Rattlin' Rattler
August & September '24 edition
A Message from Principal Neal
Raba Families,
Welcome to the 2024-25 school year! This is our 1st newsletter of the school year, outlining very important information you won't wanna miss! We work hard to make every year our best year! It’s definitely exciting to have new students and staff members joining our school family. In addition to ensuring we have the most qualified educators, we've also been working diligently to ensure that all staff's core principles are aligned with our campus mission, vision, and core beliefs. Research shows that developing a vision and mission statement is crucial to the success of an organization. Our mission and vision statements define our greatest hopes, aspirations, and clearly communicate our commitment to our students and community. We hope that our mission and vision inspire you as much as it has inspired us to conquer ahead! If we are committed to transforming the learning experience for ALL students. Then every day, every student grows in confidence, curiosity, and capability in a diverse and multicultural society. #TEAMRABA
During the first two weeks of school, our teachers work diligently to set classroom expectations, procedures and routines. How can you help? Ensuring that your child is in their classroom on time!
Things to consider:
- Students arriving on or after 7:45 am will be considered tardy and will need to be walked into school.
- Tardiness and absenteeism unavoidably affects the quality of a student’s work, interferes with normal instructional procedures in the classroom, and places additional demands on the teacher to provide remedial assistance. It negatively impacts the child who is absent as well as other students in the class.
- Morning announcements begin at 7:45 am. During morning announcements, students say the daily pledges, hear announcements, campus celebrations, and a motivating message from the school Principal and/or Associate Principal.
- Extended Planning will start on August 27th, so be sure to have your child here on time.
- Teachers begin daily class meetings, right after announcements. These meetings are focused on social-emotional learning and character building lessons. Not only do students learn techniques that help with regulating emotions, they also learn in depth about the profiles of a learner. For example, learners are strong communicators, collaborators, leaders, and more!
Parents, THANK YOU for choosing Raba and trusting us with your children. If you haven’t already, I invite you to drop by to introduce yourself or to say hello. In the mornings, you can find me at the front drive of our school welcoming our students. Know that we appreciate our families and value the enormous impact that a strong bond between home and school have on our children.
On behalf of our entire faculty, thank you for the privilege of allowing us to serve your family. And thank you for supporting us in our daily mission to put students FIRST in order to GROW COMPASSIONATE, INNOVATIVE LEADERS that will THRIVE in today’s society!
Sincerely,
Principal Neal
Arrival & Dismissal
Pick up and Drop off instructions
Follow the lane to the right and pull as far forward as possible so multiple cars can be unloaded at once. Do not get out of your vehicle. Older students may get out on their own and staff or our safety patrols will be available to help on the curbside with younger students if needed.
If your walking, please use the left lane to enter the parking lot to park before walking your child up to the front entrance. For the safety of our students, please do not drop students off in the parking lot or pull up to the parking lot curb to drop off. You will need to park then walk your child through the crosswalk.
Please review our arrival procedures!
Our crossing guard begins duty at 7 a.m. Parents may begin dropping students off as early as 7:00 a.m. but not any sooner.
We ask that all other parents/guardians either use the express lane or park in the parking lot and walk students to the security lobby, where a staff member will be happy to greet and welcome them! Visitors are always welcome to check-in to the building to meet with the school nurse, speak to the office staff, or for scheduled conferences or meetings.
For the first 2 Days, students will walk to either the cafeteria for breakfast or their classroom. Teachers will communicate updated instructions moving forward.
Monitors will be present to supervise all students. Students will transition to their hallways at 7:15 a.m. where they will be picked up by the on duty teacher(s). It is highly recommended that students who plan to eat breakfast arrive to school before 7:30 a.m. Breakfast is served between 7:00-7:35 a.m.
For safety purposes we ask that parents arriving after 7:45 am (tardy bell) park and sign their child into the building.
Please review our dismissal procedures!
Each family will be provided with a unique number which will be displayed on a hanging car tag. Please guard this number well as we will dismiss your child to the parent or designee who presents this card upon dismissal. During dismissal, a staff member will enter data into a device as cars arrive. Teachers will have a device as well in order to track students that should be sent out to the Express Lane.
For safety reasons, all Express Tags MUST be prominently displayed by hanging from your vehicle's rear view mirror.
If you send someone to pick your child up before dismissal; please plan accordingly and be mindful that students will not be released after 2:30pm.
If you do not have your card with you during dismissal; it is necessary to park and come into the security lobby to verify identification on the child's emergency card (picture ID required) to receive a clearance form. You will either need to get back into the car pick up lane to pick up your student or wait at the walk-up dismissal line sign (keep in mind the walk-up line students will not be entered until all cars have gone through).
Student Parent Handbook
Useful QR Codes & Links
Yearbook
Upcoming Events at Raba!
Planning on volunteering at Raba this year? Whether it is going on field trips or helping on campus for events like Bike Rodeo or the Book Fair, you will need a background check completed.
**PLEASE NOTE THAT A NEW CHECK MUST BE DONE EVERY SCHOOL YEAR - ALL PRIOR CHECKS ARE CLEARED OUT JUNE 30TH.
Please click the link below to get started.
Join Raba PTA
Hello Raba Family! We are so excited to kick off another great year at Raba!
Your PTA Executive Board has been working hard to plan many fun activities, events, assemblies and fundraisers for this year! Please consider joining PTA! The forms are available in the front office. It is $12.00 (cash only, exact change please) and we accept memberships all year long.
Please consider coming out to our first PTA meeting on Tuesday, October 8th, 2024 at 5pm in the cafeteria! Thank you for your continued support!
Word from the Nurse!
Just a friendly reminder:
- All medications must go through the nurse's office. For example: Do not send Tylenol, Tums, Ora-jel, vitamins, cough drops, or any other medication with your child. All medications must have a doctor's order and be in their original unopened container and kept in the nurse's office. For further information regarding health or medications, you can refer to the handbook online.
- If you change your phone number or address, please let the office know. That way we can reach you in case of an emergency.
- Please keep a change of clothes in your child's backpack in case of an accident (especially PreK and Kindergarten) include: a shirt, bottoms, underwear, and socks. If your child comes home in clothes borrowed from the Raba Clinic, please wash them and return them to the nurse.
- Please read the following letter regarding Texas-mandated screenings.
Any questions, please feel free to stop by the clinic or call me at (210)397-1359
Thank you, Nurse Keri
National Child Identification forms available in the front office
Safety Protocols
Please View Our Student Safety Protocol Below!
Shout outs!
Big Shout Out To Westover Hills!
Raba would like to give a Big Thank You to Westover Hills for always thinking of us through-out the school year and beyond!
Big Shout Out to our Custodians!
Thank you to our Custodians for getting us ready for another year!
GT Dates
NISD Calendar 2024-2025
Raba Elementary
Stay Connected!
Website: nisd.net/schools/info/167
Location: 9740 Raba Drive, San Antonio, TX, USA
Phone: 210-397-1350