Hello, Dove families!

Can you believe we only have TWO WEEKS until the end of the 3rd Nine Weeks and Spring Break?? Time flies when you're having fun! I encourage you to stay on top of your student's attendance and grades by accessing Skyward Family Access. I do that once a week for my own children!

Speaking of fun...we have a FUN FRIDAY planned at Dove...Friendship Day, Open House, and then Movie Night! You don't want to miss out on the FUN! Please RSVP for a Fast Pass to Open House and consider signing up to help with concessions at Movie Night!

We had an All-School Assembly last Friday, and we recognized our Students of the Month for Honesty, our Teacher of the Year and Paraprofessional of the Year, and I asked for students who had completed the 1,500 Minute Reading Challenge to please stand. Can you believe- we have FIVE students who have completed the challenge (two 4th graders, a 3rd grader, and a 2nd grader). I am so proud of these students! Let's keep reading and working on our challenge!!

There is a lot of information in this week's newsletter, and at the bottom of the newsletter is an "Upcoming Events" section. We have included dates for upcoming spring events through the end of the year. As a parent, I sat down today with my kiddos' newsletters and added things to my calendar. It's a great tip to stay organized!

Proud to be your principal,

Heather Landrum

Total Enrollment: 455

Total tardies goal: 0

Tardies this week: 116

**Did you know?

• There are other elementary schools that have ZERO tardies each day? What can you do differently to help our school reach our ZERO tardy goal!?!?!!?
• EVERY DAY, we start instruction right at 7:40am. Your student is missing valuable learning time if they arrive after 7:40am.

Total Attendance Goal: 96.5%

Total Attendance Rate for last week: 92.48%

PK: 87.7%

Kinder: 89.6%

1st: 91.5%

2nd: 93.4%

3rd: 93.7%

4th: 94.8%

5th: 94.8%

CLASS PICTURE DAY IS TUESDAY!!

✅ Cute outfit

✅ Smile ready to go

✅ Alarm set

• **Pictures start before 8:00, so please make sure your child is on time tomorrow so they don't miss their class picture!
• **Students will also take an individual spring picture on this day.
• **Parents, proofs will be sent to your email and you order online and they ship to your house! No need to send money to school!

On Monday and Thursday, we will administer the TELPAS (Texas English Language Proficiency Assessment) to qualifying students. Parents of these students have already been informed.

• Monday, February 27:2nd-5th grade- Listening and Speaking
• Thursday, March 2: 2nd-5th grade- Reading

Interim Assessments are an important assessment where students will show what they know and have an opportunity to practice using the online testing tools and taking the assessment online. Teachers/ school staff will gain insight into areas where students are excelling and areas where students need targeted focus prior to STAAR later this spring. We will use Interim Assessment data to adjust intervention groups, tutoring groups, and plan for our Rockin' Review the two weeks before STAAR.

• Wednesday, March 1: 5th grade- Science Interim Assessment

Parents, it is very important on Assessment days that your student:

• is on time and ready to learn!!
• eats a good breakfast with protein and not full of sugar to help fuel their brain!
• bring their Chromebook fully charged, AND they need a set of headphones. Headphones were part of the school supply list this year, but many students are not bringing their headphones daily. Please check in with your student and purchase another pair, if needed. They will use them daily!!

All grade levels will follow their normal lunch, recess, and specials schedule this week.

There are two attendance laws in the state of Texas. We wanted to be sure that everyone was aware of both of these laws and how they could impact your child. Should you have questions regarding the laws, please feel free to reach out to Mrs. Landrum, Mrs. Diehl, or our school counselor, Jennifer Hill, for more information.

• PK-12th grade-Attendance for Credit: This law addresses both excused and unexcused absences as well as tardiness occurring after 7:40 a.m. and early dismissals. Section 25.092 of the Texas Education Code conditions credit for a class on a student's attendance for at least 90 percent of the days a class is offered. Attendance for Credit continues throughout the school year, includes excused as well as unexcused absences and a total of 17 absences for the year would be less than 90% attendance. When students have more than 17 absences, they cannot be promoted to the next grade level. We are required to hold a Placement/Retention Meeting at the end of the year to determine if the child can be placed in the next grade level or need to be retained.

• PK-12th grade- Failure to Attend: This law addresses unexcused absences and tardiness occurring after 7:40 a.m. and early dismissals. The Texas Education Code mandates that a child who is required to attend school do so each school day for the entire school year, per Section 25.085, Compulsory School Attendance from the Texas Education Agency. When a child fails to attend for 10 or more days or parts of days (includes being tardy after 7:40 a.m. and early dismissals) within a six-month period in the same school year, or on three or more days or parts of days within a four-week period then the parent is deemed as "contributing to non-attendance" (Sec. 25.093) and an offense under this section may be prosecuted in a justice court. The state mandates that it is the parent's duty to monitor the student's school attendance and require the student to attend school. The school is required to keep attendance and report daily to the state. We want to ensure that you are aware of this law because, should your child reach 10 unexcused absences, truancy prevention measures would automatically generate.

Please regularly check your child's attendance in Skyward Family Access so that you can ensure you are following both of these attendance laws!

We are seeing an increased number of students that bring a cell phone, smart watch, or other personal electronic device to school. We are also seeing an increase in students with these devices using them during the school day to text or make phone calls. This is not allowed. If an elementary student needs to communicate with a parent during the school day, they should call from the teacher's classroom phone or from the office.

Per the 22-23 GCISD Student Parent Handbook (pages 66-68), in elementary, use of a cell phone or other personal electronic device at school is not allowed, unless an administrator has given special permission.

Moving forward, cell phones should remain off and in backpacks at all times during the school day. Smart watches can be worn, but in airplane mode so that they are only used as a watch. We will begin assigning consequences, as outlined on page 67 of the GCISD Student Parent Handbook.

**Important Note** During STAAR Testing, cell phones and smart watches are not allowed in the testing room and will be collected and stored in another location during the test administration.

Thank you for helping us protect instructional time and minimize the distraction use of these devices is causing in our classrooms. If you have questions, please contact Mrs. Landrum or Mrs. Diehl.

GCISD will begin the 2023-2024 school year on Tuesday, August 15, 2023. The calendar for the upcoming school year was approved by GCISD’s Board of Trustees at their December 19 meeting.

A few additional holidays and important dates on the calendar include:
-District holidays are on September 4, October 9, January 15, March 29, May 27 and June 19
- Six professional development days (no school for students), which are scheduled for September 18, November 6 and 7 (Election Day), January 2-3 and February 19
- Thanksgiving Break runs November 20-24
- Winter Break for students runs December 18-January 3
- Spring Break runs March 11-15
- The calendar includes flexible minutes which will be used before the two bad weather days scheduled for on February 16 and April 15
- The last day of school is on Thursday, May 23

Click here to view or download the final 2023-2024 calendar. Please note the start date in August and save this calendar and use it when planning upcoming trips and vacations next year!

DID YOU KNOW?: It would take 75 days of reading 20 minutes per day to conquer reading 1,500 minutes, and there are 99 weekdays left of the school year!?

As students earn prizes on the worksheet, they should present their worksheet that's been initialed by their parents to their homeroom teacher in order to collect their prizes. We are so excited to do this as a school and can't wait to see our students reach those prize milestones!!!

If you've been looking for a way to more easily stay on top of all of the events, activities, and deadlines for school, these calendars should really help you!

3rd-5th grade families, take a look at this!!

The State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness (STAAR) has undergone a redesign starting with the 2022 - 2023 school year. Students will experience new item response types, as well as, additional opportunities for free response and writing.

Families and students can preview and practice with the new item types by visiting the Texas Education Agency (TEA) resource at this link.

You do not need a login or password to access the site. Leave both options set to Guest and click the green login button at the bottom of the page. After selecting a STAAR-tested grade level, you will have a variety of options including information about the new item types and practice tests.

3rd-5th grade students will take Interim Assessments (STAAR Benchmark Assessments) on December 14 and 15!! Please make sure you log in at home and talk with your student about these new question types!

Of course, we know that there will be a day when your child has a fever or is vomiting. We ask that in these cases, you keep them home and email or call the school to let us know.

Thank you for making sure your student is at school learning every day!!

The community may access an overview to curriculum for core courses at the following website: https://sites.google.com/gcisd.net/gcisd-curriculum/home. The site may also be accessed from GCISD.net under the Parent pull-down menu.

To add money to your child's meal account, please send a check to school with them or drop it by the front office. **Pro Tip** Download the My School Bucks App from your App Store. You can add money directly to your child's meal account, track their spending, and receive notifications when their meal account runs low!

February 27-March 3: Read Across America Week

February 27: TELPAS Listening and Speaking (2nd-5th)

February 28: Class Pictures and Spring Pictures

March 1: SCIENCE IA #1 (5th grade: 8:00am start)

March 2:

• TELPAS Reading (2nd-5th)
  
• CEC Meeting 3:30-4:45 in the Learning Commons

March 3:

• Friendship Day (During Specials)
• Open House (5:00-6:00) / PTA Movie Night (6:00-7:30)

March 20: Phase 2 Tutorials begins

March 27-30: PiPE (Partners in PE Week)

March 31:

• All School Assembly
• Play it Safe During Specials (rescheduled due to Bad Weather days in January)
• Spirit Shop Open During Lunches!

April 6: Spirit Shop Open During Lunches!

April 7: Bad Weather Day- No School

April 10: Bad Weather Day- No School

April 19: Early Release (11:45am)

April 20: OSOB (One School One Book) REVEAL and Kick Off!!

April 25: STAAR Reading (3rd-5th grade) *Campus CLOSED to visitors

April 27: STAAR Science (5th grade) *Campus CLOSED to visitors

April 28: All School Assembly

May 9: STAAR Math (3rd-5th grade)*Campus CLOSED for visitors

May 12: Spirit Shop Open During Lunches!

May 19: Field Day

May 15: Career Day

May 22-24: Success Ceremonies

May 25: 5th grade Success Ceremony and Last Day of School! Early Release @ 11:45am

If you would like to attend Friendship Day, please RSVP and we will print a Fast Pass for you!

If you are interested in volunteering and/or presenting to students about your country, please email Mrs. Mery at joyce.mery@gcisd.net