Parents of third, fourth, and fifth graders need to be mindful of the STAAR testing dates shown on the calendar above. Please do not schedule any doctor or dentist appointments before noon on your child's grade level testing days.

Last Thursday night four Bush students: Kesi, Nuah, Keane, and Quinn, led the Pledge of Allegiance at the Barbara Bush Literacy Foundation's Celebration of Reading event. The students did an outstanding job representing Bush Elementary.

Most of our students have mastered exiting the carpool independently which is terrific. If your child is still unable to exit their car independently, you must pull all the way up to the front of the line before you exit your car to help your child out. We can not have parents stopping our carpool lane in the middle of the line to get out to help their child. This slows down our line for everyone else and creates an unsafe situation for the child and their parent. Please make sure your child is sitting on the passenger side of the car for carpool so they don’t have to cross in front of traffic to get to the sidewalk. Our carpool line is a very busy place and we want to make sure everyone stays safe.

Thank you for helping us keep our students safe during arrival and dismissal.

Our International Festival is the celebration of Bush Elementary's thirty years of excellence and we will have many specific dress days leading up to the festival. Parents will be invited to view our International Festival Parade on Thursday, May 5 at 1:30 p.m. inside the track area. The gates from the bus lane to the track area will open at 1:15 p.m. The students will start parading inside the building and then will go to the track area to do a lap on the track.

Parents should be inside or outside the track, but not standing on the track as that will be our parade route.

There will be no early pick up after the event as the parade will end close to dismissal time and it would be difficult to safely sign out so many students. At the end of the parade, carpool parents should go back to their cars and walker parents can go over to their waiting area.

The students, faculty and staff are encouraged to wear traditional clothing from a country of their choice. Students, faculty, and staff may also opt to dress up as a famous landmark (Statue of Liberty, Eiffel Tower…), or symbol (Amazon rainforest, animal or food unique to that country). Students may decorate a poster as their costume and safely hang it from their necks. Be creative and have fun!

The HISD Elementary UIL Invitational Meet #6 was help on April 2nd. This meet was held in person and our Bush students did an amazing job! We are so proud of everyone who competed and worked so hard to represent Bush in such a great way!

Modern Oratory 4th and 5th Grade

1st- Lydia Smith

2nd- Pranav Limaye

3rd- George Kotochigov

3rd- Mishika Srivastava

Oral Reading 2nd & 3rd Grade

1st- Quinn Nguyen- Lee

1st- Aryan Oberoi

Oral Reading 4th & 5th Grade

1st- Autreyee Ozah

3rd- Pranav Limaye

Bush also came in 2nd in the Team Sweepstakes!

Hello Bush Families,

Please take the time to visit our Bush Counselor’s Corner monthly. I add social emotional learning items, as well as current topics of interest for our families and students. For example, this month we have resources that will support our students who struggle with test anxiety. As a reminder, hover over items on the page to find links to great resources! Thank you for your consistent support at home.

We appreciate all that you do.

Ms. Quinonez

Please follow the registration directions shown below and not the online version shown by HISD on the website.

New Zoned Kindergarten Students (No Sibling at Bush)

Registration Dates: May 3, 4, 5, or 6 (Only 30 applicants per day can be processed)

In-person at Bush Elementary

Please bring the items on the attached check list.

8:30 – 11:00 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.

No need to arrive early as we have 4 days to register during the registration times shown.

2022-2023 Registration Checklist

New Zoned Kindergarten Students - Additional Dates

May 24, 25, or 26 (Only 30 applicants per day can be processed)

In-person at Bush Elementary

Please bring the items on the attached check list.

8:30 – 11:00 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.

No need to arrive early as we have 3 days to register during the registration times shown.

New Zoned Gr. 1 – 5 Students

Registration Dates: June 8, 9, or 10 (Only 30 applicants per day can be processed)

In-person at Bush Elementary

Please bring the items on the attached check list.

Must have report card showing successful completion of the 2021 – 2022 school year.

8:30 – 11:30 a.m. and 12:30 – 3:00 p.m.

No need to arrive early as we have 3 days to register during the registration times shown.

More dates will be published at a later time.

Bush Elementary will have COVID testing available every Thursday for students, faculty, and staff. Parents must pre-register their child by 8:00 p.m. on Wednesday in order to be tested on campus. This testing is completely voluntary and free, it does require the student's parent/guardian to first provide a one-time digital consent at https://bit.ly/HISDC19Test .

Once a parent has registered their child, then the child will be tested each time Fulgent comes to campus to provide COVID testing. If you no longer want your child to be tested, you may opt out by emailing your child's teacher to let them know.

COVID-19 vaccines are now available for children ages 5-11. If you choose to vaccinate your child, please email a copy of the vaccination record card to dguider@houstonisd.org or send documentation to Nurse Guider so she can update your child's immunization record. This also includes students who are double vaccinated. Please send a copy to the nurse or email her with the updated documents.

If your child does test positive for COVID, then he/she must quarantine for at least 5 days regardless of vaccination status. If your child is COVID positive and showing symptoms, then he/she must stay home at least 5 days and until symptom free.

Throughout the school year, this section of the newsletter will highlight key points from the Bush Parent Handbook. With the weather warming up, please make sure your child is bringing the correct jacket colors. Jackets that are worn inside the building must be solid navy, red, or white.

Here are some quick reminders about our Bush Elementary dress code. Shirts must be solid colored red, white, or navy. The only t-shirts allowed are Bush Elementary t-shirts. Dress code pants are navy, khaki, or blue jeans. The pants must not have any holes, rips, tears, or designs on them, just simple plain blue jeans, navy pants, or khaki pants. Exercise pants, sweatpants, and yoga pants are NOT part of the Bush dress code. Leggings can not be worn as pants, only under skirts or jumpers. Please click on the link below for the complete dress code guidelines.

2021-2022 Dress Code Guidelines

Morning supervision of students starts at 7:20 a.m. At that time students are brought into the building and are seated in grade level lines. Morning bus lane drop off is reserved for our 5th Grade Safety Patrols, our daycare vans, and our students in our self-contained special education classes. These families have a special printed pass to enter the bus lane for morning drop off. All other students arriving by car must be dropped off in the carpool lane. The first bell rings at 7:30 a.m. and the students are tardy at 7:40 a.m. when the morning announcements begin.

Please plan to pick up your carpool and walker students before 3:15. Our students are dismissed at 3:00 and our walker area has been finishing before 3:10 on most days. If you arrive after 3:10, please come to the front office to sign your child out as a late pick up.

Please abide by the No Parking signs on the streets around our school and our neighboring schools. Several parents have received parking tickets from HPD in the past because they were parking in a No Parking zone. When cars park in No Parking zones, it is difficult for our busses and vans to turn into our bus lane.

We're asking for the parents of walkers that park their cars on the other side of Westerloch across from the school to NOT u-turn by the carpool lane entrance once they've picked up their child(ren) and are heading home.

We have seen many students and some parents walking across the street not using the crosswalks. This is extremely dangerous and we ask that all walkers and bike riders use the crosswalks. Westerloch Dr. and Parkway Plaza Dr. are very busy streets during morning arrival and dismissal. If you cross between parked cars, ongoing traffic cannot see you.

We are so happy to see so many of our students riding their bikes to school. Please remember that all students are required to wear a bicycle helmet when riding their bikes to and from school. We want to keep all of our Bobcats safe. Also, please send your bike riders with a bike lock to secure their bikes to the bike rack.

If your child is absent from school, please make sure you send in a note explaining the absence date(s) and reason for the absence upon return to school. We will need this note even if you're at home quarantining or a Positive COVID-19 case. Please email your absence excuse note to the homeroom teacher and our registrar, Ms. Rosales at arosale3@houstonisd.org

If a note is not received within 3 days, then the absence is recorded as unexcused.

Safety continues to be our top priority, and while we love our furry visitors, we ask that you keep them at home during arrival and dismissal. We have several students, faculty and staff members who are allergic to dogs and cats and students who are very afraid of dogs. Please keep them at home.

Please do not plan to pick up your child after 2:30 p.m. from the office. To ensure a safe dismissal, students will not be called to the office to be picked up after 2:30 p.m. Thank you for helping to make dismissal safe for all our students.

The LAST DAY to purchase Birthday Book Club for your child is May 15. Please place any orders for May or summer birthdays by this date.

Help your child celebrate their birthday and support the library and other programs that enhance the educational experience of Bush students by joining the Birthday Book Club.

Your child will be given a personal "Happy Birthday" greeting during the morning announcements and Paw Prints shout out from Ms. Rose! The donation will be recognized with a nameplate in a new book from the library. A group photo of all the other BBC members with the same birth month will also be displayed in the library display case.

It only costs $20 for a Birthday Book Club Membership (Add Electronic Marquee display for $10 more). Please visit www.BBEPTO.com for more details or to make your purchase.

Enrollment Schedule:

February – July Birthdays: Enroll through January

We will be celebrating our annual Teacher Appreciation Week beginning Monday, May 2nd through Friday, May 6th. This year we want to recognize how our teachers LIFT UP their students. Please help the BBE PTO BRIGHTEN UP our teachers’ week by signing up and donating a beverage or snack so they can DRINK UP and EAT UP! Please remember that this is entirely voluntary. Donations will be accepted each day at pick-up and drop-off through this Friday, April 29th. We hope that you will join us in making this Teacher Appreciation Week a HIGH FLYING success!

Sign up for items for staff here:

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30E0C4CACAA2EA0FB6-teacher

View our teacher’s wishlists here: don’t forget our ancillary teachers!

You can also choose to honor your individual teachers (or ancillary teachers!) using some ideas from the flier sent out last week.

Celebrate BBE’s Anniversary with a Spirit Week! Spirit Week will be the week before International Festival from Monday, May 2 through Friday, May 6.

Monday 5/2: Spirit Shirt - students wear their “Work Hard, Be Kind, Dream Big” shirt

Tuesday 5/3: Texas Day - Show your Texas pride! Wear a Texas sports shirt, Cowboy/girl clothes or whatever makes you think of being a Texan!

Wednesday 5/4: Travel Day - wear a shirt from a place you have visited or want to visit.

Thursday 5/5: PARADE DAY- FAMILIES INVITED!

Thursday will be our big International Parade! Students (and staff!) will dress up and parade around the school and outside. The students are encouraged to wear traditional clothing from a country of their choice. Students may also opt to dress up as a famous landmark (Statue of Liberty, Eiffel Tower…), or symbol (Amazon rainforest, or animal or food unique to that country). Students may decorate a poster as their costume and safely hang it from their necks. Be creative and have fun!

Students will parade outside on the track beginning at 1:30. Families may walk up or park in carpool line and leave their car to view the parade from inside the track area. After the parade, families will return to their cars or their designated pick up area. If you are not picking your child up via carpool, do NOT park on the north side of Westerloch where the carpool line is. There will be NO early pick up this day. There will be a lot of people trying to get back to their cars to pick up their child for a normal dismissal schedule. Please pack your patience.

Friday 5/6: Color Day- wear the colors that represent the country you are from

Saturday 5/7: International Festival 11- 2pm- Festival Day - you are encouraged to wear traditional clothing or your International Festival Shirt! Shirts are no longer on sale, but we will have a limited selection available at the festival.

** if students are not participating in a spirit day, they will be expected to follow normal dress code**

Thank you for everyone who came to our PTO meeting on Thursday! It was so nice to see some familiar faces, as well as some new ones. During the meeting we voted on the changes to the PTO constitutions and it was a unanimous “yes.” You can view the new constitution HERE.

We also presented the slate for the nominees for the 2022-2023 PTO Board. All dues paying PTO members are encouraged to vote for the slate. Voting will go through the end of today, Wednesday and the official board will be announced in our next Eblast.

We are still open to adding more volunteers to the board. If you are interested, email presidentbbepto@gmail.com

Saturday May 7, 2022

11 am- 2 pm

Wristbands required for entry

Volunteer for a shift at the Festival:

We can’t have an event without the help of volunteers! If you’d like to help at the International fest please sign up for a 1.5 hour shift. Any parent or guardian is welcome to volunteer at the festival. You will receive a concessions voucher as a “thank you” for volunteering! VOLUNTEER HERE

All persons ages 3 and up will need a wristband for entry. Find more information on our website. Order your wristbands and tickets online to receive a discount! Presale discounts are only available online through May 4th, 2022. Find wristbands and tickets for purchase here.

Help us celebrate 30 excellent years at Barbara Bush Elementary with our $30 for 30 years fundraiser! As in previous years, we wish to save our Bush families the time and energy it takes to participate in traditional fundraising activities (such as school bake sales, gift wrapping sales etc.) by focusing our fundraising efforts on events that benefit the school directly. Our $30 for 30 years fundraiser this spring will benefit many projects the PTO organizes for the school. Each $30 donation will receive a school spirit prize! We are hopeful that we can encourage EVERY family at Bush to donate $30 for 30 years!

Let’s help our Bobcats “Work Hard. Be Kind. Dream Big!”

Donate on the website at www.BBEpto.com

Updated policies on field trips, COVID-19 Quarantine and more updated for 2022.

https://www.houstonisd.org/readysetgo