An application/letter of interest will be available this month for interested students. Students must request a form from Ms. Miller in the library. Notes will not be sent home with all students. Applications are due by September 30th. Read more about the contest on the Houston ISD Digital Resources page.

Did you read 5 books this summer? Have you turned in your Summer Reading Log? There is still time to win a prize for reading at least 5 books over the summer! Return your summer reading log to your teacher by September 15th to be eligible for a prize. If you don't have a log, just write the titles on a piece of paper and turn that into your teacher. We are sure most Bush Bobcats read 5 books this summer!

September 16 & 17th are Fall Holidays which means no school. Enjoy the long 4-day weekend!

Our Parents' Nights will be virtual this year. There will be a brief virtual PTO informational session followed by the teachers' live Parents' Night sessions on TEAMS. The classroom teachers will send out a link to the Microsoft TEAMS events.

September 9, 2021 is the third - fifth grade Parents' Night starting at 5:00 p.m. via TEAMS

September 14, 2021 is the PK - second grade Parents' Night starting at 5:00 p.m. via TEAMS

Bush Elementary is not responsible for patrolling the streets in the Bush Elementary zone. However, we can ask for parents to "Be Kind" while waiting for the carpool lane to start moving and once the cars starting moving up in the carpool lane.

Please "Be Kind" when navigating around these parked cars. Have your carpool number displayed so the other cars will know that you're not one of the parked cars and won't attempt to pass you. Please stay in your car and be prepared to move once the line starts moving.

Please do not block any entrances to parking lots while stopped and waiting for the carpool lane to begin moving. Also, please allow the cars attempting to enter or exit the West Briar parking lots to do so.

Thank you for doing your part to keep the streets around Bush Elementary safe.

The carpool lane and Westerloch are very busy places between 2:50 p.m. - 3:15 p.m. The intersection at Westerloch and Parkway Plaza is extremely busy as you have the crossing guards crossing parents, walkers, and bikers while allowing the cars to pass through.

We're asking for the parents of walkers NOT to U-turn by the carpool lane entrance once they've picked up their child(ren) and are heading home. All these extra cars from the walker parents U-turning and going through this busy intersection causes the carpool lane to slow down and back up.

When driving home, walker parents who drive are requested to drive straight down Westerloch towards Eldridge and make the right on Eldridge and then the right on Briar Forest. Eldridge is not busy at this time in the afternoon.

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.

It is imperative all information on each child's enrollment card be complete and kept current. Every student brought home a large manilla envelope on the first day of school. This envelope contains homework for the parents. Parents need to complete the forms for each child that attends Bush Elementary. Thank you to all parents who have returned their completed forms. If you have not already done so, please return the completed forms to your child's teacher at your earliest convenience.

Throughout the school year, this section of the newsletter will highlight key points from the Bush Parent Handbook. School begins at 7:30 a.m. Students arriving after 7:40 a.m. are tardy. Students arriving after 9:00 a.m., without a doctor's excuse, are marked absent.

• Rolling backpacks will not be allowed this school year.
• No water bottle drop offs, bottled water is available upon request.
• No lunch drop offs, lunch is provided free of charge to all HISD students.
• No backpack, sweaters, or technology drop offs.
• All students riding their bikes to school must wear a bicycle helmet to and from school.

Please ensure your child is prepared to start their day. Bush ES strives to keep our faculty and staff healthy, therefore we will only allow glasses to be dropped off at the front office.

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.

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

September – February Birthdays: Enroll during August/September

February – July Birthdays: Enroll during January/May

We are looking forward to a wonderful year ahead and what better way to get started than by signing up for PTO membership. We have new options this year which are only available through September 15th. If you sign up by September 15th you will be entered into a drawing to win an hour massage gift certificate OR a free 1 month scholarship certificate (includes registration, assessment and instruction) to Mathnasium! Your PTO membership directly benefits our school and children.

Visit our membership page on www.bbepto.com to sign up now and see more details about each level.

This year we are offering 3 levels of membership to choose from:

Cub Level $20

Paw Level $30

Bobcat Level $50

Contact Michelle Jackson in you have questions or need more information at bushpto.vp@gmail.com

5th grade parents, as part of Bush tradition, we ask parents to cover a $40 Celebration Fee. This includes a custom Fifth Grade T-shirt (may be worn as part of Bush dress code), Holiday Party contributions, a picture memory stick, and a gift bag giveaway to be distributed at the end of the year.

You may purchase this on on the PTO website: www.BBEpto.com. Deadline is the end of September. Shirts need to be ordered as soon as possible, so students can wear them most of the year

At this time the PTO Board and committee members are able to volunteer in the school to help make the school better for our students. We still have several board positions available as well as openings on our committees and we need your help! If you are interested in volunteering at the school, helping build a better future for our children, and showing off your talents, sign up here.

The following Board positions are available:

● Vice Treasurer- Work with the treasurer to process payments and reimbursements

● Fundraising Chair- Take the lead on either the Underwriting Campaign, the Fall fundraiser OR the Spring Fundraiser. There are already a few members of the Fundraising committee willing to help with these efforts

We also have several committees that are filling up fast and the coordinators are eager to get started with their plans! Sign up here to volunteer! If you have more questions about the Committees email Val Shaikh, the PTO President at presidentbbepto@gmail.com.

THANK YOU to all who have shopped online. All proceeds directly benefit our school and children! Due to high demand, we appreciate your patience as we process refunds and address exchanges/back orders.

***Back in stock*** XS “Dream Big” shirts and plaid B shirts are now back in stock! We also received a shipment of XS and S polo shirts. If you are still shopping for school supplies, we have composition books, zipper bags, and agendas for sale online! Still looking for 2020-2021 yearbook? We have those as well! Visit us ONLINE at www.bbepto.com. Orders received by Thursday will be delivered to your child’s classroom on Friday.

Thank you for your support and happy shopping!

If you are interested in helping with the School Store Committee please sign up here.

The Houston Independent School District is closely monitoring COVID-19 pandemic and is in contact with the Centers for Disease Control, Texas Department of State Health Services and Houston Health Department to ensure all students and staff members are safe and updated with the latest information. For more information please visit, https://www.houstonisd.org/healthalerts

At the end of last school year we were required to notify the parents via the School Messenger system if there was a confirmed positive COVID case on campus. This year's policy states we will only inform parents of a COVID positive case if their student came into direct contact with someone on campus that was confirmed COVID positive. Our nurse investigates and begins the contact tracing process on our campus, and documents all confirmed COVID 19 cases. The nurse contacts the parent of any child that has been in contact with a COVID positive individual. That student is then told to quarantine for 10 days and to sign up for the Temporary Online Learning (explained in the article below). Information regarding active COVID cases may be found on the Houston ISD COVID Dashboard site located on the HISD website.

If a Bush student lives in a home with another individual that has tested COVID positive or has been in unmasked contact with a tested COVID positive person, then the student needs to quarantine for 10 days. HISD has established Temporary Online Learning for the student to continue learning during the quarantine. Parents enroll their child for TOL via this site https://www.houstonisd.org/HOME

The parent must apply for TOL by noon for their child to be enrolled in temporary online learning for the next day. The four hours a day of live lessons are taught by an HISD teacher, not a Bush teacher. However, the student is still enrolled at Bush Elementary and the daily attendance and weekly grades are sent to the Bush teacher. When the 10 day quarantine is over, then the student may return to in-person learning at Bush Elementary.