The Howl

Cox Families -

We've had another great week at Cox Intermediate! School is in full swing and our students are doing amazing! It's been fun watching friendships form and students interact and socialize throughout the day. We are fortunate to have such a great group of kids on our campus!

We've been pretty flexible on the dress code these last few days because we wanted to focus on our routines and daily schedules. We began reviewing dress code on announcements this week, and ask that our parents assist us in ensuring students are in school appropriate clothes each day. Shorts (for both males and females) should hit mid-thigh (near the fingertips). All shirts should cover the stomach area when students raise their hands. The biggest issues we've seen so far are the bubble shorts and crop tops. When purchasing athletic shorts for school, please consider an inseam of at least 4 inches. Thank you!

Please take a moment to read through all the activities that are coming up at Cox Intermediate and in the GOHS Feeder.

Have a great weekend!

Liz Koehler

Monday, Sept 2nd:

• Labor Day - No School!

Tuesday, Sept 3rd:

• 5th Grade Open House - 5:30 pm

Thursday, Sept 5th:

• 6th Grade Open House - 5:30 pm

Monday, Sept 23rd:

• PTO Boosterthon Kick Off!

Tuesday, Oct 1st:

• Boosterthon Fun Run

Thursday, Oct 10th:

• House Sorting Day!

Friday, Oct 11th:

• Exchange Day for Staff - No school for students

Monday, Oct 14th:

• No School

Mark your calendars! The annual GOHS Homecoming Parade is Monday, September 23rd at 6:00 PM. Join together with the Grand Oaks community to show your support of GOHS! Don't forget to wear blue.

In an effort to help our families who have students at both York and Cox, or families who carpool with students at both York and Cox, we are going to allow our Cox students to be released as walkers (at 3:55 pm) in order to meet up with their siblings/carpool at York. This means that parents will be able to pick up all their students at York JH and will only need to sit in ONE car rider line instead of both. As always, no students may be picked up from Waterbend Cove.

Students will be responsible for walking over to York on their own and finding their sibling/carpool. Please speak to your Cox student about a meet up location this weekend if you are choosing to participate in this opportunity. Students will not be supervised by Cox staff once they are released as walkers.

On Monday, August 26th, a staff member from Cox Intermediate will walk the students to the entry of York JH. This will allow us to show them the correct route to take to York. Students will walk down the sidewalk on Waterbend Cove, across at the crosswalk, and then walk up the sidewalk to York. No student should ever pass through the back parking lot.

If you are planning to participate in this carpool opportunity, please fill out this survey: https://forms.gle/inY693mfvXq71KAc9.

How can we get kids excited about learning? Destination Imagination (DI) is a program that encourages the application of creative problem-solving techniques and tools while developing creative and critical thinking skills in the students who are involved.

Destination Imagination is a competition where teams consist of two to seven students. These teams then choose from six challenges which are developed to encourage students to think about the challenge topic, to learn how to research, and to apply what they have learned. DI offers the following types of Team Challenges: Technical, Scientific, Fine Arts, Improvisational, Engineering, or Service-Learning. Teams meet at least once a week after school for six months (Sept - Feb) to solve their challenge. They then present their Team Challenge and Instant Challenge solutions to appraisers on February 22nd at The Woodlands High School.

Tom Cox will have parent-led teams and a limited number of teacher-led teams. All team managers must complete the volunteer application (https://www.conroeisd.net/parents/get-involved/) and be approved as a CISD volunteer. If you are interested in forming a team and being a team manager, please contact Tara Bodin, tbodin@conroeisd.net, 281-465-3206.

If your child is interested in being part of a Destination Imagination team, there is an Destination Imagination Awareness meeting, Tuesday, August 27th from 6:00-7:00 pm at Kaufman Elementary. Kaufman is located at 2760 Northridge Forest, Spring, 77386.

Sincerely,

Tara Bodin

tbodin@conroeisd.net

We have some exciting news! Delilah is so excited to meet all our students and staff at Tom Cox Intermediate. She is a 2-year-old Golden Retriever that demonstrates all the wonderful typical characteristics of the breed. She is intelligent, trusting, and loves everyone. She also loves to share her toys and receive lots of snuggles!

Our hope is that she will visit about once a week, and her visits will have a positive impact on both students and staff. Delilah lives with Mrs. Bodin and her family and will be in the counseling office when not moving around the school. She is fully vaccinated and will be kept on a short lead whilst moving around the school with a staff member. Please contact Mrs. Bodin with any questions or concerns, tbodin@conroeisd.net, 281-465-3206

Permission slips should be coming home soon. Please fill out the permission slip and return to your child's homebase teacher. Students will not be able to attend small group activities with Delilah unless there is a permission slip on file. Thanks!

Help spread our school spirit by purchasing your some spirit wear! All order are due by September 20th. PTO will deliver shirts to students once they have arrived.

Click here to order: https://spirit-wear-23-24-copy-42423.cheddarup.com/

On September 26, 2024, Conroe ISD will be hosting the Talk Saves Lives presentation at Lone Star College - Montgomery from 6:30-7:30 PM in room G102. If Conroe ISD staff attend, they could earn CEUs for it. If you have any questions, please email ldtaylor@conroeisd.net.

Arrival Procedures:

• Doors to TCI will open at 8:00 am and students will report to the cafeteria.
  
• While in the cafeteria, students will choose a seat and remain seated until dismissed.
• Students may read, play appropriate games, draw, complete homework, talk with friends, and be on their cell phones (no videos/photos and no headphones allowed) .
• Students with instruments will take their instruments to the band/orchestra classroom at 8:30 am when released from the cafeteria. All instruments should be dropped off by 8:40 am.
• Once students are seated, they may not move to a different location at the tables. Students who eat breakfast will be allowed to eat at their preferred spot.
• Students will be released by zones by a staff member at 8:30 am to locker and begin their day.
• Students “locker” and are seated in classroom by 8:50 am for morning announcements.

Car Riders should pull all the way up before unloading. This will assist us in getting students into the school in a quick and effective manner. The only time a parent should use that parking lot is when you are entering the school with your student. Students will NOT be allowed to exit their vehicle in the parking lot and walk across the car rider line. This creates a very unsafe situation for our students.

Bikers need to walk their bikes down the sidewalk to the bike racks. We will be installing more bike racks very soon to accommodate all our bikers. A big 'thank you' to Cox PTO for sponsoring our new bike racks!

Dismissal Procedures:

**New this year, Cox Intermediate will pass out car rider signs. Please place these signs on your dashboard as you pull into the car rider line. This will assist in helping us be quick and efficient!**

• An announcement will be made to release all bikers/walkers, first round of bus riders, and students to grab larger instruments from the band hall.
• Bikers/Walkers will exit the building at that time.
• Car Riders will return to class and wait for their names to be called on the intercom.
• First load of buses will load buses and head home.
• Once the first load of buses has departed Cox, all remaining bus riders will be called down the the gym or cafeteria to wait for their buses.

Dear Prospective Business Sponsor,

Greetings from the Cox Intermediate PTO!

We are extremely fortunate to have such an outstanding school with dedicated faculty, staff, and administration at Cox Intermediate. They are providing over 1100 children from seven area subdivisions with the strong foundations needed to grow, but they cannot do it alone. Each year our PTO oversees many fundraising efforts in order to raise the needed monies to support our annual expenses. These expenses include the funding of many programs such as school-wide technology additions and improvements, outdoor learning resources, recess and PE sports equipment, field trip transportation, online education memberships, student enrichment programs, staff appreciation, classroom grants, and SO much more!

Thanks to the generosity of previous business sponsorships and student product sales, the PTO was able to give Cox Intermediate funds to outfit our school cafeteria with a book vending machine, as well as purchase several Chromebook carts for student use. This year, the Cox PTO is kicking off our Fundraising Campaign on September 17th with a goal of $50,000! With your generous gifts, we will purchase technology, and also provide continued funding for the many smaller projects within the school that we support every year.

On behalf of the Cox PTO, I would like to personally invite your company to join our ever-growing community as a Business Sponsor for the 2024-2025 school year. In appreciation of your donation, we are offering five outstanding Sponsorship Levels designed to reward your generosity with multi-tiered levels of marketing, advertising, and promotional exposure to our school community of over 6.000 residents. These sponsorship levels are outlined in greater detail on the additional forms included in this package. If being a leveled-sponsor is not something that you can consider at this time, please do consider making a smaller donation. The Cox PTO is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, and all donations are 100% tax deductible. Please click on the link below to find sponsorship opportunities.

PTO Sponsorship Opportunities

It is our hope that your company will make its most generous donation in the interest of helping us advance the educational opportunities at your local public intermediate school. Thank you for your continued support of our community and the Cox PTO!

Kind regards,

Nicole Howser

PTO President

Kim Holzwarth

PTO VP Fundraising

Parents/Guardians:

We are excited about a new year and want your child to get off to a great start. All District campuses have breakfast and lunch available to students. To take advantage of meals at school you must: The District offers students breakfast and lunch at school. If you want your child to access this service, you will need to:

• Deposit and maintain funds in your child’s school lunch account through My School Bucks. (Please click to access My School Bucks)

• If you qualify, complete, on-line, a Free/Reduced Lunch Application. (Please click to access the application)

• If your child’s meal account balance is insufficient or depleted, he or she may “charge” up to 15-days before meal service is modified or stopped depending on the age of your child.

• Once a student has charged 10 times, a school administrator will contact you to make you aware of the situation and discuss options on how to clear your child’s charges, how to use My School Bucks, directions on completing a Free/Reduced application, or will consider any special circumstances. You will also receive notifications through Parent Access and email.

• Once the 15-day limit is exceeded and the account has not been replenished students elementary and intermediate school will receive a breakfast of milk and cereal and a sandwich and milk for lunch. Students in junior high and high school will not receive a meal. If there is an extenuating circumstance, contact your student’s counselor or principal to discuss options that may be available.

We are looking forward to a great year.

Sincerely,

<Principal>

2024-2025 Meal Prices

Breakfast Meal Prices

· Student Breakfast $2.00

· Student Reduced Breakfast $0

· Non-student Breakfast/2nd Student Breakfast $3.10

Lunch Meal Prices

· Student Lunch $3.20

· Student Reduced Lunch $0.40

· Non-student Lunch/2nd Student Lunch $4.70 (Teachers, Parents, Siblings)

Parents can pre-pay online for meal accounts beginning August 1, 2024. Click the "Child Nutrition Information" link above.

Free and Reduced Meals

Parents can apply online for Free and Reduced meals beginning July 22, 2024, at https://www.myschoolapps.com

The following email was sent to parents on Thursday, July 18th.

Parents/Guardians:

We are looking forward to a great school year. In an effort to help our parents, we are moving to a Parent Portal for parents to access information about their child. You will login similar to the way your child does for school (similar to the SSO) to access school information. All parents/guardians will need to enroll to create an account. You will need the email address that is in your child’s record. Once you enter the email, you will be prompted to create a password.

Please click Parent Portal Directions to for instructions or go to Conroe ISD Webpage then Parents/Students to access the link to the Parent Portal.

We hope that you enjoy this transition to a new and convenient platform.

Sincerely,

Conroe ISD Technology

Click here to get transportation information and register for the bus!

Interested to know if your child is eligible to ride the bus? Want to know how to register your child for the bus? Click the link above (Conroe ISD Transportation Information) to learn everything you need to know about CISD Transportation.

Student Address Changes

Transportation cannot change addresses for students. All student information is uploaded from campuses, and it is used to route our students. Parents, you will need to contact Martina Roberts, Registrar, if needing to change your address. Once the campus makes the address change, it takes about 48 hours for Transportation to process the change.

Request Service to an Alternate Stop

Parents or guardians must submit an Alternate Stop Request Form each school year for service to an alternate stop. Students who are not eligible for transportation services may not be allowed to request or utilize an alternate stop. Parents can request an alternate stop when they request transportation for their child (register). They can do that at the following link: https://apps.conroeisd.net/AlternativeTransportation/

Eligibility for Transportation

We do not offer transportation to students who live under a mile from the campus. Our one-mile measurement is made from the point at which the residence’s driveway meets the public road to the nearest point where any campus driveway meets the public roadway or where any pedestrian walkway (greenbelt) provides access onto campus property (through a gate or driveway). The distances are measured using the District’s dedicated school bus routing software and the Montgomery County Appraisal District (MCAD) maps to determine distances if necessary.

THANK YOU to all who have been purchasing from our list!! We truly appreciate your generosity!

We've developed a 'Cox Wish List' for the upcoming school year. Our goal is to inspire and motivate students by creating hands-on experiences in the classroom, moving away from just paper and pencil assignments. We've compiled a list of our 'top requested' supplies for classrooms. I've also included some inspirational gifts that we pass out as an administrative team throughout the year. We know our teachers put lot of time, energy, and money into their classrooms, so this is one little way we are able to show our appreciation!

Also, we are looking to upgrade items around the building. We want to offer more recess options and equipment, as they have become worn out from use over the years. We're also looking to update some of our serving options for staff appreciation days.

Donations are completely voluntary. To view our wish list, please click here. Thank you in advance for your generosity!

Want to stay up-to-date on 'All Things Cox'?? Make sure to follow us on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/CoxCISD.

While you are there, go follow our Cox PTO page as well: https://www.facebook.com/tomcoxpto