Tiger Tribune

Dear Theiss Families,

Welcome back! We are excited to kick off the new semester and embrace the opportunities a new year brings. We hope your holiday break was filled with rest, joy, and quality time with loved ones. As we return to campus, we’re eager to dive into learning and strengthen our connections as a Theiss family. Be sure to check the “Important Events” section of this newsletter for upcoming family and community activities—we’d love to see you there!

This week, our focus will be on reviewing behavior expectations and refreshing procedures in all areas of the school. Students will revisit routines such as walking in the hallways, cleaning up after themselves in the cafeteria, and specific classroom procedures like transitioning between activities and preparing for the day. These refreshers help set the tone for a smooth and successful semester. As always, you’ll find a “Procedures” section in this newsletter with helpful updates, and previous newsletters remain accessible via the links at the bottom of this one.

The start of a new year is also a wonderful time for reflection and goal-setting. Over the next few weeks, students will be working with their teachers to set personal and academic goals. We’re thrilled to continue our tradition of recognizing "Goal Getters" who achieve their objectives. Students meeting their goals will be celebrated during morning announcements and will receive certificates for their accomplishments. Our newly refreshed bulletin board is ready to showcase the names of our hardworking students who are striving for success in various areas this semester.

As always, thank you for your continued partnership and dedication to your child’s education. We are excited to work together to make 2025 a fantastic year at Theiss!

Respectfully,
Mrs. Jessica Taylor
Principal, Theiss Elementary School

Save the Date for January:

1/8 School resumes!

1/20 Student and Staff Holiday

1/23 - 2/7 Skate Unit in PE for all grades

TBD **Rescheduled** - Barnhill Animal Preserve Presentation, K-3

1/31 **Rescheduled **Learning Celebrations parade @ 10:00 AM & 9 Weeks Treats after lunches

1/27-31 Winter Book Fair

1/27 Blood Drive @ Theiss, 12 - 4 PM

1/28 KISD Elementary Spelling Bee

1/28 **RESCHEDULED** PTO General Meeting, 2 PM

1/29 Doerre Parent Night for 5th graders

1/30 PTO Sponsored Dudes & Donuts

1/31 PTO Hospitality Luncheon

This Spring, we will be expanding our campus' language of learning by introducing our Learner Dispositions. These are character traits that support mindsets for learning. Our teachers conducted many brainstorming sessions to arrive at these dispositions. These are by no means the only ones that exist, but the ones we plan to focus on to develop student ownership of learning. Each week, we will focus on one of these and teachers will introduce the disposition during community circle. Here's the schedule we will follow.

Jan. 21 & 28 - I am a goal setter.

Feb. 3 & 17 - I am persistent.

Feb. 24 & Mar 3- I am a challenge seeker

Mar 10 & 24 - I am a collaborator

Mar 31 & Apr 7 - I am curious.

Parents - Please make sure your child is prepared to skate in PE during the next couple of week.

Here's some things to remember:

• Wear thick socks
• Be prepared to put pads on for protection (pads provided)
• Students can bring their own helmet
• Get ready for some fun!

**Note: If we should have weather delays next week, the unit will start on the first day we are back at school and be extended by the same number of days that were missed.

If you have not turned in your permission slip for your child to participate, please reach out to your teacher or check your child's backpack. We must have these for each student to view the presentation.

We are excited to celebrate our students and all they have learned in Quarter 2! We will host a parade for students to show off their learning and parents are invited! We will utilize the same parade route as we planned in the Fall. Parents and family members will not need to RSVP or sign in at the front office. We will rope off a VIP section of our front porch for parents and family members to walk up to in order to have prime viewing of the parade. We hope you will be able to join us and cheer all our students on! They all have made incredible growth this school year!

This year we are using Lifetouch to create our memory book this school year. Parents of 5th graders are still able to order ads and all parents can decide if they want a soft or hard cover book when they use the link to purchase the yearbook. This year our librarian, Mrs. Reece, will be working with a group of 5th grade students to create our memory book. Don't miss out and order now to get the early bird price!

Our Memory Book Club, composed of 5th graders and led by Mrs. Reece, is looking for additional photos that can spotlight school life of students at Theiss. You can submit your photos using this link. You will be prompted to log in with your Lifetouch account credentials or create a new account. The Memory Book Club will review photos submitted using their criteria and determine if and where the photo would be best placed. We hope to use as many photos as possible, but please understand that we cannot guarantee that all photos will be used.

Our monthly competitions for perfect attendance have been fierce! In November, 4th grade won the prize with 51 days total of perfect attendance. Mrs. Nooyen's class had the highest number of any class with 14 days of perfect attendance out of 16 days in November. Congrats to 4th grade and Mrs. Nooyen's Class!

In order to give staff a 2% raise this year, it cost Klein ISD 7.4 million dollars.

Our legislators are gearing up for their next session starting in January, and we need help to advocate for public schools. The student allotment that funds our schools has not changed since 2019, and school districts across Texas are struggling to make ends meet. We have been fortunate in Klein that our school district was able to avoid many of the cuts that our neighboring districts had to make this school year. This year, Klein has specific priorities that they are advocating for at the state level that will most benefit our school district. Please click on the link above to learn more about the priorities.

As many of you know, we are growing as a student body, and space is limited for the many visitors that we have on a regular basis during lunch. To help ensure we have adequate space for our visitors, we assign designated days for visitor lunches. Starting in October, we will begin to utilize the following schedule:

Tuesday: PK, 1st, 3rd

Wednesday: Kinder, 4th

Thursday: 2nd, 5th

We will continue to allow visitors to eat with students on their birthday. If your child's birthday was over the weekend, visitors can use Monday or Friday to eat with your child for their birthday.

**Please remember that you may only bring lunch for your own child, and not for other students.

Please be aware that students who arrive or are dropped off prior to 7:40 are not supervised by adults. We expect any students arriving early to sit against the wall and wait patiently for school to open. Students should not be riding bikes under the bus porch, playing ball or other games during arrival as this creates safety concerns for all. Banging and kicking on the door as well as screaming at others who are inside the cafeteria is unacceptable behavior by both adults and children. Our staff begins their morning duty at 7:40.

Campus Kids operates starting at 6:30 AM in our cafeteria and provides adult supervision for students prior to the school day starting. Click here to enroll!

We are dedicated first and foremost provide a safe and secure school setting for your children. Please know that these expectations must be followed for every visitors every time they visit.

1. Ring the doorbell.
2. Identify yourself, your child and your purpose for the visit.
3. Show a valid photo ID to the camera near the doorbell and signage.

On the sign, you can see in fine print that you should not let other parties in behind you. I know it may feel awkward to ask people the let the door close instead of following in behind you, but it does help us ensure we are following the KISD protocol for every visitor every time they visit our campus.

*The only exceptions to this protocol will occur when we have large campus events. We have a campus specific protocol for special events due to the number of visitors that arrive at one time.

Now that the school year is off to a great start, we want all parents and guardians to be aware that tardies count toward student's attendance. Getting the school day off to the right start is very important for our students to be successful, and our instruction begins as soon as the tardy bell rings. Please help us by dropping your child off before 8:10 so they can make it to class and be in their seats as we begin announcements for the day and start normal routines. Children thrive off of routines in and out of school, so making a consistent morning routine at home helps students create consistent morning routines at school as well.

This year, perfect attendance awards will be recognized in each quarter's learning celebrations. In order to receive the perfect attendance award, students may not have more than 3 tardies for the quarter in addition to zero absences. Each quarter the tardies and absences will be reset for the award purpose, however cumulative totals will be used to identify families in need of intervention for attendance throughout the year.

Increasing our attendance rate, as well as decreasing tardies and early dismissals is part of our campus improvement plan each year, as it plays a part in our accountability system. Our attendance rate overall for last year grew 1% from the year before, which is great progress. We continue to strive for a 97% rate or higher by the end of the school year. Thank you for doing your part in helping our attendance rate!

We are committed to safety for our students and, in doing so, have updated our drop off procedure for students and staff to align with our feeder schools.

• Food deliveries for staff will be dropped off on a cart on the front porch, so no unauthorized delivery people will enter the school.
• Food delivery service drop offs for students will be turned away.
• We highly discourage dropping off fast food meals for our students.
• Student drop offs (food or forgotten items) will be left on a cart in our vestibule.
• Only parents/guardians can drop off lunch for their child, and their child only.
• Parents will need to write the student's name and teacher on a sticky note and leave it on the cart.
• Students will come through the front office to pick up their items and return back to class through the front office.
• Parents are responsible for making sure students know to come get the dropped off item by coordinating in advance. For forgotten items (glasses etc...), please send the teacher a Remind. The teacher will send the student to pick up when possible.
• Please note that our teachers are focused on teaching the class, and may not immediately see any messages about forgotten items or lunch drop offs. Please make sure that your child has everything they need for the day each morning as they come to school.
• We will follow standard protocols and require IDs to enter the vestibule to drop off items.

Thank you for understanding and following these new procedures.

If you have legal paperwork regarding your child's custody arrangement or regarding people who need to have restricted access to your child, please bring the original document with the judges signature to the office so we can make a copy to retain in your child's cumulative record. We follow all the legal requirements of court ordered documents, and are able to fully comply best when we have the records on file.

We are kicking off a new year, and our PTO board is planning great things for this school year! Check out these links for more information about PTO and how you can get involved!

PTO Facebook Page

Interested in Volunteering?

1. All volunteers MUST complete a background check through Raptor. It only takes a few minutes! Click here to complete.
2. Join PTO - it's free! Use the QR code below.
3. Want to learn more about KISD Volunteers? Click here to access the KISD site for volunteers.

We love to celebrate birthdays with your child and will work hard to make it a special day for them at school!

However, sending invitations to school to pass out will not be allowed. Instructional time cannot be used to support or promote private social events such as birthday parties.

At this time, we will not be accepting birthday treat bags. If you would like to arrange for an edible treat to be shared for your child's birthday during the lunch period, please follow the KISD protocols and begin the process 2 weeks in advance. No food brought up to the office will be allowed without going through this process. Thank you for your cooperation.

We'll post links to all the previous newsletter from this school year here!

August

September

October

November

December

January

February/March

April

May

Join our Facebook group to get instant updates from the website!

Find our calendar of events, contact information for staff, request additional car tags and more!

www.theiss.kleinisd.net

Website: theiss.kleinisd.net
Location: 17510 Theiss Mail Route Road, Spring, TX, USA
Phone: 832-484-5900
Facebook: facebook.com/TheissElementary