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. 

December 5, 2021Dear Cascade Families and Community Members,I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and are ready for the Christmas holiday season! The month of November was full of thankfulness and togetherness in the elementary. The Early Kindergarten and Fourth Grade students worked together to create beautiful turkeys from pine cones. The Kindergarten and Second Grade students celebrated our veterans by collaborating on a craft project. The First Grade students spent time throughout their harvest unit focusing on all they have to be thankful for. The Third Grade class made “stone soup” and performed multiple versions of the story for their classmates and guests. The Sixth Grade students cooperated in small groups and created dioramas representing the Cinderella story from multiple cultures. It has been an active month with lots of learning and socialization. I cannot wait to see what December has in store!There are many holiday events quickly approaching, and our biggest treat this holiday season is our annual Christmas program and pie social scheduled for December 16th at 7:00pm in the north gym.  Mr. Skogley has prepared another amazing program for our students and community which I am sure will delight us all. We will be bringing back our traditional pie social as a fundraiser for our music department, so don’t forget to leave time to socialize immediately following the program. As always, there will be an assortment of pies to purchase either by the slice or in whole.  Santa has also planned a special visit for our young students, so bring your little ones so they can sit on Santa’s lap, get a treat, and let him know all about their holiday wishes.  If you would like to donate a pie, please contact Melody Skogley. The elementary will also have the Candy Cane Fun Run on the morning of December 16th. For those that are new to the community, the Fun Run is held on the last day before Christmas break. The students will have the chance to run (or walk) around the perimeter of the school as a grade level. When finished, all of the students will go back to their classes to enjoy a short movie, hot chocolate, and candy canes. There will also be prizes provided by our PTA for the fastest boy and girl in each class. Please feel free to come by and cheer on our Badgers and help them celebrate an amazing first semester. I wish all of you a happy and healthy holiday season surrounded by your loved ones.  I hope your Christmas break is fun and relaxing.  Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!         Michelle PriceCascade Elementary School Principal (406) 468-9383 ex. 106 michelle.price@cascade.k12.mt.us 

Dear Cascade Family,The year is almost over and we have enjoyed an amazing fall! I’m excited for the winter sports season to begin and after school concerts and family activities that come with the holiday season. Our students are so amazing and they are led by the best teachers and coaches in the state. I’m looking forward to cheering them on as they showcase their talents. We have concerts scheduled for the 13th and 16th of December and a host of basketball and wrestling events, so be sure to check the website often to stay informed on the many ways to support our students.This is the season to be charitable and we have 24 students in need of some community love this season. We also have 8 families that would appreciate help with a tank of gasoline. Please email me at nichole.pieper@cascade.k12.mt.us and let me know the number of the student you would like to sponsor. More information can be found on our website under News. Gifts can be dropped off, wrapped or unwrapped, with Tina in the front office.Remember the 1st Semester and 2nd Quarter ends on January 6th instead of the last day of school in December. Help your child stay current on assignments so they can enjoy their break without having to worry about completing missing work. As always, we offer help after school until 5:00 PM and on Friday mornings from 9:00-12:00 noon. Best Wishes,Nichole Pieper7-12 Principal

To celebrate our elementary school's National Blue Ribbon School Award, we would like to invite you to a community pizza dinner in honor of our teachers, staff, and students. The dinner will be held on Tuesday, November 30th from 5:30 pm - 6:30 pm in the old gym. XCell will provide the dinner along with a family engagement activity. We will also have cookies and coffee available for those who just wish to socialize. Thank you for all of your support for our school over the years. We hope to see you at the event!

On Friday, November 19th, the High School participated in a MORP dance. It was a neon theme with blacklights everywhere. These kids put a lot of TickTok videos to shame with their amazing line dances. Tina Mann was the main organizer. Chaperones included Amanda Brown, Kelly Rumney, John Rumney, and Nichole Pieper. 

A big shout out to our Cascade FFA teams for their performance at the FFA AgExpo in Bozeman.  Our two Ag Issues teams placed 1st and 2nd.  Alaina Barger, Sydney Guiterrez, Braedyn Johnson, Danny Le, Victoria Kirby, and Kayleen McKamey placed first.  Skye Smith and Cassidy Sewak placed 5th and 7th respectively, in soils, out of 79 contestants.  The entire FFA team has been coming in BEFORE school to practice and it has paid off.  Congratulations Badger FFA!!

If your child is missing something, please look at the attached images.  We will hold on to items for a week and then they are donated to the Goodwill.  If you see something that belongs to you please email sonja.mazaira@cascade.k12.mt.us to arrange a time to come pick it up.

Just a reminder, Lifetouch Retake Picture Day is Tuesday, November 9, 2021 at 8:00 AM in the commons.  If your student has already had pictures taken on the original picture day, and would like to retake them, please make sure that they bring their picture packet with them to turn into the photographer.  If your student was absent on the original picture day, a picture order form for retake day will be sent home with your student.  Please contact Tracy Taft at 406-468-9383, Ext #108 if you have any questions.

Cascade Schools will be honoring all US Military Veterans and celebrating Veterans Day on Thursday, November 11th at 9 am in the new gym. Please join Cascade Public Schools for our annual Veterans Day Celebration.Please use the north entrance to the school and make sure and leave time for cake and coffee immediately following the program.