The Hoot Owl

We are off to a great start.

As a reminder, school hours this year have changed. School starts at 7:55 a.m. with tardies starting at 7:56 a.m. In order to have your child here at school on time, it is important you plan your morning accordingly. You can expedite the line by having your child ready to get out when you pull up to the stop. If you plan on your child eating breakfast, it is best that they arrive no later than 7:45 a.m. in order to give them time to eat.

Attendance is vital for academic success. It is important that if your child is well, they attend school every day. Our attendance goal for the year is an average of 96%. Please help us reach this goal by sending your child to school daily.

We also need your child to be in school for the full day from 7:55 - 3:10 p.m. Coming in late or checking out early causes loss of instruction. Just 15 minutes daily causes a student to lose a total of 45 hours of instruction which equals 7.5 days out of the school year. While that 15 minutes daily might seems like a little at the time, it all adds up.

Make sure and note that Open House is on Thursday, September 19, 2024 from 5:30 - 7:00 p.m. We will have 2 sessions from 5:30 - 6:10 and 6:15 - 6:55. Bring your children and let them showcase what they have done so far this year and learn expectations for the year.

PTO is excited to launch their fall fundraiser starting September 3 - September 20. We are selling discount cards this year. Cards are $25 each and provide your family and friends discount at local and nationwide discounts once it is registered online. It will look similar to the one included here.

Our goal is to have each child sell 2 cards. Funds from this fundraiser will fund grade level field trips as well as treats for the staff.

Reservations will open to have lunch with your child starting on Monday, August 26. We ask that parents not come eat with their children until then to give the teachers and students time to establish a relationship and allow children to learn the routines of the school.

Reservations can be from the link on our school website at https://ore.conroeisd.net/.

We are excited to partner with our PTO and continue our Watch D.O.G.S. program this year. We will have a kick off soon but would like to get an idea of what interest we have so that we can make this program the best.

This is for Dads or important men in our school. Our Watch D.O.G.S. serve our school in a variety of ways. You can do anything from a full day helping in the school, morning car rider duty, afternoon car rider duty, half day morning or afternoon, support supervision during lunch or recess.

If you are interested in this program, please take the short survey at the link below so we can see what areas are of most interest.

Watch D.O.G.S. Survey

Please note that our school hours have changed per the state and district guidelines. Our new school hours are 7:55 - 3:10 p.m.

Doors will open this year at 7:30 a.m. We ask that you do not drop students off prior to 7:30a.m. as we have no one to supervise them prior to the doors opening.

Students are tardy at 7:56 a.m.

Dismissal begins at 3:10 p.m.

Students should be picked up by 3:30 p.m.

Visitors on campus:

Things to know about visiting our campus.

*Arrive at the front door and ring the doorbell (facing the doors to your right)

*Let the front office staff know what you need.

*Once you have communicated with front office staff, you will be buzzed into the front vestibule.

*An ID will be required to enter the main part of the building or check a child out. Please make sure you have it with you as you will be sent to get it.

Volunteering on campus:

Please remember that in order to volunteer on campus (reading to a class, going on a field trip, helping with PTO, attending class parties, etc...), parents must have completed the Volunteer Background check for the district. This must be completed each year for every school where you will volunteer so if you have students at 3 different schools, you must complete it for all 3 schools.

Volunteer Background Check

Transportation should be close to their normal schedule at this point in the year. If you have any questions about transportation, please make sure to reach out.

BUSSES -

The first couple of weeks busses will run 20-30 minutes behind the projected schedule. Drivers are working hard to make sure students are delivered to the right location safely so please be patient. Things to know about bus riders:

• PK and Kinder students will receive a "PK" or "K" sign added to their backpack. Please leave it on there.
• Parents will receive a bus rider sign where you will add your child's name. A person over the age of 18 must be present at the stop with the sign, in order to get the child off the bus. If no one is there, the child will be returned to school and the parent will have to come pick them up at school.
• Good behavior is expected on the bus. For the safety of all, please review expectations with your child.
• talk to your seat mate or the students across the aisle
• remain seated at all times
• use an "inside" voice when talking to friends on the bus, refrain from yelling or screaming
• keep your hands to yourself

CAR RIDER LINE

Once we get the hang of car rider line, we will be finished no later than 3:30 most days. The first few weeks of school will be much longer, but it will get better.

Things to know about car rider line:

• Parents are not allowed to park and walk up to the porch for drop off in the morning or the afternoon.
• Students may not be dropped off in the parking lot nor near the playground fence.
• Students may not be dropped off or picked up on the outside of the covered drive-through.
• Car rider signs must be displayed in window when picking up students.
• Parents may not enter car rider line from our driveway entrance. See map below.
• Parents coming north on I-45 feeder must join the line using Oak Ridge School Road, between the hotel and Saltgrass.
• Please allow merging at that stop sign.

How does the car rider line work:

• Your child's name will be entered into a car rider spreadsheet when the staff member comes by your car. (This is from your car rider sign so please have it displayed for easy access)
• Your child will come to the front of the school to a specified location.
• Your child will then be brought to the outside of the building to one of 6 locations.
• Please pull all the way forward, even if you do not see your child.

Parents who cut the line will be asked to move forward past the car rider line and wait for your child. This will take a few minutes as we find your child and get them to the front office.

Request a car rider sign here

WALKERS/BIKERS

Students can be walkers ONLY IF they live in the no bus zone. This is typically the 1 mile zone of the school according to transportation. If your child is eligible for bus service, they are not eligible to be a walker. We do monitor this and will notify parents if your child cannot be a walker.

Walkers are delivered to parents in the cul de sac at the fence cut through. We expect parents to be present to get their children from this area. If there is not adult at this location, your child will be brought back to school and you will need to walk over and get them from the front office.

If weather dictates that children cannot be walkers, parents will receive notification via text message through the district notification system. At that time, parents will be able to join the car rider line or walk to the art room door to retrieve your child. This decision is based upon lighting, heavy rain, or other hazardous weather situations.

TRANSPORTATION CHANGES

If you find that you need to change your child's method of transportation, there are couple of ways to make that happen.

If you know ahead of time, the best option is to send a handwritten note to the teacher in your child's folder.

If you need to change during the school day, please email the change to contactore@conroeisd.net including your child's name, teacher name, specific change of transportation requested. This will only be put into place for the one day requested.

As a last resort, please call the front office and let them know the change of transportation.

Once the school day has started, we ask that you NOT email or text change of transportation to the teacher. This will help prevent a miscommunication due to something like the teacher being absent or not having time to check email during the school day.

ALL CHANGES MUST BE MADE BY 2:30 P.M.

Each year parents who need breakfast/lunch assistance are asked to renew their application. Breakfast and lunch are not free this year. For students to receive free or reduced lunch, parents need to complete the online application and be approved. If you need assistance with the online application, please call the school and ask for Mrs. DeAlencar. She can assist you with this application.

As offers come in from different organizations to assist students with back to school clothes/supplies, Christmas gifts, food, etc...only those families who are on free/reduced lunch will be eligible to receive these services. Please use the link below to update your application:

https://www.myschoolapps.com/

Breakfast and lunch menus can be found at the link below:

Menus

The district has changed the policy for students who charge their lunches when their lunch accounts are out of money. Students will be allowed to charge up to 15 days. Once that limit has been reached and the account has not be updated, students will be given an alternate breakfast and lunch.

Please ensure that your child's account is kept updated. If you need assistance due to finances, please take time to apply for the free/reduced lunch at the application above.

PTO meetings this year will be the second Tuesday of each month unless that falls on a holiday week. Below is a list of the fall dates. PTO will be held over TEAMS video meetings this year. We hope to get many more parents involved so please consider volunteering to help out our PTO.

Dates for fall meetings:

September 10

October 8

November 5

December 10

A link for the meetings will be sent out on Monday before the meeting.

AUGUST

8 - Meet the Teacher

14 - First day of school

SEPTEMBER

2 - School holiday

6 - Goodies with Grands

18 - Read for a Better Life Kick Off

19 - Parent Information Night 5:30 - 7:00 p.m.

26 - Fall Pictures/Canes Spirit Night

27 - Moving with Moms 7:00 - 7:45 a.m.

OCTOBER

11 - Student holiday

14 - School holiday

17 - Spring Creek BBQ Night

26 - OR Feeder Trunk or Treat

27- November 1 - Red Ribbon Week

NOVEMBER

1 - Class pictures/retakes

4 - Student holiday

5 - Student holiday

7 - Fall Festival 5:30 - 7:00 p.m.

11 - 3rd grade Veterans' Day Program

25 - 29 - Thanksgiving Holiday

DECEMBER

12 - 2nd grade holiday program

20 - Early Release

23 - January 3 - Winter Break