YES BULLetin

Dear Youngblood Families,

I hope this message finds you well and that your child has had a positive and productive start to the school year. I wanted to take a moment to express my deepest gratitude to you for your continued partnership and support in helping us achieve a successful beginning for our students.

With over 1,100 students returning to school this year, your cooperation and involvement have been invaluable. Whether it was ensuring your child was prepared and excited for the new school year, participating in our back-to-school events, or simply maintaining open lines of communication with us, your contributions have played a crucial role in setting the tone for a successful year ahead.

As we continue this journey together, please know that we remain committed to providing the best possible educational experience for your child. We believe that a strong partnership between home and school is key to our students' success, and we are grateful for the trust you place in us each day.

Thank you again for your unwavering support. We look forward to continuing our work together to ensure that this school year is filled with growth, learning, and success for every student.

Sincerely,

Charlotte Gilder, Principal

We know parents are sometimes eager to get homework and newsletters from staff. I want to share our plan for launching homework and grade level newsletters at YES. Over the next few weeks, teachers are spending time helping our students get familiar with procedures, content, and the school. We want them to be comfortable in their learning environment which will result in success. Homework is given on concepts that have been taught and are sent home for review. Homework should be something that students are able to complete without assistance, in most cases. At YES, homework will come home on Thursdays and be returned to the teacher the following Wednesday. We have taken this approach because we know our students have other obligations and this gives them flexibility on when to get HW done. As a campus, we will start homework the week of September 23rd. This will allow families to join us at Curriculum Nights and hear from the teachers prior to starting homework.

Teachers will utilize CANVAS to share with parents each week on Fridays the learning objectives in the classroom for the upcoming week. We are striving to send our first CANVAS parent newsletter out on Friday, August 23rd. CANVAS is the district preferred platform for our families. It is used at all levels K-12.

This week, if the heat index permits, our students will begin outdoor recess. The first 3 days staff spent the recess times reviewing the procedures for time outside. Across our campus, students are allowed to bring a water bottle and snack to school each day. Please remember to label the water bottle with a first and last name. For snacks, please follow the guidelines share by the teacher.

In Katy ISD, ALL students and staff are required to wear their picture ID on a breakaway lanyard during the school day. Please ensure that if you are providing a lanyard for your student, it MUST be a breakaway closure. This type of lanyard ensures that if a student gets caught on something that the lanyard would quickly release. The campus provided lanyard is the safest for our students.

We are in the process of ensuring that all our students have been issued a picture ID and lanyard. We will also ensure that each student gets an ID that is placed on their backpack with a ziptie for Katy ISD transportation purposes. Please make sure the backpack ID stays in place.

We are here if you have any questions regarding students IDs, lanyards, and backpack IDs.

If a student loses their ID, the staff will reach out to you to purchase a replacement.

Thanks for being patient with our car rider line. The first days are always a little longer. However, we had improvement each day last week. On the 1st day of school our car rider line didn't end until after 4:30. 2nd day of school, car rider line finished at 4:00 and Friday our car rider line was finished about 3:40. We are celebrating our improvement already. With time, our goal is to finish car rider line by 3:25. You can help us reach our goal by reviewing the reminders below.

I have a few things you can do to help us become more efficient:

• Be in the car rider line no later than 7:45 am in the morning. We will close the line at 7:45 to ensure that our staff has time to make it to their teaching assignments and ready for students. After 7:45, parents will need to PARK and walk the student inside to the front office. Please refrain from dropping students in the parking lot and letting them walk in. This practice is not safe.

• Afternoon car rider line will close for cars to enter at 3:10 pm. Remember, the end of our school day is 3:00 pm. This week we will watch the line to gauge if 3:10 is reasonable. It worked for us in the past. The traffic is only going to get better. I am optimistic that the red light at Longenbaugh and Katy Hockley will be working very soon.
  

Of course, we are watching the traffic flow and will be flexible when needed.

• Please STAY INSIDE the car. The staff will unload the student from the passenger side
• Wait for the staff to move all 12 cars forward. Please do not go around cars in the car rider line.
• Continue to be patient with us. Our students are learning the process and our staff are learning the numbers and families.
  

IMPORTANT: Please remember, there is no picking up of students in the front office after 2:30 pm. If a parent is not in the car rider line by the designated time, they can enter the office, but will need to wait until those who are in the car rider line are served. We will release car riders from the front office desk after the car rider line is finished. Please understand that this is us respecting the many families who are following campus procedures. With 1100 students there is no immediate pick up system for students. There will be wait time, we are hoping to minimize that time within the next few weeks.

Youngblood is a Tier A start time which means our instructional school day is 7:50 am-3:00 pm. Students will be allowed to enter the building at 7:25 am each morning.

We are thrilled that we have so many excited families. We understand there is curiosity about all things Youngblood. As we are all waiting to meet each other, I want to share our campus procedures with you. This will allow our families to be familiar with things beforehand. The YES 2024-2025 Campus Procedures can be reviewed in the document below.

The CLASS 1:1 Student to Device initiative is all about connected and accessible learning, grounded in classroom instruction that is enhanced through technology-integrated learner experiences. The passage of the 2023 Bond has made it possible to provide every Katy ISD 3rd through 12th grade student a Chromebook for both classroom and home use beginning Fall 2024 (2024 - 2025 school year). This webpage provides important information about the CLASS 1:1 initiative. Click the link for more details and training videos: https://www.katyisd.org/domain/6152

At YES, all 3rd-5th graders will be trained by our campus Classroom Technology Designer (CTD) during the school day. Upon the completion of the student training, students will be delivered their devices to bring home on the following dates:

• Wednesday, August 21st-3rd graders
• Thursday, August 22nd-4th graders
• Friday, August 23rd-5th graders

As parents, you may want to consider a backpack with a place for a laptop for your student. Of course, it is not mandatory, but would be a proactive way to ensure the Chromebook has a designated spot in the backpack for carrying back and forth from home to school.

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) school nutrition program known as the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) enables all students at CEP eligible campuses to receive FREE breakfast and lunch meals throughout the school year. For the 2024-25 school year, YES has been designated a CEP campus.

All students attending will receive a FREE breakfast and lunch during the 2024-2025 instructional year. Students attending a CEP eligible school do not have to pay a fee or submit a Meals Benefits/Free and Reduced Meals application in order to receive free meals. However, a la carte options available through Katy ISD campus cafeterias are not eligible for the program and still require purchase through a Cafeteria Payments Pay N’ Go account.

Most students at YES in grades K-5 are eligible for Katy ISD transportation. We have many of our students taking transportation to/from school each day. In order to help with our traffic in the area, you may want to consider bus services.

Katy ISD will continue with the bus rider tracking system, SMART tag on all of our buses. Parents will be able to monitor their child's ridership and bus route through the SMART Tag Parent Web Portal. The system will enable parents, bus drivers, and school administrators, to review in real-time when and where a student is picked up or dropped off by a school bus. Student identification (ID) cards for eligible riders will include the SMART Tag ID information. Buses will be equipped with a tablet that will read each student’s ID every time they enter and exit their bus.

If your student is a bus rider, look for the white route number on the side of the bus when tracking their bus this school year! And make sure to download the Smart tag™ app from your mobile Google Play Store or Apple App Store! The Smart Tag app allows parents to set their preferred notifications, including when their child’s bus is expected to arrive. You can also see when and where your student boards and exits the bus.

Our PTA is always looking for parents to support our children and staff. Support could be from near or far. Please consider supporting our campus by becoming a member of our PTA.

There will be several opportunities this year to get involved. The PTA welcomed the YES staff back to school by sponsoring breakfast on their first day. It was amazing!

Memberships are so vital for helping the PTA work in partnership with the school to make great things happen for our learning community.

Our PTA has been busy working to get SPIRIT wear ready for purchase. Please take a few minutes to shop for your YES gear by using the link. YOUNGBLOOD BULLS 2024

Our campus is better with you! We greatly appreciate your willingness to support our school, and we welcome parents and community volunteers!

As a reminder, all Katy ISD volunteers must complete a screening through our Raptor system. Please click the link below to register:

Register to Volunteer at Youngblood Elementary

Once your application is approved, your information will be sent to the campus. All approved volunteers will receive an email regarding our upcoming volunteer orientation, which will take place next month. During this time, you will receive more specific information about volunteering on our campus.

We look forward to working with you and making a positive impact together!

Dads and father figures, please plan to join our PTA as we strive to launch our WATCH Dog program.

We are thankful that our PTA sold pre-packaged school supplies for the 2024-25 school year. If you purchased supplies from the PTA, they will be in the classroom when you arrive at your Meet the Teacher session.

At this time, the opportunity to purchase pre-packaged supplies from our PTA has expired. However, the school supply list is below.

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/70A0E4FAFA828AAF94-50047436-20242025

Monday, August 19th

• Mondays are spirit days at our campus--wear our school colors or spirit shirts

Wednesday, August 21st

• 3rd/4th/5th graders will get CLASS 1:1 Trained
• 3rd graders will bring their CLASS 1:1 devices home

Thursday, August 22nd

• 4th graders will bring their CLASS 1:1 devices home

Friday, August 23rd

• 5th graders will bring their CLASS 1:1 devices home

Wednesday, August 28th

• Calling ALL DADS and father figures--WATCH DOG KICK-OFF at 8:30am in YES Music Room

Monday, September 2nd

• School Holiday--no school

Monday, September 9th

• Lunch visitors starts- Sign up is on Sign Up Genius

Tuesday, September 10th

• Curriculum Night--PreK, Kinder, & 1st grades (YCAP/ECSE/Life Skills)
• choose 1 session--5:00 pm-5:45 OR 6:00 pm-6:45 pm

Tuesday, September 17th

• Curriculum Night--2nd, 3rd, 4th, & 5th grades
• choose 1 session--5:00pm- 5:45 pm or 6:00 pm-6:45 pm

Friday, September 20th

• No school for students-Campus Professional Development Day

Tuesday, September 24th

• PTA General Meeting @ 4:00 pm @ YES

Website: https://www.katyisd.org/YES
Location: 25600 Longenbaugh Road, Katy, TX, USA
Phone: (281)234-6200
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100094119368508