Tiger Tribune

Hello Theiss Families,

Spring is in the air and we are getting deep into learning this month. Amidst all the extra events going on in and out of our school as Spring activities begin, our students have been busy setting goals and learning new content. We are so proud of all our students for continuing to rise to the challenge every day that they come to school. Check out our Goal Getter wall in our main hallway the next time you visit! We are excited to call students down each afternoon to hear them talk about their learning. It's not just about reaching the top score or Master's level. We are excited for all students who have shown progress and mastered a new skill.

This last quarter is when it all starts to come together. We are excited to see our students shine as they work towards the finish line of their grade level content. We know that the STAAR test is coming soon, but our staff are working hard to impress upon students that they are ready to show what they know. We do not want students to feel stressed about this assessment. The STAAR test is an important assessment, but not the end all, be all of their school year. We want them to show their best efforts and growth from year to year. Please help us to reinforce this idea at home as well.

These last couple of months have been filled with extra special events, fundraisers and holidays. It has been amazing seeing our families come together to support our school, whether it is through donating to our fundraisers, attending our community events or events at school. We truly value the support you show your children and the commitment you all have to education. We have a few more big events coming up you'll want to save the date for before school ends in May. Check out the dates below.

As always, please let us know if you have questions or concerns. We hope that you will be able to join us for our upcoming events!

Respectfully,
Mrs. Jessica Taylor
Principal, Theiss Elementary School

Save the Date for April:

Autism Awareness Month

1 1st Grade Field Trip- Houston Interactive Aquarium

4 Field Day

9 Learning Celebrations & PTO Nine Weeks Treats

10 Spring Creek BBQ PTO Spirit Night

15 STAAR Reading, Grades 3-5

18 Student Staff Holiday

21 - 25 Every Kid Healthy Week

23 STAAR Science, Grade 5

25 Volunteer Appreciation Breakfast, 9AM

30 STAAR Math, Grade 3-5

Save the Date for May:

Asian Pacific American Heritage Month

3 KISD Music Festival - Theiss Honor Choir Performs

5-9 Staff Appreciation Week

7 Math MAP

8 Coding Club Expo, 1:45 - 2:45 PM

9 PTO Hospitality Luncheon

9 Kinder Program 9 AM

9 Theiss Choir Performs 2:30 PM

12 Science MAP

14 Reading MAP

21 Level Up Day

26 Student and Staff Holiday

27 Senior Clap Out

27 5th Grade CPR Class

28 Music Bee, 9 AM

29 Learning Celebrations Ceremonies PK-4 & PTO Nine Weeks Treats

29 PTO Sponsored Chalk the Walk

30 5th Grade Appreciation

30 Last day of School/End of Grading Period 4

June 2 or 3 Aqua Tots Spirit Night - Celebrate summer with friends for a night swim party from 7-9!

Our school earns money for every student entry and prizes are awarded for the schools with the top entries. Please join this fun event with your friends today!

This Spring, we will be expanding our campus' language of learning by introducing our Learner Dispositions. These are character traits that support mindsets for learning. Our teachers conducted many brainstorming sessions to arrive at these dispositions. These are by no means the only ones that exist, but the ones we plan to focus on to develop student ownership of learning. Each week, we will focus on one of these and teachers will introduce the disposition during community circle. Here's the schedule we will follow.

Jan. 21 & 28 - I am a goal setter.

Feb. 3 & 17 - I am persistent.

Feb. 24 & Mar 3- I am a challenge seeker

Mar 10 & 24 - I am a collaborator

Mar 31 & Apr 7 - I am curious.

Private and Charter schools are funded based on enrollment.

Public schools are funded based on attendance. This means that even though the state gives us roughly $6,000 per student, it is broken down by day that the student attends school. Absences = No funding for school for that day.

Please help us advocate for enrollment based funding for public schools. This small change would have a big impact for our bottom line and help our school district address inflation. Currently there is no bill proposed to address the basic student allotment of around $6,000.

Theiss was recognized at the last principal meeting for having the highest attendance rate of all Elementary campuses for February AND March at 95.8%! Way to go everyone for making it through cold and flu season and still ranking with top attendance rates!

These trophies will be placed on the front counter for all to view our accomplishment.

Check out these classes that had great attendance this month! There were a total of 16 days in March that students attended school.

5th Grade are the champs again with 31 days of perfect attendance among all classes! 1st grade came in at a close second with 27 days. Another popsicle party is planned for 5th grade!

Grade level winners earned a dance party with admin.

PK - Easterday, 6 days

Kinder - Janak, 4 days

1st - Mattolini, 16 days - ALL 16 days!

2nd - Flamenco 10 days

3rd - Caldwell 13 days

4th - Kivela 8 days

5th - Jonsdottir 16 days - ALL 16 days!

Our legislators are gearing up for their next session starting in January, and we need help to advocate for public schools. The student allotment that funds our schools has not changed since 2019, and school districts across Texas are struggling to make ends meet. We have been fortunate in Klein that our school district was able to avoid many of the cuts that our neighboring districts had to make this school year. This year, Klein has specific priorities that they are advocating for at the state level that will most benefit our school district. Please click on the link above to learn more about the priorities.

As many of you know, we are growing as a student body, and space is limited for the many visitors that we have on a regular basis during lunch. To help ensure we have adequate space for our visitors, we assign designated days for visitor lunches. Starting in October, we will begin to utilize the following schedule:

Tuesday: PK, 1st, 3rd

Wednesday: Kinder, 4th

Thursday: 2nd, 5th

We will continue to allow visitors to eat with students on their birthday. If your child's birthday was over the weekend, visitors can use Monday or Friday to eat with your child for their birthday.

**Please remember that you may only bring lunch for your own child, and not for other students.

Please be aware that students who arrive or are dropped off prior to 7:40 are not supervised by adults. We expect any students arriving early to sit against the wall and wait patiently for school to open. Students should not be riding bikes under the bus porch, playing ball or other games during arrival as this creates safety concerns for all. Banging and kicking on the door as well as screaming at others who are inside the cafeteria is unacceptable behavior by both adults and children. Our staff begins their morning duty at 7:40.

Campus Kids operates starting at 6:30 AM in our cafeteria and provides adult supervision for students prior to the school day starting. Click here to enroll!

We are dedicated first and foremost provide a safe and secure school setting for your children. Please know that these expectations must be followed for every visitors every time they visit.

1. Ring the doorbell.
2. Identify yourself, your child and your purpose for the visit.
3. Show a valid photo ID to the camera near the doorbell and signage.

On the sign, you can see in fine print that you should not let other parties in behind you. I know it may feel awkward to ask people the let the door close instead of following in behind you, but it does help us ensure we are following the KISD protocol for every visitor every time they visit our campus.

*The only exceptions to this protocol will occur when we have large campus events. We have a campus specific protocol for special events due to the number of visitors that arrive at one time.

Now that the school year is off to a great start, we want all parents and guardians to be aware that tardies count toward student's attendance. Getting the school day off to the right start is very important for our students to be successful, and our instruction begins as soon as the tardy bell rings. Please help us by dropping your child off before 8:10 so they can make it to class and be in their seats as we begin announcements for the day and start normal routines. Children thrive off of routines in and out of school, so making a consistent morning routine at home helps students create consistent morning routines at school as well.

This year, perfect attendance awards will be recognized in each quarter's learning celebrations. In order to receive the perfect attendance award, students may not have more than 3 tardies for the quarter in addition to zero absences. Each quarter the tardies and absences will be reset for the award purpose, however cumulative totals will be used to identify families in need of intervention for attendance throughout the year.

Increasing our attendance rate, as well as decreasing tardies and early dismissals is part of our campus improvement plan each year, as it plays a part in our accountability system. Our attendance rate overall for last year grew 1% from the year before, which is great progress. We continue to strive for a 97% rate or higher by the end of the school year. Thank you for doing your part in helping our attendance rate!

We are committed to safety for our students and, in doing so, have updated our drop off procedure for students and staff to align with our feeder schools.

• Food deliveries for staff will be dropped off on a cart on the front porch, so no unauthorized delivery people will enter the school.
• Food delivery service drop offs for students will be turned away.
• We highly discourage dropping off fast food meals for our students.
• Student drop offs (food or forgotten items) will be left on a table in our front office.
• Only parents/guardians can drop off lunch for their child, and their child only.
• Parents will need to write the student's name and teacher on a sticky note and leave it on the cart.
• Students will come through the front office to pick up their items and return back to class through the front office.
• Parents are responsible for making sure students know to come get the dropped off item by coordinating in advance. For forgotten items (glasses etc...), please send the teacher a Remind. The teacher will send the student to pick up when possible.
• Please note that our teachers are focused on teaching the class, and may not immediately see any messages about forgotten items or lunch drop offs. Please make sure that your child has everything they need for the day each morning as they come to school.
• We will follow standard protocols and require IDs to enter the vestibule to drop off items.

Thank you for understanding and following these new procedures.

If you have legal paperwork regarding your child's custody arrangement or regarding people who need to have restricted access to your child, please bring the original document with the judges signature to the office so we can make a copy to retain in your child's cumulative record. We follow all the legal requirements of court ordered documents, and are able to fully comply best when we have the records on file.

We are kicking off a new year, and our PTO board is planning great things for this school year! Check out these links for more information about PTO and how you can get involved!

PTO Facebook Page

Interested in Volunteering?

1. All volunteers MUST complete a background check through Raptor. It only takes a few minutes! Click here to complete.
2. Join PTO - it's free! Use the QR code below.
3. Want to learn more about KISD Volunteers? Click here to access the KISD site for volunteers.

We love to celebrate birthdays with your child and will work hard to make it a special day for them at school!

However, sending invitations to school to pass out will not be allowed. Instructional time cannot be used to support or promote private social events such as birthday parties.

At this time, we will not be accepting birthday treat bags. If you would like to arrange for an edible treat to be shared for your child's birthday during the lunch period, please follow the KISD protocols and begin the process 2 weeks in advance. No food brought up to the office will be allowed without going through this process. Thank you for your cooperation.

We'll post links to all the previous newsletter from this school year here!

August

September

October

November

December

January

February

March

April

May

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Find our calendar of events, contact information for staff, request additional car tags and more!

www.theiss.kleinisd.net

Website: theiss.kleinisd.net
Location: 17510 Theiss Mail Route Road, Spring, TX, USA
Phone: 832-484-5900
Facebook: facebook.com/TheissElementary