UPCOMING E VE N T S
Here are some of the highlights for the next two months a t Pines.
July
3rd Decorate the Pines 4th of July Float
4th Independence Day- School CLOSED
4th Kingwood Civic Club 4th of July Parade
7th- 28th Ukrainian teachers come BACK to Texas!!
25th Last day of Summer Semester- Primary and Elementary
28th- 1st Infant and Toddler week ONLY- Office hours 8-12 M-F
August
4th- 8th School Closed
11th First day of Fall Semester
15th Back to School Snow Cones (aka Pines Cones)
19th - 21st Compass Nights
26th - 28th Compass Nights
Compass Nights
Held each August it is our expectation that every family attend the night for your child. This is the evening where you learn the “direction” for the school year, meet the teachers and the other families and plug-in to all things Pines!
CONNECTION S
Six years ago Weronika (nee Słodyńska) Białach from Lubin, Poland was a summer intern in our Primary community at Pines. Here she was decora�ng that year’s 4th of July float.
Late last year she and her husband welcomed Casper into their lives and this weekend he fit into his Pines t-shirt!
• In Asia news… Mr. David was invited by Dr. Paul Epstein to host a video training for Montessori teachers in China about Lower Elementary.
• Ukrainian teachers will be at Pines for two weeks star�ng on the 7th. Ms. Ashley will aid them in star�ng their Upper Elementary classroom.
• Ms. Paty is hos�ng monthly virtual cohort mee�ngs with six schools from across Poland, and with US schools in Pennsylvania and Tennessee on their journey to become Interna�onal Montessori Council accredited school like Pines!
• Middle School students donated $250 from their Middle School Market profits to Family Promise of Lake Houston.
Locally and Globally…Pines is Contribu�ng Significantly to a Beter World.
4 th of July Parade It is THIS Week!
Decorate our 4th of July Float
Thursday, July 3rd
6:00 pm in the driveway near the kitchen
It is our potluck style cookout and float decora�ng social right here at Pines!
Come if you can and bring something to help make the cookout complete: hot dogs, buns, chips, drinks, potato salad, an easy dessert, etc.
Just an informal, fun social as we decorate.
Friday, July 4th
RIDE in the Parade
Parade starts at 10:00
Pines families arrive at 9:30
We will be as close as we can to the corner of Rivers Edge Trail and Sandy Forks.
Across from the dentist office.
We will put out a message on the APP when we have our spot.
4 th of July Parade
Thank you to David Whit for pulling our float this year!
Thank you also to the Jasso, Lopez and Prince families who also raised their hands!
As we parade along Lake Houston Parkway to Kingwood Drive and onto Kingwood High School, we are “famous” for passing out freeze pops to the parade goers.
DON’T FORGET the
Freezie Pops
We need all we can get!
It’s NOT too late to freeze them. Bring them with you!
O n I nde p e nde nce Day
We also invite you to join us to ride on, walk, or stroll along with the Pines float on the morning of July 4th and hand our freezie pops!
How the parade looks.
You will park your car wherever you can near Creekwood Middle School and walk around the floats un�l you find us! The parade will move slowly so you can always hop on and off as we go.
Strollers, bikes, wagons, dogs, etc - all are welcome! Dress in a Pines shirt, or your Red/White/and Blue. We will have coolers of freezie pops but we can ALWAYS use more! If you are coming to the parade, please begin freezing these at your home now and bring them in a cooler to our float.
CONSTRUCTION
Ques�ons and some answers and a few explaina�ons!
When will the ramp be finish?
We are awaiting the new, bespoke (fancy word for made just for us) handrails. Nothing at Pines is ever off the shelf. There will be two rails and then we tackle the erosion and the hardscape and replace the grass. Before the Fall Semester is our best guess. Thank you for patience.
What’s up with this?
We need to install an underground water meter vault. That is on the Pines side of the street. It will then connect, again, underground to the other side of the street.
FUN FACT: The City of Houston did not have accurate drawings so once they got started, they realized that the drawings were wrong. So I guess that is where the expression…
Back to the drawing board comes from.
Once that is all put back together our plan is to extend the wildflower bed along the front of our entire property. So from the Greenbelt to Middle School. That would be in October when those seeds should go in.
BACKYARD
Lots of thinking and talking has been going on as we wait and plan for what is next for our Backyard. Upper Elementary students were invited to think through some points We want to always consider as we go…
• Is it safe? Ninja Warrior is great on TV and in specialized gyms but maybe not Pines.
• Can it be used in more than one way? Not a “one trick pony”. Some pieces only do one thing. You can only do one thing on a see-saw. Everything else you do on it… gets you in trouble and is unsafe.
• Can the community use it? We love that our neighbors use our backyard. That is who we are. But sometimes items we have that we have are broken and stolen over the weekends. We need to be smart about this.
• Is the playground built for all of the ages of our students? Infants and Toddlers have their own playground. Our backyard play structures were installed over 20 years ago when we did not have Middle School and our entire Elementary enrollment was 41 students. We have grown 190% in the past 20 years to 119 “BIG” kids not to mention the 108 Primary students!
• Should a playground tell you how to play or should you (the students) make up the play? There is more than enough room in Kingwood and the world for different types of playgrounds… We want a backyard that invites the children to interact with it and not be told how to play.
Bear Branch Elementary New playground
Also their detention pond. We have a wonderful team of experts and City of Houston Council Members helping us to keep this out of our backyard.
BACKYARD
• Can you find this in another park or playground? If so… could we have something different, something that makes Pines, Pines?
• Are there spaces for rest and conversation? This got the best response! Upper Elementary was excited to share how sitting under a tree with a friend, curling up with a book, taking watercolors outside was an important part of their day.
• Is there open space for games? Having said that! Can we have a big field for running and playing soccer or a batting cage or a putting range?
• Are there spaces for building and loose parts for creating? What if a chess board and pieces were always available, or logs and sticks and rocks for building something that did not exist before you went outside?
So we wait and dream…
The last of the remaining structures are tired and are awaiting retirement. We will
• have these pieces razed and removed
• have the property re-sculpted and reseeded
• observe how the children play and we will match what we install to what the children show us
If you are excited about the possibili�es our open backyard canvas could bring to Pines let us know!
Psobelman@pinesmontessori.com and we will invite you to our dream sessions this Fall.
Educational Savings Account
You may have heard about this. We are keeping up with weekly updates and attended a 5-hour training this past week just so that we can help give you the information that you need to make an informed decision.
So
what
is an Education Savings Account?
An Education Savings Account (ESA) provides parents of students in non-public Texas schools a publicly-funded, government authorized savings account with restricted, but multiple, uses for their children’s education.
Timeline
Sept. 1, 2025: SB 2, the bill creating ESAs, becomes law.
Shortly after that, eligible schools can apply to accept ESA funds.
January 2026: The application process is expected to open for families to apply
School year 26-27: W hen money in ESAs can first be used for eligible expenses.
Will Pines be an eligible school? Yes!
A school needs to be accredited
Been in operation 2 years prior to the May 2025
Have audited finances
Who is eligible?
Our number is 101-107-001
• Student must be a U.S. citizen, national, or lawful resident eligible to attend a Texas public school grades K-12. Pre-K3 and Pre-K4 if they meet the public school criteria for enrollment.
• Although all students meeting the above criteria are eligible including home schooled the law prioritizes children from low income families and children with special learning needs.
• If a student is approved, so is the student’s sibling(s) who applied.
• Once a family is approved and receives an ESA, they do not need to reapply each year. Their account will remain active as long as they continue to meet the program’s requirements. Unused funds may roll over year to year with no rollover limit while the student participates in the program.
• If you leave the state of Texas or leave private/home school and come back… you lose all the unused ESA money and go to the back of the line to re-apply
Educational Savings Account
Who qualifies as a “child with disabilities?”
As defined by the State of Texas, a “child with a disability”:
1. Is not more than 21 years of age and has a visual or auditory impairment that prevents the student from being adequately or safely educated in public school without the provision of special services; OR
2. Is at least three but not more than 21 years of age and has one or more of the following disabilities that prevents the student from being adequately or safely educated in public school without the provision of special services:
• physical disability;
• intellectual or developmental disability;
• emotional disturbance;
• learning disability, including dyslexia;
• autism;
• speech disability;
• or traumatic brain injury
How much is available? One billion dollars has been set aside for this program.
Per student, annually
• Student enrolled in an eligible school: up to $10,000
• A child with a disability: up to $30,000
• Home-schooled participants: $2,000
Use of the money
Parents may use the funds to pay for eligible expenses including:
• school tuition
• school lunches
• tutoring
• online education programs
• therapies for students with special needs
• textbooks or other instructional materials
Educational Savings Account
Parents must agree to:
• Spend program money only for eligible expenses
• Share child's assessment results with the Certified Educational Assistance Organization who manages this program for the State. This would be the results of your Grade 3- Grade 8 students Stanford Achievements Test.
• Not sell an item purchased with program money like computers, etc.
• Notify the CEAO within 30 days of child enrolling in public school, graduating high school, or otherwise becoming ineligible to enroll in public school.
Applicants are prioritized as follows:
1. Students with a disability (defined by the TX Educ. Code Sec. 29.003) whose family income is at or below 500% of the Federal Poverty Guidelines (FPG).
2. Children whose family income is at or below 200% of FPG.
3. Children whose family income is between 200% and 500% of FPG.
4. Everyone else, depending on available funds. Students who switch from public schools will be prioritized over currently enrolled private school students in this category only.
Other imprtant things we learned.
• Although the bill has passed and will become a law in September, the “rules” for enacting the law have not! So there are many questions that do not have answers that this point. We will all learn the anwers together.
• We do know this money is NOT taken from the funding sent aside for Public Schools. Two different buckets.
• Texas wiil be the 36th state to have such a savings account. We heard from panels of speakers from other states who have had this program for years and years,
• It is you, the parents, that apply for and the funding. Pines has nothing to do with the application or approval for the funding, and then it is you who direct where this money goes.
We will be a part of the Litle Free Library this upcoming school year!
Our first library will be located on our Pines patch of property near the Greenbelt so the community has access. Our students will maintain the box and refresh the books.
We will add 2 more libraries a�er that!
One in Treetop Lo� and the other in the Toddler Playground.
TEACH I NG AT PINES
Ms. Gabbie has just completed her two-week residency program in Oklahoma as part of her CGMS training to become a Montessori Primary teacher.
Special thanks to Ms. Adriana and Ms. Kristen who, in addition to EVERYTHING else they do for Pines are the Supervising Teachers for Ashley and Gabbie respectively. AND
Special thanks to every person who raised their paddle during The EVENT and contributed to teacher Training. YOU have made this possible!
Ms. Ashley will be off to Nashville this month for her two-week residency program as a part of her CGMS training to become a Montessori Infant/Toddler teacher.
Both courses are 19 months of training under the guiding hands of a
• Instructional Guides
• Field Consultants
• Supervising Teachers
Ms. Gabbie- Class 6
Ms. Ashley- Class 2