McCall Elementary

Teachers are available through e-mail or phone during their conference time or after school. Please allow up to 24 hours for a response. Keep in mind that when someone from the school contacts you, we’ll leave a message if possible. We ask your kids to do the same when they call so you’re not left wondering who called or why!

Breakfast/Early Arrival (7:00-7:20)

**Please note** Breakfast is from 7:00-7:30. Parents who wish for their child to eat breakfast at school need to drop their child off prior to 7:15. This gives children at least 15 minutes to eat prior to being dismissed from the cafeteria at 7:30 to unpack and get prepared for learning to begin at 7:40.

Morning Carpool (7:25-7:40)

McCall staff will be in place to greet students at 7:25 each morning at the front entrance of the school. In an effort to provide greater support for student safety and to keep traffic moving during arrival, always form a single line of traffic along the curb, reduce speed, cross at crosswalks only and refrain from cell phone usage. Once your car is in the carpool lane, please make sure your child/children exits the vehicles. Our goal is to unload as many cars as possible (15-20) at one time so we can get all cars through the line as quickly as possible.

Students are dismissed from school at 2:55. All parents must fill out the McCall Dismissal Information form (linked below) indicating how their child will go home this year- Walker, Carpool, Bus or Daycare.

Definition of a “Walker” Student

This is a student who will be walking to and from school from their house or a designated location off campus property. A student is not classified as a walker if the parent is parking near campus and walking to the campus to get their child. If a parent is picking up a student by driving a vehicle to campus, they need to be picked up through the carpool lane.

Definition of a “Carpool” Student

This is a student who will be picked up from school in a vehicle.

Definition of a “Bus” Student

This is a student who will be taken home on a PISD bus. Families must live in an area where they qualify to ride a bus home in the afternoon. Please visit https://www.pisd.edu/transportation to see if your address qualifies for bus services and/or your child's bus route information.

Definition of a “Daycare” Student

This is a student who will be picked up at school by an outside daycare provider.

If your child is going home a different way than usual, we must have a note from a parent or guardian. If a note is not received, students will be sent home following their normal routine. Teachers will make every effort to check their messages throughout the day, but oftentimes, they are unable to do so until their planning time or at the end of the day. Consequently, it is necessary to send a note with your child explaining any transportation changes.

Please call no later than 2:00 p.m. if it is necessary to change after-school plans. We have limited

help in the office, and we may not be able to get the message to your child before dismissal time if you call too late. After 2:15 p.m. we will not call students to the office to be dismissed.

If your child is absent from school, there are two actions you will need to take.

1. Call the McCall Child Safe Line

Please call the McCall Child Safe Line (available 24 hours a day) before 8:00 a.m. the day of

the absence. The purpose of calling the Child Safe Line is so that school staff can account for

all students each and every day. The number is 469-752-4500. Select your language and then press menu item 3 to leave the message. On the recorder, leave your child’s name, grade, homeroom teacher and the specific reason for his/her absence. Calling the Child Safe Line does not take the place of turning in a note to excuse an absence. See the Child Safe section below for more information.

2. Turn in a note to the front office to excuse the absence

Upon returning to school after an absence, a note explaining the absence needs to be

submitted to the school office. Emails are acceptable as an absence note. The note needs to

be signed by a parent (or doctor) and received by the office within 3 days of the absence in

order to be excused. After seven (7) cumulative excused absences, a doctor’s note shall be

required to excuse any further absences. Please schedule family vacations according to Plano

ISD’s calendar. It is important that your child be in school every day to benefit from optimal

learning opportunities. See the Attendance Notes section below for more information.

DIAL (469) 752-4500 - SELECT LANGUAGE, THEN PRESS 3 FOR CHILD SAFE OR EMAIL 135absence@pisd.edu (please copy your child's teacher).

Operation Child Safe is a program established to account for every child who is not present when class roll is taken. Child Safe is strictly to confirm your child’s safe arrival at school.

Class roll is taken at 7:40 a.m. If your child is going to be absent or late, please call our Childsafe line even if you have notified the teacher. To reach Child Safe, call the school telephone number 469-752-4500, then press #3 to leave a message. Parents may also email the attendance account (135absence@pisd.edu) to report their child will be absent.

A list of all students who are not present at 7:40 a.m. is sent to the front office. At this time, the secretary checks the list of absences against the list of phone calls made/emails sent to the Child Safe line for that day. If the two lists do not match, then our secretary will make every effort to contact you to confirm that your child is safe.

It is important that you call/email the Child Safe line every day that your child is absent or tardy. Please leave a brief message including your child’s legal name, grade, teacher’s name and specific reason for absence or tardy (including any symptoms your child has). Remember that calling/emailing to report an absence for the purpose of Childsafe does not excuse the absence. Please remember to send a note (e-mail or handwritten) to the school office stating the reason for his/her absence or tardy.

YOUR CHILD’S SAFETY IS VERY IMPORTANT TO US! We appreciate your cooperation with Operation Child Safe and with our attendance procedures.

Absences

Elementary students will be counted absent after 9:00 a.m. A student who is absent from school for any portion of a school day must provide a note that describes the reason for the absence. The note must be signed by the student’s parent/guardian. Failure to bring a written excuse signed by the parent or guardian within three (3) school days of an absence may result in an unexcused absence being recorded. An email note from a parent or guardian’s email account, as registered in the Plano ISD Parent Portal, is acceptable documentation; however, Plano ISD reserves the right to require a signed written note. All attendance correspondence should be sent to 135absence@pisd.edu.

Doctor Appointments

If a student is temporarily absent due to an appointment with a health care professional and returns to school the same day of the appointment, the student will not be counted absent. The student must present to the school office a statement signed by the health care professional verifying the appointment.

Tardies

Instruction begins at 7:40. Students who arrive at/after 7:40 are late to instruction and are counted tardy. Tardies are considered “parts of days’ and are generally considered unexcused except for doctor/dentist appointments. For truancy court purposes, three tardies are equivalent to one (1) unexcused absence. (Tardies are not converted to unexcused absences on report cards or on official attendance records.)

Religious Observances

The district will excuse students from attending school for the purpose of observing religious holy days. A student who is observing holy days is allowed up to one day of excused travel for traveling to the site where the student will observe the holy days and up to one day of excused travel for traveling from that site.

Absence Request

If you know ahead of time that your student will be absent, please contact the office for a Student Absence Form. Unexcused absences will be allowed to make up work provided the absence was requested in advance.

Make-Up Work

Make-up assignments or tests will be made available to students AFTER the absence and cannot be given ahead of time. Make-up work may be requested on the second day of the student’s absence.

Doctor Notes

Parents/guardians are required to send a note for a student who will not be participating in physical education classes due to an illness or injury. This note will be accepted for up to five (5) consecutive days. Longer non-participation will require a physician's written excuse. Also, a physician's written excuse will be necessary if a student is absent for five (5) consecutive days or more.

Parents who need to pick up their child from school early should send an email to 135absence@pisd.edu and their child's teacher letting them know they will be picking up early. This will help us expedite the process of getting children to the office for early dismissal.

Parents must come into the school and sign their child out in the front office. This if for your child's safety! This practice allows us to ensure we are only releasing students to authorized contacts on a student's emergency card.

Early pick-up will not be allowed after 2:25 in order for staff to prepare for regular dismissal.

All doors remain locked during the day. When visiting the campus during school hours, please approach the front entrance, push the entrance button to inform the office of your destination, and then proceed directly to the school office.

A staff member will enter all visitors into the Raptor System; a driver’s license is needed to complete this process. Then, a personalized name badge is issued and required to be worn by all visitors while on campus. The badge tells students and staff that you are signed in and authorized to be inside the school. Please do not be offended if a staff member requests that you sign in and wear a badge while visiting. This policy exists for the safety of all students and staff. The first day of school is the only exception to this district policy.

When you leave, you will return to the front office to sign out and turn in your badge to the secretary. Additionally, please do not park in the carpool lane when visiting.

We definitely understand how important birthdays are to children, and each grade level has a special way that they honor each student on his/her birthday. It is not required or expected for parents to send birthday treats or favors to school. However, if parents choose to send something, please know that non-edible items, such as a pencil or party favor, are preferred.

In the event that parents choose to send an edible birthday treat, please ensure that it meets the following criteria:

• Store-bought with ingredient list available
• Individually wrapped/sealed so that students can transport the item home
• Still sealed in the original store packaging (food cannot have been opened, handled or re-packaged after purchase)

All birthday treats will be sent home with students and will not be consumed at school. Additional decor type or celebration items (balloons, hats, noise makers, floral arrangement, singing telegrams, etc.) are great for weekend celebrations, but are not permitted at school.

Please be aware that any items that do not meet all of these criteria will not be distributed. Thank you in advance for your help, as we strive to maintain the safest environment possible for all of our McCall Colts!

Birthday party invitations may be distributed from student to student before school, after school, during lunch, or recess (non-instructional times).

The school day begins at 7:40 am ** (students to class at 7:25 am, tardy at 7:40 am) and ends at 2:55 pm For your convenience, students may enter the building through the cafeteria at 7:00 a.m., where a staff member is on duty to supervise the students. At 7:25 am, students may go to their classrooms. For the safety of your child, please do not drop your child off before 7:00 am.

When the tardy bell rings at 7:40 am, students should be in their seats and ready to learn. Any student entering the building after the 7:40 am bell must stop in the office and receive a tardy slip to be admitted to class. For safety, parents must walk their child(ren) into the school and sign in when students are late.

Each staff member has a voice mailbox and email. Teachers will make every effort to check their

messages throughout the day, but oftentimes, they are unable to do so until their planning time or at the end of the day. Messages to the teacher are delivered only in the event of an emergency.

Before leaving home each morning, please encourage your child to double-check for important notes to their teacher, homework, lunch, money for lunch, library book, etc. Forgotten, necessary items (glasses, money) will be delivered. Teachers will be notified about all other items and will be picked up by student at the teacher discretion during the least disruptive time to instruction. Please work on fostering independence with your child. Daily delivery of items will not be allowed.

If you need to deliver any of these items after the school day has started, please write your child’s name and teacher’s name on the item and bring it to the main office. Visitors may not interrupt student instructional time to drop off these items.

Both prescription and over-the-counter medicines must be in an original, labeled bottle and must be

accompanied by a PISD medication request form obtained in the clinic. Dosage and time should be

included with nonprescription drug containers. Parents must bring medications to the nurse for

safekeeping. Medications may not be kept in lockers, desks or lunch bags.

McCall Elementary offers daily breakfast and lunch for students. The cost of breakfast is $1.75 and the cost of lunch is $2.85. School menus will be available on the SchoolCafe website at https://www.schoolcafe.com/pisd.

Plano ISD participates in the federal meal program, which provides free and reduced-price meals to students who qualify. Families who may qualify for meal benefits should complete a meal application for the 2023-24 school year, available through Parent Portal or via the website at www.pisd.edu/mealprogram.

Families who already have a SchoolCafé account can sign in to complete the meal application. Families who do not have an account can create a new one by selecting that option on the SchoolCafé page. View this SchoolCafé information video for instructions on how to complete the meal application.

Applications will be processed within 10 business days. Eligibility notification letters will be sent via email. If you have not received the letter in your inbox, please check your junk and spam folders.

We love our visitors at McCall, but the first several weeks of school we are working hard to establish routines and procedures with our students. For this reason, we ask that there are no lunch visitors until after the first several weeks of school. Parents may begin coming for lunch on Monday, September 11th. We appreciate your partnership as we set the foundation for another great school year!

Due to the limited seating available in our cafeteria, lunch visitors must eat OUTSIDE (rain or shine) at the picnic tables near the garden. Students are not permitted to bring a friend with them when they eat lunch with a visitor. Visitors may bring outside food for their child ONLY.

The best way to be part of the success here at McCall is to be involved with your child’s education

and to volunteer any time that you can give to the school. Many volunteer activities can be done at home and at different hours based on work schedules.

All volunteers will need to create an account and complete an application, online orientation and

criminal history check through the Plano ISD volunteer management system, VOLY, to be eligible for

district/school volunteer opportunities. Please visit plano.voly.org to create a volunteer account and begin this process. These items will need to be completed by volunteers each school year. Please note that the application and background check consent can be completed on any device; however, the volunteer orientation requires a laptop or desktop and cannot be completed on a mobile device.

An email will be sent to the volunteer applicant communicating the status of their application and

criminal history search within 3-5 business days of completing these steps. Volunteer approval

status can also be viewed by logging into your account. Volunteers will need to complete the online

orientation as well to be eligible to volunteer.

Once approved, you will be able to sign up for volunteer opportunities directly through the VOLY

platform at plano.voly.org. Volunteers should be sure to select all of the schools they are interested

in volunteering with when asked on their application in order to be eligible for volunteer

opportunities at all of their schools of interest. These school selections can also be changed by

logging into your account at any time.

School Messenger - School Messenger is the district's communication tool. The email address and phone numbers parents provide on the Emergency Information Form are used for school and district communication. Be sure to log in to Parent Portal and check/update your contact information on the Emergency Card.

Follow McCall on Social Media – We would love for you to follow McCall on social media! Our social media accounts will be used as an additional mode of communication to highlight some of the great occurrences in and around Andrews!

• Facebook- www.facebook.com/mccallcolts

Parent Portal http://parent.mypisd.net/ - In addition to providing direct access to our Parent Viewer information such as grades/attendance, the Parent Portal serves as the primary resource for all of the services provided online to our parents. This site gives you direct access into your child's classroom information, registration to your child's campus eNews, district-wide information and links to other often used services. You need your child’s school ID number to register.

Weekly Grade Level Email- All teachers will send a weekly email on Thursdays that includes any grade level specific reminders and curriculum information.

McCall PTA Facebook - www.facebook.com/mccallpta - You will be able to be in the know about events, see pictures of the great times being had, and learn about the McCall PTA.

McCall PTA Website www.mccallpta.org - The McCall PTA distributes event and activity

information via email, giving families the option to receive an email regarding upcoming events and activities. The website will also provide up-to-date information and forms for membership, spirit wear, yearbook orders, PTA board member contact information, etc.

Did you know that Plano ISD has an app for smartphones?

On the app you can:

• View student grades and attendance
  
• Access school and staff info
  
• View news stories
  
• Receive important alerts
  
• View calendar info
  
• Access PISD's tipline

More information can be found at: https://www.pisd.edu/mobileapp

Visit the Google Play or Apple App Store to download it today!

Plano ISD offers a text messaging option to provide our community with more ways to receive school and district information. Opt in today by texting “Y” to 67587.

If you don’t opt in manually, and the district has a cell phone number for you, you will receive a text message from Plano ISD in the coming days inviting you to opt in. The message will read:

“Plano Independent School District messages. Reply Y to confirm, HELP 4 info. Msg&data rates may apply. Msg freq varies. schoolmessenger.com/tm”

You must reply to this text message with “Y” to opt in to continue receiving text messages from the district. For more information, please visit the Text Opt in webpage.