January 7, 2022 Dear Cascade Families and Community Members, I hope you had a wonderful Christmas break and are ready for a new year! The students and staff have been excited to see friends and coworkers and are already hard at work. As always, we have much to accomplish and also have several fun activities in store this month.   Each year our fifth graders participate in the long standing tradition of the Charlie Russell Essay Contest. They have been asked to write an essay about the contributions Charlie Russell made towards recording our rich history and ways of life in his art. To add to their research, the fifth graders will be visiting the C.M. Russell Museum to learn more about him and his art. It is always a special time in the year for the kids to show what they have learned.  We will have a Reading Night at the school on January 25th, at 6:00 pm. We would like to have a book exchange to help get books into the hands of our students while at home. Practicing reading is an important part of learning to read. The more someone reads, the more fluent they become, and the more they are able to comprehend while reading. We will have a few areas where kids can listen to read-alouds, share their own reading with friends and families, and there will also be a few prizes to be won. We will send home more details about the event within the next couple of weeks. Next week, the elementary will begin the winter benchmark testing for FastBridge. We will be testing skills in the areas of math and reading. Please make sure your child is getting a good night’s sleep and if they are not eating breakfast at home, please encourage them to take advantage of our free breakfasts provided by our amazing kitchen staff. Research has shown that being rested and starting the day with a nutritious meal helps improve academic performance levels. The data gained from our benchmark testing is used to find the areas our students need additional help and provides the teachers with information used to develop whole class and small group lessons. As always, I would like to thank you for all of your help and support in bringing your child the best possible education. It takes all of us working together to create a nurturing environment for our children. If you have any ideas about possible ways to help involve our students with all of the wonderful things our community has to offer, please feel free to contact myself or your child’s teacher. We look forward to working with you throughout the rest of the school year. Best Regards, Michelle PriceCascade Elementary School Principal (406) 468-9383 ex. 106michelle.price@cascade.k12.mt.us

Beth Morrison with Alliance for Youth presented the harmful effects of vaping to all Middle School and High School students today. She talked about current statistics such as 7% of youth currently smoke cigarettes and 26% of youth currently vape. Smoking one jule a day is the nicotine equivalent of three packs of cigarettes, putting users into the "chain-smoker" category. Long term effects are unknown, using today's youth as guinea pigs. Short term effects include attention deficit, inability to retain information, anxiety, depression, irritability, restlessness, insomnia, breathing, and digestive issues. Students were very attentive and respectful throughout the whole presentation. The staff is very proud of our Badgers!

20-years ago we celebrated the opening of our New Gym when Cascade hosted Simms in basketball.  On Thursday, January 6th we will be celebrating the 20th anniversary as we again host Simms in basketball. Tip-off begins at 3:00 with the JV girls followed by JV boys at 4:30; Varsity girls @ 6; and Varsity boys @ 7:30.  We will also be hosting our Cascade wrestling mixer in the old gym.  Come out and celebrate with us for a night of winter sports.

Dear Families,The Cascade School District is aware of a troubling post that has been shared widely this week on the social media platform TikTok. The post refers to a threat to school safety “for every school in the USA, even elementary,” on Friday, December 17.The post appears to be part of a national TikTok trend and did not originate in our school district. We have heard reports from other districts that the same post is circulating in their schools. While we do not believe the threat to be credible, we are closely monitoring the situation and taking it seriously.Additionally, the district has been in contact with the Cascade County Sheriff's office regarding the post.This situation serves as a good example of why it is important to avoid sharing posts online that refer to school safety threats. Even if they are not credible threats, they can cause a great deal of stress and anxiety for our students, families, and staff. We ask our families to monitor their children’s social media activity and speak with them about proper behavior online. If you or your child become aware of any potential threat posted to social media or anywhere else, please notify a school staff member or trusted adult right away.As always, thank you for your partnership as we work to ensure a safe, secure, and positive learning environment for our students.Sincerely,Rick Miller

Admission will not be charged this weekend for the Basketball games held in Cascade on Friday and in Sunburst on Saturday.  Instead of charging admission, we will be accepting donations.  100% of the proceeds will going toward helping support the victims from the recent fires.

Our annual Elementary Christmas Program is Thursday, December 16th, at 7 pm. It will be followed by our pie social :-)  It involves all students in grades K-5.For more information: https://www.cascade.k12.mt.us/District/Department/7-Band/2720-Elementary-Christmas-Program.html

Our annual Christmas Concert for grades 6012 is Monday, December 13th, at 7 pm.We will have prelude music (and more) provided by some of our Tuba Christmas players.More info can be found here: https://www.cascade.k12.mt.us/District/Department/7-Band/2721-Christmas-Concert.html

 Elementary Dress-Up Days Monday, Dec. 13--Baby, It's Cold OutsideWear a winter hat or Christmas hat Tuesday, Dec. 14--Colors of the SeasonWear your favorite Christmas color or Christmas shirt Wednesday, Dec. 15--Silent NightWear school appropriate PJs. Make sure to bring snow gear/shoes for outside. Thursday, Dec. 16--Ugly Sweater Wear an ugly Christmas Sweater (keep in mind the Christmas program at 7:00 pm)

Please remember school dress code is still in effect and students must be appropriately covered. This is for Junior High and High School Students only. Elementary will have their own dress up days.

Hello!If you attend the monthly board meetings, you may have heard terms such as Fastbridge, Progress Monitoring, and Benchmark Testing. Here is an explanation of what those terms are and why they are important. Benchmark testing is like a checkup on how students are doing. We administer these tests three times a year. The fall benchmark test gives us an idea of where our students are at the beginning of the year. If a whole class is below the target score, we modify our whole group lesson to put them on track to catch up. If individual students are below the target, we come up with an intervention plan to close the gap while they continue working on grade level assignments. These students need on-grade-level assignments plus more instruction to get back on track. We also look at our students that test way above the target score. Are we challenging them? Are we meeting their needs? Every child deserves to have a year's worth of academic growth. These benchmark assessments help us determine if we are on the right path. Our Winter Benchmark assessment helps us measure student growth from the beginning of the year. We look at grade levels and individual students and come up with plans to ensure these students are getting what they need. The Spring Assessment helps us measure growth and plan for the next year. What classes do we need to help our students? Are students prepared for dual credit classes where they take college classes online and earn college credit while they are a high school student?If Benchmarking is like an annual checkup with your doctor, progress monitoring like checking your weight or blood pressure on a regular basis to stay on track. We only progress monitor when we are concerned students are not showing the growth we expect on their benchmark assessments. These are the students we are also giving extra lessons to through interventions. We have to have a way to see if the interventions are working. Progress monitoring allows us to spot trends a lot easier through more frequent data collection. Students are progress monitored weekly or biweekly. If the data is improving, we know the intervention is working and we stay the course. If the data is declining, we change the intervention.Fastbridge is the company we use to administer these assessments. We used to use MAPS. We changed because MAPS would take a minimum of six days worth of instruction over the year to administer. Fastbridge takes about 6 hours of instruction from the whole year to administer. We currently give the Math, Reading, and FASTReading assessments to students. We may give a behavior screener in the future to help us with the behavioral component of the Multi-Tiered System of Supports which says we will help every individual student grow academically and behaviorally while they are in school here. The tests are adaptive and pick up where the students left off from the last assessment. Adaptive tests mean the questions will get easier or harder depending on how students answer questions. This helps us determine if students are below proficient, proficient, or advanced for their grade level.