Fairmont Back to School Information

Fairmont Families,

The information below is a digital copy of the information you will received in your packet at Returning Student Registration on August 1. I thought it would be easier to have this to reference if needed!

Thank you,

Melissa Fagan

Dear Parents,

Welcome to Fairmont Elementary! We are excited to begin the upcoming school year and look forward to having your child begin school with us. We are honored that you are entrusting his or her education to our care and promise to work to grow your child and provide a strong foundation for their education. We are very proud of our school, and we hope you will see why when your child starts school on August 13th.

If this is your first child to enter public school, then there will be much for both of you to learn and discover as this new adventure begins. If you are a returning family, then we are glad to have you back. As a product of Fairmont Elementary, as well as a former teacher at Fairmont, I am excited to serve the Fairmont teachers, students, and community. I cannot wait to get to know all our new families and welcome back our returning families.

There are a few items in the packet to which I would like to draw your attention:

• The “Beginning of the Year Fairmont Newsletter” is an information sheet that tells a little about some of our policies and procedures.
• A school supply list is included for those that did not pre-order. If you did pre-order supplies before school was dismissed for the summer, those will be delivered to the classrooms and awaiting your child(ren) at Meet the Teacher on August 8.
• The 2024 – 2025 School Calendar includes the start date as well as all school holidays (very helpful for planning family vacations!).

It is my hope that your child’s school experience will be rewarding, successful, and full of the same positive memories that I made on this campus as a student. Do not hesitate to call me at (832) 668-8500 if you have questions, or even if you just want to know more about Fairmont Elementary. Also, visit our website to keep up with all upcoming events.

Once again, welcome!

Melissa McCroskey Fagan

Principal, Fairmont Elementary

Our office staff is ready, willing, and able to assist you with anything you may need!

Melissa McCroskey Fagan - Principal

Erika Jasso - Assistant Principal

Letha Grant - Receptionist

Dolly Amido - Attendance Clerk

Charlotte Knowlton - Secretary

Monica Murray - Nurse

Beth Pembroke - Academic Counselor

Mary Berner - SEL Counselor

You may reach any of us by calling 832-668-8500. If someone does not answer your call, please leave a message and we will return your call as soon as possible.

The school day begins at 7:40 a.m. and ends at 3:00 p.m. each day. In the mornings, adult supervision is provided when students are allowed in the building at 7:10 a.m. Due to safety reasons, students should never arrive before that time! It is extremely important your child be IN THEIR CLASSROOM by 7:40 a.m. each day. Students who enter the building after 7:40 a.m. will be marked tardy by their teacher. We may still be allowing students to enter on the side of the building after 7:40 but those students will be marked tardy in the classroom. Promptness will begin your child’s day with a great start and prevents disruption to the learning of other students once the day begins.

We know that mornings can be hectic and you may need to drop off lunch later or you might be providing a special lunch for your child. Following with the policy at other DPISD elementary campuses, we ask that all lunches are dropped off by 10:30 a.m. each day for your child. This gives us plenty of time to ensure that we can easily find them before recess to come get their lunch.

First Days of School

To help our students learn the routines and procedures of school, our campus will be closed to lunch visitors the first two and a half weeks of school (August 13 – August 30).

Lunch Visitor Start Dates

DPISD Elementary campuses will welcome lunch visitors on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

• Kinder and 1st Grade - We will begin welcoming lunch visitors on Tuesdays and Thursdays, beginning on September 10th. This allows our youngest students enough time to acclimate to school expectations and procedures
• 2nd through 5th Grade - We will welcome lunch visitors on Tuesdays and Thursdays, beginning September 3, for grades 2 – 5 in an effort to protect instructional time with our students and allow them opportunity to practice social norms with their peers.
• Any person who may have lunch with your child needs to be listed in Skyward as an emergency contact and have a photo ID with them. We will not allow persons who are not listed and approved by you to enter the cafeteria.
• Please do not send food deliveries via Door Dash, Uber Eats, etc.
• Due to limited space, we can only accommodate 2 lunch visitors per student.

We will be a closed campus to lunch visitors on some benchmark days due to an alternate schedule and during STAAR testing days due to testing security. We will be sure to share those dates ahead of time so you can plan accordingly.

Please see the one-page handout below for more information.

Please note that our front drive (Heathfield side) is reserved ONLY for day care providers, school buses, and for children who require special assistance. These vehicles will have a sign to denote they require front drive access. Cars that do not have this sign will NOT be admitted in this area for drop-off or pick up. All car riders are required to be dropped off in the parking lot on the Coldstream side of the building.

In the mornings, all car riders are required to be dropped off in the parking lot on the Coldstream side of the building. If you do not want to utilize the drive through to drop off your child, please park and walk your child across at the crosswalk. When driving, parents may use any of the three lanes available on the side of the building. Staff members are waiting in a yellow crosswalk to assist students being dropped off. Drivers must pull all the way to the staff members/crosswalk to drop off their children. This will allow the cars behind you to let their children out at the same time and will keep the traffic moving. We ask that you do not pull past the staff members/crosswalk to allow your child to exit your vehicle. Students may not cross that parking lot unattended. Our number one concern is that all students arrive at school and do so safely. It is helpful if you arrive a little early each day to eliminate any “rushed” feeling by either you or your child. The drop-off line seems to have less congestion from 7:10 - 7:30.

In the afternoons, all car riders will be picked up on the Coldstream side of the building. Kindergarten and first grade students are dismissed at 2:45. We ask that parents remain in their cars in one of the three lanes. Second through fifth grade students are dismissed at 2:50.

There is one entrance to the parking lot on Coldstream that forms three lanes close to the gymnasium entrance. We will continue to have personnel in the area to announce student names. Students will be released to the cars either from the porch for the inside lane —lane 1 or on the crosswalk for lanes 2 and 3. These three lanes will merge to two when exiting on to Heathfield. If all drivers stay in their vehicles and allow the children to walk to the cars, we anticipate a smooth flow of traffic. We do ask for your patience and consideration. It may take a few days to get our routine down perfectly. You are given two visor signs at the beginning of the year to identify the child(ren) you’re picking up that day. You may purchase additional signs for $5.00 in the front office.

If you do not have this year’s visor sign in your vehicle, you will be asked to drive to the front of the school and go through the office to pick up the child(ren) so that we may ensure the appropriate person is taking the child(ren) that day.

Walkers will be dismissed from their grade level multi-purpose rooms at 3:00. You may meet your child on the porch or have them walk off property to be picked up by car. Please do not use our front drive to pick up a walker as it is designated for buses, daycares, and our special needs students. Teachers will only be on duty supervising students until 3:10. At that point, students who are walkers will be expected to be walking or on their bike headed towards home.

The student handbook can be accessed on the district website (link from the FE web page). Please read through this with your child and be familiar with the dress code requirements and attendance expectations. We ask that you remember that Mohawks are NOT allowed at school.

All handbooks can also be accessed through this link: 2024 - 2025 Handbooks LINK

General Information

Breakfast is available for students at no charge from the cafeteria daily from 7:10 - 7:35. Lunch times are scheduled by grade level and homeroom class, with the Kindergarten classes beginning lunch at 11:00 a.m. and the last class of fifth graders concluding at 1:05 p.m. If children forget a lunch, they are welcome to borrow money for a tray.

We highly encourage you to pay into your child’s lunch account for any number of days you wish to purchase. It’s also a good idea to keep an emergency fund in their backpack in case they forget to tell you that their lunch account is empty. If you prefer, you can set up a MySchoolBucks account to pay for your child’s lunch and any extra treats they may want. The lunch menu is sent home at the beginning of the year. The Breakfast and Lunch menus will be available on the Fairmont Elementary website should you need them. Free or reduced lunch prices are available to children whose families qualify for financial assistance.

My School Bucks

Cafeteria Guidelines

To keep our students safe and to keep the cafeteria organized, there are certain guidelines we ask all students and their families to follow:

• Specialty drinks from Starbucks, Dutch Bros., McDonald’s, etc., may only be taken to the cafeteria in the morning to be finished. They are not allowed in any other parts of the building. (This is new and part of the DPISD Handbook)
• Students may only go through the serving line once.
• Please do not send carbonated drinks with your child because they can lend themselves to an explosion if shaken around in a lunch kit.
• Students are not allowed to bring energy drinks in the morning or in their lunch.
• Due to the many food allergies, we ask that students do not share food with one another from their lunch tray or lunch box.
• Students may not invite friends to eat with visitors and visitors may not bring food items to share with friends.
• For the safety of students, they may not leave the cafeteria without permission and must remain seated until dismissed by staff.
• When students leave the cafeteria at the end of their lunch period, we ask that all food and water bottles are secure in their lunch box.
• Parents must check out their student from the office before taking them out of the cafeteria.

If there is a change in the way your child will be getting home, parents will need to inform the school, preferably in writing, explaining what that change will be. You are welcome to let us know of any changes in transportation via email at fetransportation@dpisd.org. Requests for changes of transportation must be made prior to 2:15. For your child’s safety, we will not make changes based on the child’s request.

If your child is absent from school one or more days, please send a note with him/her when they return to school or within five days of the last absence. The note must contain the following information: full name of student, date(s) of absence, and reason for absence. State law requires that we have paper documentation on file for each student’s absence. A note from a parent or a doctor’s excuse is required. Please familiarize yourself with the student absence policy found in the Student Handbook. Feel free to email absence notes to: feinfo@dpisd.org

If you need to check your child out during the day, you must do so through the office. A driver’s license or some other picture identification is required. Of course, parents/guardians are authorized to pick up their children. Any other persons authorized to pick up must be added to your Skyward emergency contacts for us to access. Unfortunately, we are unable to call your child down to the office until you arrive in our lobby.

If you plan on picking up your child before the end of the school day, it would be helpful if you would do so before 2:30 in the afternoon. We will NOT be able to call a classroom for a child to be sent to the front office for check-out after 2:30 due to students moving to different locations for dismissal procedures.

If you would like to go on a field trip, volunteer, be a room mom, help out with events, be a Watch DOGS, or anything else on campus or off campus with the school, you must complete a new criminal background check each year. Criminal background checks take about 2-3 weeks to clear so please complete yours now at the link below! Click the link and then click "DPISD Volunteer Criminal History Check Form". Thank you!

Complete Your Criminal History Background Check

For everyone’s safety, all side doors to the building will be locked at 7:40 daily. Any student arriving after 7:40 must enter through the front door. If you child enters through the front door, please walk in with them to sign them in. We encourage students to walk to class independently, but a member of the office staff will be happy to assist them if they need help!

There should be no students on the playground after school until 3:15 unless accompanied by an adult. All “walkers” MUST proceed home once dismissed. With the abundance of families enjoying our playground after school, it is often a challenge for teachers to determine which children are being supervised by which adults. Teachers will bring all walkers out at 3:00 and will only be on duty until 3:10 supervising students beginning their walk or getting on their bike. Please make sure your child understands that they are responsible for leaving school immediately and coming home if you will not be waiting for them to enjoy the playground.

We love it when you eat lunch with us on Tuesdays and Thursdays! Please check in the office first, get a visitor’s badge, and then join your child as they enter the cafeteria. This policy is meant to help us maintain a safe environment for your child(ren). Only people listed on your child's emergency contact page in Skyward will be allowed to have lunch with your child. Due to limited space, we can only welcome two lunch visitors per student. If you need to check your child out of school during lunch time, you must report to the office first.

For our new families, please do not be alarmed if you see a police officer on our campus. Our amazing school district provides a full-time police officer to ensure our staff and students are safe all day every day! You are likely to see them in our front lobby, walking our building, or at our events.

You may purchase a spirit shirt by filling out the Spirit Shirt Purchase form and returning it along with $15 cash to your child’s homeroom teacher. The t-shirt will be sent home with your child once payment is received. We encourage all students and teachers to wear them on Fridays.

We are so excited to partner with Ace T-Shirts again to have a school store full of great items for you or your child to wear to show your Fairmont pride! Purchase of these items not only helps you to look great, a percentage of sales go back to support our school! Please click the link below to see all the great options!

Fairmont Elementary Spirit Store

Need to change your child's transportation?

Email your request to: fetransportation@dpisd.org

(Changes need to be emailed by 2:15 at the latest.)

Need to turn in an absence note?

Email your note to: feinfo@dpisd.org

Website: https://fe.dpisd.org/
Location: 4315 Heathfield Drive, Pasadena, TX, USA
Phone: 832-668-8500
Facebook: facebook.com/people/Fairmont-Elementary/100063903791678/
Twitter: @DPISD_FE