PAWPRINTS
BARBARA BUSH ELEMENTARY BOBCATS – OCTOBER 2, 2013
Houston Independent School District
www.houstonisd.org/bushelem
CHARACTER EDUCATION THEME: SELF-ESTEEM
To sign up to receive news from HISD via e-mail, visit www.houstonisd.org/subscribe
HISD Inclement Weather Hotline 713-267-1704
K-12 Radio Listen Now!! houstonisd.org
MARK YOUR CALENDAR
October 16
9:00 a.m.
Prospective Parent
Information Session
Book Fair Week
5:30-7:00 p.m.
Book Fair Night & Dinner
October 21-25
October 24
October 30
12:20 p.m.
EARLY DISMISSAL
November 1
2:50 p.m.
Report Cards Go Home
November 1
5:30 Gates Open
6:30 Costume
Parade
6:45 Movie
6:00-7:30 p.m.
Family Movie Night
November 12
November 2729
December 23January 7
th
4 Grade Writing Night
THANKSGIVING BREAK
NO SCHOOL
WINTER BREAK – NO
SCHOOL FOR
STUDENTS
*********************
HANDBOOK HIGHLIGHTS
BIRTHDAY CELEBRATIONS
Parents may bring cupcakes, cake, brownies, or cookies to be
distributed during the last 5 minutes of your child's lunch
time.
Please do not plan to have a birthday party in the cafeteria
or in the classroom. Party hats, favors, decorations,
balloons, etc. should be reserved for off-campus parties.
Invitations to off-campus birthday parties are NOT to
be distributed at school.
Please do not have flowers, balloons, gift baskets, singing
telegrams, etc. delivered to school for individual students.
Such items will not be delivered to the classroom.
The entire handbook is available at:
www.houstonisd.org/bushelem
******************************
SPECTACULAR SCIENCE
The Spectacular Science Word for the week of
September 30 is hypothesis.
**
BOBCAT NEWS
CLASS SIZE WAIVERS
The state of Texas has a class size limit of 22
students to one teacher in kindergarten through
fourth grade. This semester, Bush Elementary
requested class size waivers for the following classes
that are over the 22:1 ratio - McCormick (25),
Castaneda (25), Nguyen (24), Brown (27), Baldwin (26),
Hime (25), Temple (25), Ennis (25), Strange (25),
Carlin (24), Romo (25), Bard (25), Traylor (25), Dow
(25), Taylor (24), Wilson (23), Jensen (24).
PTO MEMBERSHIP DRIVE & REMINDERS
The PTO membership drive for this school year has been a
great fundraising success! A big thank you goes out to the 400
families and the faculty and staff who joined the PTO. With
the funds from our membership drive, the PTO will continue to
enhance our childrens’ education.
This Friday, October 4th, all PreK and 1st grade students will be
treated to a Pizza Recess Lunch as both grade levels had over
70% participation in the membership drive. In addition,
individual classes that had over 70% participation will be
treated to popsicles.
On another note, the PTO is gearing up for several fall family
activities such as the Book Fair Dinner on Thursday, October
24th, and the Family Movie Night on Friday, November 1st.
Also, just as a reminder, school directories will be sent home in
November to all families who joined PTO.
VISITORS TO THE BUILDING
Grandparents and other visitors who come for lunch must
be accompanied by the parent or have the parent’s
approval (in the form of a note or the person is listed on the
enrollment card). ALL parents, grandparents, and visitors
who wish to enter the school will need to have a valid stateissued driver’s license or a valid state-issued picture ID.
These may be attained at the Texas Department of
Transportation Driver License offices.
SAFETY ABOVE ALL ELSE!
For safety concerns, no one will be allowed into the
building after 3:15 p.m. for any reason, including picking
up homework.
LOCAL PHONE NUMBERS NEEDED
It is imperative that all information on each child’s enrollment
card be complete and kept current. We have a few parents
who still have long distance phone numbers listed. Please make
sure we have local phone numbers on file because we are
unable to make long distance calls from school.
BOBCAT WEAR
Students may wear solid navy, red or white polo-type shirts (with
or without the official Bush logo) or turtlenecks in the same three
solid colors. Official Bush t-shirts may be worn on any school
day. White Oxford cloth shirts with long or short sleeves are also
acceptable. Shorts, pants, dresses, skirts, or skorts must be solid
khaki or navy blue. Shorts, dresses, skirts and skorts must be
below fingertips. The guidelines will continue to include PLAIN
blue jeans. Jeans may not have embroidery, colored stitching,
decals, logos, glitter, or any other type of decoration. Girls may
wear “Bush plaid” items purchased from Parker School Uniforms,
located at 12524 Memorial Drive.
RAINY DAY PLAN
Make a plan for rainy or “bad” days. Be sure you have a rainy day
plan for your child. Make sure that your child knows what he or
she is to do if it is raining at dismissal time. Please do not call
the school office with instructions and messages. This
should be handled in advance. As the weather in Houston is
very unpredictable, it is highly recommended that parents
purchase an inexpensive fold-up rain poncho and place it in their
child’s backpack. This poncho can be “saved for a rainy day.”
We can load more students into cars if they can walk farther down
the driveway to enter waiting cars.
MORNING MESSAGES
Before school starts is a busy time at Bush
Elementary as the teachers are finalizing their
preparations for an exciting day of learning. If
information needs to be shared with the teacher
before school, send an e-mail or place a note in your
child’s red communication folder.
PROSPECTIVE PARENT INFORMATION SESSIONS
Do you have a child coming to Bush next year? Then come and join a
prospective parent information session that will answer all your
questions about Bush Elementary programs and curriculum. We will
tour the school and discuss all of the wonderful things Bush has to
offer. If you know a neighbor or friend who would like to attend one
of these information sessions, please pass the invitation on to them.
The next session for this school year will take place at 9:00 a.m. on
October 16.
PTO NEWS
PTO – Underwriting Fundraiser
our goal is $35k - Happening Now!
The PTO Underwriting Fundraiser is here and off to a good
start! In just a few days we are already close to 10% of our
goal in donations and pledges - THANK YOU!
As you know, this is our biggest and most important
fundraiser of the year! We now have just 4 weeks to reach our
$35k goal or $50/child. We can do it! Remember we are
offering some fantastic prize incentives including: Houston
Rodeo Tickets, a parent parking spot (no more car lines), the
opportunity for your child to be the Principal for a Day, and
much, much, more! In fact, did you hear? Ms. Rose, Mrs. Tiet,
and Ms. Peyton will be having a Cupcake Eating Contest in
front of the entire student body if we reach our goal! So - don’t
delay, contribute today!
The Donation/Contribution form you received and the list of
corporate matching donors is already on the website. Anyone
can donate, so please reach out to family and friends on this
critical fundraiser. If you can donate a prize or need more
information, please contact us. We want to hear from you!
Ph# 281-741-3224, 281-814-7845 -Rhedonda or Florencia
Email - bushptohouston@gmail.com ;
Website - www.houstonisd.org/bushelem
Thank you in advance for your help and support for a
successful school year!
BACK TO NATURE! Join us in the Nature Center on Friday,
October 4, from 3:30­5:30 p.m. Bring your
gloves and bug spray. If you have
questions, feel free to contact Sarah
Castro at shfcastro@gmail.com.
CLASSROOM DIRECTORIES
By now, all classroom directories have been issued and should have
been received in your student's red communication folder. Please
look over your family's information for accuracy. If you have
changes, did not receive a class directory, or were not included and
would like to be, please email bushdirectory@gmail.com or let your
child's teacher know by Friday, October 4th.
Classes with significant corrections, will be reprinted and sent home
with your child by Friday, October 11th. The PTO school-wide
directory will be printed with the families who elected to be included.
Again, please review your information on the class directory for
accuracy. Once the PTO directories are published, there will be no
corrections.
BUSH BOBCATS WILL DISCOVER A WORLD OF OPPORTUNITIES IN 2013-2014
It is the policy of the Houston Independent School District not to discriminate on the basis of age, color, handicap or disability, ancestry,
national origin, marital status, race, religion, sex, veteran status, or political affiliation in its educational or employment programs and
activities.
���������������������������������������������������������������������������
���������������������������������������������������������������������������������
�����������������������������������������������������