Cornerstone Connection

Friday, September 1, 2023

September means school is in full swing

Next week will be the fourth week of school, so that means...it's time for progress reports. Today is the last day for grades to apply to this snapshot look at how students are doing, and grades will be entered by Tuesday. As always, teachers are the best people to contact for questions about your child's grades, and keep in mind...progress reports are temporary.

September also means it's time for Labor Day. There is no school on Monday, September 4. Classes will resume on Tuesday, September 5.

Adjustment to electronic device policy

At their regular August board meeting earlier this week, board trustees approved Board Policy FNCE Local, which governs student use of personal telecommunications/electronic devices. A change in the final policy language for middle school students no longer allows for individual campus regulations to guide use of devices at lunch.

Therefore, in alignment with the newly adopted policy, we will no longer permit cellphone use at lunch. We hope this change enhances communication, collaboration, and engagement amongst our CSA students.

This will go into place starting Tuesday, September 5. As you know, this is a change for Cornerstone, and we know our community will adapt accordingly. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out to me.

GroupMe questions

Many of you have signed up for the grade-level GroupMe text threads, and I think it's great that our parent community can come together like that to collaborate. I am not a member of any of the text threads, and I would never presume to tell anyone what to say. However...I am going to be presumptive enough to make a couple requests. If several people have the same question, it would be great if someone could email the teacher directly. Often, there is a quick answer for a question or easy fix to perceived problem, if someone would ask. We are all super happy to help and don't want to see anyone unnecessarily frustrated. Thank you!

Open House

September also means it's time for Open House! We are holding CSA Open House on Tuesday, September 19, which conveniently coincides with our first general PTA meeting.

Here's the agenda for the evening:

5:30 - 6:10 PTA meeting & brief welcome from me in the auditorium
6:15 - 6:40 Homeroom presentation
6:45 - 7:10 Switch class presentation
7:10 - 7:30 Elective teachers available in the auditorium (band, dance, theater, and all high school elective classes)

Weekly Update -- tell a friend

So, I can't figure out why, but there are a few parents that, despite our best efforts, are still not receiving the weekly updates. We are currently looking into why this is happening. However, in the meantime, we've put a workaround in place.

On the campus website, under Students & Families, there is now a Weekly Newsletter section. If anyone mentions to you that they aren't receiving the newsletter, please direct them to the website. The newsletters from the previous Friday will be published on Monday (or in the case of this week...Tuesday).

Skyward Forms -- Homework for Parents

We need your help. Every year...even if you've been in Spring Branch forever...parents need to log in to Skyward Family Access and complete forms at the beginning of the year. Our percentage of students who have completed forms is REALLY low. S

Homework for Parents:

Log into Skyward Family Access . (If you've never logged in, there are tutorial videos and instructions. If it still doesn't work, please email Mr. Feak.)
Look on the left for Returning Student Verification and click there.
You should see a list like the one below. As tedious as it may be, your homework is to complete all of these forms. (Thanks to the 6th grade mom who provided the screenshot!)

Students, if you're reading this...remind your parents to do THEIR homework!

Parents Helping Parents -- idea!

Recently, one of our 7th grade parents, who is an expert on the dangers our kids face in an online world, reached out and offered to present a informative session to CSA. Of course, we're going to take her up on the offer and get that scheduled. However, it got me thinking...

I know we have other parents who know important things that other CSA parents might want to know about. For example, one of our 6th grade moms is an assistant principal in the district who is a whiz with Skyward and Canvas, so I reached out, and she's agreed to present. (By the way...if you're still trying to log in to Canvas for parents, I've attached some directions at the bottom of this newsletter.)

So, that's two parent sessions...but who else is out there, and what do you know??? With our kids coming from around the district, building community can sometimes be a challenge. The kids are great at it here at school, but, as adults, we can do better. If you're interested and willing to help other parents, please email and let me know. I'd love to hear from you!

CSA PTA

If you have not already joined...what are you waiting for?

The PTA provides a range of benefits to Cornerstone’s teachers, staff, students, and community. Here are a few examples:

Increases communication between school and home through weekly newsletters to inform you about what is going on at CSA and SBISD
Provides both fun activities (Typhoon Texas!) and academic/classroom support
Provides teacher appreciation events throughout the year
Support for our sister schools in a variety of ways
Supports the scholarship opportunities of the larger Texas PTA
PTA members receive discounts and rewards from state and national companies

Visit cornerstoneacademypta.membershiptoolkit.com to join the PTA! Memberships do not carry over year-to-year, so if you joined the PTA last year, please do so again!

Corporate/Business Donations

Do you own a business or know of a business that would like to support CSA and be listed in our directory and on our website? Email Sa Nguyen or Annette Willburn for more details and forms.

Cornerstone PTA is a 501c3 organization. Your donation is tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.

Each month we offer a Cane's lunch for purchase that includes 3 chicken fingers, Texas toast, Cane's sauce, chips, fruit and a cookie for $10. Orders for September's lunch are open and close Sept 10th.

CLICK HERE TO ORDER

As a reminder, if you participate in our family underwriting campaign, you can receive free Cane's lunches, depending on your level of donation. Please note that even if you have already filled out the membership form, you can go back and add a donation without completing the membership portion. This perk is only available for families that donate to family underwriting before September 10th.

Parent Drive

In the afternoon, the line takes care of anyone who wants to speed up...it's just not happening. However, the morning seems to be a little different, especially when it's early. Please make sure you are driving slowly as you pull up to drop off. We had a near collision this morning with a staff member trying to park, and, most importantly, I don't want to explain to anyone that their child got hurt because someone was late to work. Thank you!

CSA students were on two of those seven advancing teams and did a GREAT job!

Fall Calendar

Of course, we need to be flexible with dates, as things do sometimes change...but here are some dates that we already have on our campus calendar that you might want to know.