The Hoot Owl
MAY 15, 2023
Notes from the principal
As the holidays approach, students will be out of school for two full weeks. While we encourage memory making during this time, we also want to encouraging reading as part of your daily routine. Below you will find some questions that you can ask your children as they are reading.
Fiction questions:
Who is the main character?
What do you know about him/her? (internal and external characteristics such as blonde hair, calm, curious, etc...)
What is the setting in the book?
What is the problem?
How do you think they will solve the problem and read on to see if you are right?
Can you give me a 3-4 sentence summary of what you read today?
Non-fiction questions:
Show me some of the text features in the book. How do they support the text?
What is the main idea?
What are the details that support the main idea?
These will help your child continue growing in their reading.
IMPORTANT DATES:
December 15 - Early release
December 17 - January 2 - Student holidays
January 3 - Students return to school
ACTION ITEMS
Two things for action immediately:
- We are collecting small gifts and/or gift cards for our staff. For the month of December, we like to treat our staff members to fun games with prizes. If you would be willing to donate a small gift or a gift card (no more than $10 per item); we would appreciate it. Drop your donations off to the front office.
- Fall Parent Survey - Please take a few minutes to answer 12 short questions about our school
DECEMBER TO REMEMBER
Below are the theme days for the two weeks of school in December. Choose 1, or all 10 days to participate. Please do not feel the need to go buy items for these days.
PTO NEWSLETTER
TITLE ONE INFORMATION
GT Spring Testing Nominations
Referral Requests for Gifted and Talented Testing Referral requests are now open for Conroe Independent School District Gifted and Talented program. Although the testing will not take place until late January, referral requests are accepted at this time. Referral requests can be made by the parents and/or campus staff. It is recommended that parents of 2nd grade students wait until CogAT scores have arrived before nominating their child because CogAT scores are part of the GT assessment. CogAT testing for second grade will occur in October. If you are interested in referring your child, you may want to discuss this with your child’s teacher. Referrals will be accepted October 2- December 15, 2023. You may request a referral form from the front office or the Assistant Principal. You can also find the referral form and other GT information on the CISD GT homepage.
CHILDREN IN SANTA'S DREAM
We have a bin in the front office to support the CISD police department TOY DRIVE for needy families. We are asking our families to donate new toys that the CISD police department will wrap and give to families in our school zone who are in need of gifts for the holidays. If you can donate an unwrapped toy, please drop them off in the bucket in the front office.
GRADE LEVEL NEWS...
Please click the link below and see what is happening in your child's grade/class.
INFORMATION TO KNOW:
Student Handbook is located online. Below is a link to the handbook in both Spanish and English.
School hours: 8:00 - 3:10 p.m.
Doors open at 7:35 a.m. Please do not drop students off before that time as there is no supervision.
Students are tardy at 8:01 a.m.
Dismissal begins at 3:10 p.m.
Students should be picked up by 3:30 p.m.
Visitors on campus:
Things to know about visiting our campus.
*Arrive at the front door and ring the doorbell (facing the doors to your right)
*Let the front office staff know what you need.
*Once you have communicated with front office staff, you will be buzzed into the front vestibule.
*An ID will be required to enter the main part of the building or check a child out. Please make sure you have it with you as you will be sent to get it.
Volunteering on campus:
Please remember that in order to volunteer on campus (reading to a class, going on a field trip, helping with PTO, attending class parties, etc...), parents must have completed the Volunteer Background check for the district. This must be completed each year for every school where you will volunteer so if you have students at 3 different schools, you must complete it for all 3 schools.
TRANSPORATION INFORMATION
Just a reminder that it takes 3-5 days for students to be routed on busses. If you haven't registered your child, please take a moment to do so, even if they are not currently riding. It is better to have them registered than have to wait for routing throughout the year. Register for bus here.
BUSSES -
Things to know about bus riders:
- Good behavior is expected on the bus. For the safety of all, please review expectations with your child.
- talk to your seat mate or the students across the aisle
- remain seated at all times
- use an "inside" voice when talking to friends on the bus, refrain from yelling or screaming
- keep your hands to yourself
CAR RIDER LINE
Things to know about car rider line:
- Parents are not allowed to park and walk up to the porch for drop off in the morning or the afternoon.
- Students may not be dropped off in the parking lot nor near the playground fence.
- Students may not be dropped off or picked up on the outside of the covered drive-through.
- Car rider signs must be displayed in window when picking up students.
- Parents may not enter car rider line from our driveway entrance. See map below.
- Parents coming north on I-45 feeder must join the line using Oak Ridge School Road, between the hotel and Saltgrass.
- Please allow merging at that stop sign.
- If you need to help your child do their seat belt or get them buckled into their car seat, we ask that you pull up past the car rider line and stop. This will allow our car rider line to keep running smoothly.
If you forget and come in our main entrance to join the car rider line, please note that there are cones blocking the right turn lane. That is a reminder that you may not join our line from this direction. You will be forced to turn left and find the end of the line.
WALKERS/BIKERS
Students can be walkers ONLY IF they live in the no bus zone. This is typically the 1 mile zone of the school according to transportation. If your child is eligible for bus service, they are not eligible to be a walker. We do monitor this and will notify parents if your child cannot be a walker.
Walkers are delivered to parents in the cul de sac at the fence cut through. We expect parents to be present to get their children from this area. If there is not adult at this location, your child will be brought back to school and you will need to walk over and get them from the front office.
If weather dictates that children cannot be walkers, parents will receive notification via text message through the district notification system. At that time, parents will be able to join the car rider line or walk to the art room door to retrieve your child. This decision is based upon lighting, heavy rain, or other hazardous weather situations. Our goal is to make the call by 3:00 p.m. However, in the event a storm pops up after 3, we will send out a text as soon as possible.
TRANSPORTATION CHANGES
If you find that you need to change your child's method of transportation, there a couple of ways to make that happen.
If you know ahead of time, the best option is to send a handwritten note to the teacher in the child's folder.
If you need to change during the school, please email the change to contactore@conroeisd.net including your child's name, teacher name, specific change of transportation requested. This will only be put into place for the one day requested.
As a last resort, please call the front office and let them know the change of transportation for that day only. Permanent changes needs to be communicated with the teacher.
Once the school day has started, we ask that you NOT email or text change of transportation to the teacher. This will help prevent a miscommunication due to something like the teacher being absent or not having time to check email during the school day.
ALL CHANGES MUST BE MADE BY 2:30 P.M.
If you need to check your child out before the end of the school day, please note that the cut off time for that is 2:45 p.m. After 2:45, you will be directed to the car rider line.
TITLE ONE CAMPUS INFORMATION
Oak Ridge Elementary is a Title One campus based on our percentage of students who qualify for free/reduced lunch. This provides our school with extra money to help our students. Currently we use the money to hire 2 paraprofessional interventionists who pull small groups of students. We have a Parent Liason, Mrs. DeAlencar, who is here to support our parents and serve as liason between the school and the parents. We also have a full time behavior coach on campus. The remaining funds are spent on staff development opportunities for our staff as well as supplies and tools our students need.
Each year parents need to reapply and qualify for assistance. We encourage all of our parents to apply for meals. Even if your child might never eat in the cafeteria, it is best to have it in place just in case.
If you need assistance with the online application or have questions concerning free/reduced lunch or Title One status, please call the school and ask for Mrs. DeAlencar. She can assist you.
As offers come in from different organizations to assist students with back to school clothes/supplies, Christmas gifts, food, etc...only families who are on free/reduced lunch will be considered to receive these services. Please use the link below to update your application:
Breakfast and lunch menus can be found at the link below:
LUNCH RESERVATIONS
In the event you show up without a reservation, we will check availability. If we have availability, we will let you have lunch with your child. If we are full that day, unfortunately, we will have to ask you to reschedule.
Reservations can be made from our school website. Our school website can be found here. On the website is a button that says Lunch Reservations.
When you arrive, you will need to present the front office with your picture identification to enter the building. If you do not have a license, passport, or other form of picture identification, you will not be allowed in the school. All adults coming to lunch will need their own form of identification.
Parents will meet their child in the lunchroom and go to room 300 to enjoy lunch. We want to allow this to be a special time with your child so we have created this location for you.
DATES TO KNOW
DECEMBER
15 - Early release, end of 2nd nine weeks
18 - January 1 - Winter Break
JANUARY
2 - Staff returns to work
3- Students return to work
15 - School holiday
23 - PTO Meeting
25 - Booster Kick Off - PTO fundraiser