Pioneer Press

We wish our students, families, and staff a wonderful and restful spring break. We have a lot of exciting events in store for the remaining eight weeks, and we are hopeful that the break will prepare us all for the marathon ahead. Enjoy the time off everyone!

As promised, because PSE students and families met our fundraising goals for Boosterthon, students were treated to watching their principal have a public "Water Dump". The "dumpees" were Teacher of the Year, Priya Dharshan (1st grade), and Para-Educator of the Year, Arundhati Jagtap. What a fun (and chilly!!) way to start the break!

This week's overall attendance rate was 95.07%. The winning grade with the highest attendance rate was 5th with a rate of 97.44%. Our goal is 98% attendance weekly, so let's get back on track PSE!

We had 163 tardies this week. This week brings our second semester tardy total to 1,229. When students are tardy, they lose instructional time and it is disruptive to them and their classes. Please remember that classes begin at 7:35 promptly, with the bell signalling "time to move to class" at 7:25. We appreciate your help in addressing this rampant issue on our campus!

Every year third thru fifth grade students are able to participate in our Texas Bluebonnet Book Reading program. If a student reads five or more Bluebonnet selection books, they can vote for their favorite and join us at the PSE Bluebonnet party. A select few who went above and beyond, reading upwards of 12 books, were able to compete in the annual Battle of the Bluebonnet competition, which took place on Tuesday. This is a virtual trivia contest based on the 2024-2025 TLA Texas Bluebonnet Book selections. The students had a great time competing and showing off their book knowledge.

If you would like to know more or start reading some of the books from the 2025-2026 current list to get ready for next year's competition, check out the TLA Bluebonnet website here: https://txla.org/tools-resources/reading-lists/texas-bluebonnet-award/current-list/

Congrats to our students that competed in the Bluebonnet Book Battle! They did really well, and the program was even highlighted on the evening news. https://www.kvue.com/video/news/local/battle-of-the-bluebonnets-round-rock-isd-canyon-creek-elementary-school-perfect-score/269-77594c01-8d44-4527-bfe9-459e1d21223c

HEB (Parmer/McNeil) is one again sponsoring the collection of plastic bags in this year's "HEB Plastic Bag Challenge"! Students and teachers can recycle plastic bags from March 3 - April 4, 2025 by bringing them into school and dropping them off in "The Monster". Last year we beat all other area schools in this eco-friendly challenge, and won with over 11,000 bags collected. Not only are we helping our environment, but we are solidifying our status in the McNeil Learning Community as the "GOAT" as well! Stay tuned for more info., but start saving those bags now to prepare for the challenge! Accepted items include: any retail shopping bags, produce bags, bread bags, plastic film, dry cleaning bags, newspaper bags and much more.

Our third school-wide celebration was held today. Staff participated in an inflatable soccer game (blue vs green), and really impressed us with their skills! The kids had a great time spectating, and had many great signs and posters to cheer on their favs. The PSE community had a blast at celebrating the filling in of the letter "E" in PSE. We will have one more school-wide celebration in the fourth quarter; stay tuned!

A BIG THANK YOU to PTA and Grimaldi's Pizza for the delicious and tasty lunch on 3/13 for our staff. We really appreciate the generosity, and the pizza and salad was super tasty. Many thanks!!

Congrats to Mr. Bennett and our second graders for a great performance on Tuesday! They performed HATS! for families, and did a wonderful job! Thank you also to our second grade and specials teachers and to the volunteers who helped make the performance possible.

3rd-5th grade will be doing their fitnessgram testing when they come back from Spring Break. This test, mandated by the State, contains the following components:

• Pacer Test-Running
• Push-up test-muscular strength/endurance
• Curl-up test-muscular strength/endurance
• Shoulder reach-flexibility
• Trunk lift-flexibility

Pond Springs Elementary PTA is looking for next year’s crew to lead us to new heights in 2025-2026! If you or a PSE parent/guardian you know would soar in a PTA officer role next school year, please use the nomination link to submit your nominations. Please consider submitting your nominations before Spring Break, as the Nomination Committee will be meeting after the break to collect and review nominations. If you have any questions, please reach out to Torie Johnson at torie_johnson@roundrockisd.org.

March 3- April 4: HEB Plastic Bag Challenge- "Feed the Monster"!!

March 10-14: 5th grade parents verify course selections for middle school in HAC

March 14: Third quarter report cards go home!

March 17-21: SPRING BREAK!!

March 28: No lunch visitors for whole school lunch/movie incentive day

March 31: Professional Development Day (No student attendance)

Principal: Sjoukje Brown, x4204

Asst. Principal: Tanya Richardson x4205

Main Office: Laura Wessels, x4299

Registrar/Attendance: Kathy Stephenson, x4202

Office Specialist: Shemeka Riley-Fairconeture, x4201

Counselor: Karen Collins, x4203

Nurse: Bethany Taylor, x4206

Ms. Brown, Proud PSE Principal