Hello Dickinson Families!

Happy July! I thought I would start off by sharing a little bit about me as I know we are welcoming new families this school year. I am approaching my 23rd year in education of which eleven years I have been in administration. I taught in Katy ISD for ten years and have worked with students in kindergarten through 5th grade in a variety of roles. This is my third year returning as the principal at Dickinson Elementary. I am thrilled to be here as an educational leader and work with you as a partner in education to ensure your child’s success. I view education as a life-long process. Relationships between families and school are vital to the success of our students so, I encourage you to become involved in every way possible. My door is always open, and I look forward to connecting with all new and returning families!

These newsletters will have the same structure each month. The top section of the newsletter has new information and the bottom is repeated in case you missed it in the last edition. PTO updates are always at the bottom. This year I have added a reference section to assist with new students to our campus and LCISD. I hope you find it helpful. All previous newsletters are posted on the Dickinson website for your reference.

I hope all of you have a wonderful Fourth of July celebration! I have been sharing new staff on our Dickinson Elementary Facebook page. Please be sure to check it out when you can!

Warm Regards,

Channon Almendarez

#dolphinproud

Come join Mrs. Almendarez and Mrs. Peters on the Dickinson playground for a popsicle! Connect with old friends and meet new ones. PTO will be there as well. Excited to see all of our Dolphins!

If you would like to purchase a student spirit shirt with our new school theme for this upcoming school year, please click the link below to order. Students may wear this shirt any day of the week.

SLC (Structured Learning Classroom) & Kindergarten Orientation

This is a time for these families to have an orientation with their child in the teachers classroom. They will be reviewing campus routines, procedures, and share more about their classroom.

Meet the Teacher

This is a come and go event where your child will get to meet their teacher and bring school supplies. At the event we will have PTO selling spirit items, district transportation for questions, Girl & Boy Scouts sign up, Watch Dog Dads Sign Up, daycare representatives, and Jeremiah's Italian Ice selling ice cream.

During this event we will have a parent volunteer meeting for the Innovative School Day volunteer. There is more information on what that means at the bottom of this newsletter.

Dolphin Dive

This event is recommended for parents only to come and learn more about your child's curriculum for the school year. Teachers will review special dates for their grade level. There will be two sessions that you may choose from and allows for multiple grade levels to visit. (5:00-5:45) & (6:00-6:45) Presentations will be posted online for review afterwards in case you cannot make it.

For our new families, please check your correct enrollment path during this transition period by following these steps:

To locate where a student would attend school for the 24. 25 school year based on an address:

• On the district web page in the blue bar at the top of the page, click My Bus/School.
• In the middle of the next page, under transportation, click on the blue button Find My Bus/School.
• You will see the attendance zones color coded. If you click on one of the color-coded zones, it will tell you what school that zone attends.
• Under the left-hand side, you can click the level of school you want to find. It defaults to 24.25 school year.
• There is also a search feature in the middle of the page so you can enter an address. After you enter the address and click enter, the schools will show on the left-hand side that the address is zoned to.

If you are in need of a daycare, here are a list of current daycares zoned to us.

• Kids Resort (On Campus) 281-762-8469
• Primrose 281-343-8889
• Kensington 281-232-4400
• Infinite Learning Academy 281-762-2586

As a friendly reminder you can follow us on Facebook and all past newsletters are housed on our Dickinson Website page. I will be posting updates throughout the summer.

This year our theme committee worked hard to create a theme that symbolizes and welcomes the school year that we added new students from Carter Elementary. We will continue to grow minds at Dickinson while encompassing our growth for the 2024-2025 school year. We will be adding about one hundred students. We are so excited to welcome all new dolphins next school year!

CriticalInformationasLamarCISDMovesfromSmartTagtoMyStopin2024-2025

MUST DO ~ URGENT!

Lamar CISD families,

Lamar CISD has been named the first hypergrowth District in Texas, which requires significant planning to ensure our schools remain a great place to learn and our students get the best education available.

To enhance the services provided by our Transportation Department, we are asking all parents and guardians to complete a Transportation Form for each student, regardless of their mode of transportation to school. This includes bus riders, car riders, bike riders, and walkers. The form is available in Skyward and must be filled out for both current and new students.

It’s especially important for bus riders to fill out the Transportation Form to ensure they have access to bus services at the beginning of the school year. To plan accordingly for your student, please review a list of important dates below:

• August 4: Deadline to submit the form for students who want to receive bus transportation on the first day of school (Monday, August 12).
• August 5 - 21: During this time, if families fill out the Transportation Form requesting bus transportation for a student, then the student will start receiving bus transportation on Monday, August 26.
• August 22 or after: During this time, if families fill out the Transportation Form requesting bus transportation for a student, then the student will start receiving bus transportation after five school days.

Important Student Transportation Information for

2024-2025 School Year

Lamar CISD was recently named a hypergrowth district, which requires significant planning to ensure our schools remain a great place to learn, and our students get the best education available. For the 2024-2025 school year, and in alignment with our mission to remain a destination District, Lamar CISD is moving from Smart Tag to Tyler Technologies Versatrans My Stop ™ (My Stop).

This change will require all parents/guardians to complete a Transportation Form. We are requesting this form to be filled out for all current and new students including bus riders, car riders, bike riders, and/or walkers.

It’s especially important that students who ride the bus complete this Transportation Form so they can receive bus services at the start of the school year.

The new transportation software will provide a smoother experience for our drivers, which increases the safety of our students. Additionally, My Stop will provide a parent portal, student rider onboarding, and student rider location.

To plan accordingly for your student, please review a list of important dates below:

· Sunday, August 4: Deadline to submit Transportation Form for students who want to receive bus transportation on the first day of school (Monday, August 12).

· Monday, August 5 – Wednesday, August 21: During this time, if families fill out the Transportation Form requesting bus transportation for a student, the student will start receiving bus transportation on Monday, August 26.

· Thursday, August 22 and beyond: During this time, if families fill out the Transportation Form requesting bus transportation for a student, the student will start receiving bus transportation five school days after the form is submitted.

DOWNLOAD INSTRUCTIONS TO ACCESS TRANSPORTATION FORM

VISIT TRANSPORTATION WEBSITE

This upcoming school year your child will have the opportunity to spend half a day per week in enrichment rotations including library check out. Our students will attend science lab, computer lab, library, and STEM activities. This will allow time for our teachers to plan high quality lessons while students get the opportunity to dive deep into learning. We are excited about this plan as we know it will continue to help our students GROW their MINDS!

We are looking for parents who would be interested in being a volunteer for our Innovative School Day plan to assist with the STEM activities. Our librarian, Joanne Bromonsky, will be sharing during our Meet the Teacher event what this would look like. This plan will begin the third week of school. If you are interested in learning more about how you can support us, please come to the library on August 8th at 6:00 p.m. for a thirty minute meeting.

We are looking forward to this opportunity! :)

Our Site Based Management Team voted and decided to make a slight change to the Dickinson dress code. Students may wear a collared (polo style, no logo) solid color navy blue, light blue, red, or white tops. A Dickinson spirit shirt may be worn any day of the week. Bottoms, including leggings may be in solid color khaki, navy blue or black pants, capris, shorts, skirts, skorts, or jumpers. If leggings or tights are worn, they must be under shorts, skirts, or jumpers. Blue denim jeans permitted on Fridays.

If you would like to purchase a t-shirt that benefits one of Campbell's students battling a brain tumor, click on this link https://itsafortbendthing.com/collections/beast-mode-for-logan These shirts can be worn on Fridays as one of our spirit shirts if you choose to purchase one. This is optional.

Our PTO has worked with McKenna Construction who is a district approved vendor to get quotes on playground shading. Our Site Based Management Team who is composed of teachers, district leaders, and community voted at our last meeting and decided that we want to focus on shading this part of the playground first. The cost is around $50,000.00. We will continue to fundraise next school year in order to purchase this for our students. Currently we have around $20,000.00 saved.

This is a video that all of the students and staff were required to watch as part of our safety protocol. LCISD is committed to keeping all of our students and staff safe. If you ever have questions, please do not hesitate to reach out.

Our fence is completed. I am currently working with maintenance and operations to get some signage with hours and expectations during non-school hours.

Get your Dolphin reading and logging their reading minutes with our Beanstack Reading Challenges! The Library sponsors monthly challenges where students read and then log their reading minutes through ClassLink and the Beanstack app. Students who complete challenges within the challenge dates will earn a Brag Tag to celebrate their reading achievement.

Safety is our top priority! In Lamar CISD, we follow the Standard Response Protocol (SRP) to prepare and respond to crisis situations should there ever be a need. It is important to be prepared for a quick response to keep our staff and students safe. When we practice drills, parents will receive an e-mail that we practiced a drill. Below is information about the SRP so that you can keep informed about the protocols we have in place. We need your support for when you visit the campus by wearing your visitor badge on the left or right side of your chest / torso in visible view for our staff members to see at a quick glance. The sticker badge should not be worn on the pants, arm, purse or other areas besides the upper chest area. Thank you for your help keeping our dolphins and staff safe!

The culture of Dickinson Elementary includes a partnership with our community. Last year, our parents volunteered hundreds of hours to support our students and staff. We value our partnership as together we educate our dolphins. This year all volunteers are required to register as a volunteer. This includes PTO Board Members, work room volunteers, Watch Dog Dad volunteers, room parents, field day volunteers, library volunteers, and the list continues! Please visit this website to begin the process:

https://www.lcisd.org/community/volunteers

If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to the front office at 832-223-1400.

Thank you for giving the gift of time for the success of our campus! What you value, you give your time to! - Channon Almendarez

• July 29th: Popsicles with the Principals 6:30-7:30
• August 3rd: LCISD Back to School Block Party
• August 8th: Meet the Teacher 5:00-5:30 SLC& Kinder Orientation, 5:30-7:00 (Come and Go Meet the Teacher), and (6:00-6:30 Innovative Volunteer Meeting in the Library) Details Above
• August 12th: First Day of School
• September 10th: Dolphin Dive (Curriculum Night) 5:00-7:00 Session 1: 5:00-5:45 and Session 2 6:00-6:45

Email: channon.almendarez@lcisd.org
Website: https://www.lcisd.org/campuses/dickinson/home
Location: 7110 Greatwood Pkwy, Sugar Land, TX 77479, USA
Phone: 832-223-1400
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Dickinsondolphins