Mustang Messenger
Tuesday, January 12, 2021
UPCOMING EVENTS
01/06/21......................Third Grading Period Begins January 5
01/18/21......................Student and Staff Holiday Honoring Martin Luther King, Jr.
01/19/21......................Professional Development Day / Student Holiday
01/20/21......................Life Touch Pictures for Remote Students
01/22/21......................Bring Back the 90s Day
02/19/21......................Instructional Status Change Form Due - Grading Period March 8 +
03/08/21......................Fourth Grading Period Begins March 8
Vaccine Town Hall
This is a message from the Austin Health Department
Dear school partners,
We know that many in the community have questions about the coronavirus vaccine. Austin Public Health will be hosting two community town hall meetings this week – one in English and one in Spanish – to provide information about the COVID-19 vaccine. The town hall meetings will include an expert panel discussion about vaccine safety and effectiveness.
Vaccine Town Hall - English
- What: Join local public health officials for a Vaccine Town Hall to discuss COVID-19 vaccine safety, efficacy, and distribution. Some vaccine questions will be answered live as time permits.
- When: Wednesday, January 13th at 6 p.m.
- Where: Facebook Live, ATXN
- Panelists:
- Stephanie Hayden, Austin Public Health Director
- Dr. Mark Escott, Interim Austin-Travis County Health Authority
- Dr. Charles Bell, Vice-Chair, Central Health Board of Managers
- Dr. Jason Reichenberg, President of Ascension Medical Group Texas
- Additional details can be found here.
School Pictures for Remote Families
Lifetouch will be on campus on Wednesday, January 20, to take remote student photos from 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm. You may order your photos at mylifetouch.com with our picture day ID: EVT7DZ66Q. We also sent home an order form in your child's remote box on January 11. Students who need a photo retake or have returned to campus will have their photos taken during the school day and do not need to schedule a time.
Remote Students -- Please use this signup genius link to schedule a photo time: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0d4facaf2aa6fcc07-lakeway
Feel free to contact Valerie Lemak at 512-533-6363 or lemakv@ltisdschools.org with any questions you may have.
For Our Returning to Campus Mustang Families
Please Label Water Bottles & Lunch Boxes!
Please send your child with a refillable water bottle, labeled with their first and last name to ensure our students stay refreshed and hydrated. These bottles will be sent home daily to be cleaned and sanitized at home.
Smart Tag Used for Dismissal
If you have already registered, please go back into SMART TAG and update your child(ren)'s dismissal default to accurately reflect how you would like your child to go home regularly.
If you need to make a change to the way your child goes home for a specific day, please log in to SMART TAG and submit a temporary change. The cut off time to make changes is 2:00 pm.
All parents, it is very important for your default to be correct as we will be sending students home based on the information in SMART TAG.
Need to check out your child early from school?
Counseling Connection - January/February 2021
Happy 2021 Mustang Families! With newfound hope and optimism, we are now in the second semester of the school year. My word for the second half of the school year is “spark.” Not only am I looking to ignite my own spark again, I seek to help our Mustangs find their spark. While we face unprecedented challenges, a spark could be as simple as yoga in the morning or listening to your favorite tunes to start your day. I know those Broadway tunes will be blaring in my own car!
Many of our classes took part in a truly heartwarming initiative to coincide with Veterans Day this school year. Classes signed up to create cards for the Stayskal Family who are being gifted with a home through the organization, Operation Finally Home. The organization allowed our classes to meet virtually with a Veteran. Since that time, the Stayskal Family visited their new home viewing their “notes of love” lining the frame of their home: https://abc11.com/community-events/vet-surprised-with-thank-you-notes-during-visit-to-mortgage-free-home/8832364/
Starting January 25th, we will be honoring Holocaust Remembrance Week with our Respect for All Week. Last school year, Gov. Abbott signed SB1828 for public schools across Texas to annually observe Holocaust Remembrance Week. The Directors of Education from the Texas Holocaust and Genocide Commission and the San Antonio Holocaust Museum will be partnering to meet virtually with our 4th and 5th graders. The goal of this week for all of our students is to teach the children the importance of celebrating differences and being inclusive with one another.
For the months of January and February, students will be visiting with Mrs. Monahan in the “Counselor Corral” for a lesson on understanding emotions. For grades K-2, they will learn about many different emotions and what to do if they ever feel overwhelmed by them. For grades 3-5, they will learn more about what their brain does in response to certain emotions and how to appropriately respond when they are “flipping their lid.”
If you have any questions or concerns about your child, please do not hesitate to contact Michelle Monahan, your School Counselor at monahanm@ltisdschools.org or 512-533-6364.
Student Attendance Reporting
Help Us Help You With Reporting Student Attendance
The quickest and easiest way to report an absence or early release is through Smart Tag dismissal. We ask that you send a doctor's note or a parent notification directly to our campus registrar Debbie Combs. Many student absences can be excused or even waived if parents provide appropriate documentation for their absence. Unfortunately, student’s will be counted as unexcused if we do not receive documentation. Thank you for your help and support.
IN-PERSON LEARNER REPLACEMENT TRANSPORTATION AND ID BADGES
- $3 - Transportation ID scan badge
- $5 - Retractable transportation badge reel
- $2 - Transportation lanyard and plastic sleeve
- $1 - Campus student ID badge, holder, and lanyard.
Our Lakeway Receptionist, Mrs. Lisa Hanson will be happy to assist you in the event replacement badges are needed.
A Message From Nurse Neal Shotwell
All students and staff are required to self-screen for COVID related symptoms before arriving at school each day. This includes having parents measure their student’s temperature each morning.
If your child has even one of the symptoms on the screening list, they MUST stay home.
Symptoms are:
★ Has the student had close contact with any person who has a lab-confirmed positive COVID-19 test result?
★ Feeling feverish or a measured temperature greater than or equal to 100.0 degrees Fahrenheit
★ Loss of taste or smell
★ Cough
★ Difficulty breathing
★ Shortness of breath
★ Headache
★ Chills
★ Sore throat
★ Shaking or exaggerated shivering
★ Muscle or body aches
★ Diarrhea, nausea or vomiting
★ Fatigue
★ Congestion or runny nose
Additional screening may be conducted during the school day as warranted. Students not feeling well during the school day will be sent to the clinic for a nursing assessment if interventions in the classroom have not been successful. If a student has any symptoms on the above COVID-19 screening list, parents will be called and the student will be sent home from school.
Please know that children who come to school with symptoms will also be sent home.
Students absent with COVID-like symptoms from the list above must meet the requirements for returning to school as outlined in the “LTISD Return to School Protocols for COVID-19,” which can be found on the LTISD website at: https://www.ltisdschools.org/COVID-19
Re-entry protocol applies to students who experience symptoms at home AND/OR if they are sent home from school. ALL THREE (3) conditions must be met before a student who was symptomatic may return to school.
● Student must be fever-free for at least 24 hours without the use of fever-reducing medications
● The individual has improvement in symptoms (e.g., cough, shortness of breath)
● At least ten days have passed since symptoms first appeared
The 10 days must be observed even if symptoms only last a short while and the child did not have fever.
For your child to return to school before completing the 10-day stay at home period, you must either:
● Obtain a medical professional’s note clearing the student for return to school based on an alternative diagnosis, including THE DATE on which the student may return; OR
● Obtain an acute infection test (at a physician’s office, an approved testing location found at https://tdem.texas.gov/covid-19/ or another site) that comes back negative for COVID-19. **A negative result on a “rapid antigen test” must also include a doctor’s note clearing the student for return to school, and include THE DATE on which the student may return.
Please feel free to contact LWE Nurse Neal Shotwell, RN, MSN at shotwelln@ltisdschools.org or 512-533-6365 if you have any questions or concerns. He will be more than happy to assist you.
We Are Not Admitting Visitors At This Time
District releases COVID-19 reporting dashboard
In accordance with applicable laws, Lake Travis ISD officials must notify the local health authority and the Texas Education Agency of an individual who is lab-confirmed to have COVID-19. The purpose of this dashboard is to provide our staff and families with transparent communication. A positive case indicates that a staff member or student who was onsite in a district facility has tested positive for COVID-19. Individuals who test positive are excluded from participation in any in-person/on-campus activity until the school nurse verifies that the individual meets the return criteria set by local and state health authorities. Once the individual is cleared to return, their case is removed from the dashboard.
The dashboard is posted on our website and will be updated weekly.
USEFUL LINKS:
Food and Nutrition Services (FANS):
Items Needing to Be Delivered to Students
Parents needing to drop off a lunch or other school items to their child(ren) will be able to do so by dropping the labeled item(s) on a table located outside the office area. Labels and clean markers will be there for your use.
Labels need to include:
- NAME:
- GRADE:
- TEACHER:
Items will be delivered to the students as soon as possible.
Follow Lake Travis ISD With Social Media Listed Bellow
ON-LINE LEARNING AVAILABLE ONLY THROUGH YOUR CHILD'S LTISD ACCOUNT
To gain entry to student learning, students should use the LTISD LT1 Classlink to enter and access all classroom google links. This ensures secure and safe learning.
If students/parents attempt to access class meetings or documents without using the student's credentials in LT1 (for example, logging in to the browser from a parent's personal or work account instead of the student's LTISD account) access is restricted. To prevent unauthorized people from accessing our classrooms, only appropriate LT1 Classlink logins with the student's credentials can gain access. Access attempts by any other accounts will be denied.
PLEASE be sure to access all google links through our LT1Classlink using the appropriate LTISD student's credentials.
DISTRICT ASSISTING WITH TECHNOLOGY TO SUPPORT REMOTE LEARNING
The Lake Travis Independent School District (LTISD) will lend Chromebooks and WiFi hotspots to students in grades K-12 who have limited or no access to a device at home and who do not already have a device from our initial deployment this past spring. Our district has had a high volume of requests. Thank you for your patience.
Families who meet the above criteria may request a Chromebook and/or WiFi hotspot through the Skyward "Technology Device Request" form by linking to Skyward through a browser. Link to Skyward here. Please complete 1 request form per student. When the LTISD has the student's Chromebook and/or hotspot ready for pick up, they will notify you.
Also, there is a known issue affecting the login credentials of some of our families with district-issued Chromebooks, and we have developed a solution to help you establish credentials for login. If you are unable to log in, please follow the steps outlined here, and if you need additional assistance, please feel free to contact us. We appreciate your patience.
Need Tech Support? Here is where to go.
Schoology schoology@ltisdschools.org
Technology issues - password resets, computer issues 512 533 6545
Technology webpage https://www.ltisdschools.org/Domain/27
CHANGING INSTRUCTIONAL STATUS
A change from in-person learning to remote learning can be made at any time. To request this change, complete the LTISD Instructional Change Form. The completed form should be forwarded to our Registrar, Debbie Combs.
A change from remote learning to in-person learning can also be requested on the LTISD Instructional Change Form. The completed form should be forwarded to our campus registrar Debbie Combs no later than 2 weeks prior to the start of the next grading period, as shown below:
- Form Due Date is 2/19/21 for the grading period beginning 3/8/21.
LTISD CHROMEBOOKS TO REMAIN CHECKED OUT TO STUDENTS WHILE ON CAMPUS
Students who checked out a District-issued Chromebook for remote learning at home and will be returning to in-person learning on campus should retain the device and bring it to school for use in the classroom as needed, much like an assigned textbook.
Chromebooks will remain checked out to the student until a date to be later determined or at the end of the 2020–2021 school year, whichever comes first.
Lakeway Elementary
Email: hickss@ltisdschools.org
Website: http://www.ltisdschools.org/site/default.aspx?domainid=872
Location: 1701 Lohmans Crossing Road, Lakeway, TX, United States
Phone: (512) 533-6350
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lakeway/
Twitter: @HicksSamuel