Carrillo Community Update

Happy Sunday Carrillo Families!

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and will enjoy tomorrow's holiday! For our community members who are veterans, on behalf of the Carrillo faculty and staff, I want to extend our gratitude for you service as we honor Veteran's Day tomorrow.

This week our student will honor Carrillo Community Veterans at our Veteran's Day Show on Wednesday, November 13th at 1:00 pm. This week is also Kindness Week! SAWT, Student Council, and Ms. Freeman have planned several fun lunchtime activities to celebrate our commitment to kindness. Check it out below. Thursday is our 3rd annual celebration of Ruby Bridges Day. Student Council and SWAT will again take the lead on this event.

Don't forget that next Tuesday we will hold a 2nd Magnet Family Night, Game Night! Last year we had a lot of fun, and hope even more families can attend this year! Finally next Wednesday is the annual SWAT/Student Council Walk-A-Thon! Thank you for helping collect pledges to support those student groups. All the funds raised come right back to the students in the form of supplies, PE equipment and other direct student supports.

Finally, thank you to everyone who attended last week's Peter Piper Pizza Night! We had a great turn out and it was fun to se so many students and families connecting outside of school.

Let's make it another amazing week!

Sincerely,

Ms. Bittel

THIS WEEK

Monday, November 11

• Veteran's Day (No Classes)

Tuesday, November 12

• Kindness Week Begins

Wednesday, November 13th

• Veteran's Day performance (grades K-2)

Thursday, November 14

• Ruby Bridges Walk to School Day

COMING SOON

Tuesday, November 19

• Family Game Night 5:00 - 7:00 pm (last entry at 6:30 pm)

Wednesday, November 20

• Walk-A-Thon

Thursday, November 28

• Thanksgiving Break begins

Thank you Student Council, SWAT and MS. Freeman! This year's Kindness Week looks like a blast! Here are all the fun activities that are planned to help encourage kindness.

• Tuesday - Make Kindness Chains at Lunch
• Wednesday - Wear Kindness Themed clothes and create a Kindness Crown at lunch
• Thursday - Ruby Bridges Day - wear purple
• Friday - Create Kindness Bookmarks

Six year old Ruby Bridges stepped into the history books in 1960 when she integrated William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans becoming a national icon for the civil rights movement. Carrillo students will join students across the country who are continuing the movement to end racism and unify our communities.

We are asking all students to wear purple to honor Ruby Bridges.

At 8:30 am on Thursday the 14th, Student Council will address the Carrillo student body, all students will process around the school and will re-enact Ruby Bridges historic entrance through Carrillo's front doors. Parents are welcome to process with their students, but we ask that you allow them to enter the school on their own. Thank you!

Now that it is cooling off, it is time for our annual Walk-A-Thon! Your students will be coming home with a Walk-A-Thon pledge sheet and all the funds raised during the walk-a-thon will come back to the Carrillo SWAT Team and Student Council. This year's Walk-A-Thon will occur on Wednesday, November 20th so students have lots of time to collect pledges.

Their goal is to raise $2,000 which we can do if every student is able to help raise $5. Last school year the funds raised provided agendas to grades 4 and 5, homework folders to grades K-3, sports equipment for recess and classroom use, hot cocoa in the winter, and other classroom projects.

If your student's flier gets lost in the "Backpack Express" we've attached another for you in the update. Thank you in advance for your support!

As those of you who attended the last PTO meeting know, while we did earn our "A" letter grade, we received zero points on the area of attendance. These points are important to helping ensure our letter grade. Thank you helping us keep our points by dropping your student off on time every day and scheduling appointments outside of school hours so students receive a full day of education. This helps our attendance points but more importantly, the more students are in school, the more they learn!

So far in November, we have 131 students with perfect attendance! Here are the top 4 classes.

2nd place (3-way tie) - Ms. Lujan, Ms. Matsushino and, Ms. Morales - 52% of students

1st place - Ms. Peralta's class 58% of students

Tardies and absences add up. Thank you for helping us meet our school goal of 95% and helping your students learn all they can by being present and engaged.

We encourage our students to log on to IXL at home to help them fill in gaps and stay sharp in ELA and Math. Here are the top three classes overall this year. Logging in and mastering 2 skills per subject during the week can make a tremendous impact on student learning! Thank you for encouraging your student to work on their personal growth at home each week!

IXL Leaderboards

#3 - Ms. Maldonado's with 11 hours and 46 minutes of at-home practice.

#2 - Ms. Barraza's class with 15 hours and 05 minutes of at-home practice.

#1 - Ms. Peralta's class with 15 hours and 32 minutes of at-home practice.

iReady Leaderboards

#3 - Ms. Torres class with 83% of students above 30 minutes of practice.

#2 - Ms. Leyva with 85% of students above 30 minutes of practice.

#1 - Ms. Lujan with 100% of students above 30 minutes of practice.

Great job Cougars! This dedication is what makes you A+!

Our younger students can use iReady at home. For all student at-home applications, please have your students log into their Clever Accounts to access either IXL or iReady. While iReady doesn't report at-home vs at-school usage, I've seen great growth for students working on 1-2 iReady lessons each week!

On November 14, New York Life is partnering with Sesame Workshop to host an event for parents, educators, and grief professionals to help our youngest children navigate the impact of loss. Please click on the link below to register for virtual or in-person attendance.

Virtual attendance: please register here

In-person attendance: please register here

Families with children: please register here; there will be milk and cookies!

Click to read more

For returning students...

• Please go to your ParentVUE account, confirm or update your student’s information.
• Add a current proof of residency
• Please NOTE: Online registration is required for all students every school year.

**The first class with 100% registered will win a pizza party!

For incoming kindergarteners...

• Visit the Carrillo Registration Page.
• Verify your address to see if you are within the Carrillo boundary.
• If you are in the boundary, submit your registrations and be sure to upload the following documents with your registration.
• Student birth certificate
• Proof of Address
• Student Vaccination Record
• Parent Identification
• If you live outside the neighborhood boundary, please submit a magnet application
• Please NOTE: Sibling s of current students are required to submit a magnet application they are not automatically enrolled at Carrillo.

*Please call the front office at 520-225-1200 if you need assistance.

It’s not always easy to be kind, and it’s particularly challenging when someone is unkind to us. Our tendency is to mirror the emotions, feelings, and mood of that person. When someone is warm to us, we’re warm in return. Likewise, if someone is rude, dismissive, or hurtful, our tendency is to react with similar disrespect. However, we can choose to act with intentional kindness when someone has been unkind or inappropriate. Stop, take a breath, and think about the kind way to respond. We might...

• Be kind to ourselves and walk away from the situation, especially if speaking up feels too hard or not safe.
• Calmly let the other person know their behavior is hurtful.
• Ask a trusted adult for help.

When we’re regularly practicing our kindness skills and feel good about ourselves, we can prioritize kind responses to unkind behavior, even if that means putting ourselves first. It can be an act of self-kindness to decline to mirror negative behaviors.

Consider having a family discussion around the prompt... “What does kindness look like when someone is unkind to you?”

Thank you to everyone who attended the last PTO meeting. Your feedback on the Fall Fest will make next year's event even better! Please mark your calendars for our next meeting. It is Wednesday, December 4th at 6:00 pm online. Please use this link to join the meeting. We will be finalizing Posadas support as well as Santa Comes to Carrillo Night.

PTO Board

• President - Aaron Valencia
• VP - Roy Massani
• Secretary - Margaret Zuniga
• Treasurer - Angelina Celix

The minutes from our October meeting are attached below. Please email PTO if you have any questions.

Thank you to everyone who supported our "Box Tops for Education" fundraiser this year! As of Sunday, November 10th Carrillo has raised an astounding $161.50 with 8 earning moments this month! Be sure to keep checking out the Bonus offers and monthly challenges for ways to earn extra box tops.

This month there are 2 big opportunities for bonus box tops. You can earn 50 bonus tops ($5.00) if f you connect your Walmart account and your Box Tops account. Second, the November Challenge awards 20 bonus box tops ($2.00) if you purchase and scan 10 products this month. See the app for other bonus offers. And remember, scan even if you don't have a participating item. Last year, we won $20 through the Box Tops Sweepstakes.

LEADERBOARD

1st Place - Kindergarten (298 box tops)

2nd Place - 4th Grade (102 box tops)

3rd Place - 2nd Grade (98 box tops)

4th Place - 1st Grade (75 box tops)

5th Place - 5th Grade (32 box tops)

6th Place - 3rd Grade (3 box tops)

Thank you to Adrian at Big Frog! This year, when you purchase Cougar spirit gear, $5 will come back to the school to support students. The store has this year's "Growing Together" shirts for students and parents, as well as our classic shirts and some designs from previous years. Check out the store online.

The TUSD Mexican American Student Services Department is holding FREE Saturday academic tutoring by qualified teachers to help students with reading, writing, and math.

Limited space available for students in grades 3rd to 8th

When: September through May

Starts: September 7th.

Register by calling 520.232.8566 or by email.

Tucson Community Tennis is starting their FREE fall tennis clinics for students.

Who – ​Children grades 1st through 12th​

How Much - $5 donation for the semester

What – ​Tennis clinic with certified coaches​

Where -​ Pueblo High School Tennis courts​

When -​ Saturdays​ September 14 to December 14, 2024

Time - 12 and Under - 8 – 9:30 and 18 and Under – 8 - 10

Contact – ​If interested email: ​Stacy Renner or call 520-591-8904​

Casa de los Ninos is one of our community partnerships. They offer a variety of community education and outreach classes. Please check out the flyer below to see the dates and topics in September. Email Carol Bolger with questions.

Thank you for your patience as we get students dismissed as quickly as possible. We need your help with a few things.

17th STREET PICK UP

1. Please park by Tucson Water, or wait in your car.
2. For those waiting in their cars, a school staff member will come by and radio for your student to come to you.
3. Thank you for keeping your music low and arriving after 2:30 pm. Our neighbors appreciate it.
4. Families with only intermediate students (grades 3-5) your students are generally the last to dismiss, if you can arrive at 2:50 that will allow us to help the kinder and first graders off campus and speed up pickup.

FOR PARENTS WAITING INSIDE

1. If you arrive before 2:30 pm we need you to sign in at the main office and wait in the art gallery on the main floor until 2:45.

Parents volunteers are welcome on campus. Speak with our office manager (Kenia Alvarado-Martinez) or our Magnet Coordinator (Rebecca Stroup) to learn how you can volunteer! We also encourage families to attend PTO meetings to learn about other ways to support our Carrillo Cougars. We encourage all parents to register as volunteers on the TUSD website as the process takes a few weeks. We ask non-parental volunteers to contact the office before registering as a volunteer so we can explain the process and coordinate volunteer opportunities.

Parents, we are asking for your help with social media. As a reminder, most social media user agreements state that users must be 13 or older to have an account. Please take a moment to discuss the reasons for the age limits with your students.

Most social media sites do not allow attacks or abuse based on race, ethnicity, national origin, sex, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, disability or disease. Please encourage students to be socially conscious and report any accounts that violate those policies directly to the social media platform before blocking the account.

Attendance at school is directly correlated to student achievement, so it is extremely important they are in school every single day to be successful. Research shows that missing more than 8 days of school can cause significant gaps in a student’s education. Please try to schedule appointments or family outings around the school schedule and during school holidays. To help track attendance goals, we've created a "Path to Success" attendance tracker you can use at home to help us make our 95% goal. You can download it by opening the attachment on your computer.

A student is considered "chronically absent" if they miss more than 10% of the school year. Students who miss more than 5 days a quarter are considered at risk for chronic absenteeism. If your student reaches this number, we will be reaching out to see how we can support you in getting your students to school on time.

State law requires parents to call in to report student absences. Parents, you can now immediately report an absence from school using ParentVue. This reduces the calls in our attendance office and allows you to directly enter the reason students are absent. To self-report simply follow the steps below.

1. Log into ParentVue from App or Computer
2. Click the "Attendance" tab on the left column on the computer or on the App as soon as you log in the blue "report absence" with a small bell icon is there.
3. On the top right corner of the page it will have a blue link that says "Report Absence" click on this
4. Use the calendar to select dates and the drop-down for the reason for the absence.
5. You may also add notes or upload a doctor's note and hit "save".

Of course, you may still give Ms. Diane Quiroz a ring at (520) 225-1200 if you prefer. Thank you for reporting all absences!

**Students who attend Carrillo as Magnet students may be asked to return to their home school if they accumulate excessive absences and/or tardies.**

Did you know that all TUSD elementary magnet students are eligible for transportation if they live more than 1.5 miles from the school?

For more information, visit Transportation's website to see if your student qualifies for FREE transportation and to begin routing. We strongly encourage families to consider this option for this school year. It's a great way to help your student develop independence and responsibility. You can also call them at 520-225-6262.

Due to some budget changes, the earliest students can be dropped off is 7:35 am at 17th Street. The office does not open until 8:00 and while Ms. Bittel is usually on campus well before 8:00, she is often in meetings or other parts of the building and unable to hear the doorbell. From 7:35 - 8:00 the only safe drop off is 17th Street. Thank you for helping us to keep all our cougars safe in the morning.

Parent Pickup will continue to be at 17th street. Thank you for remaining in your car. We’ll be using radios and a loudspeaker to call for students this year in hopes of speeding up the process. Please note that the city has redefined some fire lanes that must be kept open along Samaniego with bright red paint. Thank you for not parking or stopping in those spaces. Thank you also for keeping the neighborhood driveways and mailboxes open as a courtesy to our neighbors. Thank you for your help!

We know that the 17th Street area can get a bit congested at pickup. To help alleviate the situation, the City of Tucson has installed new signs to direct traffic and changed the direction of Samaniego Street. The City of Tucson is requesting that families picking up on 17th Street exit the neighborhood using the following route.

• Travel west on 17th Street
• Turn south on 11th Avenue
• Turn west to access the frontage road or turn east to return to Main Avenue and 22nd Street.

Our neighbors kindly ask that you leave the driveways and corners open when you park so they can enter and exit their homes safely. If you do wait in your car along Samaniego, thank you for waiting at the bottom of the hill on the east side of the street so the roadway is clear for all vehicles and families crossing the street.

We are also asking families to arrive no earlier than 2:35 on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday and no earlier than 1:35 on Wednesdays. Parents of intermediate students, if you plan to arrive at 2:50 or 1:50, that will give the primary students time to load up and reduce your wait time.

Thank you also for being patient, driving slowly, and watching the road carefully. The streets behind Carrillo are narrow and we want to avoid any accidents. Our neighbors kindly request that everyone drive like they live in the neighborhood, and many of our cougars do. Thank you for helping us keep our Cougars and our community safe.

If your child is walking/riding home, thank you for ensuring the office has a note giving permission at the beginning of every school year. Thank you for making any pickup arrangements with your student prior to your student coming to school.

Stay current on our events by visiting our Facebook Page as well as the school website. If you have any questions, comments, suggestions, or concerns please reach out. It is our mission to provide all students with a first-rate education in a kind and respectful environment.

Email the Principal:
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Location: 440 South Main Avenue, Tucson, AZ, USA
Phone: (520) 225-1200
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Mission Statement

Carrillo K-5 Communication and Creative Arts Magnet School engages children's minds, bodies, and senses using multiple modes of learning, thought, and self-expression.

Vision Statement

At Carrillo K-5 Communication and Creative Arts Magnet School, students become 21st Century leaders in a diverse world, through the development of a strong academic core, communication skills and creative arts abilities.