Kahoa Elementary is located at 7700 Leighton Ave, Lincoln, Nebraska 68507 [map]. Our main office phone number is 402-436-1147.
Student Handbooks
All parents and guardians must read the LPS and Kahoa Important Information Booklets. These booklets will help you understand the procedures and guidelines at Kahoa for a better learning environment for your student. All handbooks can be accessed electronically with limited hard copies available for those without electronic access. There are three handbooks that all families should make themselves familiar with as each contains different information. The Important Information Handbook provides information that applies to all students and families of Lincoln Public Schools. The Elementary Common Practices Handbook provides information that applies to all elementary school students and families of Lincoln Public Schools. The Kahoa Student and Parent Handbook provides information that applies to students and families of Kahoa Elementary. You can access all three handbooks by going to www.lps.org and clicking on the “Important Information Booklet” link in the upper left-hand column, or at the “Handbook” link on the Kahoa home page in the upper right-hand column. All handbooks should be updated by the end of July.
Multi-Tiered Systems of Support for Behavior
Multi-Tiered Systems of Support for Behavior (MTSS-B) is a system of school wide, classroom management and individual supports that provide simple but effective strategies to support student social-emotional outcomes. This approach offers support for all students in the school, some students that have additional behavioral needs, and few students who need the most intensive support. This framework provides intervention strategies based on over 30 years of research in school discipline from the education, public health, and psychology fields. The research supports a variety of components within the MTSS-B framework.
- Consistent and well defined school-wide expectations. At Kahoa we focus on the following school-wide expectations: Be Safe, Be Respectful, Be Responsible & Be Ready. We teach common, school wide expectations for learning and behavior. This will ensure your child and our staff have consistent expectations across our school and that all the adult learners can recognize and support positive behaviors. It also helps teach students appropriate expectations that will support our school community to be most conducive to learning. Please see our building expectation matrix here. (add a link to the pdf of the matrix)
- School-Wide acknowledgement program. We expect our positive and supportive learning climate to be one of many more celebrations and successes rather than misbehavior. We believe in a positive school climate and will work hard to reinforce and recognize students who display good learning skills and interactions with others.
- Students are acknowledged for meeting our school-wide expectations throughout the building by earning stars and credits for positive behavior. They are then recognized by their teacher when they reach a certain number of stars and credits. Student’s names are shared during morning announcements and they also get to come to the office to be recognized with a card that will be displayed in the hallway. Each time they are recognized for reaching a new level they will add a sticker to their card.
- Kahoa also recognizes one Student of the Month per grade level during lunch on PLC days. Grade level teachers collaborate to determine which student best demonstrated the character trait that was the focus for the month. Specialists (PE, Music, Art, Computer, Library) also recognize one student per month. These student’s pictures are displayed in the hallway during the month they are being recognized.
- Continuum of consequences. If a student is disrupting the learning environment an adult may ask the child to move away from the learning. Depending on the level of disruption this may be to another space within the classroom, a neighboring classroom or a call for additional support from the office. Our goal is to always return the student back to the learning environment when they are no longer experiencing an overwhelming feeling.
- Family Involvement. We always want to involve parents in their child’s education. There are many ways you can get involved. Options include volunteering in the building, becoming a member of the PTO, participating in parent teacher conferences, having lunch with your child and participating in family events at school. We also will partner with parents if a child is having a difficult time consistently meeting the school-wide expectations.
- Systematic approach to teaching expectations. We spend time teaching and reviewing school-wide expectations at the beginning of the school year. We also have a schedule where we review and reinforce expectations throughout the school year. Every morning during morning announcements we also review our expectations and have a mini lesson that pairs with one of them.
- Efficient data collection process. We have a system that tracks each student that moves through our acknowledgment program so that we can ensure all students are being recognized for their positive behavior. This process also collects data on the number of movements individual students experience in and outside of the classroom for disrupting the learning environment. This information helps us determine additional supports a student may need to be successful in the classroom.
Multi-Tiered Systems of Support for Academics
Multi-Tiered Systems of Support for Academics (MTSS-A) is a system of school wide, classroom and individual supports that provide simple but effective strategies to support student academic outcomes.
At the beginning of the school year we screen all students who did not meet grade level expectations the previous school year in the area of reading. Students who are in need of additional support will be provided small group instruction in addition to the instruction they receive in the classroom by one of our academic interventionists. Parents will be notified if additional support is needed. Progress will be monitored weekly and shared with parents at the end of the intervention which lasts 8-10 weeks. At the end of the intervention if students have made adequate progress they will discontinue the intervention. Students will also be added to the intervention if needs arise during the school year.
Visiting & Volunteering at Kahoa
Parents and legal guardians may visit the school. We recommend no more than a 30-minute visit to the classroom. We have found this amount of time provides a good snapshot of the class and does not disrupt the learning of your child or others. Please call the office ahead of time so we can best help you when you arrive. To protect the learning environment for your child and all children, we ask that other children not attend school as visitors to the classroom, this would include field trips. They are welcome at school events and for a lunchroom visit. To ensure the safety of your child and our staff, all visitors and volunteers are required to check in at the office for any visit to school. All doors to our school will remain locked at all times except the front right door to the main entrance.
Each visitor will receive an ID badge that must be worn at all times during the visit. You will also need to return to the office to check out and return your ID badge upon the completion of your visit. Thank you for being patient and following these procedures. We want your visit to be welcoming, but also want to ensure we are being safe with all visitors.
Please also refer to the LPS Important Information Booklet about how to register as a volunteer. If you are visiting school to volunteer you must register to become a Level I or Level II volunteer. All field trip volunteers must register for and be granted a Level III volunteer status. All volunteers must register with Lincoln Public Schools. This process is on line and may be accessed HERE or by going to the LPS home page and clicking on the link in the lower left-hand column.
