Rustic Oak Elementary Newsletter

A Word From Mrs. West Welcome back to the 2015-16 school year at Rustic Oak Elementary where the focus is on each individual child! I am excited to begin my 12th year as the principal of Rustic Oak Elementary. We have had a great beginning for this school year. I would like welcome our new staff members: Assistant Principal – Brooke Newell, Counselor – Brittanee Goodeaux, First Grade – Sara Martin, Second Grade – Krista Myer, Third Grade – Maegan Morris, Fourth Grade – Jackie Avants and PE aide Micaiah Provenzano.

We welcome them to our Rustic Oak Family. It is going to be another great year! I sincerely appreciate the help and support that our families continue to show the teachers and staff. It is essential the school staff and the parents work together as a team to ensure our students continue to excel.

Sincerely,

Upcoming Events 9/1

PTA General Meeting: 6:30 pm

9/3 Meet the Teacher Night:

PK-2nd Grades: 6:30-7:15 3rd & 4th Grades: 7:15-8:00 9/7 No School: Labor Day 9/8 Parents may begin eating lunch with students in room 404 9/14 Grandparents’ Lunch: Last Names A-L 9/15 Grandparents’ Lunch: Last Names M-Z 9/16 Progress Report 9/22 School Picture Day Fundraiser Kick Off

Beth West

Stay Informed Rustic Oak offers a variety of ways for parents to stay informed of upcoming events. Please visit http://www.pearlandisd.org/RusticOak.cfm On our website, you will find a calendar of events and a monthly newsletter. Weekly classroom Peeks of the Week will also be uploaded to the teachers’ web pages. Student grades and attendance information is available through Skyward.

We also use Connect Ed and Skyward messaging to make phone calls home and send email messages. Please keep your phone numbers and email addresses up to date to receive these important messages. For more information about staying connected with PISD, visit the Communications Department website at www.pearladnisd.org.

Handbooks: Please be sure to read the student handbooks for PISD and for Rustic Oak Elementary. To access the handbooks on line use the following links: PISD: http://www.pearlandisd.org/documents.cfm?id=23.24 Rustic: http://www.pearlandisd.org/files/filesystem/student%20parent%20handbook %202015-2016.doc

I am honored to serve the families at Rustic Oak Elementary this year. This school year I will begin my 14th year in the Pearland Independent School District and my 9th year as an assistant principal.

I look forward to meeting each of you and getting to know your children. Please feel free to contact me if you have any concerns.

Cut out this QR code and keep it handy to quickly access the Rustic Oak website.

HOW TO ACCESS STUDENTS’ LUNCH ACCOUNT:

We need your help…

Please send a note to school with your child if you need to change the way he/she will go home. Try to limit changes in transportation for your child during the school day. In the event a change needs to be made, please call the school no later than 2:00 PM so that we can make sure your child gets the information about the change before dismissal procedures begin. Please do not e-mail teachers: teachers do not check e-mail during instructional times and may not be on campus to receive your message.

Thanks in advance for you help in this matter! It helps us make sure each child safely arrives home.

How Full is Your Bucket?

This year we are continuing our character development program with Bucket Filler Bucks. Bucket filling is an easy-to-understand concept: everyone carries an invisible bucket that holds good thoughts and feelings. When our buckets are full, we feel happy; and. when our buckets are empty, we feel sad. Children quickly understand that they can fill buckets when they do and say things that are kind, considerate, caring, and respectful. They also learn that when they are mean, inconsiderate, uncaring, or disrespectful, they dip into buckets and remove those good feelings. Even the youngest child understands that actions and words can either fill a bucket or dip into it. During this school year we are encouraging, reminding, and recognizing everyone’s efforts to be bucket fillers at home, at school and everywhere they go. We are excited about this program and look forward to your support. If you would like to learn more about bucket filling, visit the Bucket Fillers website, www.bucketfillers101.com.



Go to www.pearlandisd.org



Go to Departments and click on Food Service



Click on Manage your student’s meal accounts with Parentonline

First time users: 

Must register (establish a user name and pass-word)



Add students (must have a student id number: available from the school)  Can add multiple students Returning users:  

Can view account activity (students’ purchases) Can make payments (add money to their account): may take upt to 24 hours to process a payment.



Set up automatic payment For more information, contact the Food Services office @ 281-412-1244 or Parent On-line @1-866-6030.

Food Service Charging Policy: We realize that parents have a busy schedule and may forget to send money or students may forget to bring a lunch. Students are allowed to charge up to $5.00—after that a minimal meal will be provided (peanut butter or cheese sandwich). Students are not allowed to charge the ala carte times, i.e. ice cream, chips.

RX Notes Welcome back to Rustic Oak!

IMPORTANT INFORMATION MEDICATIONS must be accompanied by a note from the parent and brought to the clinic.

A physician’s note is required for any medication taken over 10 days. See the PISD main website for medication guidelines and forms.

PRACTICE GOOD HANDWASHING Proper hand washing is the easiest way to prevent the spread of illness. We will do our best to encourage proper hand washing at Rustic Oak. Good habits begin at home, so please encourage your family to wash hands frequently.

ILLNESSES: If your child becomes sick at school, I will contact you to pick them up. Please keep phones numbers current. If your child has been sick the night before or during the night with fever or vomiting please do not send them to school. Children MUST be fever free for 24 hours without use of a fever reducer such as Tylenol or Ibuprofen. It is very difficult to keep our students healthy with sick children coming to school for even part of the day. If you have any questions about your child’s illness and whether they can return to school, please feel free to call me.

HEALTH ISSUES: Please keep me up to date on any medical concerns your child may have as the year progresses. I am here to support your child in anyway that I can.

Shelia Scott, R.N., B.S.N.

Grandparents Lunch We will celebrate Grandparents’ Day this year on Monday, September 14 for student last names A-L. and Tuesday, September 15 for student last names M-Z. Please feel free to come have lunch with your grandchild. Feel free to bring in lunch for you and your grandchild or lunch may be purchased in the cafeteria for $3.25. Check the lunch schedule below for your grandchild’s lunch time.

Library News Welcome back to the 2015-2016 school year. I am so excited about seeing your child in the library. My goal for your child is that he or she will become a lifetime learner and reader. Reading opens the door to imagination and adventure.

10:50- 11:20

Yeatts/ VanMetre

10:55- 11:25

Merritt/ Bartlett

11:00- 11:30

Jarrell/ Morris

11:05- 11:35

Guthrie/ Wehman

11:10- 11:40

Sadler/ DuBrock

11:20- 11:50

Avants/ Petri

11:25- 11:55

LeBlanc/ Adams

11:30- 12:00

Aldape/ Pettepher

11:35- 12:05

Clements/ Cochran

11:40- 12:10

Myer/ Morrison

11:50- 12:20

Viscariello/ Martin

11:55- 12:25

Baumann/ Booth

Mrs. Goodeaux’s Counseling Notes:

12:00- 12:30

Laudermilk/ Valore

Hello Rustic Oak Family!

I am SUPER excited to have the opportunity to work at such an amazing school as the counselor. From morning announcements to guidance lessons to small groups, we will be discussing and exploring ways to improve our character! We are pleased that our school district has adopted the Character Education Program entitled Rock Solid Character. Each month the students will receive a lesson focusing on one of these handholds which include: respect, responsibility, caring/cooperation, honesty, trustworthiness, kindness, and courage. For the students that attend small group counseling, we will be focusing on achieving positive goals. Our sessions will model the solutionfocused approach to help our children identify their strengths and abilities to solve their concerns. We will meet for seven sessions, in which, the students will learn important skills to help them be successful. In group, these skills will be tailored to address individual student needs and concerns. This is going to be a great school year. Thank you all for being so welcoming and friendly! If you need to contact me, please feel free to email or call me.

Meet your teacher night will be on September 3, 6:30-8:00p.m. If your child is in Pre-K through 2nd grade, join us from 6:30-7:15. Our 3rd and 4th grade times will be from 7:15-8:00.

At Rustic Oak, we value the importance of community involvement.

We want to collaborate with you in order to support your child’s learning process.

Please do not hesitate to call if you have any questions or concerns.

Please visit the Rustic Oak library website to see policies on returning books as well as upcoming activities in the library.

There are many opportunities to volunteer in the library. Please contact me at christopherc@pearlandisd.org if you would like to help.

Christi Christopher Librarian

Brittanee Goodeaux goodeauxb@pearlandisd.org

From the Coaches Corner Welcome back! We are so excited to get the new school year started in P.E. that we are going bananas! We hope you all had a healthy and great summer. We look forward to a fun and exciting year in P.E. Parents please read the parent information page on the P.E. webpage. It contains information about our goals, expectations, and requirements for P.E. We hope your child will have a very positive and fun school year.

Coach Grigar and Coach Provenzano

Texas Public School Nutrition Policy for Elementary Schools The policy states that an elementary school campus may not serve or provide access for students to FMNV (Foods of Minimal Nutrition Value) at anytime, anywhere on school premises during the school day. Items classified as FMNV fall into four categories: soda water (including all carbonated drinks), water ices (including popsicles), chewing gum and certain candies (including hard candy, jellies, marshmallow candies, licorice, cotton candy, and candy coated popcorn).

Parents may bring cupcakes, cookies, or small treats such as pencils, erasers, etc. to school for all children in the class to honor students’ birthdays. The classroom teacher will hand out edible birthday treats during recess or the last five minutes of the student’s school day.

Welcome back Rustic Oak students, teachers, faculty and staff! We hope your summer was restful and relaxing because the new school year is off and running!

If you haven’t already joined the Rustic Oak PTA, please do so as quickly as possible. Our first general PTA meeting of the year is Tuesday, September 1st. The meeting will be held in the school cafeteria and begins promptly at 6:30 p.m. You must be a member to attend. Please plan on attending as we will be discussing our plans for new playground equipment as well as fun activities for the whole family for the 2015-2016 school year. We welcome new ideas, new faces and new leaders so please save the date!

We hope to see you all at Meet the Teacher night on September 3, 2015.

The PTA will have a membership table set up near the library so if you haven’t already joined, you can do so at that time. Also, for those of you interested in volunteering at the school, please complete the volunteer application at www.pearlandisd.org. Our “VIP” (Very Important Parent) room will be open for business starting the third week of school. We will need help on a weekly, if not daily, basis doing small tasks for teachers. If you are interested in helping, please contact our Volunteer Coordinator, Tiffany Sanders, at tiffanyROEPTA@gmail.com. Thank you to all parents, teachers and faculty for making the back-to-school transition an easy one. I look forward to seeing you all around the school and at our PTA meetings!

Heather Gordon, President

Musical Memos Welcome Bach! I am so excited to see all of our musical buffaloes roaming the halls once more. This year I am excited to announce that we will have a music shirt available for purchase. These are not required for performances, but will certainly be acceptable to wear on stage this year.

This year’s program dates are listed on my webpage. Please visit: http://www.pearlandisd.org/ webpages/sjohnson/news.cfm for more information concerning your child’s performance date as well as many fun music links. Any letters or announcements sent home in the future will also be posted here as well. Last, but certainly not least, don’t forget to save those drink pouches. It is such an easy way to earn a little extra money for our music room. The recycling box is located in the cafeteria.

Attendance Welcome back! As a reminder with missed days, please send a note to cover EVERY day missed. If you go to the doctor, that note ONLY covers that specific date. If for some reason your child is absent longer than the doctor’s excuse note, please add dates to the bottom of the note or send a separate note on a full sized piece of paper. On those notes I ask that you please clearly include your child’s full name and teacher. Thank you and I hope you have a GREAT school year!

Edna Darby Registrar/Attendance Clerk

Save Those Box Tops Box tops are an easy, quick way to get money for our school. All you need to do is clip and send them to the school —- each one is worth 10¢.

Encourage your friends and family members to do the same!

Thanks for that support!

Process for Gifted and Talented Nominations for a Pearland ISD Student

   

Parents/Guardians, other family members, and/or community members may nominate students.

Students may nominate themselves.

Members of Pearland ISD professional staff, including principals, teachers, counselors, special program teachers or others who have knowledge of the student may nominate students.

Nominations are accepted at any time during the school year and may be submitted one of two ways:

Parents complete the Nomination and Permission to Test Form through the Advanced Academics Portal and submit online:

OR

Complete the paper version of Nomination Form Permission to Test Form (must have a parent signature)

https://adv.pearlandisd.org/advacadportal/

Assessment and identification are completed according to the published district timeline: Kindergarten students who are nominated by 4:00pm Wednesday, September 30, 2015 will be administered qualitative assessments at their home campus and the quantitative assessments at the Pearland ISD Education Support Center. Assessments at the PISD ESC will be after school or Saturday. Parents will have multiple dates/times for scheduling GT assessments.

For students in 1st grade through 4th grade, assessments will be conducted at the campus during the school day if completed forms are received before 4:00pm Wednesday, September 30, 2015.

For students in Kindergarten through 3rd grade if completed forms are received after 4:00pm September 30, 2015, student assessments will be conducted in the first round of assessment the next school year.

For students in 4th grade, if completed forms are received after 4:00pm September 30, 2015 through 4:00pm March 11, 2016, assessments will be conducted at the Education Support Center after school or on a Saturday in the spring. If forms are received after 4:00pm March 11, 2016, assessments will be conducted in the first round of assessment the next school year.

Forms and the Identification Timeline are available at www.pearlandisd.org → Departments→ Advanced Academics or the campus reception area.

To learn more about the GT identification process, parents are invited to attend one of two presentations presented by Advanced Academics Tuesday, September 8, 2015 @ 6:30-7:30 pm Challenger Elementary School Cafeteria

Thursday, September 17, 2015 @ 6:30-7:30 pm OR

Shadycrest Elementary School Cafeteria

9434 Hughes Ranch Road

2405 Shadybend

Pearland, TX 77584

Pearland, TX 77581

Please contact Melanie Grote, Advanced Academics Specialist K-4, with questions.

1928 N. Main, Pearland, TX 77581 (281)485-3203