Good evening and happy Sunday, Midland Trail Diamonds! 💜🖤💎 This is Mr. Canada with our first weekly update of the 2026–2027 school year!
🎉📚 WELCOME BACK, DIAMONDS! 📚🎉
Our staff has been working hard to prepare for an exciting year filled with high expectations, academic growth, strong attendance, and Diamond pride! We cannot wait to welcome our students and families back to Midland Trail!
🏫🎒 PRE-K ORIENTATION HAS MOVED!
Join us on Wednesday, August 19, for these important events:
🔹 Pre-K Orientation: 8:30 a.m.
During Orientation, families can meet their teachers and school staff, receive help with ClassDojo and Schoology, find school bus information, complete beginning-of-the-year paperwork, and learn important information for the first day of school.
🔔🎒 IMPORTANT NEW SCHOOL TIMES
Please review our new arrival and dismissal times for the 2026–2027 school year:
🚪 Doors Open: 6:45 a.m.
⏰ Tardy Bell and Morning Announcements: 7:25 a.m.
🚌 Dismissal Begins: 1:45 p.m.
Students should arrive with enough time to eat breakfast, report to class, and be seated and ready to learn before the 7:25 a.m. tardy bell.
🚗 IMPORTANT ARRIVAL AND DISMISSAL PROCEDURES
For the safety of every Diamond, please follow these procedures:
🔹 Pre-K pickup will take place in the church parking lot.
🔹 All early student pickups must be completed by 1:30 p.m. We cannot accommodate early pickups after that time because our staff and students will be preparing for dismissal.
🔹 All changes to a student’s normal pickup or dismissal plan must be communicated directly to the school office. Please do not rely on messages sent only to classroom teachers.
🔹 All Pre-K students must be either walked directly to their classroom by an adult or dropped off through the designated drop-off line. Pre-K students may not be dropped off unattended.
We appreciate everyone’s patience and cooperation as our families and staff become familiar with these procedures. Every expectation has been established with the safety and well-being of our students in mind.
💎📚 ATTENDANCE MATTERS AT MIDLAND TRAIL!
Every day at school is another opportunity for our Diamonds to learn, grow, and shine!
🏆 The classes with the highest attendance rates will be recognized each week!
Please help your child arrive at school on time and ready to learn every day. Strong attendance will be a major part of our schoolwide focus this year.
Every Day You’re Here…You Shine! 💎
💜🖤 FRIDAYS ARE PURPLE DAYS!
Every Friday will be Midland Trail Elementary Diamonds Purple Day!
Students and staff are encouraged to wear:
💜 Purple
🖤 Black
💎 Midland Trail spirit wear
Let’s fill our school with Diamond pride every Friday!
Midland Trail families, we are excited to begin this journey with you! Our expectations are rising, our goals are growing, and our Diamonds are ready to shine.
Let’s make the 2026–2027 school year our best year yet!
💎 Diamonds Are Produced Under Pressure! 💎
Have a wonderful evening, and we will see everyone tomorrow!
💜🖤💎 It’s always a great day to be a Midland Trail Diamond!
💎 THE LEVEL IS GOING HIGHER AT MIDLAND TRAIL! 💎
Diamonds are produced under extreme pressure and our Midland Trail Diamonds are determined to excel, regardless of the conditions or circumstances they face.
Last school year, we ended the year on a very positive note. We are proud of the strides of our students made. This school year, we are elevating our expectations, standards, and goals. We expect our students to show up every day, give their best effort, and keep climbing toward the top!
To reach the next level, we need the support of our families and community. We are currently seeking:
💎 Local School Improvement Council (LSIC) members
💎 Parent and community volunteers
💎 Community partners and financial support
If you are interested in helping our students and school shine even brighter, please do not hesitate to contact us. Together, we can take Midland Trail Elementary to new heights!
High Standards. Big Goals. Bright Futures.
💜 Our Students. Our Staff. Our Community. Our Pride! 💜
When your student is absent, you have an online option...no early-morning phone call or paper note to keep track of.
📱 Find the attendance excuse form in the KCS app on your device.
💻 Or visit your child’s school website and select Attendance Form in the top-right corner of the homepage.
One less thing to handle before the coffee kicks in. ☕

Kanawha County residents age 65 and older can receive free admission to many school sporting events, concerts, musicals, plays and art shows with a KCS 65 and Older Club Card.
Applications and additional details are available on the KCS website. Some exclusions apply, including postseason playoffs and banquets.

Most KCS schools will follow the same schedule as last year, but start or dismissal times have changed at a few schools as part of updates to help bus routes flow more smoothly across the county.
Before the first day, please find your child’s school in the graphics below and double-check its start and end times...even if the schedule was the same last year.
Please note that these are school bell times, not when doors open for students. We’ll see our students Wednesday! 💙



We will keep you updated regarding any changes to our Pre-K Orientation and Open House.
Please stay safe, Diamonds! 💎
We are excited to share our landscape beautification project at Midland Trail Elementary! Our goal is to create a clean, welcoming, and well-maintained campus that our students can be proud to call their school and that shows our families and community that excellence matters at Midland Trail!
A very special THANK YOU to East Charleston Lowe’s for their generous support and donation of mulch and flowers to help make this project possible. Your partnership means so much to our school! 🌷
We also want to recognize Mrs. Gilmore and Ms. Higginbotham for their hard work and dedication in making sure this project was completed before the start of school. We appreciate you! 👏
We are proud of our school, proud of our students, and proud of the community that supports Midland Trail Elementary! 🏫🌿
Together, we are making Midland Trail a place where excellence matters!




The Office of Exceptional Students Open House is happening today from 2–6 p.m. at the Edison Staff Development Center, 157 2nd Avenue in South Charleston. Families can find information about IEPs, 504s, transportation, speech services, OT/PT, behavioral support, technology and more.
Childcare is available, and free homework supplies will be offered while they last. Can’t attend in person? Use the QR code on the flyer to schedule a virtual appointment.

Join us for our Town Hall Meeting with Dr. Paula Potter on August 19 from 5:30–6:30 PM!
Whether you’re a parent, educator, community leader, business partner, or neighbor, your voice matters. Come connect, share ideas, hear what’s ahead, and help us build stronger schools, stronger students, and a stronger community.
🎓 Everyone is welcome!
💜 Let’s start our school year off STRONG!
🏆 Together, we are WARRIORS!

We received this question a few times after yesterday’s bus post. The quickest way to find your student’s route is through the KCS Bus Route Finder.
Just:
📍 Enter your home address
🏫 Select your student’s school
🔎 Click Find Bus
The results will show the available route, bus stop location, pickup/drop-off times for that address, and your student's bus route number. Be sure to review both the morning and afternoon information, they may not be the same.
The route number is listed in the results, such as CH06 in the picture below. The bus number may change, but the route stays the same.
🔗 Find your student’s bus route here: https://findmyschool.us/kanawhawv

Beginning this school year, KCS students will be assigned to a bus route instead of a specific bus number.
Each route has a two-letter abbreviation for the high school feeder area followed by two numbers, such as HH01. The letters will appear in that high school’s colors, and the route number will be displayed on the side of the bus next to the bus number.
🚌 What does that mean?
If your student’s route is HH01, look for the HH01 sign. It could be attached to bus 1908 today, bus 2101 tomorrow or bus 1911 next week. If the bus displays HH01, it is covering your student’s route.
The bus number identifies the vehicle. The route number tells you where it is going.
📱 What about the Where’s the Bus? app?
The app will also identify your student’s bus by the route number. Instead of looking for bus 1908, families will look for their student’s assigned route, HH01 in this example.
🔔 Why are we making this change?
In the past, about 90% of transportation’s bus-change notifications simply told families that a different bus was covering the same route. Assigning students to routes will eliminate most of those notices.
That means fewer notifications such as “bus 1908 will ride bus 2101 this afternoon” and more room for the updates families actually need to see.
The bus number has not been fired. It just has a much smaller role this season. The route number is the one to remember.

Beginning this school year, KCS students in pre-K through third grade will be required to scan a student bus tag when getting on and off the bus. Scanning is optional for students in fourth grade and above.
Each scan works directly with the Where’s the Bus app, so parents/guardians will receive a notification when their student scans on or off the bus. It is a small tag that provides an extra layer of student safety...and some valuable peace of mind for families.
Here are the three types of tags:
🟠 Pre-K: Orange tags are provided by the bus garage during the required pre-K orientation.
🚌 Grades K–3: These tags display the student’s grade prominently, reminding the driver that an adult must be present at the stop. They also include a QR code for scanning.
📱 Grades 4–5: These tags feature a larger QR code. Students in these grades do not need an adult present at the stop.
The QR code contains only the student’s ID number...not a name, address or other personal information.
And so we are all on the same page: The tag is a safety tool, not a ticket to ride. No child will be refused a ride or left standing on the side of the road because a tag was forgotten or lost. Without a scan, the app simply cannot notify the parent or guardian that the student got on or off the bus.
If a tag disappears, as small objects sometimes mysteriously do, schools will print a new one. Example K-3 and 4th and above tags are pictured below.


Each box contained seven meals for the week ahead. Through the summer meal box pickup program, the KCS Child Nutrition Department, with help from the Maintenance Department, made sure those boxes were ready for students throughout the summer.
The numbers are worth celebrating, but what they represent matters most: students having meals available even when school is not in session.

After receiving a few requests for this option, we added an iCal version of the 2026–2027 school calendar. An iCal is a digital calendar file that adds school holidays, breaks, and other important dates directly to your smartphone’s calendar.
The link to the digital calendar is in the comments. Tap the link in the comments below and follow the prompts to add the calendar. No manually entering every day off required.
🛜 The link can also be found in the news section on the KCS website.

This year, we upgraded our paperwork game to save you time. Beginning of the Year forms are now faster and smarter!
Here is how it works:
1️⃣ Launch it: Click the forms link on our site and fill out the quick Packet Launcher.
2️⃣ Check it: Check your email for your student's official digital packet.
3️⃣ Finish it: Open the packet, see your prefilled info, complete the rest, and submit!
⚠️ Crucial Step: Submitting the launcher form is just the warm-up! Your forms are only done once you open the email packet, fill out the rest, and submit that final version. Please repeat these quick steps for each student in your house.
📝 Prefer paper? No problem! If you need a hard copy of these forms instead, just reach out directly to your student's school to grab them.
Let's get this school year started right! 🎒✨

Not everyone uses a calendar the same way, so we made a few options:
☀️ Long Weekend Forecast: All the extra-long weekends in one place.
📌 Midweek Days Off: The schedule-changing dates most likely to sneak up on you.
📅 Full Digital Calendar: A familiar, month-by-month calendar that looks like the one hanging on your wall or refrigerator...not the standard school-system version that has tiny print and requires advanced codebreaking.
The picture of the digital calendar here only shows August, but you can open the digital calendar and click through every month of the school year. You can also save it, download it and share it with grandparents, family, friends or whoever is unofficially in charge of the family schedule.
Use whichever version works best or use all three. We’re not here to judge your calendar system. We’re just trying to keep a surprise Tuesday off from blowing it up.



As we take a closer look at the 2026–27 KCS school calendar, here are the dates families may want to make a plan for now:
✅ First Semester:
🗓️ Monday, September 7 - Labor Day
🗓️ Monday, October 5th - Parent/Teacher Conference
🗓️ Tuesday, October 6th - PL Day (full-day off)
🗓️ Tuesday, November 3rd - Election Day
🗓️ Wednesday, November 11th - Veterans Day
🗓️ Full Week, November 23-27, Thanksgiving Break
🗓️ Friday, December 18th - PL Day (half-day for students)
🗓️ December 23 - January 3, Christmas/Winter Break
✅ Second Semester:
🗓️ Monday, January 18th - MLKJR Day
🗓️ Friday, February 12th - PL Day (half-day for students)
🗓️ Friday, April 2nd - PL Day (full-day off)
🗓️ All Week, April 5th - 9th, Spring Break
Save this post. Send it to the grandparents. Drop it in the family group chat. Forward it to whoever normally asks, “Wait…do they have school tomorrow?”
The complete 2026–27 KCS school calendar is linked in the comments.



KCS principals and assistant principals met this morning for the Superintendent’s Conference to talk goals, share ideas and get ready for the year ahead.
Now, they’re back in their buildings and fine tuning the details to make the 2026-2027 one to remember!
We’re getting close, KCS!
📆 We'll have some calendar break downs and insights for you later today...see you then!
