August 24/25 DES Parent Newsletter

Newsletter Translation - Click Translate Newsletter, under Accessibility

Traducción del boletín informativo: haga clic en Traducir boletín informativo, en Accesibilidad

Welcome back to school! We are excited to kick off another great year at Dogwood Elementary. We are excited to have our returning families as well as welcoming over 100 new families to our school. This newsletter is packed with a lot of important information including maps to see the flow of traffic for arrival and dismissal, our calendar of events for the year, the parent handbook, etc. Please make sure to click on links and save the important documents.

You are allowed to walk your child to class on the first day of school only (August 7th). If your child does not attend the first day, you will not be able to walk them to class. This is a district policy in order to ensure the safety of all students. We are closed to visitors in the morning.

You will hear a lot about attendance this year! We teach bell to bell (8:30-3:55) and we need your help to ensure all students are here as much as possible. Our school wide attendance goal is no more than 5 total absences all year! We hope to work together to meet this goal for all students!

Meet the Teacher information can be found below as well!

Thank you!

Ms. Lowe

If you have been notified that your student is missing immunizations you can use this form to upload the requested documentation.

https://forms.newcaneyisd.org/Forms/IncompleteImmunizations

Proof of residency is required for all students at the beginning of each school year. Failure to provide valid proof of residency may result in your student being administratively withdrawn. You will need to upload the proof of residency in the link below:

https://forms.newcaneyisd.org/Forms/ProofOfResidency

School Hours (8:30am -3:55pm)

Breakfast Served Daily 7:45am - 8:20am (no visitors at breakfast)

Tardy Bell Rings @ 8:30 am

Dismissal @ 3:55 pm

We will be closed to visitors the first weeks of school! Starting August 26th, you may eat lunch with your child. Please remember, lunch time is one of the main times students can socialize and make new friends! We want our students to be independent and develop relationships. If you come to eat with your child often, your child will not have the same social opportunities as other students.

This year, we will have a lunch visitor rotation due to our increase in student numbers.

In order to ensure the safety of all students, we ask that parents please adhere to the following cafeteria visitor policies:

• Please arrive early to scan in at the office. Any visitor that arrives after 10 minutes of the lunch time will not be allowed to go back.

• All parents and authorized visitors must stay at the parent tables located by the playground windows.

• All visitors may only eat with their child. No other students are allowed to join you and your child.

• You are not allowed to eat off of your child’s cafeteria tray.

• You may not bring food for other children at the school (only your own child).

• Visitors are only allowed to stay for the duration of your child’s assigned lunch time.
  

Friday, August 9th is a district wide campus safety day. We will be closed to visitors on this day (no lunch visitors either). On this day, we will practice all safety drills with our students. Therefore, schedules may be a little off.

THANK YOU!

Parents of returning students should utilize Skyward's Family Access System to verify student information for registration. The video below will demonstrate how to complete returning student registration. If you do not know your username, or have problems entering the system, contact your student's campus, call 281-577-8615, or email PEIMS@newcaneyisd.org.

In order to meet the teacher, returning or new student verification must be complete in skyward.

You will need your username and password information for our Skyward parent workshop (yellow slip).

Safety is our number one priority here at Dogwood! It is very important that all parents follow our procedures for car riders, walkers and buses. Our car rider line is one lane only! Please do not drive in the second lane for the safety of our kids! If you are walking your child to the door, you must cross at the crosswalk and walk them up to the front.

We have included two maps here to show the routes and flow of traffic. The afternoon car rider line may only enter the parking lot via Galaxy/Dogwood Lane. Our buses use Roman Forest Blvd./Dogwood Lane. We will have Roman Forest PD helping direct traffic the first week of school.

Parents, please remember that our doors open at 7:45 a.m. This is also the time when all staff report to campus. Please ensure your student is not dropped off prior to 7:45, as there is no supervision on campus before our doors open. If you are going to park and walk your child to the door, please use the designated cross walk and you must walk them all the way to the entrance. Thank you for your help in ensuring the safety of each of our students!

In addition to the maps above, we ask for your patience for the first two weeks of school as we work through the beginning of the year kinks of our dismissal process. With a fresh batch of new students each year, it always takes time (especially for our youngest Ducks) to learn the dismissal routine. Student safety is, and will always be, our number one priority. We appreciate your grace and understanding as we work to ensure all of our Ducks are dismissed safely.

**For after-hours transportation questions, please contact NCISD Transportation at 281-577-8680.**

New Caney ISD Offers Parent Portal for SMARTtag™ Transportation System

New Caney ISD’s partnership with SMARTtag™ allows parents/guardians the opportunity to view their child’s transportation data through a secure, online Parent Portal. Through SMARTtag™ Parent Portal, parents/guardians can view current bus information and sign up for notifications when their child’s bus is nearing its stop. Parents are also able to manage trusted guardians who are authorized to assist their young child at the bus stop.

To access the Parent Portal, please click HERE.

Students will not be re-issued Smart Tag IDs every school year. Please hang on to your child's current Smart Tag over the summer. Smart Tag ID's may be purchased at any campus during the 24-25 school year. Transportation Services will no longer sell Smart Tag IDs.

If your child needs to go home a different way than he/she normally does, you MUST contact the front office and request a transportation change for that day. Simply email destransportation@newcaneyisd.org by 3:15 p.m. in order for your change request to be processed in time for dismissal. Transportation changes may NOT be made and will NOT be honored if sent only to the teacher, in an effort to ensure the safety and security of all our students.

Walkers - Rainy Day Dismissal

A Remind message will be sent out by 3:15 p.m. if all walkers will be made car riders due to inclement weather.

Inclement Weather Car Rider Dismissal

If there are lightning strikes within 5 miles of the school, car rider arrival and dismissal could be modified for the safety of students and staff. For dismissal, it may be necessary for parents/guardians to enter the building to get their student(s). If so, they may show their car rider tag or ID to have their student(s) released.

Absence Reporting

If your student is absent from school, you can report the absence and upload doctor notes, etc. here: https://forms.newcaneyisd.org/Forms/AttendanceNotes

Free and Reduced Lunch

The cost of a school lunch is $3.00. If you have not done so already, please log in to School Cafe to complete a lunch application. Click here to complete the form: https://www.schoolcafe.com/ncisdnutrition

Attendance is the most important factor in your child's academic success! Our goal is for all kids to have 5 or less absences for the year! Please use the academic calendars to plan doctors appointments during breaks (when at all possible) and to ensure family vacations are planned during school breaks! THANK YOU for your support! #attendancematters