Hello Families,
Welcome to the 2024 - 2025 School Year! We are so excited to take this journey alongside you all and provide the best learning environment and community for our students. We hope you all have been well this summer. In this newsletter you will find updates, happenings, and upcoming events taking place at The Leadership Academy at John T. White.
Listen to our welcome back message: https://drive.google.com/file/d/141xP1TCcBFXyq6lkvsxXWZsoWwQXUHT4/view?usp=sharing
Please remember that attendance plays a critical role in your child's education. We are working diligently to ensure that students are in school and on time daily. Should your child have to be absent due to illness, please send a doctor's note on the day the student returns. If your child was sick and stayed home, please send a handwritten/ typed note signed by the parent/ guardian on the day your child returns to school. You may also choose to upload a picture of your excuse note to the following Google Form which goes directly to the data clerk, Ms. Moreno: https://forms.gle/xjdwUQCmZwSZukCH9
These notes must be sent no later than 5 days after the child returns to school. Please ensure that the note includes the following items:
- Student name
- Absence date(s)
- Reason for absence(s)
- Parent/ Guardian name
- Parent/ Guardian contact
When students are absent, an automated message is automatically sent to the parent/ guardian. Once the student returns to campus with a note, the note is reviewed and if it meets the criteria, the absence is manually changed to excused upon receipt of the excuse note.
Please note that as we are working on our attendance, the following action steps are being taken as a campus and with the support of the Stay in School Specialist that the district has assigned to our campus.
- The day the student is absent, our Family Engagement Specialist makes a phone call to determine reason for absence.
- At 3 absences (excused or unexcused) a warning letter is automatically generated and sent to parent/ guardians via email.
- At 5 absences (excused or unexcused) our Stay in School Specialist will begin to reach out to parent/ guardians to schedule SART meetings.
- If SART meetings are not successful, home visits are conducted.
*SART = Student Attendance Review Team
The Texas Educator Code states:
"TEC §25.092 requires students to attend at least 90% of class days to receive credit or a final grade. Students who attend 75–90% of class days may still receive credit if they complete a plan approved by the school's principal. School districts also have attendance committees that can hear petitions from students who don't meet the attendance requirement. These committees can grant credit or final grades for extenuating circumstances."
We want to provide the best education for your children, and for that we need them in school. Please partner with us to ensure your child is at school every day, and on time. Thank you in advance for your attention and support to this matter. For more information, please visit: www.fwisd.org/attendance
Attendance Updates
As a school, we are rated every Six Weeks based on three different categories:
- Monthly Attendance percentage
- Chronic Absences (3 or more)
- Six Weeks Attendance percentage
Our Family Engagement Specialist, Ms. Hardeman does a diligent job in calling parents daily, when students are absent to provide support in ensuring your child is at school daily. Thanks to the collective efforts and partnership between you the parents and the school, we ended the year with a little bit over 93%. The goal is 95%!
For this reason, we have started off the year strong with our Attendance Incentives that will benefit our students and families. Read more about our attendance incentive here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IMSM4vWKKRVXw498hUwSjTQazSY4WRMk/view?usp=sharing
Our incentive program will go into effect on Monday, August 19, 2024 and continue through the entire school year.
Thank you, again, for partnering with us in making sure your children are in school daily. We will be celebrating attendance during our Awards Ceremonies.
Parents,
If you have students who attended Leadership Academy at John T. White last year that have returned for the 24 - 25 school year and have not filled out an emergency cards, please do so ASAP! This is how your students will receive their uniform shirts for this school year. Follow the link or scan the QR code below: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfUqkADVlyUBD8Af3qlJnNYaQx28etG9uqtrYWOpRWBybTTiA/viewform
This is just a reminder of our cell phone policy. Students are able to bring their cell phones to school, but they must be turned off and placed in their backpack throughout the school day. Students were made aware of this policy, but we would like your support in reinforcing this. This policy is extended to a smartwatch that has cell phone capabilities.
Consequences for violation of the cell phone policy are follows:
1st offense: Verbal Reminder
2nd offense: Phone gets taken up and stored in the office. Student may pick up at dismissal.
3rd offense: Phone gets taken up and parent will have to come to the school to retrieve.
We appreciate your support in maintaining a learning environment free from external distractions.
Car Rider dismissal begins at 4PM. Parents are to drive through the car lane with their orange tag which has student's name, teacher's name, and grade level. Effective Monday, August 19, 2024, you must have the Orange Tag present in order to pick up your child. If that is not present, parents will have to park and come inside with their ID to pick up their child. Please help us to keep our students safe by partnering with us in ensuring that you or the person authorized to pick up your child has the orange tag at all times.
At 4:15PM, our staff will close the main doors and no longer go to the cars to call names. Parents will be required to park and come inside to sign out their child(ren) who will be waiting in the office.
PreK Dismissal:
PreK students are dismissed at 3:15 and they have their own car tags created by the teacher, which should be displayed at pickup. PreK will now be picked up on the side of the building, through the parking lot located on Sandy Lane.
Families,
As we begin the new school year, we would like to share with you the bus guidelines for all students who ride the bus. Please remember, riding a school bus is a privilege provided by the Fort Worth Independent School District. Misconduct on the bus or at the bus stop may result in a student losing this privilege. As a school we are following the district's guidelines and taking disciplinary action as necessary when students are in violation of the expectations. Please take the time to review the FWISD Bus Guidelines with your student(s) to ensure that they understand what the expectations are. Those guidelines can be found here: https://www.fwisd.org/Page/24129
You're invited to eat lunch with your child. Please see the link for more information.
Birthdays are a special occasion for you, your child, and us at the school. We want your child to feel special and recognized on the day of their birthday. For this reason, we are clarifying the birthday procedure for our campus so that we can ensure the student's birthday is a great one! :)
- Student birthdays are recognized daily over the announcements. Students whose birthday it is are able to come to the office after announcements to receive their birthday pencil and sticker.
- In class parties are permitted, ONLY during the last 20 minutes of the day and if permitted by the teacher. If you would like to send cupcakes/ trinkets/ goodie bags/ etc., please reach out to your child's teacher to ensure that it is permissible.
- In class parties are permitted for the student, their classmates, and the teacher. Unfortunately, due to the campus and district safety protocols, parents/ families are not permitted to participate in the in class parties.
- All food, snacks, cakes, goodies, must be store bought and packaged when it arrives to the school.
- While you may come eat lunch with your child for their birthday, you may not have a birthday celebration in the cafeteria during that time. There are designated tables for you to sit with your child only, to continue campus safety protocols.
We look forward to supporting you and your child on their special day. Should you have any further questions regarding this matter, please contact the front office.
BREAK TIME WITH THE PRINCIPALS
Dr. Marion Mouton
