Greetings Families,
It's been a great start to the school year! So many normal things are back and the excitement of more normal has gotten us pumped at Beck! It was wonderful to see so many families in the building dropping off your kiddos on the 1st day of school. We jumped right back in to routines as though there wasn't a whole summer since the last time we were practicing our procedures.
I want to thank the families of our Kindergarteners, 3rd Graders, and 5th Graders. For those that have been affected, you all have been so amazing with the changes of homeroom teachers over that 1st week of school. All of our students have embraced the changes as well and have been off to a great start. Beck truly has the best families!
Please take a moment to read through the newsletter this week for important information and dates.
Always True Blue,
Amanda Bunch
August 19th - September 11 - Reading & Math Beginning of the Year assessments
August 30th - September 3rd - Reading & Math MAP testing window for 2nd - 5th grades
September 6th - Labor Day Holiday - No School
September 8th - 1st Grade Grandparents Day - *cancelled*
September 9th - Kindergarten Grandparents Day - *cancelled*
September 14th - Curriculum Night & General PTA Meeting
September 16th - Donuts with Dad (A-M) - 7:00-7:40am
September 17th - Donuts with Dad (N-Z) - 7:00-7:40am
September 17th - October 1st - Bulldog Blitz!
I want to let you know of some new interpersonal skills we will be working on with all students. As part of our continuous goal of educating the whole child, Beck has chosen to focus on 5 skills that we believe are essential in helping students connect with each other, adults, and their communities. These skills are:
Make Eye Contact when speaking with someone
Responding with "Yes/No, ma'am" and "Yes/No, sir."
Say "Thank You" when given something
Greet Others
When greeting someone shake their hand. (During Covid, this may not be a handshake, this may be an alternative formal acknowledgement, but we want to teach proper handshaking).
We are coining these our Strive for Five skills. These skills will be emphasized throughout the day. In the Spring, we will hold a great event, The Amazing Shake, that our students will 'test' their skills in an event setting. We plan to partner with our community and our Beck families to help us facilitate this experience. We are very excited to be extending on these skills that you are already instilling in your children!
All breakfast and lunches are free for students again this year. You can find the menu for breakfast and lunches on the district website.
Ice Cream will be sold on Wednesdays this year!
Students in 2nd-5th grade will have the option to purchase A la Carte snacks everyday. Students are not permitted to purchase snacks until they have finished most of their lunch and are excused by a teacher.
If you would like to put limitations on which snacks or days your child can purchase snacks, please follow the directions below to put restrictions on your child's account.
NISD MySchoolBucks Website Link:
How-To Videos:
https://www.myschoolbucks.com/ver2/help/gethelpvideos
(update payment method, setting up automatic payments, adding a new student, setting up low balance alerts, and more!)
General Information:
School payments made easy
From the cafeteria to the classroom, pay anytime, anywhere from your mobile phone or computer.
Go mobile
Download the MySchoolBucks app and get convenient access to meal balances, purchases, and make payments right from your phone.
Track balances and purchases
View your student's meal purchases and current account balance at a glance. We'll even send you a reminder when their balance gets low.
Automatic Payments
Schedule recurring payments and never worry about lunch money again
Low Balance Alerts
Receive automatic notifications when meal balances get low
Security You Can Count On
Protecting your account information and privacy is our top priority
Support When You Need It
Call or live chat with us whenever you need help
Account Restrictions:
Student Account Restrictions
Parents/guardians may place a buying restriction on their child’s meal account. Parents can limit their child’s ability to purchase snacks and/or a la carte items. Please contact our office at 817-215-0007 to place a buying restriction on your child’s account. The restriction will stay on the child’s account until a parent/guardian contacts the NISD Food Service Department to remove the restriction.
Any individual – including teachers, staff, students, or other campus visitors/volunteers – who themselves have reported a test-confirmed COVID diagnosis:
Parents of test-confirmed COVID students will receive a letter outlining the student’s return to school instructions.
Must stay at home throughout the infectious period.
May return to school when all three of the following criteria are met:
At least one day (24 hours) has passed since recovery (no fever without the use of fever-reducing medications)
The individual has improvement in symptoms (e.g. cough, shortness of breath)
At least 10 days have passed since symptoms first appeared
Please email your child's teacher and BeckElem@nisdtx.org. Documented absences for positive COVID diagnosis will be excused. Missed schoolwork may be available for pick-up, please coordinate with your child's teacher to arrange that. Student's will not be added to remote learning classrooms, work will be completed independently at home or when the student returns to school.
Please complete the form as this link to report a test-confirmed case of COVID for a student or NISD staff member.
All students, staff, and visitors must screen themselves for COVID symptoms prior to entering a NISD facility.
Anyone with a fever of 100 degrees Fahrenheit or higher should not come to school or a NISD facility.
Students and staff should also prescreen themselves for any of the following symptoms prior to coming to school:
Feeling feverish or a measured temperature greater than or equal to 100.0 Fahrenheit
Loss of taste or smell
Cough
Difficulty breathing
Shortness of breath
Fatigue
Headache
Chills
Sore throat
Congestion or runny nose
Shaking or exaggerated shivering
Significant muscle pain or ache
Diarrhea
Nausea or vomiting
Please refer to ATTENDANCE GUIDELINES available here when deciding whether a student or staff member should attend school
For symptoms that persist for 72 hours, please consider having a COVID test
Parents of students who are sent to the clinic for COVID symptoms will have the option to have their student screened for COVID. Parent permission is required. See form HERE.
Notification emails will be automatically sent to parents when a positive case is reported in your child's classroom. Letters will not be sent as a whole campus, details regarding positive cases on each campus can be found on the COVID Reporting Website.
Close contact quarantine is not required, but highly encouraged. Attendance guidelines will still apply, however there is allowance for quarantining. Please contact Nurse Davis if you have questions.
Birthday's can be celebrated with treats the last 20 minutes of the school day. Please send the treats to school with your child if possible. If you drop the treats off in the office, they will be delivered to the classrooms after 2:00pm.
Treat Guidelines-
NO cupcakes - with so many alternatives we request that cupcakes are not sent to classrooms, they are messy and difficult for children to eat
Must be store bought, cannot be homemade
Check with your child's teacher about classroom allergies prior to sending food in
Treats do not have to be individually packaged
Our Annual School Fundraiser, The Bulldog Blitz, will be kicking off in mid-September! Beck hosts our own fundraiser each year; hosting our own fundraiser allows us to keep 100% of the funds raised. This year we have some great initiatives we are wanting to move forward with for our students; the main goals will be upgrading our media capabilities in our gym and building an outdoor learning classroom in our courtyard.
The Blitz is a 2 week long fundraiser where students will bring in donations and receive tickets to 'shop' at the Blitz Store. There are many great items to take home the same day a donation is made or opportunities to enter in to a drawing for big items (such as hoverboards or tablets) sponsored by our community partners. All proceeds go directly to our school and are spent directly on items that impact our students!
If you are willing to help be on the Bulldog Blitz Committee or support us with our Bulldog Store, please fill out this form.
We know how much our students and families enjoy the after-school clubs that have been offered in the past. AlphaBest will now be in charge of all after-school clubs. This is great news! This also means that if a club meeting is cancelled for any reason, your child will be supervised by AlphaBest until you arrive for pick-up. No scrambling to make last minute plans for pick-up!
Flyers and information will be sent out in mid-September advertising what will be available.