The Cannon Connection

Good morning Cannon Cubs,

We are looking forward to the start of the school year August 17th! I enjoyed seeing some of our families this weekend at the drive-thru Back to School Fair! This year, your child will have opportunities to interact with and learn from all the teachers on the grade level. Students will be assigned a homeroom teacher; however, this year we know that we will have some challenges for all of us and we feel it is important that students feel connected to all the teachers on the grade level. Flexibility and relationships are key! Next week, our grade level teams will be contacting your student to introduce themselves and welcome them to this school year as well as provide next steps for the first day on remote learning.

Many of you may already know, but on Friday, July 31st, the GCISD Board of Trustees voted unanimously to start the school year with students learning in a remote setting from August 17- September 7th. For those that selected in-person learning, that day has been changed from September 28th to Tuesday, September 8th. Those that selected the remote learning option will continue that learning medium until the end of the 9 week grading period, after which parents can elect to continue or change their learning option.

As we quickly approach the beginning of the 2020-2021 school year, there are still some families that have not completed Skyward registration. If the District does not have a completed registration for your student, we will begin contacting families over the course of the next several days to discuss your plans for the upcoming school year and assist with the registration process if needed. If you have any questions or need to register your student, please reach out to our campus data secretary Lynn Amante lynn.amante@gcisd.net.

Thank you for your continued support!

Proud to be your principal,

Tina Garrett

#BeCannonProud

We are excited to announce our new staff members and grade level changes:

Kinder - Emily Matheny and Alexa Barker

1st grade - Bahieh Hashemi, Paige Summers, and Jennifer Pettit (new to grade level)

2nd grade - Candace Hall and Roheen Ali (new to grade level)

3rd grade - Marina Luepnitz (new to grade level)

4th grade - Kayla Turner and Peter Doyle

5th grade - Annie Parker

Special Services - Stacey Curtis

Diagnostician - Lloyette Nelson

Speech Pathologist - Orquidea Tavarez

On Friday, August 14, our grade level teachers would like to welcome our new 2020 scholars while also handing out supplies, learning kits, and devices to our Kinder Cubs! Please plan to drive thru the main front driveway during your grade level time to meet the grade level teachers and pick up supplies for a great start to the 2020 school year.

Schedule

Kinder - 7:30 - 8:30 (iPad Pick Up, Fundations Kits, STEM Kits )

1st - 8:30 (Fundations Kit, STEM Kits)

2nd - 9:00 (Fundations Kit, STEM Kits)

3rd - 9:30 (STEM Kits)

4th - 10:00 -10:30 (STEM Kits)

5th - 10:30-11:00 (STEM Kits)

*Literacy Specialists will also be providing specialty Dyslexia materials.

Key safety points:

• Route begins in the bus circle drive (by cafeteria) and ends in the front circle drive.

• Please remain in your vehicle at all times. Items will be placed in the trunk of your car.

• Staff will be wearing masks and will practice social distancing. Masks are encouraged for all participating families.

School vaccination rules are in effect for the 2020-2021 school year. Students should be up-to-date, in the process of receiving vaccines or have a valid exemption on file when school starts in the fall. For a list of vaccine requirements for K-12, and Pre-K, go to the Texas School webpage. For a list of providers who offer low-cost vaccines, go to the Texas Vaccines for Children Provider Locator webpage.

School vaccination rules are in effect regardless of whether the education is received via virtual learning or on campus.

Unfortunately, there is an area of our school community, Ticknor Terrace, that does not qualify for transportation services. Areas less than two miles from the school with an area for walking do not qualify for services. If you have additional questions, please call 817-251-5592.

The official place for all protocols concerning the 2020-2021 school year is the GCISD Fall 2020 Draft Guide. The guide is regularly updated, and updates are always noted as they become available. Additionally, the guide is subject to change based on additional information and guidance from Texas Governor Greg Abbott, Texas Education Agency (TEA) Commissioner Mike Morath and other local, state and federal agencies.

Some of the most recent updates to the Guide have included nutrition services protocols during remote learning, cleaning and disinfecting protocols when in-person instruction begins, preventative practices for stopping the spread of COVID-19 and much more.

As plans evolve for the 2020-2021 school year, GCISD is gathering questions from families, staff, students and the community concerning various topics. GCISD is compiling some of the top questions in this Frequently Asked Questions page and providing answers as we can.

The page is divided into sections such as remote learning, cleaning protocols, extracurriculars and much more for ease of navigation. Included on the page are questions like the one below, so if you have any unanswered questions, please check the Frequently Asked Questions page.

Please Pardon Our Dust!!

We are very excited to share that after a tremendous amount of work over the past couple of months by our volunteers, our PTA is nearing completion of a total restructure of our virtual technology and online services in order to effectively serve our school, community, students and staff during this challenging school year. Please take a moment to visit our new and improved website at www.cannonpta.org to register on our database, renew your membership or join for the first time, and add contact information of your choosing to the PTA member directory. We are really excited about this newest online directory feature, as it will allow our Cannon families to stay connected during virtual learning this school year and beyond! Also included on the website is a page introducing this year’s PTA Officers. We are still building our Committees, Volunteers, online Spirit Store and fundraising pages so stay tuned. And don’t worry, although we have now officially changed domains from a .com to a .org, the two domains are permanently linked so you can reach us from either one. All PTA email addresses have also been updated to our .org domain, but just like our website, the accounts are linked in order to avoid any disruption of service to you and our community.

Because the current primary focus for everyone is the health and safety of our scholars and staff, GCISD is strictly prohibiting any outside use of school facilities for large gatherings, meetings, fundraisers, family programs, and PTA activities this year until further notice. We fully understand and completely support this decision. However, it requires that we completely reinvent how we will fund our annual budget this year. It will require we think “ outside the box” and collaboratively work to be able to provide the much needed tangible and intangible support that our students, teachers and families have come to appreciate and certainly deserve. All of our PTA meetings will be conducted virtually using Webex. All fundraising efforts will be conducted on line, including T-shirt sales, and any financial transactions will be completed thru our secure and convenient website portal.

This year, our focus will shift from funding school programs, family gatherings and events, field trips, class parties and professional development for our teachers, to supporting the social/emotional wellbeing of our school community, purchasing much needed cleaning and personal protective supplies, teacher and staff appreciation opportunities, and of course recruiting PTA members.

I am honored to serve as your PTA President again this year. As always, if you have any questions, concerns, or ideas for our PTA, please do not hesitate to email me at president@cannonpta.org.

We are all in this together! Together, we CAN do this!

Respectfully,

Keri Grant, President

Cannon PTA

#YOUCANPTA

Email: tina.garrett@gcisd.net
Website: https://can.gcisd.net/
Location: Cannon Elementary School, West College Street, Grapevine, TX, USA
Phone: (817) 568-5680
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cannonSTEM/
Twitter: @canSTEM