AXIS Orientation Video Series: PreK Basics AXIS Orientation Series: Prekindergarten Basics An overview of PreK orientation items for new families. Show Transcript hello everyone welcome to the pre kindergarten Basics orientation video for the 2526 school year at axis International Academy in this video presentation we will cover a welcome to pre-k the kangaroo Time app student arrival and check-in student attendance the school health office tuition and payment what to bring to school each day communication with the school and before and after care welcome to pre kindergarten at axis this year we'll see a new structure for our Pre-K families can expect the following next stage classrooms of mainly 4 year olds with some 3 year 1 hour of Daily Language instruction with partner language teachers 1 classroom for the full day of pre-K students will no longer transition halfway through in the day between classrooms 3 Daly recesses for a total of 60 Minutes of outdoor time coordinated delivery of core knowledge and Singapore Math curriculum teachers will share the specifics of their daily schedules such as Circle time snack time and nap time during our sweet start to school social on 7th if you are unable to attend that event teachers will put a schedule into a folder that you will receive on the first day of school this orientation video is designed to give you a basic overview of topics specific to our pre case students we'd also like to take this time to introduce our director team for this year our directors for pre-k this year are Miss Chen Hong who has been with access since 2021 and that is her email see Hong and access colorado.org and Miss Dana Kay Hall who has been with access since 2023 and her email is there d Ray Hall at access colorado.org both of our preschool directors are happy to help our families over the can you will see them around a lot especially in those first days of school and they're always available to you so please feel free to reach out with any questions or concerns so we're going to start with the knot about kangaroo time kangaroo time is our software and app for preschool check-in and checkout enrollment paperwork and tuition and billing Guardians must have Katie knecht the kangaroo time mobile app installed on their phones to facilitate easy drop off and pick up the Katie Connect app is also available for other caregivers who will be picking students up or dropping them off frequently these caregivers must be added to your family profile using your own kangaroo Time app they are matched to your family by their email address or phone number caregivers who are not able to download the app can also have a 4 digit PIN set up by Guardians so that they can easily check students in and out on tablet kiosks during pickup and drop off uh So Below you see a URL um there are multiple versions of kangaroo time apps just to make it nice and confusing um and so we put the correct app download at this URL this URL is also available on the Pre-K QuickStart website um but if you go to this place and you download the kangaroo Time app the Katie Connect app from this URL you will have the correct version so Pre-K arrival in the morning we ask that families arrive on time by 8:00 a.m. as a courtesy to our teaching staff and other students any family arriving after 8 a.m. will need to check in through the main office test parents will need to check students in Daily upon arrival using the Katie Connect app from kangaroo time at axis we do ask parents to say their goodbyes to students at the door this includes Pre-K students the first week of school parents are very welcome to walk their students to the door um after that point we have to say goodbye at the door we have 300 a little over 300 students coming into our building daily and so um having parents come into the building just is not a viable or safe option so we ask that you say your goodbyes at the door and this can be a little difficult for younger students during this first couple weeks um after that first week that you've walked them it can be a little difficult but it actually um in our experience goes much better once you sort of make the initial break for more information on drop off traffic pattern and the preschool student entrance please do make sure you watch the orientation series video on P and drop off that's very important because we're not covering any of those specifics in this video prek attendance attendance for pre-k is not mandatory that said families are required to report preschool or Pre-K absences through the access absence form this is in place for student safety to make sure that you know where your student is and we know where your student is a link to the absence form is on our main page and it's on the Pre-K quick start web page this is a change from last year last year parents were reporting absences in kangaroo time this year it's easier if everybody uses the same absence form Pre-K all the through fifth grade uh using multiple multiple systems is a really a drain on our uh front office staff so we're moving to everyone using the official absence form the absence form also helps us to track um illnesses it will ask some questions if your student is ill and so that will help us um prevent the spread of communicable illness and it helps um our health office just keep a better track of that so daily email and text notifications are sent out if a student is marked absent by their teacher but have no absence form turned in if you're going on vacation or know your students going to be out for any reason especially in pre-k where there are no such things as excused or unexcused absences please feel fill out the form ahead of time you can fill out the form uh for future dates so that makes it very simple please discuss any extended absences with your students teachers so 3 consecutive days are longer Mo mostly so they can just plan and be aware that way they're not wondering where your student is and if they've planned for group work they can plan accordingly Universal preschool Colorado upk is starting to track attendance as part of their program so if your student is receiving upk fun funding this is just something to be aware of upk requires that after 3 weeks of unexplained absences students be disenrolled from their preschool program so if your student is receiving upk this year and you do not attend uh access for 3 weeks we do have to report that to upk and move to disenroll you it doesn't mean you can't come back as long as there's an open seat but this is something to just be aware of so checking in and out during the day again if your student arrives after 8:00 a.m. you will need to walk them to the school building and check in at our main office desk and you will need to do your kangaroo time check-in and also the front office will just need to take them to their class if you need to pick up your student during the school day we recommend calling or emailing our front office ahead of time so you can do that at info at access colorado.org or you can call the school's Main Line this helps our front office staff and classroom teachers have your student ready to go especially if you have something like an appointment that just helps everything go smoothly if you let us know beforehand accepting cases of a medical appointment our office staff cannot accommodate early student pickup between 2:45 p.m. and 3 p.m. so if you have something going on your student needs to leave early you need to either plan to pick up your student before 2:45 p.m. or wait and pick them up during the normal pickup traffic flow partial day absences for medical until like therapeutic appointments don't require a signed doctor's note for pre-k this is slide left over from another presentation please ignore that so absences due to illness um so this is important as um we will have kind of from start of school season right into winter uh if you're wondering if your child is too sick to attend school access follows the how sick is too sick guidelines from the Colorado Department help um those guidelines are linked on our website and on the QuickStart web page so you can take a look students must stay home if they have a fever over 101 degrees diarrhea or vomiting if they go to the health office during the day and present any of those symptoms they will be sent home and students who are sent home by the school health office may not return to school until they are fever vomit or Diary of free for 24 hours this is the again help stop the spread of communicable illness especially among the little ones when in doubt please feel free to contact Miss Jessie Boyd our health assistant Miss Jesse is our new health Tech or health assistant she works under our nurse delegator to provide care to assess students Miss Jesse is on-site from Monday to Friday at axis working with students and Families so what can you do to help Miss Jesse out well first of all keep your health forms up to ate all of you should have filled out by now the student health entrance form we also asked Pre-K families to turn in the General Health appraisal and vaccination records so please let the school know if there are any changes in diagnoses medications or any other important health information throughout the year so you filled out the form once but things can change really quickly with children so please make sure you keep all your forms up to date or that you reach out to miss Jesse if something changes this helps her keep your students safe and healthy disclose any medications that come to school please contact the front office or Miss Jessie if your student will be bringing any medication to school that is any medication so not just prescription drugs students may not bring over the counter meds um in some cases we can apply eczema cream or if there are cough drops or something you want to send with your student those have to go through the front office um students cannot bring those things in their backpack specifically at the Pre-K and preschool level but really not ever um and Miss Jesse just asked that you practice uh proactive communication with her and she will with you as well so she'll alert you to student illnesses or any health office visits you know for bumps gra scrapes bruises anything like that either via phone or email so watch for those Communications to come through to you moving on to tuition and payment so access those preschool is a tuition-based preschool um so what is covered by tuition monthly tuition covers care for scheduled school days from 8 a.m. to 3 pm and all school supplies so there are days where on break those days are are preschool does not operate since spring break winter break and on those days um students stay home we're not operating preschool so your tuition is just covering scheduled school days again from the 8 mm to 3 pm school day it's also covering all school supplies so you really don't need to worry about sending your student to school supplies but we'll talk about that in a few slides when and how do parents pay Guardians pay all families must pay their bills through kangaroo times King Katy Connect Mobile app we can not accept cash payments in our front office we just don't have the ability to do that we don't have a cash box and we don't have a way to enter it into our system so please you must pay through the mobile app monthly tuition is built a week prior to the due date tuition is always due on the 1st of the month for the month that's coming August tuition is the exception so always has an exception August tuition is going to be due on August 8th this year so put that in your calendars we'll send lots of reminders um and by then fingers crossed we will have all the upk rates so we can build everyone correctly uh if not we can we will delay the billing cycle but hope we're on track for the 8th Universal preschool Colorado or upk students who will be 4 years old by October first are eligible for upk funding all families are guaranteed to be funded at least at least at the 15-hour per week level some families will qualify for 30 hours per week based on some other criteria if you have questions about upk please contact 1 of our preschool directors and they can help guide you all right so more about tuition and payment so there are there is a late fee so if you um do not pay your tuition by the first you will incur a 5 Dollar late fee if you need help with payment or need just general help with your bill please contact our business manager Ashley buyers a buyers at access colorado.org and she can help you um especially if you know a payment is going to be late or if there's any issue with your Bank please just let her know ahead of time and she can um just proactively work to help you with anything you're wondering about annual versus monthly tuition so access charges and annual tuition of 12,500 for our pre peaceful this is split into 10 equal monthly payments of 1,250 and those months are August through May the monthly tuition Remains the Same regardless of how many days of school break fall within the month so for example August in December our months were um there's up to 2 weeks where we don't hold School the tuition Remains the Same for those months so just want to make that um clear to everyone so over here there's a little exclamation point some are at access are summer Pre-K Kinder program requires a separate enrollment so that runs from June through um usually the last week of July first week of August but it requires a separate enrollment which happens in January and it's built on a weekly cycle so it's really outside of this tuition structure if you feel like you need help under understanding how much your family will pay if you have an outside scholarship or you're not exactly understanding how DK will be applied or maybe you have a sibling discount um if you need help sort of looking at all those things starting August 1st you can request a tuition worksheet by emailing info at axis.org and um our office will put together a um spreadsheet that will show you exactly line by line how much down to the scent you can expect to pay per month in tuition so now what should your student bring to school each day so at axis every Pre-K student should come to school with the following items so students should have a personal backpack um and that backpack there's some backpacks that are so add adorable and sweet but backpacks should be big enough to hold an 11 by 8 and 1/2 inch folder uh because your students will bring home work and projects so please make sure that the backpack is big enough to you know hold um a business letter size folder students should also bring a water bottle labeled with their name each day they should also bring a full change of uniform clothing in a sealable bag so that would be a top bottom underwear socks and shoes um they don't have to be really big shoes just closed toed shoes um but often when students have an accident or sometimes they fall in the snow shoes get wet too so that's why we include those uh if you do not order school lunch you do need to send your student with a lunch in a lunch box nap time gear Fridays remember that a blanket stuffy and pillow anything your student brings for nap time needs to fit into a cubby so sending them with a like full-size bed roll that can be really difficult to store during weeks so please just be mindful of that uh do not send anything that will ruin your weekend or your night if it doesn't come home that's just a general rule of thumb and a tip from other parents to you um the other thing that is not listed in this list is 2 daily snacks for your student um an AM snack and PM snack please make sure you send those there will be a note about that in your folder that you get at the sweet start to school social but pack snacks we also recommend labeling everything with your students names that's clothing water bottle backpack back um also even their snacks sometimes will have 2 kids bring the same snack and to avoid tears it's better if you label the snack with your child's name communicate so this is communication from school to family so how will the school communicate with you so the first thing we want to point out is Infinite Campus our official system of record is Infinite Campus even though you're all using kangaroo time um infinite campuses what we report to the state um this is how we communicate with parents also in case of an emergency so that is the system that sends out text messages and emails and an autodialer families are responsible for keeping contact information and Infinite Campus up-to-date so that we can reach you um if you ever can't get in there or need help you can always contact the main office uh and I'll give the email on the next slide but do make sure you're um records are up to date so if your phone number changes your email changes please let us know uh other things you will receive communication with our newsletters so there's a Weekly schoolwide Newsletter that is email and text it out each Friday also you will receive a newsletter weekly from your students classroom teacher social media so General announcements and updates on events can be found on Facebook and Instagram if you want to follow us there um also lots of sweet pictures of our students doing many interesting things uh kangaroo time we have the messages deactivated that is not a medium that we send messages through uh we don't use messaging during the day because our teachers need to have their full attention on their students in their class so there's no messaging back and forth with the teacher so if you have a question for your students classroom teacher you can email them um but messaging through an app is not something we encourage in our Pre-K uh this year Pre-K teachers will be using an app another app called seesaw so that sends pictures and it also sends learning updates and it will sort of map where your students are in their curriculum so it's very cool and that's 1 that people really love and those are used to push out uh what your students are doing in their classrooms so the last communication from school to family are coffee talks so you can join this Jenny and the administrative team monthly to chat and share any questions or concerns um they usually hold those right after drop off each month will feature different presentations so Behavior policies facilities volunteer opportunities Etc it's a great way just to kind of get to know um the team at access but also get to know other parents communication family to school so how do you get a hold of us so please when in doubt email us like I said email your students teacher um if you have a question that's not urgent if you don't know where your question goes you know it's not a classroom question where you're not sure who to ask about it um info at access colorado.org does it all um our main office staff monitor that email and they route questions where they're appropriate so always feel free to start if you have something urgent or time-sensitive please call the school on the main line at 970-658-4199 is really important that you do that um if it's time sensitive we try to always dance with phones sometimes we are on another line with somebody else so please leave a voicemail we do check those and we will get back to you something not going so well please tell us we want to know if things are not going well for you in preschool or something is not working we really can't help if we don't know so please don't be afraid to speak up we are responsive and family LED um is something going very well give a shout out uh The Weekly schoolwide Newsletter will feature a link to our Act staff shout out form this is where you can leave glowing reviews and positive notes for a staff and faculty it really means a lot to them so either way stay in touch alphabest alphabest now runs the before and after CARE program at axis both programs are offered on-site families must register for alphabest separately from access there is an annual registration fee per family please visit access.org alphabest for registration info alphabest offers care during most access school breaks these may or may not be on site and access depending how many students sign up but that is a big difference in our model this year previously when we were closed for spring break for instance um or Thanksgiving break there was just no care available now alphabest will be offering care for a cost um but it is an option for our families um another thing to note is that alphabest will be present at Sweet start start to school social on August 7th so you can stop and do registration at that time um or you can do it online beforehand but you can meet them meet the site director and sort of get to know them and their program all right this is our last slide so the last uh piece of information here is about access enriched access enrich our Afterschool classes offered through vetted Community partner organizations so these activ ities are fee-based they do run after school and not all of them are offered for pre-k or preschool students the classes that are offered that include Pre-K usually are only for pre-k or for pre-k Kinder so you don't have to worry about your being with much older students they'll be with students really their own age uh but they're yoga classes dance classes um soccer art many things uh Taekwondo Lego robotics and Science Matters tend to K through 5 I've um but the others do offer preschool programs also amazing athletes which is a great um physical education program they offer a truly excellent access enriched for the pre school students so there are 3 sessions throughout the year of access enriched um they line up they're more or less with our trimesters so students can try different things throughout the week if you have an access enriched class after school you don't also have to pay for after care on that day so that's also something for families to consider even though these activities are fee based often um they're not terribly different from doing after care on same day and these classes for pre-k typically run until about 4:15 so if you're able to come pick your child up by then you don't also need to pay for after care alright that concludes this short video which didn't turn out to be that short but thank you for watching please contact us by email or phone if you have any questions
