Greetings,

Yes, it is now officially fall so hopefully some cooler weather will find its way to North Texas and the Indian Summer that we will have will not last long! For those of you who took advantage of the Parent Ed in September covering our Math and Reading curriculum I hope your enjoyed your time with the teachers. Thank you to those of you who supported the PTA’s One and Done Campaign.

Just a couple of reminders about lunch visitors here at school… Relatives of students are welcome for lunch when accompanied by the parent/guardian or with written parent permission. To help and make it easier for you to have a relative have lunch with your child we sent a form for you to fill out. For clarification, this form is for relatives not for friends. Parents and/or relatives should sit with their student in the designated area. Other students will not be permitted to eat in the designated area without their own parents. Parents can only bring food for their student. We appreciate your help with this safety measure.

Most of the Parent /Teacher conferences for the school will take place during October, with a few lasting into November. Please be on the look out for this information. This is a wonderful time to learn about the progress your student is making.

Odds and ends

➢ Please remember that students must be in their classrooms at the 7:45 bell. With the fall chillier weather, more student will be driven to school. Please take this into consideration and leave a few minutes earlier.

➢ Please, please, please, use the crosswalks and remember that you can’t make a left hand turn into the drop off lane in the front of the building or make a left hand turn when leaving. These are safety issues. I would really appreciate your help with this. Thanks in advance.

➢ Please remind your child that they should not be riding any 2, 3, or 4-wheeled bikes on school property. They need to walk the bike once on school property. This is also a safety issue.

➢ When signing your child out early for anything other than a doctor’s appointment (with a note from the doctor), it is considered an afternoon tardy and is unexcused. This means that your child can’t retake a test that he/she missed and will receive a zero for that test, quiz, or work that was given while they were not here.

➢ If you need to take your student out of school for a day (up to 5) please fill out a preplanned absence form BEFORE you take them out of school so that their absence can be excused.

➢ Due to the hectic schedule at the end of the day, I am asking that parents pick their children up no later than 2:30 if he/she must leave early. You will have to wait for the regular dismissal if it is after that time.

➢ Last minute changes to transportation after 2:30 are very difficult for the office. If you know that your child needs to go home a different way, please try your best to call the office before 2:30. This allows the office plenty of time to make sure the message is communicated to the teacher.

➢ Our Ready to Learn Program has started off well and tardies have decreased. As have things being dropped off in the office. Thank you. In order to help with students arriving at school on time please remember to pull all the way up in the circle drive (even when it is raining)this allows an additional 5 cars of students to be dropped off. Last Thursday, when it was raining we had quite a few tardies that did not need to happen if parents pulled all the way up.

Regards,

Mrs. Donna J. Taylor, M.Ed
Principal

Halloween is coming. Please keep safety in mind when buying costumes. The better a student can see the safer they will be. Encourage our students to watch for cars when crossing the street and to stay with a group. Go through all the “loot” before students can eat any and take out anything that looks suspicious.

Dr. Manning’s Dental Office in The Colony will buy back student candy. I believe they box it up for our military troops. This could be an opportunity to give to the troops and eliminate some sugar highs.

We are beginning our national Red Ribbon classes. Please ask your child about these. Open communication is the key to communication continuing as your child gets older. If they feel they can talk to you about anything and not be judged, they will tell you more as a teen. This will help you asme help your child through sticky situations as they get older.

Carol Rains, M.S.
Counselor, Castle Hills Elementary

Watch out for the Great Expectations “Word & Quote of the Week” posted on Facebook every Monday. Our students are learning a new word and corresponding quote each week. This helps teach the Life Principles reinforced by the GE program and expand your student’s vocabulary!

Words for October are Compassion, Cooperation, Courage, Courtesy and Dependability.

For more information on Great Expectations, please visit greatexpectations.org.

This month we would like to honor everyone involved in making the One and Done Fundraiser a HUGE success; thank you to Neetu Rainwater, Holly Paniagua, and all of the Communications Team, including Juhy Daniels, Sarah Durrant, Jill O'Neill and Way-Way Pee!

The CHE PTA was determined to have the best fundraiser for the school and they came up with one where 100% of the proceeds went directly to the PTA. Thus, the “One and Done” fundraiser was born. Holly Paniagua led the effort bringing her experience from a previous PTA role and really thoughtfully worked to define a program that would work at CHE. She worked closely with our principal, our PTA president and our communications team to deliver a very successful campaign. Way-Way Pee, our VP of Communications who was new to the role this school year partnered with Holly to deliver an extremely effective communication plan leveraging the social media platform like never before! Both of these ladies were instrumental in CHE PTA achieving not only one, not two, but ALL THREE of our fundraising goals for 2017-2018!

Thank you so much for all the hard work ladies! There is no way we could have had such a successful campaign had you all not stepped in to help in the way that you did!