Daily News

We've had a great start to the school year already! I loved seeing our Dragons already hard at work as I walked through the classrooms this morning! Our motto this year is "One Team, One Dream!" We have an amazing team made up of all our teachers, staff, students, and parents and I'm looking forward to a successful year!

Morning arrival is going smoothly as parents drop off their students in the carpool lane. Your students can open the car doors on their own once they are on the carpool side near the playground and entrance to the building. Temperature checks will be conducted at the door. The lane in front of the school is ONLY for buses, day care vans, and students in Ms. Simpson and Ms. Hernandez' PALS classes. We want to give everyone an opportunity to get familiar with the morning routines, so we will begin tardies next week.

Do not stop on Briar Forest to drop your students off - this is EXTREMELY unsafe. Use the carpool lane to safely drop off your children. We are all role models for our children - let's work together to make sure we are following the rules - our students are always watching and learning!

Respect is the focus of our character trait this month. Our teachers are working with our boys and girls to show what respect looks like and sounds like. We also need parents' help in modeling these values at arrival and dismissal. Please do not yell at another parent or staff member, especially not with your children or other children around. This applies to in-person or telephone conversations.

Everyone deserves to be treated respectfully. The Daily faculty and staff are working hard to provide a safe arrival and dismissal process for all students. Dismissing 350 students (last year) is very different from dismissing 740 students this year. Please respect the rules. Our procedures and rules are for the safety of all students.

Please remember, almost half the students have never taken part in our arrival and dismissal process because they were virtual last year. It takes time to learn the system and every day, dismissal will be quicker. Please be patient as everyone is learning the dismissal system. One way parents can help is by helping your child learn his/her dismissal number.

These are the dismissal methods at Daily Elementary:

1) Daycare/Bus/Champions

2) Carpool

• Please hang your child's dismissal number on your rearview mirror or place on your dashboard.
• If your child is carpool, stay in the carpool lane. The system will work efficiently soon. Changing to another dismissal method causes children to be confused as to where they need to report once they see/hear their number. Be as consistent as possible with your dismissal method.
• Please watch the carpool video - link is below this article.

3) PreK - 2nd Grade Walkers - this method is SPECIFICALLY for parents of students who actually WALK to school and WALK students home. If you come to Daily in a car to pick up your child, your child needs to be carpool rider and you need to use the carpool lane.

4) 3rd - 5th Grade Walkers/Bikers - this method is SPECIFICALLY for students who walk home on their own. These walkers are dismissed and they need to start walking home.

Please note that when you open the newsletter link, parents can click on "Translate" and select the language of preference. See the picture below.

Information on how to access your child's HISD Connect will be coming in next week's Daily News!

• Rolling backpacks will not be allowed this school year. Last year they were allowed because there were fewer students in the building and students had to carry their device to and from school every day.
• No water bottle drop offs, bottled water is available upon request.
• No lunch drop offs, lunch is provided free of charge to all HISD students.
• No backpack, sweaters, or technology drop offs.
• Cell phones must be OFF during the day from arrival to dismissal unless specifically directed by a teacher or staff member. Cell phones can only be used after students leave the building at dismissal. Students seen using their cell phone during the day OR students with cell phones heard during the day (rings, alarm, etc) will be given ONE warning. The second time it occurs, the phone will be confiscated and the parent has to come to the school to pick it up. The third and any subsequent incidents will result in the parent coming to school to pick it up AND a $15 fine each time.

Your child took home a manila envelope with several forms that MUST be completed and returned to school immediately. If you have not already, be sure to turn it in to your child's teacher. If you have multiple children, you will need to complete a manila packet for EACH child.

Please do not plan to pick up your child after 1:45 p.m. from the office. To ensure a safe dismissal, students will not be called to the office to be picked up after 1:45 p.m. We need all staff members in order to conduct dismissal. Thank you for helping to make dismissal safe for all our students.

We are pleased to continue our partnership with Brazos Bookstore and announce our first author visit for the school year. Houston author, Saadia Faruqui’s Yasmin books have been enjoyed by our early readers for three years. Saadia Faruqui was featured in O, The Oprah Magazine in 2017 as a woman making a difference in her community. We are thrilled to unveil her newly released book Yusuf Azeem is not a hero to our 5th graders.

For more details email our librarian Ms. Viktorin at lviktori@houstonisd.org

Please do not send your sick child to school. If your child has a fever, pink eye, or upset stomach, please keep him/her at home. We have lots of folks under our roof every day. For the health and safety of ALL students, it is very important that children stay home when they are ill. Students who have thrown up during the night or who are running a fever cannot be sent to school. Students must be fever free for 24 hours without fever-reducing medication before returning to school. When your child returns to school, please send a signed note stating the days your child was absent and the reason for the absence.

The district has launched a COVID-19 dashboard to keep the community informed about the impact of the pandemic.

Within this section, parents have access to multiple resources such as:

• https://www.houstonisd.org/ReadySetGo
  
• https://www.houstonisd.org/covid19dashboard
  

Website: https://www.houstonisd.org/dailyes
Location: 12909 Briar Forest Drive, Houston, TX, USA
Phone: 281-368-2111
Twitter: @RayKDailyES