GES Families,
This week our 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students will take their STAAR tests. For many of our students, this is the very first time. These tests are important but they do not assess all of what makes our students SHINE. The GES teachers, administrators, and staff know what makes your child unique! We know those who are always smiling and a friend to many. We know those who participate in sports, or are very creative, and those who love to get lost in a good book. We know which students complete an act of kindness each day and those who are experts in technology. We know who is shy and those who love to make others laugh. We know those who love to create music, who always lend a helping hand, and those who have wild imaginations.
The scores you will get from these tests will tell you something, but they will not tell us everything. Most importantly, these test scores do not define your child! There is no way to “test” all the awesome things that make your child special! We want them to believe in themselves and to remember to do their best. We have poured into them since they began kindergarten and we are so proud of them!
Please help your child to achieve their best by ensuring they have a healthy breakfast and good rest this week. As a reminder, the campus will be closed to visitors and volunteers May 11-13.
Please refer to the following schedule to know when your child will be testing:
May 11 - 3rd, 4th, 5th Math (In Person)
May 12 - 3rd, 4th, 5th Reading (In Person)
May 13 - 5th Science (In Person)
May 18 - 3rd, 4th, 5th Math (Remote)
May 19 - 3rd, 4th, 5th Reading (Remote)
May 20 - 5th grade Science (Remote)
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out. In Mrs. Shelley's absence, our campus testing coordinator is Mrs. Ervin. She can be reached at courtney.ervin@gcisd.net.
All my best,
Nancy Hale
Where would we be without Nurse Lindsey this year?! She has been an incredible support through this pandemic and school year! We are so thankful for her leadership and communication. She takes care great care of our stars! Please join me in thanking her this week!
School Nurse Day is Wednesday, May 12th!
Friday, May 14th is our last GES School Spirit Day of the 20-21 school year. Join us by wearing your GES gear or red and blue colors!
In the coming weeks, we will begin to develop our class lists for next school year. In creating these lists we take into account district guidelines and keep in mind the need to create a balanced classroom for our GES Stars. This process involves multiple variables. Below you will find some of the variables we will consider as we develop class lists for the 2021-2022 school year:
Gender balance
Academic mix
Personality and learning styles
Peer relationships
Class size
Special needs
The objective is to place all students with a teacher in a balanced class that will support individual learning and growth. At GES, we are very fortunate to have an exceptional group of teachers and staff to work with our students and families.
Families have the optional opportunity to fill out this student class information form. This form will not be used for requesting a teacher, but will give you a chance to share valuable information about your child. There will also be a spot for your child to share. We will NOT be honoring specific teacher requests. The form will be available online to families May 3-May 20. This form is optional, but will provide important information in helping guide your child's placement for next school year.
This year, GCISD has made our returning student registration available earlier. Typically this occurs in July and August. Returning student registration will open on Monday, May 3 and will remain open until May 21. While parents are able to register up until the first day of school, the district is trying to gather enrollment numbers as early as possible for planning purposes. To register your returning student click HERE.
If you are awaiting a transfer request, please register for the campus you are currently zoned for. Transfer requests will be processed at a later date. To view attendance zones, visit our School Maps Online.
Registration for new students, as well as pre-kindergarten and kindergarten students, remains open. To register a NEW student, click here. Prior to completing online registration, students enrolling in pre-kindergarten must have completed a separate online application, which may be found here.
Students new to the district (including those entering Kindergarten) must provide proof of residency, birth certificate, social security number, immunization record, emergency contact numbers and a report card from the previous school unless enrolling in kindergarten.
During the registration process, parents will also be able to register as a bus rider for the 2021-2022 school year. If you have specific questions regarding bus registration, please contact Transportation at 817-251-5590.
If you have questions regarding the registration process, please call the front office at 817-251-5735.
PreK-4th Grade via Webex
PreK- Monday 24th: Finch @ 8:00am; Rottman @ 8:30am
Kinder - Tuesday 25th @ 8:00am (all classes)
1st - Monday 24th @ 9:00am (all classes)
2nd - Tuesday 25th: Fortune, Calvin, Leu @ 9:00am; Lewis, Faurot @ 9:30am
3rd - Wednesday 26th: Smallwood, Webster @ 9:00am; Still, Choppy @ 9:30am
4th - Wednesday 26th: Hickerson, Curnow, Stackfleth @ 8:00am; Riski, Cade @ 8:30am
5th grade in-person May 27th
Gray - 8:00am
Bailey - 9:00am
Hendrickson - 10:00am
5th grade Webex May 27th
Scott - 10:45am
All GCISD Library Books are due Friday, May 14th. Mrs. Wahpekeche will begin sending notices on Friday after school to let you know if your child still has some books checked out. Thanks for helping us prepare our library for next school year!
college, career, and military day
Our annual school-wide College, Career, & Military Day for all students PK-5 is on Monday, May 17th and we need your help! If you are interested in being a presenter live or by recording...or know someone that would be willing, please complete THIS form by next Monday, May 10th.
We would appreciate adults talking to our students about what they do and even show examples if possible. Parents can send in a video by
May 12th to angela.horn@gcisd.net or sign-up to present a live webex. There are so many jobs, careers, professions, and military experiences available and it would be incredible to expose the students to as many of them as we can. Some questions to consider when recording your preparing to present via Webex are included on the Google Form.
Live webex presentations will be scheduled for 30 minutes long. Please be sure to leave 5-10 min at the end of your time for students to ask questions. Recorded messages should be no longer than 15 minutes. We are hoping for presentations to be motivating and exciting for the students so feel free to show visual aids, slide shows, pictures, videos, props or more.
I believe it is important for our students to be educated about future careers and opportunities because it can help motivate them to set goals for their future.
April Star student of the month
Congratulations to our newest star students of the month! Check out why our teachers nominated them for COOPERATION at this Flipgrid!
May character quality
Throughout this month, GES staff and students are focusing on CREATIVITY! Partner with us at home by reading the grade level PurposeFULL People newsletters included below!
I am here and ready to help! At any time this year, whether learning remotely or in-person, please click the I want to talk with Mrs. Horn form to request a visit. This form is also be included in grade level newsletters and Seesaws, and stays housed in my email signature, on the GES Counseling district website, and as many locations as possible.
This is a live Google Calendar that we will keep updated throughout the year with campus activities. Click the calendar to open it up so you can switch to week or month view and look at future dates. Please check back frequently for new additions.
At Thursday's PTA Meeting the general membership voted to approve the slate of officers presented by this year's Nominating Committee Chaired by Megan Hill. Congratulations to this great group of volunteers. Thank you for taking on these roles!
We need YOUR help, too! If you are interested in serving on next year's leadership team in a chair or coordinator role, we would love to talk to you, please fill out this volunteer interest form.
The GES PTA Executive Board wants to give a huge thank you to this year's PTA President Junell DuBois for all of her hard word and leadership this year. If you see Junell, please take a moment to tell her thank you!
Last Thursday the GES PTA Awards Committee Chaired by Aaryn Lamb announced that our 2021 Texas PTA Honorary Lifetime Member Award Winner is Megan Holladay. As one nominator wrote:
"To most people PTA is a noun. They join PTA. They give to PTA. They go to PTA. For Megan Holladay PTA is a verb. She PTAs and has PTAed all over GES for the past six years."
Megan, GES PTA is so grateful for all the many ways you volunteer to help the GES community. Congratulations on forever being a member of Texas PTA!
With Earth Week and other opportunities starting to pop up - Don't forget to log your volunteer hours! Our school gets recognition for our total volunteer hours so it is important to the PTA to get them logged. If you have forgotten for previous months, feel free to log those as well. Just go to gespta.org hover over Volunteer and click Record Volunteer Hours to put in your information. If you have any questions don't hesitate to reach out to volunteers@gespta.org Thank you for supporting our STARS!
Let us know what you think! Nutrition Services is requesting your feedback about the in-person meals offered for breakfast and lunch during the 2020-2021 school year. The survey takes less than 5 minutes and will help the Nutrition Services team plan for the upcoming 2021-2022 school year. We look forward to serving your student!
Link to survey: https://forms.gle/79pH3CA71tiDUs4c8
To support strong communication with our families beyond the school day, we are pleased to introduce a new resource available to our parents. Parent Internet Reporting is an on-demand tool for parents that allows guardians to view their children's online activity and increases the measures already taken to protect our students while using a District device. Through this platform, parents will receive weekly email reports summarizing internet activity on District devices, as well as the ability to access real-time reporting of what their students are doing online. In an effort to help our parents control screen time while students are home, the system will also allow for a guardian to pause the internet on a GCISD device.
In order to receive access to the Parent Internet Reporting tool and if you were not able to attend the virtual session on April 20, there is an online course that will explain the Parent Internet Reporting that needs to be attended. You must complete the course to receive access to the parent internet reporting tool. The course can be found at www.gcisd.net/ParentInternet.
More than 90 different courses will be taught by certified teachers in a variety of areas. These 3-hour courses are designed to be fun, engaging, and educational for students completing K-6th grades.
Full course listings and the brochure can be viewed on the GCISD Summer Programs page: bit.ly/SE2021gcisd.
When: One-week sessions from June 7 – July 16 (no courses July 5-9)
Times: 8:30 – 11:30 and/or 12:30 – 3:30
Cost: $125/course (if noted, a course may have an additional materials fee)
Location: Cross Timbers Middle School
Registration has begun online in Skyward!
Part-Time KidzU Care is available for students enrolled in Summer Enrichment before and after classes.
GCISD Technology Resources is committed to serving students and staff, especially during the District's remote learning instruction. Please keep in mind these very helpful resources:
ClassLink - GCISD's single sign-on portal for students and staff. ClassLink allows users to sign in once and have access to all of their accounts at the click of a button.
Help Desk - Students and staff can submit help requests to GCISD's Help Desk at any time. If you need your student's password reset, or are having trouble accessing ClassLink, please call 817-251-5629 during our extended help desk hours. For all other issues with student devices, please fill out a help ticket at help.gcisdstudents.net.
Outdoor WiFi Access - As a reminder, wireless network access is available outside of many GCISD campuses for use by students, parents and staff. Click here for locations, maps and instructions on how to connect.
All grade level newsletters will also be sent out weekly directly to families from your homeroom teachers. Grade level newsletters can also be accessed using the links below.
Volunteers are significantly limited at this time, but there may be opportunities later in the year. Go ahead and apply now so you're ready when the time comes.
In order to volunteer at GES, or around GCISD, all volunteers must:
read the Volunteer Handbook (this replaces the previous face to face volunteer trainings held on campus)
watch the appropriate video included in the handbook
electronically sign the verification Google form for each campus you plan to volunteer
complete the volunteer background check. A link is included in the handbook.
The following link takes you to the online Volunteer Handbook and background check: https://www.gcisd.net/cms/one.aspx?pageId=195550
When you are ready to volunteer at GES, feel free to call the front office at 817-251-5735 to verify that both of the required steps have been recorded as completed. We appreciate your support as you complete these steps and volunteer to work with our GES students.
Parents and loved ones are not able to come up for lunch at this time. We are currently limiting visitors in our building.
PreK: 10:15 - 10:45
Kindergarten: 10:45 - 11:15
1st Grade: 11:15 - 11:45
2nd Grade: 11:45 - 12:15
3rd Grade: 12:15- 12:45
4th Grade: 12:45 - 1:15
5th Grade: 1:15 - 1:45