The Rhino Report
September 7, 2022 - Rylander Elementary School Newsletter
Highlights from Ms. Heard
Greetings Rylander Family:
Thank you to everyone for being patient during our severe weather dismissals. If you have time tomorrow, Thursday, September 8 to come out to our PTA General Meeting at 6:00 PM in the gym. Bring your kids as well to enjoy a live cooking demo from Chef Kathy.
As a reminder, Fall Picture day is next Wednesday, September 14.
Lunch visitors are welcome to come starting on Tuesday, September 6th. Please keep in mind that Fridays are very busy and each student is allowed to have lunch visitors once a week. Please coordinate with extended family members. The Parent Permission for Elementary Lunch Visitors yellow form was sent home in the first week packet. If you need another form, just stop by the main office. Please make sure that all lunch visitors have a current government issued ID.
To maximize our lunch visitors’ time with students, please encourage all lunch visitors to arrive 5 minutes before the grade level lunch begins to get his/her ID scanned through Raptor. The front office is extremely busy during lunch time. After lunch, all visitors must return to the main entry to exit and are not allowed to walk students to his/her classroom.
Sincerely,
Tanya Heard
Principal
tanyaheard@katyisd.org
New Information!
THANK YOU COSTCO!
Provine Fall Pictures for Students
Hi Parents!
Fall picture day for Rylander Elementary is Wednesday, September 14th. Flyers for ordering will go out this week. You may also visit the link below to prepay for your package online.
http://ph.hhimagehost.com/RylanderElementaryIndividuals2022
If paying with cash, please enclose the exact amount. NO CHANGE WILL BE GIVEN to help keep employees, staff & students safe. Please have your student dressed in their best for their Fall photo.
Severe Weather
Thank you to the Rylander community as we all worked together last week to safely get home over 1,000 students on two days of severe weather dismissal and one day when it started raining during dismissal. Severe weather will be called by 2:40 p.m. if there is a thunderstorm warning/lightning warning in the area. RRE will notify parents/guardians through e-mail and text (Remind) when there will be a severe weather dismissal. RRE admin closely monitors the weather using local stations and a weather program provided by Katy ISD to determine severe weather and lightning in the area. As you know living in Texas, weather can be very unpredictable. We will do our best to determine what the weather will be at dismissal using the information that we are provided. Please know that our Rhinos safety is our number one priority.
Car Riders - The car rider line will be extra-long on severe weather days. Please follow the directions of the crossing guards and please get in line at the end of the car rider line. Thank you for your cooperation.
Walkers - Parents/Guardians who have chosen for their students to be walkers on severe weather days will be matched with their children at the entrance in the front of the school close to the fine arts hall and the bike racks. Older students who are not required to be matched with a parent/guardian will be held until the severe weather has passed. If the severe weather does not clear by 3:25 p.m., parents/guardians will be called to pick-up their students.
Rylander Elementary is excited to partner with Koger in their Kroger Community Rewards Program. This program is at no cost to you and will provide funds to RRE when your Kroger rewards card is linked to our campus. After enrolling in the program, swipe your rewards card at Kroger when making a purchase and a percentage will go to Rylander.
Please click on the link below to enroll.
Once logged into your Kroger account you can search for Roberta W Rylander Elem. Katy ISD either by name or UL070 and then click Enroll. New users will need to create an account which requires some basic information, a valid email address and a rewards card.
Thank you for your support. :)
PE Corner
The RRE PE department would like to share a month’s worth of health & fitness activities to keep everyone in the family busy when there is a little free time. Please see the attachments below for some fun & different family activities for the entire month of September.
Repeated Information!
Dress Code
Just a reminder that we will follow district dress code policy. We have not had any major issues, but I wanted to be proactive and send out the campus procedure. If a teacher notices a student out of dress code, that student will be sent or walked to the nurse's office. Nurse Maher will double check the dress code and contact parent if a change of clothes is needed. A couple things to keep in mind is crop tops and small shorts for female students. Please see the discipline management plan below if you need more information regarding dress code violations.
Early Pick-up/Emergency Contacts:
Early Pick-up/Emergency Contacts:
Emergency contacts are listed for the campus to use in case we are unable to get in contact with you when there is an emergency with your student. We do not automatically release a student to an emergency contact, we still need to know that you give permission for the emergency contact person to pick-up your student. Please email RRETransporation@katyisd.org when anyone comes to pick-up your student and are not listed as a guardian. You must send us something in writing with a copy of your government issued ID. This is the only way we will know that you as the guardian gives permission for your child to be picked up by someone else. We understand that this may be an inconvenience, however, for safety reasons we do not want to release your child to a person who has not been approved by the parent or guardian. Early pick-up ends at 2:30 pm daily.
Birthday Treats:
Birthday Treats:
As a reminder, to avoid interruption of classes, messages will be delivered to students only in extreme emergencies. Delivery to students of flowers, balloons, food (including birthday treats) and other such items are prohibited at school per Katy ISD policy in the Student Handbook (pg. 48).
Rock-in_Rhinos Twitter Account
Rylander Elementary is now on Twitter - Follow @Rockin_Rhinos
Sign-up for Remind
Please email RRETransportation@katyisd.org to request dismissal transportation changes by 2:00 pm daily.
Walker Permission
There are two types of front/back walkers—independent and parent pick up. Independent front walkers are escorted to the corner of Falcon Landing Blvd. and Westheimer Pkwy. They walk home independently from that corner. All 2nd through 5th grade students default as independent walkers. Younger siblings (in grades PK-1st) of those students can walk home with the independent walker ONLY IF The Walker Permission form is filled out and returned to school. Here is the link for the Walker Permission Form.
PK-1st grade students default as parent pick up front walkers. These students are matched with their parents at the northeast corner of the building by the bike racks. These students can ONLY be released with a physical number tag that matches the number on the student’s dismissal tag. No photos of the tag will be accepted. If the tag is not present, the student will need to be picked up at the front office. Parent must present a government-issued ID.
Bikers are also dismissed with the independent front walkers. They follow the same procedure as independent front walkers. They must walk their bikes on school property.
Helpful Information
Link to District Transportation Page
Link to find out your student’s bus information
School Meals
All breakfast and lunches are no longer free.
Please feel free to complete the free/reduced meal program application.
Link to Nutrition and Food Services Information
In May 2022, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) concluded its free breakfast and lunch meal service that was available to all students, regardless of eligibility. To determine eligibility for free meals for the 2022-2023 school year, families with students who do not attend a Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) campus will need to complete a Meal Benefits/Free & Reduced meals application. More information about free and reduced benefits can be found here. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Child Nutrition Programs Income Eligibility Guidelines can be found here.
New to SchoolCafe? Setting up an account is easy!
Fill out a Meal Application, access student purchase history, view school menus, set-up a la carte purchasing restrictions, and MORE! Here is an easy step-by-step GUIDE to help set up an account for your student.
Meal Payment Information:
Payment for meals is encouraged to be cashless through the Pay N' Go App.
Cash and checks for meal payment will be accepted in the lunch line for students and change will be deposited on the student’s account. Students’ positive and negative cafeteria account balances from last year have rolled forward to the current school year.
Pay N' Go Link (see instructions below for accessing application)
Student Required items for purchase online:
Planners - $3.00
(only grades 1st, 2nd, and 3)
Lanyards - $3.00
Badge Sleeve - $1.00
Badge Clip - $1.00
Directions & link to A+ Pay N Go.
Below is the link that will get you to the log in, or create an account. Click on LOGIN.
Directions that will help you navigate the website:
After they log in, on the far right of the screen they will see a box that says Elementary Schools, click on that.
Next screen, bottom right click Elementary R-Z box.
Next screen, top row, right side, under LOGIN, click Rylander Elementary box.
On this screen click on the tab you want to pay.
Please ignore the word replacement on each of the items title . New orders are labeled replacement. It is the way the system is set up.
Elementary School Supplies' List
Below is the Katy ISD Elementary School Supplies' list in case you were not able to pre-order school supplies. All Pre-order sales are closed.
Robotics is coming to Rylander
After School Katy Robotics Academy coming to Rylander 2022-2023
We are excited to announce that our 1st-5th graders will have an opportunity to learn computer programming through LEGO robotics this year! Registration is a first come, first served, and space is limited. To register or find out more information about this amazing program coming to Rylander. http://www.katyroboticsacademy.com/