Shaner Families,

We had a fantastic turnout for Parent-Teacher Conferences last week. Thank you to all of you who attended.

We are excited to celebrate Valentine's Day tomorrow. Classrooms will be celebrating throughout the day with fun activities. We will end the day with our Valentine's Parties at 2:45 p.m. Each classroom will have special treats.

On Wednesday, the students will be celebrating the Chiefs SuperBowl win with activities throughout the day. Follow Shaner Early Learning Academy on Facebook to see all of the fun pictures from this week.

As always, please reach out with any questions!

Shaner Proud,

Mrs. Baxter, Principal

mbaxter@tps501.org

(785) 235-7290

At Parent-Teacher Conferences, you should have received information regarding your child's home elementary school.

If you would like to request a transfer to a different home school than the one that was identified at conferences, please fill out this transfer request form by March 31st: Topeka Public Schools Transfer Application

If you are interested in applying to have your child attend Scott Dual Language, please fill out this form by March 10th: Scott Dual Language Application

If you are interested in applying to have your child attend Williams Science and Fine Arts Magnet School, please fill out this form by March 10th: Williams Science and Fine Arts Magnet School Application

Attention Parents! Beginning later this year, Topeka Public Schools is moving to a new, fully integrated Student Information System, Synergy by Edupoint.

This one system will replace the district's current student information system into one platform that will host and manage student data in an efficient and user-friendly manner.

Synergy will provide access to both parents and students, just like our current system. However, with Synergy, Parents/Guardians will use a single sign-on to access all of their children’s information regardless of school.

As part of the seamless Synergy Education Platform, Synergy SIS enables schools and districts to easily extend functionality to include online registration, CI3T, assessment, analytics, and special education management in a single platform. For more information, visit: Synergy Student Information System Communications Plan

• Parent Information (phone number and email)
• Emergency Contact Information (phone numbers and permission to leave)

We MUST be able to get ahold of someone if your child is sick or there is an emergency!

Students will go outside for recess when the wind chill feels like 20 degrees or above. It is that time of year when a coat is a necessity for outdoor recess!

• Mondays-Thursdays: 8:20-8:45 a.m. (School officially starts at 8:40 a.m.)
• Fridays: 9:10-9:35 a.m. (School officially starts at 9:30 a.m.)
• Please keep your child sitting in the vehicle while waiting in line. Students should not be hanging out of windows while waiting or while the vehicle is moving.
• If lined up out in the street, line up on the North curb.

• Do not block driveways.
• The carline ends at 8:45 a.m. Monday-Thursday and 9:35 a.m. on Fridays. If you pull up past those times, you will be asked to take your child to the main office. Staff cannot stay outside past those drop-off times, because they must get to their classrooms to begin instruction.

Dismissal Carline:

• Mondays-Fridays: 3:30 p.m.
• We are no longer putting the orange cones out to direct traffic. Please continue to follow the same procedures to create the four lines at dismissal.
• If lined up out in the street, line up on the North curb.
• Do not block driveways.

Please also make sure you are being kind to other Shaner families and Shaner staff at dismissal. Many families have more than one child to load. Honking at others that are loading is not kind. We understand families want and need to get through the line quickly; we are proud our dismissal is 15 minutes or less.

Give the staff member a shout-out by filling out the "Shaner Staff Shout Outs" form. We will share the shout-out with the staff during our late start Fridays! Thank you for sharing your positives!

• Tuesday, February 14th: Valentine's Day Parties, 2:45-3:15 p.m.
  
• Tuesday, February 21st: PTO Meeting via Zoom, 5:30-6:30 p.m.

March:

• Monday, March 6th-Thursday, March 9th: Read Across America Week
• Thursday, March 9th: Last Day of 3rd Quarter
• Friday, March 10th: No School, End of 3rd Quarter
• Monday, March 13th-Friday, March 17th: Spring Break, No School
• Monday, March 20th- Beginning of 4th Quarter

It is important that your child attend school each day to have a consistent educational program. Of course, illness or other family emergencies can cause absences. If your child will be absent please let us know by contacting the office at 785-235-7290.

The Topeka Public School Procedures are as follows:

1. Absences are excused for student illness or family emergencies. If your child is going to be absent, you should call the office before 9:30 a.m. It is each parent’s responsibility to be sure the office has been notified of the reason for absence. Advanced notice is appreciated.

2. A phone call attempt will be made on every child that does not arrive at school by 9:30am.

3. After 2 days of unexcused absences, staff will conduct a home visit or make other direct contact with child’s family, determine what assistance is needed to remedy the problem.

4. Unexcused absences can result in a truancy report being filed.

5. Each absence after 10 excused absences may result in the need for a doctor’s release note to be considered an excused absence.

6. Although Kansas law does not require students to be in school prior to the age of 7, ANY child enrolled in public school does fall into the state truancy policies. Truancy reports will be made to the district truancy officer for any student with excessive absences and/or tardies.

Next Meeting:

The February PTO meeting has been moved to Tuesday, February 21st from 5:30-6:30 p.m. on Zoom so we were not interfering with Valentine's Day plans. Please attend if you have an interest in planning Shaner's 2nd Annual PTO Picnic.

Join Zoom Meeting
https://tps501.zoom.us/j/89634119989
Meeting ID: 896 3411 9989
Passcode: PTO

Shaner PTO Picnic:

Shaner PTO 2nd Annual Picnic will be on Saturday, April 22nd from 4:00-6:00 p.m.

Please reach out with any questions to shanerelapto@gmail.com.

Social & Emotional:

• We are learning to identify and name our feelings so we can calm down when having strong feelings.

Phonics:

• We are learning to identify letters and sounds so we can read and write our names.
  

• We are learning to use letters and sounds to build and read words so we can write Valentines to our friends.
  

Reading:

• We are learning to identify the connections between two events so we can understand what we are reading.

• We are learning to show our thoughts with words and pictures so we can show what we know.

Math:

• We are learning to write numbers 0-10.

Social Studies:

• We are learning recognize events that have happened in the past, present and future so we can understand changes in our daily lives.

• We are learning to identify holidays so we can compare celebrations of different cultures.

Science:

• We are learning to recognize the difference between helpful and harmful actions toward the natural environment so we can protect our planet.

Shaner Family Handbook:

Please take a moment to learn more about being a part of our Shaner Family and the policies and procedures we follow.

Student and Family Handbook 2022-2023

Community Resources

• Community Resources Council Resource Directory- This directory provides contact information for a variety of community resources.

Food Resources

• Food Pantry List- See the following links for Food Pantry resources available to families. English and Spanish

Email: mbaxter@tps501.org
Website: https://shanerela.topekapublicschools.net/
Location: 1600 SW 34th St, Topeka, KS 66611, USA
Phone: (785) 235-7290
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ShanerEarlyLearningAcademy