Dear GES Families,

On Friday we had two special visitor at GES that you might have heard about! They were celebrities for sure as we toured them around the campus after sharing on KGES that they would be visiting. We had the opportunity to show our Superintendent, Dr. Schnautz, and Board of Trustees Representative, A.J. Pontillo, how our GES stars shine each and every day. We visited several classrooms where they joined in the learning with our students. They did number aerobics with our kindergarten students and cooperative learning with our fourth grade students. They chatted with 5th graders during indoor recess in the Learning Commons, we introduced them to Gizmo and shared about One School One Book, and they got to see the Zootique in action with 3rd grade! They were both so complimentary of our students, staff, and campus and impressed with the work that we're doing to support our stars. While I have the privilege of seeing it each day, it was wonderful to share my experiences with district leadership, too. 

Needless to say, you definitely would not have known it was a Friday afternoon at the end of a cold week of inside recess. Our students and teachers are doing amazing work despite the challenges we may face. Thank you for your support and engagement from home as we continue to shine! 

All my best,

Nancy Hale

Upstander Week - Jan. 22 - 26

January 22 - 26, 2024 is designated as Holocaust Remembrance Week. Please note that the Texas Holocaust and Genocide Commission, like the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, does NOT recommend explicit Holocaust instruction before 6th grade. Elementary campuses may choose their own materials that cover broader themes, such as community, tolerance, being an upstander, and anti-bullying.

Arrive on Time

Our tardy bell rings at 7:40am and students are expected to be in their classrooms. We begin our KGES announcements immediately after the tardy bell and we want to ensure that all our students hear the announcements and start their day with their classmates. On cold or rainy mornings we tend to have more traffic in our drop-off lines. Please plan ahead and leave a few minutes earlier so your students arrive at school on time. 

Welcome Back Mrs. Smith

We are excited to welcome back Mrs. Smith on Wednesday to the music classroom. Choir and ensemble will resume next week on Monday, Jan. 29 for choir and Thursday, Feb. 1 for ensemble. 

We have been so fortunate to have Mrs. Powell and we're so thankful for her willingness to jump in and sub for us the past few months. We know we will continue to see her around GES frequently subbing in other classrooms! 

Rainy Day Dismissal

Walkers

All walkers will be dismissed to their usual walker locations even on rainy days, unless you’ve communicated other arrangements.  If you wish to pick up your walker in a car on rainy days, please call the front office to notify your child’s teacher prior to 2:30pm.

• ALL PreK-1st grade walkers and siblings will be dismissed from the front foyer doors.

• 2nd - 5th grade walkers will be dismissed to the Hughes parking lot side near the bike racks. 

If the conditions are not safe for students to exit the building, then all dismissal will be halted until it is safe for students to exit. 

Car Riders

All car riders will be held inside the building on rainy days and proceed to their usual car loops as names are called.  *CAR SIGNS are a necessary part of our dismissal procedure. Please hold them up until you get a signal from our staff member, as it is quite challenging to see clearly when it is raining. If you do not have a car sign, you will be asked to go to the main office and show a valid ID to pick up your child. 

• PreK-1st grade students and their older siblings will be held inside the K-2 hallway and exit through the picnic table area and proceed directly to their cars when their name is called.  

• All walk-up parents will be directed to the front foyer doors for dismissal. NO students will be dismissed to adults who choose to walk up to the picnic table area as this is our car rider dismissal location on rainy days.  

• 2nd-5th grade students will be held in the gym and exit through the gym door directly to the back car loop when their name is called. 

If your child is a car rider, please DO NOT plan to walk and pick up your child on rainy days as this slows down the dismissal process. If you plan to park and walk up to get your child, you will need to call ahead of time and make arrangements for your child to be dismissed with the walkers. 

Zootique Volunteers Needed Friday!

We have loved having volunteers come in and run our Zootique for students to spend their Zoo Bucks! If you have a completed background check and are interested in volunteering your time and sharing in some financial literacy with students as they save and spend, you can sign up HERE. Parent volunteers help make our Zootique a possibility! We still need volunteers for 2nd grade at 8:00am and 5th grade at 10:45am. 

GCISD Emergent Bilingual Family Engagement Event 

As part of the Title III funds we receive for Emergent Bilingual (EB) / English Learners (EL), GCISD will offer a district-wide event for parent, family, and community engagement. 

• Tuesday, January 23, 2024 

• 9 a.m.-11 a.m. 

• 3050 Timberline Dr, Grapevine, TX 76051 

We will host a watch party in partnership with TEA to address the community engagement event for emergent bilingual families. This event will focus on community participation programs: Participation is the action of taking part in an activity or an event. Under Title III, Part A, “community participation programs” are programs in which English learners, parents, and family members can take part. 

We will meet at the JPS Building located at 3050 Timberline Dr, Grapevine, TX 76051, Room 1. We will have multiple Chromebooks to ensure families listen to the information in their native language. The languages that we will offer to our families are: 

• English 

• Spanish 

• Arabic 

• Vietnamese 

GCISD Student Transfers

The general and STEM student transfer application window for the 2024-2025 school year will open on Monday, February 5, 2024, at 8 am. Online applications will be accepted through Friday, February 16, 2024, at 4 pm. 

Transfer Window Dates

Window 1: February 5 - February 16 - STEM/General Transfers

Window 2: March 4 - March 22 - STEM/General Transfers

Window 3: June 3 - June 14 - STEM/General Transfers

All students (including employee students) must apply for a transfer if they desire to attend a campus other than their zoned campus and/or when they are moving from the following grades/campuses:

• Pre-K to Kindergarten 

• Elementary school to middle school

• Middle school to high school

Students who are already approved on a transfer and are not moving to the next transition level do NOT need to submit a transfer request. For more information and to complete an online application on or after Monday, February 5, click here.

IMPORTANT: Please know that incomplete applications (e.g. missing residency documents) will NOT be processed during this round of student transfers. It is very important that families have all the needed documents when submitting transfer applications.

GES Spelling Bee

Congratulations to all our 4th and 5th grade finalists that participated in the GES Spelling Bee last Friday! We had quite the competition, lasting over 2 hours! It was evident that our students had studied and prepared for this competition!

Congratulations to our winner, Kirtan Warrier, and our runner-up, Ahan Basnet. We are so proud of them! Kirtan will go on to our district competition to compete against the other elementary school and middle school winners from GCISD. 

2nd Nine Weeks Attendance Awards

This week during lunches we will be passing out the 2nd Nine Weeks Attendance Awards. These are for students who had no more than 1 tardy and 1 excused absence during the 2nd nine weeks grade period from Oct. 16 - Dec. 15. Students will receive a certificate for a free kids meal at Texas Roadhouse as well as a trip to the toy vending machine in our foyer! 

Join Remind

Are you getting our campus Remind texts? You should automatically get them if your phone number is up to date in Skyward and NOT marked as private. If you aren't receiving messages, you can join by sending @gesgcisd to 81010. 

Lunch Visitors

Lunch guests will sign-in through our secure vestibule with a valid ID, stop by the front office to check-in and receive a visitor badge, and then meet their GES star at the entrance to the cafeteria. Families will have the option to sit outside in the picnic table area for lunch or in our cafeteria at an empty table near the windows. Parents are welcome to bring in outside food when having their lunch with their child. We ask that you please be courteous to the rest of the community and limit lunch visits with your child to no more than one per month so that all families have the opportunity to visit. We appreciate your cooperation. 

Each family needs only 1 slot reserved. For example, Mom, Dad, and sister may all come eat lunch with Nancy. Only Mom needs to be registered as 1 visitor to reserve 1 picnic table together. When it asks for quantity of visitors, please select just 1. Lunch visitors may only eat with their child or student. You may not invite friends to sit with you when coming for lunch. 

You can sign-up for lunch from January 4-31 HERE.

Volunteering

We LOVE our volunteers at GES! This year we are encouraging all families who plan to come to campus and interact with students to go ahead and complete the background check. Volunteers must complete this EACH YEAR beginning in August! It can take 1-2 weeks for your background check to clear. If you plan to be a guest reader, volunteer at a class party, chaperone a field trip, volunteer with PTA, open car doors with our Dad's Club, etc. you will need a completed Background Check!  

The following link takes you to the online Volunteer Handbook and background check: https://www.gcisd.net/o/gcisd/page/volunteer-background-check 

In order to volunteer at GES, or around GCISD, all volunteers must:

1. read the Volunteer Handbook (this replaces the previous face to face volunteer trainings held on campus)

2. watch the appropriate video included in the handbook

3. electronically sign the verification Google form for each campus you plan to volunteer

4. complete the volunteer background check. A link is included in the handbook.

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.