Welcome to the Castle Connection.
It is summer.
It is July 1, 2026.
I am Jared Claiborne, your building principal, and I am thrilled that you are watching this today.
So we are in full summer mode, and I hope
that you've had a wonderful and restful start with those magical
first two weeks or last two weeks of June.
They're like a gift as we get started in the summer.
So a few announcements as we get going.
First of all, summer hours of the office hours, beginning
this week, 7 to 3 p.m., 7 a.m.
to 3 p.m., Monday through Thursday, the
district does close offices on Friday.
So if you need us in person, you can reach us there.
Of course, we do have email.
Now, a reminder, any teachers or counselors, they are
only 10 month employees, so they might not be able to get back to you right
away, but, of course, our main office staff,
the administration, or here, and then we are also offering our
normal summer program of ESY, and our summer credit completions.
It reminds me behind the scenes with Mr. K right now, as
our summer students, helping us film this, so shout out to them.
Thank you for doing that.
Couple other things, athletics.
There are much athletic activities going on right now in the summertime.
sure you're staying connected.
First off, if you plan to participate
in a activity, next year, you need to make sure you complete
the annual activity registration.
I'll make sure you have a link for that.
Coaches are communicating via teams, different
events and activities that they're doing, workouts over the summertime.
We are closely monitoring them, though, during the heat, right?
So right now, we do have a heat advisory, and we're following NJSIA guidelines.
But please make sure your student is hydrated
before they come, and that they are also eating.
It is all too often that students are coming up here for a workout without
not being properly, have fed themselves.
So make sure they're eating something both before and after.
If you are on campus, we do have some construction progress
that are going on, some of the projects are normal
things that we do annually, as far as cleanup and maintenance, but
we do have some things, the main one is the HVAC
in the media center is being replaced.
That is, a ceiling unit, so it requires us to shut down that kind of area of the school.
They're going to pull that unit out of the ceiling, and it
gets put onto the roof so it's much more easily maintained.
That is happening.
We do have some flooring jobs that are doing.
And then, of course, we are going to expand and have our
first five classrooms that are going to be the new furniture.
The pro social learning furniture is going to go into five
classrooms over this summer, special thanks to the board for
their commitment, to changing just
the seating of how we learn, which is a big deal.
Some goals for this school year include
our efforts in reading.
So remember, we are going to read together for two reasons.
Number one, is we're doing it together.
Every student that reads a book that may have not read a book over the summer is a win.
Every time a student and a teacher has a conversation, surrounding a book, it's gonna be a win.
Every time families are having conversations regarding
a reading that they're doing, that's a win.
So that's our first goal.
We are reading together, united as a school community, all
staff and students are reading it, encourage you to go to your local library,
and check out a copy, and our second thing is our theme.
Our theme, the school year, is going to be choices matter.
And so we've selected this book, the other West Moore,
as the book that we're using as this one book, one school.
So all students were given this book, even our eighth graders got it.
If you missed it, and didn't get your copy, you can come up to
the school during our office hours, and we'll give you a copy of it, we're going to start reading now.
So I'm gonna send out a message to get everybody encouraged.
Let's time to pick this up.
Our first challenge, as we start our reading, is,
where are your favorite reading locations?
Or if you're going on a trip, where are you taking your book?
Remember the old flat Stanley?
Flat Stanley took a picture of all the places that he was.
I wanted you to take a picture of the places you go and our reading.
You could submit those pictures to our Believe in You, Instagram.
That's the Sterling High School BIU Instagram,
and share with them, so we can see the fun places that
you are reading this book.
If you need access to the book if you're a parent or guardian,
If you can go to your Canney County Library.
Remember, your student gets a free library
card as residence of most of our schools,
but also just showing their student ID, you can get a free library card at Camden County Library.
Other reminders of the school calendar, I'll make sure I send that out in the email.
Our first day of school is going to be Wednesday, September 2nd.
We start two days before Memorial Day, Wednesday, and Thursday, the 2nd and 3rd of September.
And then mark your calendars for back to school night, it's
gonna be Tuesday, September 15th.
We want to make sure everybody's attending that.
We annually, at the end of that evening, also do our annual grants
information meeting on the ESEA grant, Title
one, two, three grants, and the IDEA grant, we give information on those things.
Those are our items as we launch the summer.
We're eager to see you, if you come up to Kansas, to campus, to work out, or get information.
Please don't hesitate to say hello.
If you have questions.
Remember to reach out.
And then finally, there is going to be annual
en course registration, will happen again this year.
You'll get more information about that later in the summer, and I'll make sure you are reminded.
Until then, I hope you are enjoying a restful
and safe summer, stay out of the heat.
Enjoy America's 250th and a great Fourth of July.
Go nights.