AIS Friday Flash
Friday, August 19, 2022
Merci ! Thank you! ¡Gracias for a Great First Week from Mr. Jacques!
It was such a pleasure to welcome all of our amazing AIS Owls to campus this week and to the AIS Year of Community and Connections! Watching our veteran students and families welcome newcomers to the school community has been particularly heartwarming. We’re looking forward to witnessing the strengthening of those connections in the months and years ahead. Our incredibly talented and dedicated team of educators and administrators have done an amazing job to kick the year off, so I also want to extend a huge thanks to my colleagues for the exceptional work they have done over the past several weeks. Thank you all! We appreciate you!
Family Directories & Contact Information
Want to meet other new families at AIS or reach out to other child classmates? You may access our school directory via your Parent Portal as follows:
- Open up the School menu on the left
- Open up the Directory menu
- Filter by grade or class on the right
Friday Flash distribution emails come from your Family Web correspondence emails you submitted during enrollment. Other communication is sent to parent or custody contacts. It is important to keep contact information up to date in your Family Portal including emails, addresses, and cell phones. If you don't receive an email or one parent does not, it is likely we may not have the correct Thank you for self-updating your contact information directly within your Family Portal as needed to receive these important school communiqués, and are used in other apps like PikMyKid.
No Left Turn on Coronet Street
In order to safely manage the traffic flow onto campus, please do not turn left into the school entrance from Coronet Lane. You may approach AIS via Cassady Drive off of Amherst. Cars arriving from Adelphi Lane should pass the car line, make a U-turn, and join the car line to enter campus by making a right turn. Thank you for your patience and understanding that will help us manage safe and efficient traffic flow through our campus.
School Hours
Please remember that our school hours are as follows:
- Grades PS-GS/PreK3-Kinder on M, T, Th, F 8:30 am - 3:45 pm
- Grades CP-4e/1st-Middle on M, T, TH, F 8:15 am - 3:45 pm
- On Wednesdays, school hours end at 2:45 pm for students from PS - CM2; Middle Schoolers have a full day on Wednesdays until 3:45 pm.
- On Wednesdays, all students (except Middle Schoolers) not signed up for the flat-rate Extended Care program must be picked up no later than 2:45 pm. We cannot accommodate ANY one-day care on Wednesdays due to limited staffing and to remain within student-teacher ratios for the proper care and safety of all our students.
- At this time, we cannot accommodate siblings of middle schoolers on Wednesdays during that first hour. If our staffing capacity changes as the year goes by, we are happy to update this policy and will notify those families accordingly.
- Any students not picked up at dismissal time on early release Wednesdays will be charged $5 per minute.
Last Year's Yearbook
The 2021-2022 yearbooks may be purchased for $41.89 plus tax through Tree Ring. Place your order in August or September to receive 10% off and they will be mailed to the school address. We will put these in student backpacks upon arrival. Order yours today here or at treering.com/1014743869961294. For each book ordered, Tree Ring will plant a tree in honor of AIS.
Extended Care Program Starts on Monday, 8/22
For those registered in the Extended Care program, we look forward to seeing you afterschool next week. Parents and guardians, pick-up during the Extended Care from 3:46 pm to 6:00 pm is different than regular school dismissal and varies from last year as well. Any parent picking up students from extended care should announce in the PikMyKid app, park in the front of the school, and walk into reception to wait for their students. Students in GS through CM2 will be in the auditorium, a staff member will dismiss them or bring them to the lobby. For PS & MS students, a staff member will be called to bring your child(ren) to the lobby from a maternelle classroom.
Afterschool Activity Registration Continues
Registration for our Afterschool classes is ongoing until September 2nd, with changes or revisions possible through September 7th. We will send confirmations after the 2nd when registration ends. However, we may preemptively send communiqués for classes which are already filled sooner, in order to confirm desired participation ahead of time in case spots open up for waitlisted students. Here is the most current activity schedule. Registration information is included on page 2 and is done through your Family Portal by following these steps below.
- Login to your Family Portal using your user id and password (school code is ai-tx)
- Open the Student Menu
- Open the Course Request Menu
- On the right, verify the student registering (a name/or pull down with sibling name will appear at the top)
- Click on 1 course per pull down menu
- Make sure to hit save on the very bottom to complete the request
You may use this same process to request a class which may be full to get on the waiting list. If you have any questions, email extracurricular@austinis.org. We have received many emails and calls and will catch up on the correspondence and wait list questions next week.
School Lunch Sign-up
School lunches are back! AIS has partnered with a new provider, Crave-It Nutrition, to deliver tasty and healthy meals to the school on Mondays through Thursdays. There will be varied hot and cold meal options priced between $4.50 and $6.00. This lunch service is optional, and you may opt to pack a lunch from home instead. Regardless, all students should also bring 2 healthy snacks and a full water bottle with them daily.
To set up an account and begin placing orders follow these instructions:
- Go to craveit.boonli.com,
- Use the school passcode: AIS57
- Pick out your items using the calendar feature
- Make sure to checkout completely in your cart to submit your order.
- Orders must be placed by Fridays at 2:00 pm for the upcoming week, however, it is strongly suggested that you order by month to provide sufficient planning to our catering partner.
- Registration for Pizza Fridays will be facilitated via the Parent Teacher Organization via the information below.
Pizza Fridays Program-Register by 8/25
Cheese pizza is available for lunches each Friday of the school year beginning September 2nd through June 2nd for a package program rate of $200 for the year for regular cheese pizza and $310 for the year for gluten free pizza. Scan the QR code in the attached flyer or access this link to sign up. Registration ends by August 25th payable by September 19th. Remember, the pizza program does not start till September, so please continue to pack lunches on August 26th and do pack snacks and a healthy side each week to accompany the pizza.
Pick Up & Drop Off/PikMyKid
Thank you for your patience with our hectic first couple of days navigating rainy student pick-ups. Once extended care begins, it should be a bit easier to navigate as less families will come right at dismissal. To help with streamline the process, please keep in mind the following:
- Remember, you should enter Coronet via a right hand turn. Do not turn left into the driveway. Instead access from Cassady Drive onto Coronet or pass the school and do a safe U-Turn to turn around.
- When entering the portico, please pull all the way forward so staff may assist multiple cars at one time during drop-off and pick-up.
- If pulling through to the Maternelle side, please pull within 3' of the car in front of you.
- Staff is there to help assist students exit vehicles. Unless necessary, parents and guardians should remain in vehicles (for CP-Middle under the portico) to expedite drop-off and pick-up.
- Since we have so many new families, please display your car tag in the dash. This will help us match up students with guardians.
- Likewise, please make sure to attach your child(ren)'s backpack tag. This will assist staff in identifying new students and matching up with guardians.
- Families do not need to complete a health questionnaire or use the app in the mornings for drop-off. However, it is a requirement to announce and use the app in the afternoons for student pick-up for all families. While we can insert student numbers, doing so on campus delays the process for your child's dismissal and others.
- Most of our new families have registered. If you have not, please refer to the packet we distributed at Meet the Teachers for instructions along with these instructional videos below to register and use the app at pick-up.
- Your location must be on your cell phones in order to use the app properly.
- Some returning families still have not registered in PikMyKid. To ease the delay in student retrieval, please load the app and announce daily to support pickup safety and expedite the process for your child(ren) and other families waiting in line.
- Some families have registered but do not see any children in the app. All students and guardians are loaded into PMK. This "unmatched" child is likely due to a different email or cell phone being used to register than what the school had in Parent Web and used for PikMyKid. If this applies to you, please review the registration video below (at about 3:15 minutes in). This should enable you to search for our school and match up your child(ren) by inputting your student's PMK ID number (included in your packets, the car tag, and backpack tag).
- Thank you for reviewing the handouts and video links below first to problem solve. If you still need assistance, email April or you may contact the customer support at support@pikmykid.com.
- PikMykid registration video
Health Forms and Screenings
Please remember that all student medical and health forms will be due on Thursday, September 29th. State law requires the school to provisionally enroll and/or temporarily exclude students who do not have forms up-to-date, so please ensure that a recent well check (i.e., issued within the last year) and updated vaccination records are on file. Be on the lookout for an email next week regarding requirements for hearing, vision, and spinal checks and availability of those health screenings at school.
COVID Testing Available at AIS
Austin International School is a private COVID testing center registered with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Lab ID: 45D2264585). We offer booth on-demand rapid antigen tests with results available in 15 minutes, as well as weekly PCR screening. All tests at AIS a quick, easy, and use shallow anterior nasal swabs (no deep nasal swabs).
- Rapid Antigen Testing. If you would like to request a COVID test for your child, please send an email to COVIDtesting@austinis.org. You will receive an email from the CDC’s SimpleReport platform to register for testing. Fifteen minutes after the test is conducted, you will receive your child’s test result by email. (Note: This is a new testing and reporting platform and families who were previously registered will need to re-register for testing).
- Weekly PCR Screening. During periods of high community spread in Austin, we will activate our weekly PCR screening program. At that time, we will send instructions out to our school community on how to enroll your child.
If you have any questions regarding our COVID health and safety protocols, please reach out to Jacques.
August School Spirit Night-Tue., 8/30
AIS is excited to partner with Phil's Icehouse & Amy's Ice Cream for our first monthly Spirit Night of the year on Tuesday, August 30th at their Lake Creek location on 183N. AIS patrons may actually go all day from 11 am to 11 pm, so order your business lunch and then grab dinner with other members of the AIS community from 4:00 - 8:00 pm for dinner. Phil's & Amy's will generously donate a portion of sales back to the school for anyone mentioning AIS at either/both Phil's & Amy's at the registers for dine-in or when ordering for pickup! Thank you for RSVPing to the event link below to provide the restaurant with an approximate headcount and, of course, thank you for participating in this fun community event and fundraiser.
Head of School Coffee-Thur., 9/1, 8:30 - 9:30 am
Join our Head of School, Jacques Weber, for the first monthly coffee of the year on Thursday, 9/1 out in front of the school. On the first Thursday of each month, the school and Parent-Teacher Organization take turns hosting a monthly coffee. These are informal gatherings to chat with other school parents and staff or sometimes they are themed around a particular area of interest.
Back to School Night- Thur., 9/1, 5:00 - 7:00 pm
All families are invited to join us for our Back to School Night on 9/1 at 5:00 pm. We will include a school presentation followed by visits with classroom teachers to get to know the teaching teams, discuss an overview of the year, classroom expectations, and much more. More details to come.
Labor Day/No School-Mon., 9/5
The school will be closed in observance of the Labor Day holiday, and we will see you back on Tuesday, September 6th.
Save the dates
Mark these important upcoming dates on your calendars.
- 8/17 Meet the Teachers
- 8/18 First Day of 2022-2023 School Year
- 8/22 Extended Care begins for registered participants
- 8/30 August Spirit Night- Phil's Icehouse & Amy's Icecream
- 9/1 Head of School Coffee
- 9/1 Back to School Night
- 9/5 Labor Day/No School
- 9/12-9/14 Middle School Retreat
- 9/15 Room Parent Coffee
- 9/16 Vision, Hearing, Speech/Language, Motor Screenings
- 9/19 MAP Assessments begin
- 9/17 AIS Board Retreat (revised date)
- 9/29 Medical Forms Due
- 9/30 Staff In-Service/No School
- 10/3-10/7 Fall Break/No School
- 10/3-10/7 Fall Camp available
August Spirit Night at Phil's & Amy's Icecream
Tuesday, Aug 30, 2022, 04:00 PM
Phil's Icehouse, US 183 Highway, Austin, TX, USA
RSVPs are enabled for this event.
Austin International School
Email: info@austinis.org
Website: www.austininternationalschool.org
Location: 4001 Adelphi Lane, Austin, TX, United States
Phone: 512-331-7806
Facebook: www.facebook.com/AustinInternationalSchool
Twitter: @austinintschool