Rocket Family News
April 13th-17th
Rowe Lane Campus News
Rocket Families,
I know our students have been working incredibly hard this week to complete their remote lessons and to submit their student artifacts. Way to go Rockets! Hopefully, it's getting easier for our parents to navigate remote learning resources in order to best support their child's learning at home. Our Rocket staff continues to design remote instruction specific to students' needs, with the end goal in mind that all Rowe Lane students will make at least one year's growth in learning for this school year. We continue to make adjustments to our instruction to meet this goal.
Classroom teachers will be communicating their weekly Virtual Office Hours with parents through classroom email. This timeframe will serve as an opportunity for teachers and parents to schedule student conferences as needed.
District Updates: Our PfISD Instructional Technology team has created a brief video tutorial to help families navigate the District's Remote Learning website.
Campuses are closed: Rowe Lane will continue to be closed until May 4th. Buildings will be closed for all events.
Rowe Lane Remote Learning Plan
Rowe Lane will follow the PfISD Instructional Framework:
Monday-Thursday, 9 AM-12 PM Students engage with instructional materials & teachers are available through remote support during these hours.
Friday, 9 AM-12 PM Homework and Enrichment day for students.
RLES Remote Learning Lessons for Monday 4/13-4/17:
Ms. Comeau's PreK Remote Learning Lessons
Ms. Riman's Early Childhood Remote Learning Lessons
Kindergarten Remote Learning Lessons
First Grade Remote Learning Lessons
Second Grade Remote Learning Lessons
Third Grade Remote Learning Lessons
Fourth Grade Remote Learning Lessons
Technology Support
If your child does not have access to an electronic device or Internet, please use one of the links below to apply for technology assistance. Once families submit the application, PfISD will communicate the next steps in the process.
BRIGHTBYTES TECHNOLOGY & LEARNING SURVEY
PfiSD is partnering with BrightBytes, an educational research organization, to learn more about our students’ technology access and use for learning.
The goal of this project is to gather data on technology access, skills, and our school’s technology environment, in order to understand the connection between technology use and student achievement. Our data collection window is set to run from March 30 - May 27, 2020.
Your participation and support are important to us. Please take a moment to complete the Parents & Guardians survey below. A link for 3rd-5th graders survey is included as well. Thank you!
RLES Yearbook Updates
Get your yearbook before they sell out! Rocket Families have until April 15, 2020 to purchase a yearbook online and have it personalized. After the 15th, it will be first come first served until they are sold out with no options for personalizations. Go to www.strawbridge.net then enter the code: YB111833 to place your order. Yearbooks are $21.00 and to add personalization will be an additional $7.00. Your children will love looking back at all the memories of the 2019-2020 school year!
Food Distribution Updates 4/05
We will continue to provide breakfast, lunch, and dinner for our families during our school closure. Please visit our website for locations and times.
In response to current circumstances caused by the COVID-19 outbreak, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has authorized procedures to allow parents/guardians of participants in certain child nutrition programs to pick up meals for their children without the child present. This also applies to guardians of adult participants in CACFP Adult Day Care programs.
Texas Department of Agriculture recently adjusted requirements for parents picking up meals without children present. Pflugerville ISD will begin going forward with TDA guidance starting Monday, April 6. What to expect at each meal distribution site:
1. Be prepared to present one of the following through the window upon meal pick-up:
- Official letter/email from school listing children enrolled
- Individual student report cards
- Attendance record from parent portal of school website
- Birth certificate for children
- Student ID cards
2. Parents may not receive meals for other children.
3. Each meal provided to parents on behalf of children must be documented by the organization.
RLES April PTO Meeting
Rowe Lane Rocket Staff Message
Nurse Kim's Healthy Tip of the Week
Check out Nurse Kim's healthy tip of the week for our Rocket students!
RLES Campus Calendar
Campus Calendar
Rowe Lane Elementary campus will remain closed from March 23rd until May 4th.
Canceled events scheduled for April 17th-19th:
- RLES Annual Family Campout is canceled.
Canceled events scheduled for April 23rd:
- RLES Fine Arts Night & Family Book Fair Night is canceled.
Canceled events scheduled for April 30th & May 1st:
- RLES Musical Production of Into the Woods will be canceled for April 30th & May 1st.
Canceled events scheduled for May 7th:
- RLES PTO Sponsored "Cakes of Love" is canceled.
- RLES G/T Project Fair for 4th/5th Graders is canceled.
Superintendent Parent & Guardian Message: 4/07/2020
Dear PfISD Parents,
We now have a week under our belt with the Remote Learning, and hopefully, you all are somewhat settling into a groove. If you're still not entirely comfortable, take heart, this is a challenging task the state is asking of all of us, and Rome wasn't built in a day. We will get there together. Our Instructional Technology team has created a brief video tutorial to help you navigate the Remote Learning website. You can check it out here.
Even as we are adjusting to our "new normal," our regular work is still there, and we are currently planning for the items for the 2020-2021 school year. One thing our staff is working on is rescheduling our prekindergarten and kindergarten registration, and we expect to provide more information on dates and procedures next week.
We know we have received many questions from our parents, students, and staff, and we have directed parents to contact both their student's teachers and their campus principal. The Communications team has also been answering emails from both staff and parents, and are working to keep up with the flood. We know all of our staff members are being pulled in a variety of directions, and we have come up with a new system that will hopefully provide relief while also providing excellent customer service and timely responses to our parents and students.
Our district is utilizing K12 Insight to create a "Let's Talk" page on our website. This page will have multiple buttons that parents, students, and employees can choose from to ask a question and make a comment or suggestion. We will have buttons on the following: Payroll, Food Services/Meals, Technology, HR/Benefits/Leaves, Online Learning, and General Coronavirus Questions. Additionally, we are adding buttons for each campus for parents to direct any questions or comments. I know this is a new system, and it may seem like a difficult time to roll out something new, but we have high hopes that this will allow us to ensure that questions are being routed to the correct source and answered promptly.
We began distributing technology devices to students last week for those whose parents completed the survey by March 30 at 12:30 p.m. We have had many questions from parents and staff members regarding the distributions and who was chosen. As PfISD is not a 1-to-1 district, we do not have enough technology devices for every student. Additionally, we had to allocate some technology devices to our teachers and staff members to enable them to work from home, which also depleted some of our resources. As such, we are trying to provide services to students with the highest needs first.
Due to the difference between the number of students in PfISD and the number of laptops the district owns, a majority of households will receive one laptop. There are a few instances where a family will receive two laptops due to a high number of students within one home. Once we complete the distribution to those students, we will review the number of devices we have remaining and consider ways to distribute additional laptops. If a student is designated to receive a device, the parent will receive an email with information on pick-up location, date, and time. The student-device request form is still available, and devices will be distributed based on the criteria above.
We continue to provide meals for our families at ten locations across the district, and last week alone, we provided 48,484 meals to our families! We are so appreciative of the hard work by our foodservice providers who continue to passionately serve our students and families. Last week the Texas Department of Agriculture adjusted meal requirements to ensure the meals picked up were for children under 18. These guidelines require adults who pick up meals without students to provide one of the following:
· Official letter/email from school listing children enrolled
· Individual student report cards
· Attendance record from parent portal of the school website
· Birth certificate for children
· Student ID cards
We will continue to provide breakfast, lunch, and dinner for our families during our school closure. Please visit our website for locations and times. We know this quarantine has hit some of our families hard, and we expect to have more families reaching out for assistance due to loss of jobs or inability to work. Please know that we are here for you and happy to lend a hand. At times like this, it's important for our community to pull together and help each other. We encourage any family who will need meal assistance to please complete the Free and Reduced Meal Application online today. Doing so now will help for a smoother transition for any students who have a need, if and when we return to school.
I hope everyone is staying safe, practicing social distancing and other safety precautions. We are looking forward to seeing all of our PfISD students when this quarantine is over. As a sign of hope, our Pfield Stadium and other stadiums around the district will join other districts around the state by burning our stadium lights this Thursday from 8-9 p.m. as a symbol of hope and assurance to our students, teachers, community, and all who need support during this time. We may be closed, but we are always here! #BeTheLight
In the best interest of students,
Doug
Dr. Douglas Killian
Superintendent
Queridos padres de PfISD:
Tenemos una semana con el Aprendizaje a distancia, y esperamos que todos ustedes se estén adaptando. Si aún no están del todo cómodos, anímense, es una tarea difícil que el estado nos está pidiendo a todos, y Roma no se construyó en un día. Llegaremos juntos. Nuestro equipo de Tecnología Instruccional ha creado un breve video tutorial para ayudarle a navegar por el sitio web de Aprendizaje a distancia. Pueden verlo aquí.
Incluso mientras nos ajustamos a nuestro "nuevo normal", nuestro trabajo regular sigue ahí, y actualmente estamos planificando los eventos para el año escolar 2020-2021. Una de las cosas en las que nuestro personal está trabajando es en la reprogramación de nuestra inscripción para el preescolar y el kínder, y esperamos proporcionar más información sobre las fechas y procedimientos la próxima semana.
Sabemos que hemos recibido muchas preguntas de nuestros padres, estudiantes y personal, y hemos dirigido a los padres a contactar tanto a los maestros de sus estudiantes como al director de su escuela. El equipo de comunicaciones también ha estado respondiendo a las preguntas del personal y de los padres, y están trabajando para mantenerse al día con el diluvio. Sabemos que todos los miembros de nuestro personal están siendo jalados en diferentes direcciones, y hemos creado un nuevo sistema que esperamos que proporcione alivio y al mismo tiempo proporcione un excelente servicio al cliente y respuestas oportunas para nuestros padres y estudiantes.
Nuestro distrito está utilizando K12 Insight para crear una página de "Hablemos" en nuestro sitio web. Esta página tendrá varios botones que los padres, estudiantes y empleados pueden elegir para hacer una pregunta y hacer un comentario o sugerencia. Tendremos botones en lo siguiente: Nómina, Servicios de Alimentos/Comidas, Tecnología, Recursos Humanos/Beneficios/Permisos, Aprendizaje en línea, y Preguntas Generales sobre Coronavirus. Además, estamos agregando botones para cada escuela para que los padres puedan dirigir cualquier pregunta o comentario. Sé que este es un sistema nuevo, y puede parecer un momento difícil para desplegar un nuevo sistema, pero tenemos grandes esperanzas de que esto nos permita asegurarnos de que las preguntas se dirijan a la fuente correcta y se respondan con rapidez.
La semana pasada comenzamos a distribuir dispositivos tecnológicos a los estudiantes para aquellos cuyos padres completaron la encuesta antes del 30 de marzo a las 12:30 p.m. Hemos tenido muchas preguntas de los padres y miembros del personal con respecto a las distribuciones y quién fue elegido. Como PfISD no es un distrito de 1 a 1, no tenemos suficientes dispositivos de tecnología para cada estudiante. Además, tuvimos que asignar algunos dispositivos de tecnología a nuestros maestros y miembros del personal para que puedan trabajar desde casa, lo que también agotó algunos de nuestros recursos. Por lo tanto, estamos tratando de proporcionar servicios a los estudiantes con las mayores necesidades primero.
Debido a la diferencia entre el número de estudiantes en PfISD y el número de computadoras portátiles que el distrito posee, la mayoría de los hogares recibirán una computadora portátil. Hay algunos casos en los que una familia recibirá dos portátiles debido a un alto número de estudiantes dentro de un hogar. Una vez que completemos la distribución a esos estudiantes, revisaremos el número de dispositivos que nos quedan y consideraremos formas de distribuir portátiles adicionales. Si un estudiante es designado para recibir un dispositivo, el padre recibirá un correo electrónico con información sobre el lugar para recogerlo, la fecha y la hora. El formulario de solicitud de dispositivos para estudiantes aún está disponible, y los dispositivos se distribuirán en base a los criterios anteriores.
Seguimos proporcionando comidas a nuestras familias en diez sitios en todo el distrito, y ¡sólo la semana pasada, proporcionamos 48,484 comidas a nuestras familias! Estamos muy agradecidos por el duro trabajo de nuestros proveedores de servicios de comida que continúan sirviendo con pasión a nuestros estudiantes y familias. La semana pasada el Departamento de Agricultura de Texas ajustó los requisitos de comida para asegurar que las comidas recolectadas fueran para niños menores de 18 años. Estas pautas requieren que los adultos que recojan las comidas sin los estudiantes proporcionen uno de los siguientes:
- Carta o correo electrónico oficial de la escuela con la lista de los niños matriculados
- La boleta de calificaciones de cada estudiante
- Registro de asistencia del portal de padres del sitio web de la escuela
- Certificado de nacimiento de los niños
- Tarjetas de identificación de los estudiantes
Seguiremos proporcionando desayuno, almuerzo y cena a nuestras familias durante el cierre de las escuelas. Por favor, visite nuestra página web para conocer los lugares y horarios.
Sabemos que esta cuarentena ha golpeado duramente a algunas de nuestras familias, y esperamos que más familias busquen ayuda debido a la pérdida de sus trabajos o a la incapacidad de trabajar. Por favor, sepan que estamos aquí para ustedes y felices de echarles una mano. En momentos como éste, es importante para nuestra comunidad unirse y ayudarse mutuamente. Animamos a cualquier familia que necesite ayuda con las comidas a que por favor llene la Solicitud de Comida Gratis y a Precio Reducido en línea hoy mismo. Hacerlo ahora ayudará a que la transición sea más fácil para los estudiantes que lo necesiten, siempre y cuando regresemos a la escuela.
Espero que todos estén protegidos, practicando el distanciamiento social y otras precauciones de seguridad. Esperamos ver a todos nuestros miembros de la familia PfISD cuando esta cuarentena termine. Como signo de esperanza, nuestro estadio Pfield y otros estadios del distrito se unirán a otros distritos alrededor del estado al encender las luces de nuestro estadio este jueves de 8-9 p.m. como un símbolo de esperanza y seguridad para nuestros estudiantes, maestros, comunidad y todos los que necesiten apoyo durante este tiempo. Puede que estemos cerrados, ¡pero siempre estamos aquí! #BeTheLight
En el mejor interés de los estudiantes,
Doug
Dr. Douglas Killian
Superintendente