meaningful learning and active participation. A way that you can help at home is to ask them about what they are learning in the classroom. If you ever have any suggestions, questions, or concerns, don't hesitate to reach out to me.

It's a great day to be a Hornet!

Ashley Musick

St. Elizabeth Principal

amusick@ste.k12.mo.us

573-493-2246

Dear Parent or Guardian:

Our district is required to inform you of information that you, according to the Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015 (Public Law 114-95), have the right to know.

Upon your request, our district is required to provide to you in a timely manner, the following information:

· Whether your student’s teacher has met State qualification and licensing criteria for the grade levels and subject areas in which the teacher provides instruction.

· Whether your student’s teacher is teaching under emergency or other provisional status through which State qualification or licensing criteria have been waived.

· Whether your student’s teacher is teaching in the field of discipline of the certification of the teacher.

· Whether your child is provided services by paraprofessionals and, if so, their qualifications.

In addition to the information that parents may request, a building receiving Title I.A funds must provide to each individual parent:

· Information on the level of achievement and academic growth of your student, if applicable and available, on each of the State academic assessments required under Title I.A.

· Timely notice that your student has been assigned, or has been taught for 4 or more consecutive weeks by, a teacher who has not met applicable State certification or licensure requirements at the grade level and subject area in which the teacher has been assigned.

Thank you,

Ashley Musick

December 2: Board Game Forms Due to Library

December 7: Fall Sports Awards 5:00 JH Boys, 5:30 JH Girls, 6:00 Softball

December 8: Class Meetings

December 10: Picture Retakes + Activities for Yearbook

December 12: SCOP Movie Night 6:30-8:00 in Cafeteria

December 13: HS Scholar Bowl @ Fatima

December 15: Christmas Concert @ 6:00 for grades PK-5

December 18: Christmas Feast, 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th hour finals

December 19: 1st-3rd hour finals, Class Meetings, Christmas Parties, Dismissal at 12:09

December 22-January 5: No School-Christmas Break

December 1: Girls Basketball @ Eugene Tournament

December 3: Boys Basketball @ Eugene Tournament

December 1-6: Eugene Tournament

December 5: Archery Practice Begins

December 8: JVB @ Dixon

December 9: BB VS Crocker @ Home

December 10: JVB @ Dixon

December 11: JVB @ Dixon, GB @ Crocker

December 13: HS Scholar Bowl @ Fatima

December 16: BB @ Dixon, GB VS Russellville @ Home

December 18: GB VS Osage @ Home

December 19: BB VS Eugene @ Home

At St. Elizabeth, we know that a legacy is built through everyday actions: kindness, dedication, and going the extra mile. Strengthening the Hive, One Hornet at a Time is a new way to recognize St. Elizabeth R-IV employees who are making a difference in the lives of others.

Anyone, including students, families, coworkers, or community members, can submit a nomination for any St. Elizabeth employee, certified or classified, who goes above and beyond what is expected.

Each month, selected recipients will be honored for the positive impact they’re making in our school.

🖤🐝💛

You can select the box with the arrow on the bottom right of form or select the link here.

I will be honoring those who get nominated this month!

This is the time of year we normally see an increase in sickness! It is important to remember good hygiene practices such as sneezing into arms and washing hands frequently.

On Fridays, student groups and/or teams are signing up to help me greet students in the morning! We use a speaker with pump up music, do some clapping and dancing, and greet students! It has been such a fun way to start a Friday!

We had more students and teachers sign up to volunteer their time at Helping Hands to assist with the Food Pantry. We love to see our students and staff giving back to our community!

This month:

Eli Kemna, Carter Reinkemeyer, Kylie Rademan, Kyson Green, Pressly Wright, Cooper Kemna, Preston Reinkemeyer, Easton Oligschlaeger, Bella Green, Kate Oligschlaeger, Treyton Kemna, Kadence Otto, Makenna Franks, Quinn Otto.

Mrs. Horton, Mrs. Gibson, Mrs. Franks, Mrs. Otto

The canned good items collected at the canned good scrimmage were dropped off at Helping Hands! Thank you to all who donated!

We had Jim Marshall, a former educator and coach for Jefferson City Schools, come speak to our grades 6-12 about perseverance, grit, making healthy choices, and the importance of our mental health.

A few of our students had a full day at Missouri S&T - admissions presentation and campus tour, and then tours of the Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering department, the Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering department, and the History Department. They got to see the nuclear reactor, the hypersonic wind tunnel, KUKA robotics lab, and meet with the Steel Bridge & Concrete Canoe team and the Satellite Research team!

Leaf piles were made for playing in!

We've had many pictures submitted already! Be sure to get those last submissions to us! We sure have enjoyed looking at them and so have many of the students and parents too! Email pictures to Mr. Kempker at doug@ste.k12.mo.us or Mrs. Musick at amusick@ste.k12.mo.us and we will get them printed and hung up and will get a donated Mid America stocking cap to the student!

Categories for this year will be:

1. Biggest Buck

2. Best Harvest Picture ( background, setting, animal presentation)

3. Best family/group photo.

Mid America Bank has graciously donated prizes as well as participation prizes for anyone who submits a successful harvest picture. Sergeant Davis from the Army National Guard has also promised prizes for our winners. 🦌

If you are a parent or even a grandparent, you have maybe heard a student say 6-7. It is some new craze! Here at school, we for sure have heard our fair share of 6-7, especially when teaching a math lesson. I even heard it at a ball game when the score happened to be 6-7..haha! So, we celebrated the 67th day of school with an underground staff day where staff were encouraged to wear something 6-7 related and see if students noticed. Some teachers even got creative and celebrated the day with their students!

Mrs. Gibson's Physical Science Class became the teachers to Preschool and taught them all about science with some fun experiments!

Life Skills and Leadership & Service classes combine forces to make a Thanksgiving lunch for people within our communities. The kids delivered these meals to people in both St. Elizabeth and St. Anthony area.

Thanksgiving Wishes from Rita with Parents as Teachers!

Mrs. Musick celebrated 2nd grade readers today with "Pie the Principal" for meeting their 300 book goal! They read and passed AR quizzes on 816 books! Each student got to pie the principal!

First Grade and Kindergarten had a Thanksgiving Feast!

SCOP handed out goodies to the community!

Who knew we would start December with a 1/2 day due to snow? Some staff members had worn shirts with snow flakes on it and felt we kind of jinxed something. First grade saw snowflakes and instantly found a snowman song to sing to make it snow harder. A couple classes thought it was the perfect time to enjoy a little time outside before we headed home.

Boys and Girls opened up their season at Linn with wins to get going to a great start. This week, they are both in the Eugene Tournament. Due to snow today, the brackets have been updated. Our girls play Tuesday at 5:00 versus Macks Creek. Our boys play on Wednesday at 8:30 against Russellville.

Congratulations to Coach Caleb Heckemeyer for his 100th win!

Practices will begin on this Friday. Practice schedules were emailed out. Your child will either practice from 6:30-7:30 or 7:30-8:30. Tournaments begin in January.

Scholar Bowl teams have started practicing. They have competitions coming up soon!

Here are the AR nights for 1st Semester. These are for grades 1-6. Please be sure to send in a note with your child if you plan on them attending an AR night so we know.

Drop off times: Students can't be dropped off before 7:45, unless participating in the Before Care program or an appointment with a teacher. This is to ensure that they are being looked after by staff. Drop off times should be between 7:45 and 8:00 and students will come to the gym during those times instead of main entrance.

Before/After Care for K-5th Grade: Friendly reminder that the end time for After Care for K-5 is 5:00. Please make sure that if your child is here before 7:45, that they are attending Before Care.

Changes to routine: Please make sure to call the office before 2:00 or send a note in if there are changes to your child's routine for dismissal.

Pre-Arranged Absences: Please be sure to let Mrs. Musick and child's teacher(s) know. All work should be gathered before and is due upon return.