Andre’ Families,

We are so excited to begin a magical new year! We love having our Leopards back at school, and we look forward to planning for some of our annual Andre’ traditions that our kiddos look forward to each year. Our beginning of year parent night will once again be held at Andre’. APPLE Night stands for Andre’ Parents Preparing to Lead for Excellence and is our opportunity to partner with you in setting up our Leopards for a successful year. Please save the date for Sept. 14 to visit kindergarten, 2nd, and 4th grade classrooms and September 21 to visit pre-k, 1st, 3rd, and 5th grade classrooms. We can’t wait to see you soon and share a slice of Andre’.

Hopefully your children shared with you about our emergency drills. We practiced a fire drill, a secure building drill, and a lockdown drill. Our teachers did a great job discussing the importance of “Locks, Lights, Out of Sight.” With any emergency, it is important to think on your feet to determine “Run, Hide, or Fight." Depending on where and what is happening, it may not be possible to go to the exact place or do the exact same thing that you practiced. We talked in depth about what we would do in a real emergency, and how that could look different. For example, due to Covid-19 being our most immediate safety concern, we did not pile kids nose-to-nose in closets. Instead, we showed students where closets were located in our building. Thank you for reinforcing the importance of critical thinking skills when visiting with your children at home. We are a partnership, and we value our collaborative efforts.

As we plan for the next few weeks of instruction, we are preparing for after school tutoring. If your 4th or 5th grade child qualifies for accelerated instruction to prepare for State testing in the spring, your child came home with a waiver letter that will allow us to pull more than three students together at a time. With your permission, we will be able to provide support to a greater number of students utilizing our actual Andre’ teachers. Please know, small groups would be no larger than six students. We value the power of a small student-teacher ratio for intervention. Please return signed waiver letters as soon as possible. This will help us to begin forming groups, as well as offer after-school tutoring.

We are excited about this year and appreciate you entrusting your children with us. Your kiddos will have a magical year! Check out our good news on Twitter and Facebook. #AndreInAction

Families,

Welcome to the 2021-2022 school year! I am Nurse Ursula, your school nurse. Here are a few reminders for this magical school year:

1. Students need to bring a change of clothing daily. Please send a shirt, pants, underwear, and socks.
2. Please screen students daily, and do not send them to school ill.
3. All medication will need to be signed into the clinic by an adult. Students are not allowed to transport medication to and from school.
4. All students should bring a reusable water bottle to school for proper hydration. Water fountains are not available.

Healthfully Yours,

Ursula Staten BSN, RN

Girls on the Run is So Much Fun!

Are you a girl in 3rd, 4th or 5th grader? Do you want to make new friends? Accomplish big things? Complete a 5K with your team? Make a difference in your community!

Join Girls on the Run!

Registration: Open Now

Season starts: Sep 13, 2021

Meeting days: Mondays & Wednesday 4:15-5:45 pm

Girls on the Run 5K: November 6th @ Rice University

**Financial aid available

**Learn more and register before September 10th at www.gotrgreaterhouston.org

The Cypress Fairbanks Independent School District Special Education Department provides educational services to over 10,000 students with special needs.

Teachers, instructional aides, speech pathologists and related service personnel provide instruction and related services to students who have a disability. Students are eligible for special education services from the age of 3 through 21. Students who have hearing and vision disabilities may receive services from birth.

To be eligible for special education services, students must meet eligibility requirements as a student with an orthopedic impairment, other health impairment, auditory impairment, visual impairment, diagnosis of deaf/blind, intellectual disabilities, emotional disturbance, learning disability, speech impairment, multiple disabilities, autism, non-categorical early childhood, or traumatic brain injury.

Cypress Fairbanks ISD instructional arrangements for elementary school-aged students include in-class support, resource classes and speech/language therapy. Early Childhood Special Education (ECSE, formerly PPCD), adaptive behavior, and LIFE Skills classes are offered as cluster services at the elementary level.

In-class support, resource classes, LIFE Skills, adaptive behavior and speech/language services are available at all secondary level campuses.

Related services may include psychological services, occupational therapy, physical therapy, orientation and mobility training, school health services, adaptive equipment and special transportation.

Other special education service options include the Dorothy Carlton Center, the Maybelline Carpenter Center, homebound, adaptive physical education, itinerant and on-site services to the visually impaired.

As part of the Northwest Harris County Cooperative for the Hearing Impaired, services for students who have auditory impairments are offered at Birkes Elementary, Matzke Elementary, Spillane Middle School and Cy-Ridge High School. In addition to receiving instruction at the on-site campuses, students may be served by itinerant teachers, speech pathologists, and/or an audiologist at their home campus.

Are you the parent of a pre-school (3-5 years) or school aged child and have concerns regarding your child’s physical, speech, and/or emotional development? Is your child experiencing academic problems which could interfere significantly with educational success? If so, contact the Special Education Department at 281-897-6400 to discuss your concerns and learn more about the referral process.

Did you know that Andre’ receives 10₵ for every General Mills Box Tops for Education we collect? Please remember to scan your receipts for Box Tops from participating products. See the flyer below for information on how to download the app and scan receipts.

If each student turns in 10 box tops, our school will earn over $1,100! Wow!

• SchoolCafé is a safe and secure way for parents to make online payments to their children’s cafeteria accounts.
• School Café also allows parents, students and staff to view and interact with school cafeteria menus, view nutritional analysis, ingredient and allergen information.
• Free/Reduced Price meal applications can also be accessed and completed on School Café.
• Visit www.schoolcafe.com or the SchoolCafe app to apply.
• Call 281-897-4550 or visit the Food Production Center at 11355 Perry Road with questions and for assistance.
• Paper applications are available upon request.