Monday, March 28 is a student holiday. No School!

Thank you to the Specialists and Teacher Assistants for all their hard work running the events at Field Day! A special thank you to Coach Pham for creating the fun activities and for her organization of the event. Thank you to our PTO parents who helped support the games too! All the students had a memorable day thanks to all the efforts of our teachers, teacher assistants, and PTO.

As we have done in the past, our students have an opportunity to participate in the Original Works Art Program. Take advantage of a creative opportunity to support your child and our school through the Original Works Art Fundraiser. Your child can create their own masterpieces that can be turned into custom keepsakes. These keepsakes make great gifts for family members or to keep and enjoy. They can use artwork they have already completed or create new works of art on the paper provided. Information went home in your child's backpack before spring break.

All artwork and order forms must be received by March 29. Ms. Orta is excited to see what great projects our students create!

Bush Elementary will have COVID testing available every Thursday for students, faculty, and staff. Parents must pre-register their child by 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday in order to be tested on campus. This testing is completely voluntary and free and requires the student's parent/guardian to first provide a one-time digital consent at https://bit.ly/HISDC19Test .

Once a parent has registered their child, then the child will be tested each time Fulgent comes to campus to provide COVID testing. If you no longer want your child to be tested, you may opt out by emailing your child's teacher to let them know.

Registration dates for the 2022-2023 school year will be announced in April on our website and in the Paw Prints. New student registration will be in-person, not online.

Intent to Re-Enroll and Kindergarten Sibling Registration dates will also be announced in April.

Stay up to date by reading our newsletter, the Paw Prints, and the marquee.

COVID-19 vaccines are now available for children ages 5-11. If you choose to vaccinate your child, please email a copy of the vaccination record card to dguider@houstonisd.org or send documentation to Nurse Guider so she can update your child's immunization record.

Please make sure Nurse Guider dguider@houstonisd.org has a copy of your child's proof of 2 doses of an approved COVID vaccination if you choose to vaccinate your child.

If your child does test COVID positive, then he/she must quarantine for at least 5 days regardless of vaccination status. If your child is COVID positive and showing symptoms, then he/she must stay home at least 5 days and until symptom free.

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.

Here are some quick reminders about our Bush Elementary dress code. Shirts must be solid colored red, white, or navy. The only t-shirts allowed are Bush Elementary t-shirts. Dress code pants are navy, khaki, or blue jeans. The pants must not have any holes, rips, tears, or designs on them, just simple plain blue jeans, navy pants, or khaki pants. Exercise pants, sweatpants, and yoga pants are NOT part of the Bush dress code. Leggings can not be worn as pants, only under skirts or jumpers. Please click on the link below for the complete dress code guidelines.

2021-2022 Dress Code Guidelines

Morning supervision of students starts at 7:20 a.m. At that time students are brought into the building and are seated in grade level lines. Morning bus lane drop off is reserved for our 5th Grade Safety Patrols and our students in our self-contained special education classes. These families have a special printed pass to enter the bus lane for morning drop off. All other students arriving by car must be dropped off in the carpool lane. The first bell rings at 7:30 a.m. and the students are tardy at 7:40 a.m. when the morning announcements begin.

We have started a new year so let's start the year by following our morning arrival procedures and being on time for school every day.

Please plan to pick up your carpool and walker students before 3:15. Our students are dismissed at 3:00 and our walker area has been finishing before 3:10 on most days. If you arrive after 3:15, please come to the front office to sign your child out as a late pick up.

Please abide by the No Parking signs on the streets around our school and our neighboring schools. Several parents have received parking tickets from HPD in the past because they were parking in a No Parking zone. When cars park in No Parking zones, it is difficult for our busses and vans to turn into our bus lane.

We're asking for the parents of walkers that park their cars on the other side of Westerloch across from the school to NOT u-turn by the carpool lane entrance once they've picked up their child(ren) and are heading home.

We have seen many students and some parents walking across the street not using the crosswalks. This is extremely dangerous and we ask that all walkers and bike riders use the crosswalks. Westerloch Dr. and Parkway Plaza Dr. are very busy streets during morning arrival and dismissal. If you cross between parked cars, ongoing traffic cannot see you.

We are so happy to see so many of our students riding their bikes to school. Please remember that all students are required to wear a bicycle helmet when riding their bikes to and from school. We want to keep all of our Bobcats safe. Also, please send your bike riders with a bike lock to secure their bikes to the bike rack.

If your child is absent from school, please make sure you send in a note explaining the absence date(s) and reason for the absence upon return to school. We will need this note even if you're at home quarantining or a Positive COVID-19 case. Please email your absence excuse note to the homeroom teacher and our registrar, Ms. Rosales at arosale3@houstonisd.org

If a note is not received within 3 days, then the absence is recorded as unexcused.

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.

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:

February – July Birthdays: Enroll through January

The PTO Board wants you! The PTO is looking for volunteers for next school year. The PTO Board consists of over 20 different positions, all with a focus on the quality of education at Bush Elementary. We welcome working and non-working parents and guardians from all different grade levels and backgrounds. We encourage you to find a position which sounds interesting to you and one in which you feel you can contribute your unique talents and skills towards the betterment of Bush Elementary.

A few of the positions are:

• President and Vice President

• Secretary

• Treasury team

• Business Partnerships

• Fundraising Event Coordinator

• Family or Staff Hospitality

• Volunteer coordinator

• Nature Center Coordinator

• Directory team

• School Store Coordinator

• Website Coordinator

• And more!!!

If any of those sound interesting to you, check out our website for more information about the roles: Job Descriptions or email our PTO President at presidentbbepto@gmail.com . If you are ready to submit your application for a position on the PTO Board for the 2022-2023 school year, please complete this form.

School store on the go will be back THIS Friday, 3/25! Please bring your money during your lunch period to check out what we have for you! Our online school store is also open and all items purchased online will be delivered to the classrooms on Fridays. Visit the store at www.BBEpto.com

Thank you so much to all who participated in our Marco’s Spirit Night! It was a great success and you all earned over $200 for our school! Woohoo!

In May, we will be hosting an international Festival in celebration of our 30th Anniversary! We are looking for Business Sponsors who may want to set up a booth or be involved with the Festival. If you own a business or know of one who may want to be involved, please email Val Shaikh at presidentbbe@gmail.com.

Updated policies on field trips, COVID-19 Quarantine and more updated for 2022.

https://www.houstonisd.org/readysetgo