The Weekly Update #4

It was an amazing first day of school in the Outback! Thank you for sharing your beautiful children with us! Thanks for being so patient on this first day as we dismissed over 1,000 students in a small window of time. Each day will get faster and easier as our staff is working hard to keep our koalas safe and quicken dismissal for everyone. We appreciate your assistance. It is going to be a fantastic year!

Changes of transportation should be sent with your child in his/her daily folder or hand delivered to the front office. When making a change of transportation for your child, please include the date, parent printed name, and parent signature. All changes should be made prior to 2:30 p.m. in order to allow sufficient time to notify the teacher and get the child to the correct dismissal location.

We also do not check out students after 3:00 p.m. so please plan accordingly when making appointments.

What: Parent Orientation for Grades 1-5

When: Monday, August 26

Session I (Microsoft Teams): Times vary by grade and will be communicated by your child's teacher.

Session II (In Person): 5:00-5:45 p.m. in your child's classroom

- Bikers/Walkers - Pre-K, Kinder, and 1st grade bikers/walkers will not be allowed to bike/walk home without an adult or sibling (2nd grade or older) escort. Parents picking up their child must have the matching dismissal tag. Kinder and 1st grade students must have a note on file giving permission to bike/walk home with a sibling (2nd grade through 5th grade). Call the front office if you need assistance with this.

- Bus Riders - A parent must meet their Kinder student at the stop each day. Your child’s safety is our top priority.

- Car Riders - Please make sure you have your dismissal tag hanging from your rear-view mirror for all car riders. Parents, please ensure you have received/picked up your lime green dismissal tag that will need to hang from your vehicle.

- Rainy Day Plan - Students will need to have a designated Rainy Day plan for days when we call Rainy Day Dismissal. Car riders & bus riders will stay the same for Rainy Day Dismissal, but if your child is a biker or walker, please let your child's teacher know the preferred Rainy Day Dismissal plan.

As a reminder, beginning this fall, the SmartTag mobile app will replace the web-based Parent Portal previously used by our school district. Parents may download the app via the Apple App Store or Google Play Store.

Through the app, parents can be notified when their child’s bus is on its way to pick up, or drop off, at the student’s designated stop. It also provides instant updates about delays, route alterations, or emergencies.

Also, important to know is that Katy ISD bus tracking is now based on route IDs, rather than bus numbers. This enables parents to track the route of their child’s bus even when a bus has been physically replaced by another bus.

Should you have any questions about your child’s bus route, please contact smarttaghelp@katyisd.org or 281-396-2724.

- Student IDs: IDs for students in grades PK-5 must be worn at all times while in the building. If badges are lost or damaged during the school year, replacement cards are available for fee: ID Badge - $1, ID Sleeve - $1, Lanyard - $1. Fees can be paid using the Pay N' Go app.

- IDs for Parents/Guardians: Government-issued photo IDs for parents and guardians are required for admittance to the building for meetings, checking out children, visits to the clinic, and deliveries. Please note that paper copies or pictures on cell phones will be not allow admittance into the building.

8:10 a.m. - Doors Open for Students to Enter

8:25 a.m. - Five Minute Warning Bell

8:30 a.m. - School Day Begins

9:55 a.m. - Attendance Snapshot Time

(Students not in attendance at this time are considered absent)

3:40 p.m. - Dismissal

With the passing of the 2023 Bond, students in grades 3-5 at OKE will be issued a Chromebook for both classroom and home use. Devices will be distributed to students within the first 3 days of school. It is the district expectation based on the new CLASS 1:1 initiative that students bring their Chromebooks to and from school each day. The chargers are to stay at home and the Chromebook should be brought to school fully charged.

Have you joined OKE PTA yet? If not, please consider joining. This does not mean that you have to volunteer although if you would like to, we can certainly find a place just for you. This is simply a membership to the PTA of your child’s school. It is important to be a part of your child’s education. Join us! Thank you for supporting the OKE PTA! Memberships can be purchased online at www.okepta.org.

How would you like to wish your child a happy birthday on the OKE marquee? Guess what? You can! It's $20.00 per day or $80.00 per week. You can print the form from the campus website, download from the link below, or place your order via Katy ISD's Pay 'n Go.

Kilpatrick Elementary is in the process of forming the 2024-2025 Campus Advisory Team (C.A.T.) and parent, community, and business representatives are needed. This required and valued committee will meet four times during the year to discuss and approve staff development, create and review a community survey, review and discuss standardized test scores, and make decisions which will impact students in a variety of ways.

Currently, Kilpatrick needs 3 new parent members, 1 business member, and 2 community members to serve for the 2024-2025 and 2025-2026 school years. All who volunteer will be entered and chosen by lottery. Parent members must be a parent of a currently enrolled Kilpatrick student. Business members do not need to live or operate a business within the OKE attendance zone. Community members do not have children enrolled at Kilpatrick, but must live in our attendance zone.

Our first meeting will be held at 4:00 p.m. on October 8th an OKE. Dates for the three additional meetings are as follows: December 10, 2024 at 4:00 p.m., February 25, 2025 at 4:00 p.m. and April 15, 2025 at 4:00 p.m.

If you would like to enter your name in our lottery, please complete this form before Wednesday, August 21st. Thank you for your consideration.

The annual student update for the 2024-2025 school year is now open and can be accessed via the Home Access Center (HAC) in MyKaty.

The deadline to complete the annual student update is Tuesday, August 13th. Please contact the registrar if you have any questions - ElizabethCRondon@katyisd.org

Lunch is one of the most exciting parts of the day for kids! It is a time when students get to talk with their friends and take a mental break from the classroom. Lunch is a time when children can develop friendships and feel connected to others. Allowing students this time to interact with their classmates and other students helps develop their social skills by learning to listen, interact with others, and develop qualities such as empathy and understanding toward others. Practicing and building these social‐emotional skills outside of the classroom is a critical component of a child’s development.

Lunch visitor guidelines are in place to provide students with an opportunity for social interaction time with their peers and to foster social learning opportunities. We will begin accepting lunch visitors on Tuesday, September 3, 2024. The last day for lunch visitors will be Friday, April 4, 2025.

‐ Parents/Grandparents (with parental permission) may have lunch with their child one (1) time per week. By limiting this, the parent and child visits become more memorable and special. Lunch visitors must check in at the front office before your child’s scheduled lunch time to secure a spot (government-issued photo I.D. required.) You will be given a Raptor badge and a numbered badge. Both must be worn while in the building.

‐ No lunch visitors on Mondays. This gives students an opportunity to catch up with their friends after the weekend and socialize with peers around them.

‐ No lunch visitors on special event days. These days will be listed in the Outback Outlook newsletter, on our campus website, and communicated by teachers.

‐ Guests will sit at the visitor table with their child. Parent seating is limited and will fill up quickly. If the parent table is full, you will have to wait until seating becomes available. Visitors are not permitted to sit at the student tables. Friends of your student are not allowed to be invited to the visitor table. A student must stay with their visitor while the visitor is present. A student may not go back and forth between the student/visitor tables.

‐ Parents should never approach other students. Parents are requested to talk with a cafeteria monitor should there be any concerns. Parents may not go to the student tables.

‐ Preschool aged children or below must remain with their parent at all times. Due to space limitations, school-aged and older siblings are not permitted.

‐ The cafeteria is a NO‐PHONE ZONE. No pictures or videoing will be allowed.

These procedures will help alleviate overcrowding in the cafeteria. As always, we appreciate your continued support.

If it becomes necessary to add teachers and form additional classrooms, our procedure at Odessa Kilpatrick Elementary is to place students who were last enrolled into the new classrooms. Should this happen, we will do everything in our power to make this a smooth transition. Campus leadership reserves the right to make administrative decisions as needed. We welcome you and your children to OKE and look forward to a successful and rewarding year.

Thursday, August 15

• Rotation Day 2

Friday, August 16

• Rotation Day 3

Monday, August 19

• Rotation Day 4

Tuesday, August 20

• Rotation Day 1

Wednesday, August 21

• Rotation Day 2

Thursday, August 22

• Rotation Day 3

Friday, August 23

• Spirit Day
• Rotation Day 4