Grizzly Gazette

It is hard to believe that the first month of school has come to an end. Thank you for a great beginning of the school year! We are now in full swing of things and looking forward to an amazing September. Teachers have jumped right into academic content, students are hard at work with their learning goals, and we are fortunate to be fully staffed with highly qualified teachers.

Parent-Teacher Conference Days are September 18, 19, and 20. Students will be dismissed at 10:50 on each of these days to provide time for teachers and parents to meet. One of our goals this year is to have at least 90% of our families attend fall conferences. Please make sure you have scheduled a conference time with your child’s teacher.

We also have benchmark testing at the end of the month. Please have your student present on time and prepared for benchmark exams. Avoid absences during this window, students perform better when they are testing together in the classroom rather than taking a make-up test in a different classroom/environment. Thank you for your support during benchmarks.

PTO is a critically valuable part of the Grijalva community. Our PTO plans community events that allow families to connect with each other and the school. The PTO helps fund class field trips, supplies for classrooms, Art, PE, and many other things that support Grijalva in maintaining its excellence. Please support us in reaching our goal of 100% of families being members of the PTO.

We have started out the year with a bang and would like to begin by thanking you all for your support during dismissal. In the 2-5 side we would like to request that everyone avoid parking on the east side of Pin Oak and in the area between the two gates on the west side of Pin Oak. This is really helping the flow of traffic leaving the parent pick up area. If you have any questions, please let us know. Again, thank you for your support in this matter.

School attendance is a powerful predictor of your child's outcomes in school. According to the US Department of Education, irregular attendance can be a better predictor of whether a student will drop out of school before graduation than test scores. Your child's success in school is a direct result of their attendance at school each day.

We are in this together for the success of your child. It is extremely important to your child’s growth that they are in school every single day and on time to be successful. Our Grizzlies are engaged in important learning by 7:45 each day, missing even 15-30 minutes per day impact their learning and social/emotional wellness. Missing 30 minutes per day equals 2 1/2 hours per week and 10 hours of learning per month; that is nearly 2 days of missed learning. 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. Should the need arise, you can call in your child’s absence for sickness into the front office. We do not sign children out of school after 1:30 PM on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and after 12:30 PM on Wednesday.

Parent-Teacher conferences will be coming up on September 20th, 21st and 22nd, so please mark your calendars. School will dismiss at 11:40am on these days.

7:20 am – Earliest arrival

7:20 am- 7:40 am – Breakfast served

7:40 am - 1:55 pm – Mon, Tues, Thurs, Fri

7:40 am - 12:55 pm – Wed (Early Dismissal)

Office Hours: 7:15 am - 3:45 pm

Office Phone: 520-908-3600 / Office Fax: 520-908-3601

If absent, please call 520-908-3600 to alert our attendance clerk. Arizona State Law requires that you report all student absences. If your child is tardy to school, they will need to be checked-in, by a parent, in the Front Office before going to class. This year, there is a new way to call in your students when they are sick and excuse their absences online by logging in to your Parent Vue account.

The first bell rings at 7:40 and our teachers take attendance precisely at 7:45. Students arriving after 7:45 should check in with the office staff before going to class. For the safety of your child, please do not arrive prior to 7:20, the cafeteria breakfast and our playground do not have student supervision prior to 7:20.

We will have a daily snack time to support our students' minds and bodies. Snacks can be brought from home; however, we are asking students bring only "healthy" snacks, and please not to share anything with others as a health precaution. Donations of snacks for the entire class at the beginning of each month are greatly appreciated. Please only bring individually packaged healthy snacks. Healthy snack suggestions include: Pretzels, Cheese sticks, Fruit snacks, Popcorn, Animal Crackers, Goldfish, Chocolate Chip Granola Bars.

Please remember that gum and candy are never allowed at school or our afterschool KIDCO program. Additionally, hot chips (Takis, Hot Cheetos, etc.) are proven to cause stomach issues. We would like to promote healthy snacks for our community. We also want to keep our campus looking clean and beautiful; gum can get caught on people’s shoes, furniture, and playground equipment. We want to avoid these sticky situations at Grijalva.

All students at Grijalva will receive free breakfast and lunch! No forms necessary and no need to worry about packing food each day. Please make sure your child comes to school early to get their free breakfast. Breakfast is served from 7:20-7:40 AM.

We would love to have adult volunteers to support learning and activities at Grijalva! All volunteers must complete the Tucson Unified Volunteer Application.

Parents and guardians do not need to complete the fingerprint component, however all other adult volunteers must be fingerprinted. Parents cannot volunteer on field trips without completing this in advance. If you have questions you can call the school office at 520-908-3600.

September 2nd NO SCHOOL – Labor Day

September 10th Picture Day (uniform not required)

September 18th-20th Parent Teacher Conferences – students dismissed at 10:50am

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Location: 1795 W. Drexel Road Tucson, AZ 85746
Phone: (520) 908-3600
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