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please stand. Let's recognize you. That's right, Ms. Bueller, you've got to stand up too because you're part of us. You did stand up. I'm so thankful for the teachers, just their dedication, their heart, their love for the students, putting in the hours of work, listening to me do professional development for the first week. I mean, right there, they deserve a medal. So thank you, teachers. And also, Christy Mort, thank you for running the lights and everything. If it's too bright, let her know. If the reflection is too strong, I know I say that every single time, but it's, you know, I'm a dad, so I do dad jokes all the time. All right, you guys ready to jump into it?
We're ready for a good year. All right, so a handbook. If you want the handbook, you can scan in the code. It's available online as well. Feel free to look at it. If you have any questions, any concerns, you can check that out. If you still have questions, you can give Ms. Sharpe a call or me. You can call me too. We'll help out with that. As you know, at the school, we do have internet access. We have computers and Chromebooks that the students use. We have a high filter on there, so there's no content that can be accessed through our website or our online service. So we're also going to be doing a class teaching the students, like, what does that look like for internet security and safety for chat rooms and online friends? Any of your kids play Fortnite or anything like that, and they're, like, chatting with random people?
How do we know that that's safe? So we're going to give them some guidance on that and just help them out understanding a little bit about that this year as well. Surveys. These are completely anonymous. We have no idea who you are or where or anything. We just know what you say. And if you're concerned, you can always open those up in the private browser and you don't have to do any login or anything. But please, we're going to be trying to send out one survey per quarter. They're going to be relatively fast. The ones at the end of the year are longer because we really want to get some good feedback. But if you can let us know stuff like, hey, what are we doing well? And then what can we do?
We do better. So they're going to be simple, short. If you'll please give us your feedback, the good, the bad, the ugly, and the amazing, we would greatly appreciate it. Because we go over them, we read them, we pray about them. We have meetings like, hey, this seems to be a reoccurring issue that we see throughout multiple comments. How can we address those things? How can we make things better? We really do want to strive to be the best that we can be. So please help us out with that. Cell phones. We have instituted a bell-to-bell, no-cell-phone policy. I am happy to say, it has gone very well. Students are talking in the hallway. They don't have their heads stuck in the locker. So it's really good to see. And it's working out really well. If you need to contact your student, feel free to call the office. Ms. Shirley will call them down. You can speak to them. If they need to call you, all they have to do is ask the teacher to come and call you, and they'll be allowed to do that.
If they happen to leave early as they go through the office, they'll just stop at Ms. Shirley's desk. She'll unlock the phone box, and she'll hand them their phone, and they're free to leave. But we're really excited. We think it's going to be a great step in just helping the students build a good culture, and it'll stop them from taking 40 minutes in the bathrooms. Because what would happen is they would leave class, go to the locker, grab their phone, and head to the bathroom to get all their points. So I think that's going to help us out a lot. A lot less bathroom breaks going on. Junior high and high school discipline policy. We want a reason from Scripture, and the Bible says, So as most of you know, it's in our handbook. We have the infraction policy, and this is the guidelines of that. Tardies, if they're consistently late to class or consistently late to school in the mornings, that will count as one infraction. Stewardship, this means if they grab a chair and throw it across the room, or take their books and throw them on the desk, or break a computer, or some crazy thing like that, that would also be consistently late to class. So if they're considered an infraction now in our handbook we also have the scriptures that we reasoned from in order to reach these conclusions it also deals with their own personal property so one of the things we're working with a junior high is when you go to your lockers don't leave your stuff on the floor you hang it up on the hooks that are being provided you put it in your locker if you leave your stuff and you do not govern your property properly try to say that five times fast then you will receive an infraction now we do have grace and we give them time to learn we like to remind them so it's not an immediate hard-hitting infraction but we do want to make them responsible for the things that God is entrusted to them dress code if there's an issue with dress code typically we give a warning we let me surely know that this is a warning if they do have dress code violation that would count as two infractions and just as a reminder this is junior high and high school not elementary and then there's a behavioral infraction which are which is three infractions so that's disrespect to a teacher disrespect to another student you constantly disobeying. That will give them three infractions. For every five infractions, they'll have a morning work duty. So they'll meet with Coach Katie. Where are you at, Coach Katie? She's probably out front helping out. There she is. She's at the window. They'll meet with Coach Katie in the morning, and they'll do something like maybe sweep and mop the gym. Or one of my things that I enjoy doing is I've written out some guidelines for a two-page essay so they can reason from Scripture as to why they should govern their actions or their mouth better. They always like that one. So we want to be sure to help them there. And if they get 10 infractions, it escalates. They'll have two work duties. Our goal is not to just hand those things out like candy on Halloween, right? Our goal is to help use those in order to motivate the students to govern themselves. And we are going to be including this year as well that if they get zero infractions during the quarter, we're going to get them some. We gave them a homework pass, which was a really good one. So we're excited. It worked out really well last year, and we're looking forward to how it's going to be. working this year.
Our theme this year is stand. So we follow the Destiny Life Church theme, and the theme is stand. It's 1 Corinthians 16, 13, which says, be on your guard, stand firm in the faith, be courageous, and be strong. I got a small teaching I'm going to give you all here, because I like to do that when I have the opportunity, because I want you to know exactly what we're going to be instilling and working with your children in. As we can see, there are four things that Paul tells us here. Be on your guard, stand firm in the faith, be courageous, and be strong. Now, of course, being the nerd that I am, I looked up guard in the Webster's 1828 Dictionary, and it says, to secure against injury, loss, or attack, to protect, to defend, to keep in safety. This is articulating the battle that our children are going to face. Colossians 2.8 talks about the vain philosophies of the world. How are they going to defend themselves? How are they going to defend their mind and what they believe against the attacks that are constantly coming to them? 1 Peter 5.8 says, be sober-minded, be watchful, adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. And Paul, or John, gives us an example, gives us three things in 1 John 2.16. He says, for all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world. And we tend to think of the word lust as a purely fleshly thing, but it means an intense, Webster's 1828 again, means an intense desire to gain something. So what is the lust of? The flesh. It's evil desires, evil passions, wrong emotions, bitterness, wrath. We like feeling like a victim, being offended, angry, or vengeful. So how do we help them? As you know, all of you have met with me on a definition of education, right? We want to help them to control their temper, right? And so this is the thing is, if they're feeling this way, how do we help them govern their emotions so that when they are feeling that way, they don't react in the wrong way, but they react in the manner in which Christ has called them. Number two, he says the lust of the eyes. What is this? It's covetousness. It's covetousness. It's covetousness. It's covetousness. It's envy. It's comparison, judgments, critique, backbiting, slander. We observe, we want, and we're not happy because of what another has. So how do we handle those things when a student is jealous of a grade or something that another student has? How can we help them manage and be aware of the lust of the flesh in their life that's wanting something that doesn't belong to them? It's all about governing their emotion. And then of course, the pride of life, self-aggrandizing, self-promoting, seeking acknowledgement, praise, unhealthy independence, dependence, making your own decisions, thinking you're always right, stubborn, obtuse, hard-headed, obstinate, right? This tears down rather than builds up because it promotes ourselves over others. So how can we establish this idea of we're going to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and we're going to love our neighbor as ourself? These are character issues that we, our teachers here at CCS, are going to be focusing on this year.
So we have to guard our minds. We have to be on guard. We have to be aware that these are the things that brings against us and that our flesh wants. How do we govern those? How do we deal with those? How do we help the students work through those challenges? Number two, he says, stand firm in the faith. Ephesians 6.13, therefore, take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day. And having done all to stand, stand therefore. It's our convictions that hold us, right? It shouldn't be our emotions. It shouldn't be our circumstances. It needs to be who God says God is. We need to know in whom we have believed. Your child needs to know in whom they are believing. They need to understand that God in history past has been faithful, and God in history future will be faithful. It's the idea of providence. That's why history is so amazing. He is faithful to his word, but he is sovereign, and he will do the things according to his plan and his will. Hebrews 10.23 says, let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. Are we teaching our children to be faithful? We teach our students to be faithful through the daily things they walk through in life, that those things don't go the way you planned. Guess what? God is faithful. Be courageous, courageous, bold. And this is the definition I love. It says, hardy to encounter difficulties and dangers, right? Not afraid of challenges.
Numbers 16.14 tells us about Aaron. It's amazing because right before this, the children of Israel had complained against Moses, and the ground opens up and swallows Korah and a bunch of other people. And they're like, oh, my God, I'm going to die. And they're those guys straight into the center of the earth and closes up on them. Well, it says just a few verses later that the people got mad at Moses and Aaron and started complaining against them because of what had happened to Korah. I mean, those Israelites, right? You see yourself in the Israelites? I do lots of times. Well, all of a sudden, God's like, hey, I'm going to wipe them out. And immediately a plague starts. It starts running rampant through the camp. And the Bible says that within a few minutes, 144,000 people had dropped dead. That's a plague, right? Moses looks at Aaron and says, Aaron, you're going to die. You're going to die. You're going to die. You're going to die. And Aaron's like, all right. You know, he runs, he grabs the embers, he sticks it in whatever he was carrying it. I can't remember the term. And he runs. And it says that he ran into the midst of the plague. And it says, and where he stood, the plague stopped. And the Bible says he stood between the living and the dead. Are we teaching our students and children to stand between the living and the dead? They have to be risked. Some places in the world are dangerous, right? Missionaries, we need preachers of the gospel to go into these places that requires courage, requires strength. Be courageous. He stood between the living and the dead. How awesome is that, right? Be strong is this final admonition. This is a strength that's not of ourself. It's an enduring, it's a lasting, it's a long-suffering strength. This strength is what comes directly from the Lord. And Ephesians 6.10 says, finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. It is not a pagan ideology of white knuckles. It is a pagan ideology of white knuckles. No, I'm going to do it because I'm a strong, independent man or woman. This is a, hey, I'm weak. And when I'm weak, God is strong. And all that I am and all that I can do is through the power that he gives me.
This is not something that we do ourselves, but something that flows straight from Jesus. 2 Corinthians 12.19, I'll finish up with this. But he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Man, sometimes it's good for your child to fail a test. It's good for them to have conflict with other students. It's good for them to get their feelings hurt. Why? Because they learn to work through and walk through restoration. They learn how to appeal to higher authority so that higher authority can step in if necessary. Not all pain is bad. We're going to help your children do that this year. And of course, we're going to be communicating very, very clearly with y'all. And we're going to partner with you as much as we can. Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weakness so that Christ's power may rest on me. We're going to teach our students this year to guard their mind, guard their heart, guard their emotions, we're going to teach them to be aware of the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, so they give no foothold to the devil, so they stand firm in their faith. I looked at, I was looking in, I tell this to my son a lot of the times, that in Genesis, when Cain offered the sacrifice, and he got upset because God didn't accept it, he's all angry, and God says, Cain, why is your face so downcast? Like, if you did what was right, would you not be accepted? Like, just do what you're supposed to do, and everything should be all right. And then he says something important. He says, sin lies at your doorstep, and its desire is for you. However, you should rule over it. Are we training our children and students to rule over the sin that is trying to rip them away from the plan that God has for them? We're joining with you to help them recognize and understand what does that look like.
Our theme this year is stand. 1 Corinthians 16, 13, be on your guard, stand firm in the faith, be courageous, be strong, right? Thank you. Thank you for letting us partner with you. Thank you for letting us help you establish that in your child so that when they are grown, they can be in the world and not of the world. Amen? Brian, you want to come on up? Wow, that was awesome. Thank you, Joshua and Mr. Vaughn. Sorry, I felt convicted. I didn't think I was coming to a meeting tonight to get convicted by the Holy Spirit, but thank you for that word. So I'm going to briefly go over some of the projects that we have done this year, then look to the future. To what we are still working on to get completed. So we can go to that next slide.
So some of the projects that we worked on this summer was we replaced the large areas of concrete on either side of the entranceway there at the Blue Star Campus. We trimmed the trees and the brush behind the modular buildings on the west side of our property. I don't know if any of you noticed, but there were a lot of large trees that were starting to hang. Over the buildings. So to protect the buildings and especially the students and the teachers in those buildings, those trees and brush were trimmed. And it also opened up a way for the city to be able to get back behind those buildings to service a large storm sewer drain that runs there. Our sewer line, see it said at that point in time was a challenge, but God has helped us to find a great modular building in fantastic shape. It is here. It is assembled all together. Now we are doing the site work around it. We're probably two to three weeks. If everything continues to go smoothly, about two to three weeks out. We've got about 200, 250 feet of sidewalk to pour so that we have egress from that building into this building so that we meet all fire codes. We are putting a complete fire alarm system in that building. There's going to be a Wi-Fi. There's going to be a Wi-Fi. There's going to be a Wi-Fi. System in that building. There's going to be a phone system. So they'll be completely connected to the, to this building. They're only separated by maybe 80 feet, but they'll be connected in all of those ways. So things are coming together well.
And I think you can see a picture of the building teacher break room, but I heard rumor that Ms. Jimmy is looking to make that a storage room. Sorry, teachers. I guess you don't get to take breaks. No, we, I think, they'll be, once we get them over there, there's a break room in this building. So we, we greatly appreciate the faculty and staff that we have. We're so thankful. We're thankful for all of your guys' patience, the families that have fourth and fifth grade students.
So thankful to our teachers that have, have shifted and made the moves that they needed to make, to make this happen so that we could get fourth and fifth grade over, even though the buildings aren't, and we're doing everything we can to get those ready as soon as possible. We're also doing a new playground where we're going to pour a 30 by 70 feet of concrete, have a little basketball, pickleball, four square area. That'll be right beside the current house. I don't know if you all know it, but Brian is an absolute genius when it comes to this stuff. And none of this would be possible without him and the many, many, many hours he's been pouring in and the forethought he has to do it.
And I think that's what we're going to be doing. And I think that's what we're going to be doing. And I think that's what we're going to be doing. And I think through all the different things. I'm very grateful for you, Brian. Thank you. Okay. So I'm going to hit a lot of different school info. Some of it's going to be lower campus specific, but some of it's going to kind of cover for everybody. So our first thing up is our security information. So we love having visitors on campus, whether it's parents, aunts, uncles, grandparents, youth pastors. But the most important thing is that you check in at the school office. So if you're at the school office, you need to go and check in with Mrs. Putman. If you are at the lower campus, you'll come check in with Ms. Marlena at the front office. We'll give you a badge that lets all of our teachers and everybody around know that you're allowed to be on campus. Otherwise, we'll be stopping you and being like, why are you here? What are you doing? And it's all for the safety of the children. But we do need you to stop in. Even if you come all the time, we need you to stop in and get that visitor's badge. Another big thing is the pickup changes. And so we get it often. It's going to happen where people are going to need to change pickup information at the last minute. Like, hey, I'm not going to be able to pick up my child. I'm going to send their aunt or I'm going to send our neighbor or whoever it is. So if you can make sure that you call the school office to let us know. If it's early in the day, you can usually send an email. That's fine if you send it. But as it gets closer to the end of the day, it definitely needs to be a call. We may not be able to check that email, but we will need the name of the person that's picking them up and then tell them that we're going to need an ID check, most likely, unless we happen to know them also. And I know it's really inconvenient, but we don't know who your neighbor is or who your brother or sister is that's picking them up. And so to keep them safe and we make sure that they're going home with the right person, we will do an ID check. Even parents, Miss Marlena, who's new, as she's getting to know you, she's probably going to ask if you come check your child out early so she can see your ID until she gets to know you. And it's just so that we make sure that your child is safe. So please be ready for that. I know it can be inconvenient at times to have to remember, I need to bring my ID into the campus. But it is really for the safety of the kids on that.
And then also, don't rely on your child to tell us that the plan is changing for pickup. we can't take it from a child we have to have that call from you directly um sometimes if they're telling us multiple times we might call you and say hey they're saying this but if you have not called us and we haven't gotten a hold of you we don't know we have to stick to the initial plan that you kind of agreed to with us um when you enrolled your child so if like especially like bus changes or things like that we can't release them until you have called us um so just making sure everybody's kind of good with that we will do a lot of id check especially at the beginning of the year um if you can just be patient with us on that as we get used to um knowing who everybody is um the next slide is communication um our primary form of communication is email we will email you a lot there will be lots and lots of emails um we do we send them out for lots of things we you get you'll get an email for the warrior news every thursday that will have any kind of information about you and we'll send you an email and we'll send you an email and we'll send out lunch menu spirit weeks we'll send out emails if there's concerns in the class emails if there's super exciting things to share with you emails about upcoming events emails about volunteer opportunities speaking of volunteer opportunities we had a few parents who came and helped this summer last minute i don't know if you guys got my text message last minute but we got everything knocked out in a handful of hours i was super grateful they got their volunteer hours for the year knocked out so we'll send out emails for those um but we also send out emails for those who are going to have a volunteer opportunity soon we'll send out an email for that um but when the building is ready for us to get in and decorate um we will want some help like think of it extreme makeover home edition but it's classroom edition and i've already had a couple moms who've agreed to like help lead the charge but if you're a creative person and you want to help decorate a classroom and help our teachers so they can keep teaching and like they can go into their classroom decorated um reach out to me and we will get you all the information that you have on that list to reach out to but we'll also send an email about that um one other thing you have a calendar attached to your stuff i know you got in a calendar at enrollment things changed there's one day that had to shift we lost easter monday because the state added an extra day that we have to attend school and because it was right after spring break it was the day that made the most sense to remove so we have one extra day of school that wasn't intentional or we didn't actually know about back in february so just so you know um there that is different than the one you received a while back um it is the one you received in july but this one's different than the one you would have received in the spring so if you've already have it on your refrigerator swap it out um okay next is our pickup line so this is like the most uh organized chaos for the whole entire school day um so but i feel like it's going really well considering you know especially on our campus where we added like 40 extra children to our campus so these are the images i know we've emailed them out of what you should do the traffic flow that you should follow um so a few things that you can do to help us make this go very smoothly whether it's junior high or elementary um is to display your card um tag number on the driver's side so that whoever's going out and getting the numbers they're not searching all over the vehicle because everybody has it in a different spot um one of the great things that leilani said um some of you have it in other places that work well too but she said one of the best places is like on the visor so you can just like if you have it on the back side when you flip the visor down she can see it and she can see that really well so if you're trying to figure out where's the best place to put that that's a great place to put it um is on that visor um then um if your child is in a car seat or just needs help buckling up if you'll let them get into the car and then when the line starts to pull off if you'll pull into a parking spot to buckle them up and help them with that um that will help us get the line out faster when parents get out and buckle their children up then we're sitting there waiting on those parents to get done buckling before we can move the line along and so if you if your child needs help just pull forward into a parking spot once the line starts moving again um because it really does slow the line down especially if we have multiples doing that um make sure i get the right um and then we'll get the line down again it's really important that you load on the lower campus from the driver's side if at all possible i understand sometimes there's infants or car seats where it's like they need to be on the driver's side so you need your child to go around the car but if it's possible have them load on the driver's side if not it is very very important that you have them learn to cross in front of your vehicle because if they're not crossing in front of your vehicle and they're behind you you're going to have to get them to go around The person behind you may be focusing, have their foot on their brake, focusing on their child and their foot might slip off the brake because their focus isn't to watch the child walk in front of their car. I'll let you fill in the blanks of what could happen there. So it's very important. If you're going to be picking up your child, you're going to have them cross, have them cross in front of you because your focus will be there. Ideally, you just throw your car in park no matter what. But if you don't, you need to make sure, just in general, make sure they cross in front of you. Teach them that. Most of the kids that were on the campus last year here kind of know that already, but just another reminder and reminding them to do that every single time. With that, there is no walking up to pick up your child because that would make you cross that pickup line. It's a rule that the police had us instill years ago because they don't want you crossing in front of a car for the very same reason. So we cannot have people crossing that pickup line because they don't want you crossing in front of a car for the very same reason. So we cannot have people crossing that pickup line because they don't want you crossing that pickup line. So we will ask you to go get in your car and to pick them up from the pickup line. And then for the overflow, make sure that if there's already a line that you just get into the back of the line, but you're not blocking the entrances, you're not blocking exits, or just the driving lane because there are maintenance trucks and the construction workers and everybody that need to get out and around, so we're not blocking lanes as you're driving.
So we're not blocking lanes as you're driving. have a microwave for your student to heat things up on this campus for the students to use. If your child is late to school, you are going to need to walk them in over here on the lower campus and sign them in. Our doors are locked, and the way that it is, it's hard to see. So if your child is on the shorter end because they're little, then we wouldn't see them necessarily walk up very easily. And so you need to walk your child in and sign them in to school. And then the pickup, once again, if you have a child that needs help buckling, please, please, please pull forward and to a parking spot. And the last thing I need to cover is our testing. So we started Renaissance Star testing last year. We were super impressed with how that went. We tested a few extra times in what we felt like we needed to last year, trying to get used to that. So we're going to start testing that next year. And then we're going to start testing that next year. And then we're going to start testing that next year. And then we're going to start testing that next year. But the tests are anywhere from about 20 to 45 minutes each, depending on the child. And so they do one reading and one math each testing window, and we'll start that in September.
So each one of the students, kindergarten through 11th grade, will do star testing, and I will come around on the lower campus and do that with the classes. Mrs. Gomez will be at the upper campus, and we'll test them. And so we'll get a baseline for this year, and then we'll track them down. And so we'll be able to test them on the lower campus, and then we'll growth. That is super exciting to see the growth and we'll send reports about the growth throughout the year and then with that information we'll be able to start our intervention program shortly after the STAR testing. We had a lot of progress and success with the intervention program last year and we're excited to see that continue to really help our students. So with that I think it might be Katie. Thank you all. Hope everybody is off to a great start to their school year.
I am in charge of hitting some calendar highlights and talking about upper campus. First of all again as Miss Sharpe said if you haven't figured out school is 8 to 3 you can begin dropping off at 745. The doors will not open before 745. I know some of the kids are super excited to get there before that but they will just stand outside whether it's raining or freezing or the weather conditions. They're going to stand outside until 745 and then pick up 3. You have till 315. If it's after 315 they will go to Miss Putman's office and be there late. If they're late please bring them to Mrs. Putman's office to check them in and then we'll send them to their classes from there. We do have microwaves on our campus so you can send microwavable items to us or I highly recommend our hot lunch program by the amazing Amanda Anderson. It is great food and we thank her for all that.
And just a reminder 6 through 12th are picked up or 6 through 8th are picked up from the cafeteria and 9th through 12th are at the high school. Some hit key dates September 7th we all want this one no school okay. October 3rd is the golf tournament our new AD. I'm sure we'll talk a little more about that but it's a great time for us. We're going to have a lot of fun. We're going to have a lot of fun. We're going to have a lot of fun. We're going to have a lot of fun. We're going to have a lot of fun.
We're going to And we went back to a shotgun start so everybody can be together and have a good time. I highly recommend signing up. It's always fun. October 6th our sophomores will be taking the PSAT and then October 7th the juniors will take the PSAT. October 14th is the end of the first quarter and then another break October 15th and 16th. November 23rd through the 27th Thanksgiving break and then And there's December 10th is the first through fifth grade program that evening. December 11th is pre-K and K's Christmas program in the morning. And then Christmas break. We all love Christmas break. Okay. And then we have the calendars that you can, you get your phones out, you can get a shot of them. Oh, no, ACT. Uh, all high school parents, you've already received an email with these dates and I will keep sending them. Every senior is required to take this sometime during their senior year. I've already told the ones, if you're going to college, I would take the September date. If you're not going to college, go ahead and check it off your list early so that, you know, it's one less thing you have to worry about as graduation gets closer.
If you plan to take it in September, the early bird deadline is tonight. So if you haven't, there are plenty of dates. And again, as Ms. Sharp said, watch your email, watch your email, watch your email, because I'll be emailing a lot of those dates out. Um, so just, and it's never too early if you're a freshman and you're like, I'll just see where I'm at. I, it never hurts to just go see what it's like. And then sophomores, juniors, um, you know, just we'll plan. And I've been talking to the juniors a lot about it already as well. So, and then now the Google calendar links, you can get those if you want. And then I'm going to bring Chandler up while you guys take a picture. And he's going to help me do the drawing. He just became a new dad and has the cutest little baby girl, um, the sweetest, and he's actually an alumni from CCS. So, but he's going to help me. We are drawing for three $50 gift cards for either a tuition balance or your lunch balance. So I'm going to have him do it. So it doesn't look like I was biased towards anybody or anything.
So you already told me who to pick. Cottadella. Oh, Lee and Morgan. Hello. My name is Chandler Warren. I, uh, I'm actually a little, an alumni or alumnus of CCS in 2017, which doesn't feel like that long ago until I was on my way here. I saw your son post that he's the class of 2027, which means it has been 10 years since I've been here. Um, so it's been a little while, like Katie said, me and my wife, something I really enjoyed doing through the course of interacting with some other high schools in the area, I became familiar with an AOPA program, which has been really helpful. And I know that if anyone's here here is in aviation, they know what that is. I'm became a little bit jealous. These kids are doing, it's all just hands on activities. They learn about science and they get to do something that is actually plane related. So we'll make airfoils we'll design different types of engines, and then we'll work on some propellers, ideally moving for, uh, trying to get them near planes or in a plane, potentially even in the air by the end of the year. So, um, well during our on Saturdays.
Saturday. Real quickly, for those of you who don't know who I am, I'm Eric Johnson, and I am the Athletic Director slash Director of Development here at CCS. As some of you may know, Coach Katie stepped into a new role this year, and I just want to start off by just saying just that it's an incredible opportunity to take over a program that she's really built up to this point. A lot of people may not know this, but Katie started that role before it was a paid position at CCS. And having been an Athletic Director in the past, volunteers at CCS, all right? And we need them, okay?
All right? We need them. I met with all of our parents for our athletes, student athletes, junior high and high school, and I really challenged each of you last Friday to be all in in building the athletic program that we have. I want to encourage you to do that. Just a couple of things. One, if you've got an email of something really, really positive that you want to share with us, a great idea, whatever, please send those to me. If you have any complaints, Coach Katie will still be taking those, okay? So, no, I'm just kidding. She said enough of that. She's ready to give that up.
But I want to just take a couple of moments and just tell you briefly a little bit about some of the highlights from last year and the way that we kind of ended up. As many of you know, Coach Katie went out on a high note as an AD. She's still coaching, though, but she won her state championship, girls' basketball last year. Our football program won a conference championship, and so they did a great job, had a great season, looking to continue that this year. And our volleyball program for the last four or five years has done an awesome job with that, okay? And so, you know, there's a lot to be excited about with our athletic program, and so we just want to encourage you to just be a part of that.
You can see some of our future games. That we've got coming up, August the 28th, the crossover prep. Our football team kicks off their season. Our first home game will be September the 4th versus Welch at Wright. So our home games this year, our September games, will be at Wright Christian Academy. Our October games will be at Foyle, okay? Now, I do want to tell you there is a possibility of a date being added in September 19th. We had an opponent drop that game on us just a couple of weeks ago. We found a replacement opponent. We're just trying to nail down a location for that game. And so we'll be getting that information out. So just make sure you're paying attention. I'll send out a weekly email about our games and what we've got on the calendar and be sharing that information with you and any updates that come. You can see volleyball kicks off their regular season at NetForce, which is at – that game will be at Claremore Rec Department, Recreation Center there on August the 18th. And then our first home game will be this Thursday night against Wright, which is a rival. So we want to make sure that we get out. And support the girls in that as well. Cross country kicks off their season August the 28th. And then our flag football team for junior high will kick off its season. If you look on this next slide right here, you will see the calendars that we have. So one of the things that we do is we put all of the season games that we have scheduled on the Google calendar. So if you want to know what's going on, if you've got a student playing, or you just want to keep up with the games and when they are, you can download that calendar or access that. Using that QR code. Okay.
Now, real quickly, just before I close, I want to thank some people because the other role that I have at CCS is director of development. Okay. And we had a number of people that we had a luncheon in the spring, and we had several sponsors that we want to recognize tonight that gave significant gifts to the school. That starts with Amelight Testing and Engineering, the Burroughs Agency, Adrian. I want to thank you for your gifts. We will be doing more to recognize them throughout the year, as well as, you know, on our social media and our website and things of that nature. And we'll be sharing with you some opportunities of how some of you may be able to get involved in some of that as well. I really also want to just quickly touch on the OSF, so Opportunity Scholarship Fund. We have 70 students, a little over 70 students, actually, that have received assistance this year from the Opportunity Scholarship Fund. Okay. We know of at least four students that would not have been able to attend CCS this year had it not been for the Opportunity Scholarship Fund. You're going to be hearing more about that. I know that Derek, that was something that he really spoke strongly about and got the information out. But some of you may not know what it is.
And you're going to be getting more information about that as I dive deeper into it. I went to it myself. Got a meeting with Darla Otto, who heads that up for the state of Oklahoma on Monday. And so I'll be learning more about it and be getting that information out to you of ways that you can contribute towards that and receive tax benefits as a part of that. Okay. So just want to thank you to those of you who have given into OSF. I know we've got several of you here in the room tonight that have contributed towards that. Thank you for helping our students this year. Like I said, over 70 students. Received assistance from that scholarship fund. Okay. And then the last thing that I want to just touch on briefly is as it relates to athletics, as far as like what we would do if there is any form of, you know, grievance or concern or anything like that that you may have. Because one of the things about athletics is, you know, it's a competitive environment, right? And sometimes, you know, as coaches, we're ultra competitive. Our players are competitive. And even as parents, to be positive encouragers of our student athletes. I want you to be focused on what they're contributing to the game. I want to challenge you not to fuss at the refs too much. Okay. I know that it's almost like a sports parent tradition in this country to rail on the refs.
But I'm going to tell you, there is no harder job in athletics than being an official. Okay. They don't always get it right. All right. And so. So I want to just encourage you to be patient with them. The other thing is, is if you've got a student that's playing and maybe a concern comes up that you have with a coach, maybe something in a game that happens and you just have a concern. One, I want to just challenge you. Number one, it's actually in our athlete handbook, student athlete handbook for our parents that you give 24 hours before you contact a coach. Do not approach a coach after a game. Okay. I'm begging. I'm telling you what it's like to be a coach. And to know what that's like, especially if you've lost a game and you're already frustrated. Okay. I just want to challenge. Just give it. Be patient. Give grace in that moment. And we do have a process that you can go through to, you know, voice your concern. Number one, we start with the coach. Right. So email the coach. Okay. Email the coach before you approach the coach. Okay. The second thing, if you don't feel like it's resolved through email communication, then schedule a meeting. Okay. Like I said, schedule a meeting. Don't approach coach right after a game. Okay. So schedule a meeting. And then if necessary, if you don't feel like that's being resolved, then you would involve the AD. Okay. And I would sit in that meeting with you. And then if you don't feel like that's resolving the issue, then we'll bring in Mr. Vaughn. Okay. And he will be involved. And then the final escalation, if we had to get there, is if resolution is still not reached, meeting with the principal, the AD, and the CCS board member and parents, may be scheduled. Okay. So we want you to know, like, if there's something that you feel like is unjust or unfair, whatever that you feel like isn't right, you have a grievance process. Okay. We want to make sure that you know that. And we want to challenge you to use that process rather than just approaching a coach right after a game.
Because, you know, in the heat of the moment, sometimes we say things we don't want to say, we do things we don't want to do. We want to make sure that our school represents Christ first in everything that we do. Right. Okay. We're a reflection of that. And I can't tell you, in my 25 years of coaching, how many Christian schools that I've coached at or been at where, I mean, fights have broken out, things like that have happened. You know, we want to make sure we reflect Christ in everything that we do. Okay. And I can tell you, as a coach, there have been times whenever I knew I didn't handle it right. And I went to the player, and I apologized, and I went to the parents, and I apologized. Okay Okay Okay.
I can tell you, we don't get it right all the time. But give grace, and let's make sure that we're on the same team, that we're working together to resolve the conflict. Does that sound good? All right.
Done? Yes. Thank you. I sent an email out about this today, and so I just want to make sure everybody understands it. All CCS students this year get into all of our games for free. Okay. You don't pay for your kid to get into a CCS game as far as home games go. Now, we can't control what other schools do, right? We can't do that. Okay. Okay. All of your home games, your students get in for free this year. Okay? And so we want to encourage you. Get out to the games. Support. You know, some of you may not have a kid that's playing, and you didn't want to go spend a bunch of money to come to a game, but now you've got no excuse to do that, right? I mean, you can get out. And so we want to encourage you to do that. Thank you.
All right. Well, I don't think anybody else took this mic off, but I'm going to because I'm comfortable if I don't. So my name is Jonathan. If I've not had the opportunity to meet you, I've worn a lot of clothes. I've worn a lot of hats in and around CCS.
At this moment, I'm the chairman of the school board, but I'm also one of the pastors at Destiny Life Church. I've been a parent. One of my daughters graduated from CCS, so I've had a lot of years there. In fact, I was just thinking, Katie, I don't know if this was related, okay, but the girls that just won the state championship, I was their first coach in fourth and fifth grade. So I think we've got to move it in the right direction, okay? I'm sure that that was – no, I'm joking. I mean, it's silly. I know that you've had a lot of years there. I've had a lot of information tonight. First, I want to thank you genuinely because without you, there would be no CCS. I mean, the reality of the mission statement of CCS is our desire to partner with you as a parent to really shepherd and equip your child to engage your call with a biblical worldview. That is a huge pillar, if you will, at CCS, is really, as you heard Mr. Vaughn say at the very beginning, really shaping your children to really engage with the mission statement of CCS. That's what I want to do. That's what God has called them to do and who God has called them to be. And so we have a real desire to do that, maybe perspective in that in the sense that one of the tensions that we manage is the fact that CCS is a ministry of Destiny Life Church, and yet our real desire is to partner with what we would call the church in the city. So there's a lot of you that are here that are part of CCS that are not a part of Destiny Life Church, and we celebrate that. We love that because there's one church in our area made up of people that are part of CCS, many different congregations. And so we have a sincere desire to partner with the church in the city. That's why there's a pastoral reference for your student is because we desire to partner with Christian families. And it's not just drop off your kid and forget it is a reality of partnering with Christian families. So we really have a desire to do that. I want to just go over like some broad, as I said, I know you've had a lot of information tonight. I want to try to bring a little bit of context to some things. I have a real desire. Those that have been around me recently know they probably tired to hear me say this. I have a real desire in my own life for clarity, you know, for really communicating effectively and for real clarity. And so there's been a lot of things happening. A lot of school has grown. There's been changes and a lot of really wonderful things happening. And we want to do our very best to communicate those things with you. A lot of those have been mentioned tonight. Brian talking about the portable and various things.
But all of that really is through five areas. Not just trying to grow CCS larger for the sake of growing CCS larger. We really do prayerfully say, Lord, what families have you entrusted to our care as a part of CCS and how can we serve them? And how can we do that at a responsible pace? And so we have a long-term plan here organized around five areas there, as you can read, organizational development, economic sustainability, curriculum expansion, building and grounds, and then student life and extracurriculars. And I won't take a long time to go through each one of those other than to just see that over the last several years in the organizational development, there's a lot that could be said here for that. But even things like the clubs starting, which would be like the extracurricular activities. Katie, who Aaron talked about, starting as the AD for no pay and a volunteer standpoint and seeing the athletics grow in that and shifting into a new role, really, for CCS.
I think that's a big part of what we're trying to do here. and the student services coordinator, again, recognizing that we want to help students, whatever the next phase of their life is, help them do that. Splitting the campuses up and Jimmy really becoming the assistant principal in some of the areas that she was taking care of. Just, she was doing two jobs really last year for a lot of that space.
And Aaron, as you just heard from stepping into the AD, let me pause there and say, let me just give a huge, he told you that he's going to give you more information. Please seek him out. Please seek him out for OSF. If you are paying Oklahoma State taxes as a individual, as a family, or as a business, please give it through OSF. It is a no brainer. You literally are redirecting, you're getting a tax credit, not just a tax deduction, although you get that as well, but a tax credit on your Oklahoma State taxes. It truly is a no brainer and a tremendous blessing to CCS.
So please, area of economic sustainability, as obviously, so we had an adjustment in our tuition here this year. Really grateful for the parental choice tax credit that has helped so many families paid in CCS. It would not have been OSF as Aaron mentioned that as well. The curriculum, as we said, we are distinct. When people ask me about, there's a lot of wonderful Christian schools around. I will ask me about CCS. What is a differentiator for CCS? I really, there's a lot, but one specifically to the teaching and training, would be, you know, to be really a biblical worldview, really training students in a biblical worldview. I've been a part of other churches that had Christian schools that were, you know, godly people. And it was one though, a rock, but basically, you know, added a chapel service onto it and said, okay, it's a Christian school.
But at CCS, we have a completely different model of that, of really reason in every subject, which is a big deal. And of course, buildings and grounds. Let me pause here. I know that there's a, you know, I've heard so many different things about the development of buildings and grounds that I'm, and I'm like in, you know, in the thick of it. I'm like, oh, wow. I didn't know that we were doing that at that pace.
And so I want to clarity to you guys for, especially for you that have been around here for a good period of time. Moving the lower elements last year was, we knew we needed a stepped phase approach. Our last phase, if you will, is, is to have CCS, on this campus, athletic fields, a brand new school building. That is phase, I put a blank what phase that is, but that's our ultimate goal. Okay. The first step in that was really get the whole elementary over here, which we did most of them last year. And then as we got the portable over here, now we'll have the whole elementary on this campus. And so the steps in between the whole elementary being here, CCS being here, we're still walking that out in a phase. We're still walking that out in a phase of the approach so that we can communicate with you, a timeline of what that would be. Here's the reality of it. We don't know exactly what that timeline is. Okay.
But let me let you know a few things that are happening because I don't know that we've ever been able to move with the intentionality that we are in this moment right now. We have a task force at Destiny Life Church of guys that are part of Destiny Life Church that are looking at the development for this campus and our Owasso campus. But we have specifically started with, because of the reality of CCS. I promise you, no one wants to have a brand-new school and a brand-new large gym more than myself and many, many others around. So we are really trying to move towards that in a real phased approach. So the long-term vision is for that to be as we lay those out. We have a task force looking into the development of that, and there's so many different studies and architects and engineers and various into that. Destiny Life Church had to alter our master plan that we made some years when we built this facility and then the highway coming through. So we're in the process of redoing some of that, studying some of those things, which is really leading the way in that. We've got some really solid guys, very knowledgeable people in that task force that are helping us with that. And as soon as we get that laid out, we will communicate to you as parents because we desire for you to partner with us, get involved in that.
So we will communicate that to you as quickly as we possibly. And then lastly on the organizational plan would be the student life and extracurricular activities. New golf team, I believe that we're having. Aviation club, as you heard, and chess team as well. So that's kind of the broad area there. Let me talk just some communication. I'm big on expectations. I personally believe that every offense stems from expectations. And so I try to be very clear on expectations and just kind of let, you know, people know what's, and we, I don't know that we've ever really said this in the area of the governance, if you will, of CCS and what that kind of looks like. We CCS governance.
