Ms. Lafferty

This is the STAAR testing information that I had introduced you to at Open House. If you are interested in seeing what the STAAR test will look like for your student, please explore the link that I post. This link will allow you to see what question types will be required as well as give you a chance to experience a practice test. THIS IS NOT MANDATORY and is for INFORMATIONAL purposes only. 

tea.texas.gov/student-assessment/testing/staar/staar-resources

1. Click the link.

2. Scroll down to the "What Do Test Questions Look Like?" section.

3. Click on Practice test.

4. Sign in as a guest.

5. Choose grade level.

6. Choose practice sets or released tests to explore text and question item types. 

Please let me know if you have any questions so that I can clarify them for you.

Meet the teacher

Meet the Teacher will be Monday, August 19th, from 4-5:30. This is a come and go event. We ask that if you have supplies you bring those along so teachers can get those sorted before the first day of school.

On Monday parents will receive an email from their child's homeroom teacher by 2:30. If you don't receive an email it may have gone to junk mail, spam, or been mistyped. It could also be because your child's registration is incomplete. If you don't get an email, don't worry. We will have staff at the front of the school to help you complete registration or tell you who your child's teacher will be and direct you to their classroom.

Supplies:

PLEASE NOTE:  My class will be using community supplies. If you have any special notebooks/pencils/markers, please keep them at home. Please do not label any supplies because we will be using them throughout the year for the whole class.
Below is the school supply list for the 24-25 school year. If you are unable to purchase supplies please don't hesitate to let me know. The Back to School Fair was this past Saturday and I know there were some supplies left and I can get you in contact with their organizer to get needed supplies.
24-25 School Supply List

Nurse forms:
The nurse sent out an email today regarding medications and requirements to dispense them. Please refer to her email and contact her regarding any questions about medications at school. iraffety@jcisd.txed.net

Dress Code:
The student dress code has a few updates. Please be sure you have reviewed the dress code prior to purchasing clothing for school. It is located on page 52-53. JCISD Student Handbook

Free lunch and breakfast:
Johnson City ISD announces its participation in the Community Eligibility Program (CEP) for the 24-25 school year. All students enrolled at the schools listed below may participate in the breakfast and lunch program at no charge. Household applications are not required to receive free meals, but alternate income forms may be distributed by the school to collect household income data for other programs that require this information. The CEP is part of the federally funded National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program. All students will be served breakfast and lunch at no charge at all JCISD campuses.

Attendance:
Please be aware that attendance is going to be a big focus in JCISD this school year. Students miss critical learning opportunities when they miss school, even if they make up their work. It is very important that your child is at school each day unless they are ill. If your child needs to go to an appointment please do your best to schedule it for the afternoon as late in the school day as possible as the foundational skills of reading and math are taught primarily in the morning. Attendance is taken at 10 AM daily, and your child must be present to be marked as present for that day, please also consider this when scheduling things. 

Parents will be allowed to write 3 notes for illnesses, however after this a physician's note will be required to excuse an absence. 

Please also be aware that to obtain credit for a grade level your child must be in attendance at least 90% of the time. This means if they miss more than 15 days they will need to make up their missed instructional or repeat the grade.

Arrival/First Day Arrival:
Students are dropped off in the car line in the mornings beginning at 7:35. Doors will not be opened prior to 7:35 as staff are not on duty until then. At 7:35 Mrs. Haley and Mrs. Guthrie will come out and open car doors. There is only one line for morning drop off for safety reasons.

On the first day of school parents will be allowed to walk students down the hall to class without signing in, we understand many people will be carrying supplies and other things.

All other days visitors must sign in through our Raptor system in the vestibule area before being allowed to make entry into the building.

Dismissal:
Students will be dismissed at 3:40. There are two lanes in the car line for dismissal. You may choose either line but once you enter a line we ask that you do not swap lines. We are entering students' names into a list based on these lines and it slows down the whole line if they get moved around due to lane changes. We ask that all parents pickup students in the car line to reduce traffic, but if you choose to walk up and pick up your child please do not come before 3:50. Students who are walking or walking with a parent will be dismissed after the car line lists are fully  entered which is normally around 3:50.

Secretary's Office Window and Raptor:
Due to limited space some classes have had to be moved into the main office area. Therefore, for the safety of our students, we will no longer allow visitors to flow through the front office. We have moved the computer where you sign in into the vestibule area and parents will need to sign in there. If the computer is not working the secretary has a window you can walk over to and she can help you from there. This will help limit the flow of people through the office for the safety of the students in the classes being held in the office. If you need to meet with office personnel our doors are still open, you just need to let the secretary know you'd like to set a meeting with us and if we are available then she will bring you into the office, if we aren't she will set up a meeting time for us. We want parents to still feel welcome to visit with us anytime it's needed, we just need to keep the office a bit more secure since more students will be in the office area.

Lunch Information:
Lunch times for each grade are listed below. To ensure student safety we can only allow visitors to lunch that are on your child's contact list. If you have a family member or friend coming to eat with your child who is not on the list please be sure you call the office in advance or we cannot allow them to have lunch with your child(ren). Parents will be allowed to follow students to the playground after lunch as long as they remain off the mulch area, again we cannot allow other visitors to interact with students other than those they have permission to be with so parents/visitors will be asked to remain near teachers on the sidewalk area if you go to the playground after lunch.

PreK: 10:40-11:15
Kinder: 11:00-11:30
1st: 11:10-11:40
2nd: 12:30-1:00
3rd: 12:40-1:10
4th: 12:25-12:55
5th: 10:55-11:25

PTO/Volunteering:
If you would like to join PTO teacher will have a list of meeting dates. We are ALWAYS looking for more volunteers so please come and join if you'd like to be a part.

While we strongly support doing homework to reinforce learning and practice for mastery, we do check the homework, but it is not used for a grade in the gradebook.  Students will receive incentives to be rewarded for doing homework.  You will find weekly homework in the Google Drive.  If you would like a paper copy of, please just let us know and we will be happy send it  home.