February 13, 2023

A message from Principal Vinten

Good morning Manara STEM families,

I hope you all have been able to enjoy the lovely weather this weekend! Thank you for taking the time to read all the information within the newsletter, as there are important items happening this week, from testing to Cookie Gram sales to hearing & vision screenings. The end of the 4th 6 weeks is this Friday, February 17. Student-Led Conferences will be held the week of February 27, so please look for communication from your scholar's teacher(s) to come regarding signing up for a time to attend.

We had 100% of our families complete the Intent to Return information for next school year! Because of that, I'm excited to announce that ALL scholars will have a week of FREE DRESS DOWN DAYS the week before Spring Break (March 6-10). Thank you all for completing the intent!

Enjoy your Sunday! We look forward to seeing all our scholars tomorrow morning by 8:00am!

#MAWAY!

Principal Vinten

The mission of Manara Academy is to provide students with a creative, adaptive and ethical environment to become knowledgeable inquirers and future leaders in a diverse and evolving global society where we master languages, honor cultural heritages, and respect diversity.

Spring Book Fair Thank You!

The Spring Book Fair was very successful! Thank you for your purchases, as we sold over $2500 worth of books! Our school will be given Scholastic Dollars to use to purchase books for classrooms because of your support. Once the order for our books are placed and arrives, I will send out information about the books the classrooms will receive. Thank you for supporting the book fair for our campus, and for supporting the continued reading for your scholar!

Arrival & Dismissal & Car Line Procedures

Friendly reminder of school times are below:

Monday - Thursday:

Arrival is 7:35am until 8:00am (scholars are counted tardy after 8:00am).
Dismissal begins promptly at 3:30pm.
- Please remember to have your yellow hang tag visible in your dashboard, as this helps in the swiftness of the dismissal process!

Friday:

Arrival is 7:35am until 8:00am (scholars are counted tardy after 8:00am).
Dismissal begins promptly at 1:15pm.

Important: Please remember that all cars should enter off of Collins Street and exit off of Sublet Street. Please DO NOT ENTER from Sublet, as cars are trying to exit. Please also DO NOT EXIT from Collins, as cars are trying to enter that way. Do not cut through the parking lot as you are filing into the car line or after you have dropped off/picked up your scholar(s). We want all people to be safe, and not following the car line designated procedures is unsafe for all on campus.

We appreciate your help and support with our arrival and dismissal processes!

100% Intent to Return Completion!

A big thank you to all of the families who filled out your scholar's Intent to Return for the 2023-2024 school year! We had 100% of our families fill out the Intent to Return! Because we had 100% participation, ALL SCHOLARS WILL RECEIVE A WEEK'S WORTH OF FREE DRESS DOWN DAYS THE WEEK BEFORE SPRING BREAK (March 6-10)!!! Great job, STEM families! We are so excited about our numbers for the 2023-2024 school year! If you know of any families who would like to enroll their scholar for next school year, open enrollment is underway! Let them know to come on in and Ms. Smith can help them enroll their scholar for next year! YAY!!

Cookie Grams

Cookie Gram sales will continue Monday and Tuesday of this week. If wishing to order, your scholar can give the completed form and money to his/her teacher or to Ms. Smith. The sales will be from Feb 6 until Feb 14, with a delivery date of the cookies on Feb 15. Thank you, PTO, for all the help in putting together the Cookie Grams!

Hearing & Vision Screenings

Hearing and vision screenings will continue to take place this week. Scholars in grades Pre-K, Kindergarten, 1st, 3rd, 5th, and 7th, as well as newcomers to Texas, will be screened. If your scholar wears glasses or contacts, please be sure to send them to school wearing them each school day, especially this week. If you have any questions, please reach out to Ms. Smith (asmith@manaraacademy.org).

Paper Tutoring App for Grades 4-8

Paper is a program our district has purchased to help assist scholars in their academic progression within grades 4-8. Click on this link to learn more about Paper and how it can assist your scholar in their nightly homework. Scholars will be utilizing this daily within their classroom as well. Teachers and the adminstrator is also able to view the scholar/tutor interaction and dialogue so that we can support at school also. Please reach out to your scholar's teacher if you have any questions regarding Paper! All scholars in grades 4-8 should be using the Paper app on Clever at home with homework support.

TELPAS Testing

Please read this link regarding the upcoming TELPAS testing. The state testing calendar for TELPAS is February 20, 2023 through March 31, 2023. We will be assessing students between February 27th and March 10. If a student is absent on the day of testing, a make-up test will be administered before March 24, 2023.

The assessment components for grades K–1 and 2–12 differ in the following ways:

Grades K–1: Holistically rated listening, speaking, reading, and writing assessments based on ongoing classroom observations and student interactions.
Grades 2–12: Online reading, listening, speaking and writing tests.

If you have any further questions, please reach out to our ESL teacher, Ms. Stoker (ahayesstoker@manaraacademy.org) or our Director of Special Populations, Ms. Chamri (cchamri@manaraacademy.org).

ESL YouTube Channel & Newsletter

Below is our Manara ESL YouTube Channel link, as well as the ESL Newsletter link! Please view the links below for great information pertaining to our ESL department.

Manara Academy ESL Department - YouTube

https://www.manaraacademy.org/article/948697

Autism Awareness Advocacy

Our district will be hosting an event to support Autism Awareness within the month of April. National Autism Awareness day April 2. To help celebrate the event we will be hosting, there is an opportunity to also purchase shirts for this event. Please share this ordering link below with friends, family, and students who are interested in purchasing a shirt to support this event. All ordered shirts will ship to the district office and will be distributed them once they arrive. Here is the link to order shirts if you are interested. The t-shirt order form closes on March 10. More information on the event to come!

Middle of the Year STAAR Interim Testing Dates

Middle of the Year (MOY) STAAR Interim dates for scholars in grades 7 & 8 will occur this week! The dates are below.

Feb 13 Grades 7 & 8 Math STAAR Interim Testing
Feb 14 Grades 7 & 8 Reading STAAR Interim Testing

The next two weeks all grade levels will also be taking a reading assessment online through mClass during their reading class block. Students in grades Pre-K through 2nd grade will also be completing their middle of the year assessments in either CLI Engage, TX KEA or TPRI. All assessment data will be shared in the upcoming Student Led Conference week (Feb 27-Mar 3). Please look for information from your scholar's teacher(s) regarding their Student Led Conference dates and times.

Thank you for helping to reinforce great sleeping habits at home, as well as making sure your scholar arrives to school on time each day! Helping us with these items helps to continue to foster a great testing environment for each scholar!

Snack Cart this week

Snack Cart will take place this Thursday, Feb 16. Please send in money with your scholar that day, or if dropping it off for them, please make sure it is given to Ms. Smith before 1:30pm. Thank you!

Grade Level Newsletters

Below are links to grade level newsletters (continued from the week prior due to the snow days last week). Please reach out to your child's teacher with any questions!

5th/6th ELAR/SS/Math/Science

7th & 8th Grade ELAR/SS

7th/8th Math/Science

Specials