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The Branch

A Monthly Newsletter from RootEd

The BranchA Monthly Newsletter from RootEd

Good News!

There are many balls up in the air this legislative session that we are keeping a watchful and active eye on. The priority issue being federal stimulus funding. Also, we have an eye on bills that are possible fire storms.


The GOOD NEWS is that districts can start applying for stimulus funds this week! The Governor released $7.54 billion which came from ESSER 3, the third pandemic stimulus package from the federal government. So to re-cap, the first stimulus package, ESSER 1, was supplanted into the state budget. ESSER 3 was just released. So, not to be picky, but what about ESSER 2??? TEA is getting hundreds of millions with each stimulus so we know they are fine and the budget has already been supplanted. It now time to release ESSER 2 ($5.5 billion), the second stimulus package that schools deserve to help them recover from the past years devastation and astronomical costs. You can see what each district will get with ESSER 3 HERE which is a huge relief. I'm sure your wheels are turning as to how that money can be spent but honestly, the districts have probably already spent so much of it paying for their own PPE, sanitation stations, clear barriers and so many other means of safety and student recovery.


Thank you so much to everyone who wrote emails, called legislators and pushed the State to release funding...advocacy works!! Now our goal the next few weeks is to reach out to those who have their hands on ESSER 2 and see if we can get the money released ASAP and find out why the delay. No one deserves the funding more than districts who know what it takes to get our students back on track.

Scholarship Winners!!

Congrats to our first ever RootEd Scholarship recipients, Gabby and Dylan!! Gabby is a senior at Communication Arts HS in NISD, planning to attend LSU. Dylan is a senior at MacArthur HS in NEISD, planning to attend Texas State. We received many outstanding applications. The decision was hard but we were very impressed with Gabby and Dylan and how much they gave back to the community and their neighborhoods. HUGE shout-out to RootEd Rep Sofia Andry for creating the RootEd scholarship program and taking the initiative to follow it through. Thank you so much to everyone who donated to our scholarships. We can’t wait to do this again next year!! Congrats to these amazing students, our neighborhood schools are producing fabulous kids!

RootEd Awards

We are excited to announce that we are giving out 2 awards this year. If you'd like to nominate someone for either award, complete the linked google forms.


RootEd Rep of the Year: A RootEd Rep who has gone above and beyond. Someone who shares the stories of the schools and who helps market their schools. A Rep who continues to grow ROOTS in their schools and community. https://forms.gle/QvXPqtFyXUDH3GzG7


RootEd Staff Member of the Year: A staff member who works at a RootEd school or the district (not a RootEd Rep) who helps share the school stories. Could be someone who adds the RootEd hashtag to their posts. Someone who understands the importance of RootEd in the school. https://forms.gle/aHwYhY3d75sLei758

Noteworthy

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Relaxing Art

RootEd Rep Cruz shared this amazing art from Rawlinson MS. The post is great because she explained the curriculum in a creative way while tagging the appropriate parties and adding the hashtags. The post got a lot of buzz!! Nice, Cruz!!


#RootEdRawlinson #RootEdNISD

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Brag-away!!

Such a great brag for their future school! Great job, Lead Rep Sarah!!


#RootEdClark #RootEdNISD

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Back to Paper

Smart Post! Huebner's target audience is current parents as well as parents who are shopping. Many of those parents we have found love old-school PAPER curriculum. Obviously, all schools do it but probably don't share about it so this shows students in the weeds. Great job!


#RootEdHuebner #RootEdNEISD

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Taking a moment

The Wood MS Principal was captured arm wrestling with a student in this cute post. This shows the parents how engaged he is with their students. Great post! Great hashtags!


#RootEdWood #RootEdNEISD

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Autism Awareness

This is a great post from Castle Hills Elem in NEISD. Great photos but the best part was the quick explanation they give as to what the photo was about. It is so nice to see the effort they are putting into inclusion but also that they explained what they were doing.


#RootEdCastleHills

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Simple but affective!

Super simple post but does a really good job of showing off something the school offers that parents and kids love! Great job to the Librarian at Harmony Hills in NEISD for catching this moment and sharing!


#RootEdHarmonyHills

RootEd out in the Community

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Shopping Around

Multiple of our Lead Reps jumped on this post where a parent was looking for opinions on Huebner Elem in NEISD. Our Reps are always on the look-out for posts like this and are always ready to give their educated opinions!! Way to go, Jennelle and Connie!!


#RootEdHuebner

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Mascot Cheer

Lead Rep Priscilla is so good about providing ideas for social media content. The O'Connor High School mascots look awesome in RootEd shirts!!


#RootEdOConnor #RootEdNISD

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RootEd Hashtags

Keep adding your hashtags...we constantly use them to direct parents looking around. The more stories that are hashtagged, the easier it is for us to give them options!

RootEd Facebook Groups



Ready to dive into some podcasts that either may get you fired up about public education? Or want to be in the know about our legislative priorities and what's going on in public education in Texas?


Check us out. Click on the graphic below for links.

Go Public Partnership

Go Public has free swag boxes for RootEd reps with car magnets and other FREE, fun items to hand out as we kick off the new school year! They’re taking orders now from reps to receive the Go Public swag box by August. To get yours, please fill out the form below. And, if you’re a PTA member, your PTA can get a box too. Here are both links:

RootEd Reps: http://bit.ly/swagrooted

PTAs: http://bit.ly/ptaswag

Monthly Updates

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Shopping

As frustrating as it is, the bottom line is that parents are shopping for schools. School choice is so readily available that there is nothing we can do to stop it from happening. What we do as RootEd is to make sure that parents have the facts, not the rumors. We also make sure parents have ways to see for themselves. This has been a priority from the very creation of RootEd.
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What's RootEd this Month?

You could work on ideas for a Senior Walk - it may not be the "normal" way but you could do it outside or make a video.


Think about planning a socially distant incoming kinder meet-up.


Continue creating post content with end of the year music performances, etc.


Start planning RootEd events next year with the Principal


Be sure to use your RootEd hashtag!

Rep Spotlight of the Month

This month's Rep Spotlight is on Priscilla who is the RootEd Rep at O'Connor HS in NISD. Priscilla is one of our Lead Reps who is always up for a good photo-op! She is really great at getting the school and mascots involved in a social media post.


"I enjoy being part of the RootEd organization because I get to exchange ideas on how to market our public school, find out what’s happening in our school district as well as the ones next to us. It also provides us with information on the latest policies that are being talked about and voted on. This allows us to make more informed decisions when using our voices and votes. RootEd org keeps us in tuned to what our legislators are doing and when we should start calling, texting, and emailing them when policies will affect our public schools.

As part of being a RootEd Rep I get to brag about the amazing things these awesome kiddos are doing in Choir, Academics, Sports and Clubs. The only requirement is to tag the photo. So, when parents are considering our schools, they get to see what parents are saying about their kids and what the event means to them.

I believe RootEd is important because it gives other parents a bird’s eye view of a particular school without ever having to ask questions of a specific person. A parent that is considering a particular school but doesn’t just want the “canned” statement from the school administrators or the pre-posed pictures on the school’s website can always take a peek at the posts about that school. Another positive point about RootEd is if a parent still has questions, they can reach out to Rep and get more detailed information.

If you want the basics like what programs a school offers; what clubs or extracurricular activities; how the school ranks in testing or graduation requirements then of course going to the school website, it is the perfect place. If you want to see how much fun the kiddos are having at a PTSA sponsored popcorn event for student members, what happens at the pep rally, or how many mums one student can wear then you’ll find that in the RootEd Rep posts on social media."


#RootedOConnor

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About RootEd

RootEd is a parent-led, grassroots organization that promotes neighborhood public schools through storytelling, advocacy, and education. We believe a strong public school system for all children creates a robust economy and well-connected community. RootEd is a 501(c)3 non profit organization.


For past newsletters: https://www.smore.com/u/rooted

Email: info@proudlyrooted.com
Website: www.proudlyrooted.com
Location: San Antonio, Texas
Phone: (210) 617-0824
Facebook: facebook.com/RootEdTexas
Twitter: @RootEdSA