Titan Times: Week 24

Titan Families,

Welcome to February! Can you believe it is already time for the second month of the 2nd semester?! Let's work together to make it a healthy and caring one, Titans!

As we launch a new month, know that February is a peak time for illnesses. We encourage you to keep your child home if they are not feeling well and remind them to wash their hands frequently. We want all of our students and staff to be healthy.

On February 6th, the Lake Travis Fire Department will be on campus to review fire safety with our students. Please be sure to read the schedule below to be aware of schedule changes if you plan to come to campus to volunteer, eat lunch with your Titan, or need to pick them early for an appointment. Have a question? Feel free to reach out to our front office team.

On February 8th, students in 3rd, 4th, and 5th will take a reading and language arts field test required by the Texas Education Association (TEA) and Texas Education Code, Section 39.035. A field test is a test administration to make sure that newly-developed items measure what they were intended to measure at selected campuses. Click here to learn more information about field testing. Our campus will be closed to all visitors to keep the administration of this test confidential.

As you've been on our campus, you may have seen interactive panels in various rooms over the last few weeks or have had your child come home and talk about them. Our campus is piloting two types of interactive panels for our district's committee to gather input from classroom teachers on their experience with these in their instructional day. We are thankful for the opportunity and have enjoyed adding this to our learning environment.

Be sure to read through the information here to stay knowledgeable of our campus and district happenings. Should you need anything, please reach out. Let's make it a great week of building and showing PRIDE in all we do!

Take care and lead well,

Dr. Amy Sharp

Proud RPE Principal

February: Black History Month

• 5-9th: National School Counseling Week
  
• 6th Lake Travis Fire Department Show (See Schedule Below)
• 8th: STAAR Field Testing- No visitors on campus due to field testing in grades 3-5
• 12-16th: Kindness Week (See Info Below)
• 12-16th: #1LISD Volunteer Appreciation Week
  
• 19th Staff Development Day- No School for Students
  
• 20th: FPMS Parent Night for 5th Grade Families (See Flyer Below)
• 20th: FPMS Band-5th Grade only Meet the Instruments 7:45-8:35
• 23rd: 4th Grade Parents Performance (RSVP in teacher emails)
• 26th: Titan Time 4th Grade Performance

All LISD parents and students have the opportunity to provide input on the adoption of primary instructional resources. A list of the courses adopting new resources this year, opportunities to view the resources, and opportunities to ask questions are provided on the Leander ISD Instructional Materials Selection website.

RPE Lego League's "Legodary Artists" team comprising of 3rd, 4th and 5th graders competed in the Qualifiers at Lockhart, TX on January 27th. They competed against 29 teams and ended up as one of the 9 teams to advance to the Regionals. The team also won 3rd place in the "Core Values" category for discovering new skills, using creativity and persistence to solve problems, impacting the community in a positive way, respecting each other and embracing differences, collaborating and having fun as a team!

We as coaches are very proud of our young hard working talented team!

Thank you both for supporting this program at RPE.

Arvind

See info below.

Many families take time out of their day to let our office and administration team know how much they value our Titan Staff. We share with our staff in our staff newsletter and at staff meetings moments of "shine" from you, and we encourage you to consider filling out this form whenever you believe our district should celebrate a staff member publicly, too. If you have any questions, please let Dr. Sharp know.

Hello, Titan Families!

Some of you have reached out recently concerned about lice reports coming from classrooms, so I wanted to remind everyone of the CDC and Texas Department of Health Service's policies and procedures surrounding lice at school. If you discover that your child has lice, please notify me at emma.hoff@leanderisd.org as soon as possible. I will be in contact with you to answer any questions you have and provide recommendations for treatment options, including how to best treat your home from further exposure. We have learned that lice do not pose a health risk to the public therefore do not exclude any students from school due to lice, but do require the student to be treated on the day of discovery. Treatments can include a visit to the pediatrician, using drugstore products, utilizing a business like Fairy Lice Mothers, etc. Additionally, when lice is found in school or reported by a parent, I will notify the homeroom teacher who will then send a letter notifying all families in that classroom at the end of the week. We follow this guideline of notification at the end of the week, so as not to disrupt the educational process of our students.

Per district policy, I am not able to do mass classroom lice screenings, but I am able to check as many students as needed if there is a concern brought to me by the parent or teacher. There is a classroom cleaning protocol that teachers follow when lice has been reported in their classroom. We encourage our students never to share headphones, blankets, hats, etc. We also encourage all parents to share any case of lice so we can take the appropriate action and make all necessary families aware.

If you have any questions or concerns, please never hesitate to reach out at (512) 570-6928. Thank you for everything you do to support the health and safety of our students and staff!

Thank you,

Nurse Emma

For our April 8th Eclipse viewing, Dr. Oliver Lou, Optometrist and Signature Eye Care are sponsoring PTA's goal for every student to have a pair of eclipse glasses for the Total Eclipse on April 8th! We are so thankful for this sponsorship and Dr.Lou working with our RPE community to make sure the kids can have fun and be safe that day.

WATCH D.O.G.S. is a national program focusing on the prevention of violence in our children’s schools by using the positive influence of fathers and father-figures to be a positive role model for all students. The change this year is that you don't need to volunteer for an entire day; we will have hourly opportunities available should you prefer that. Anything to keep your involvement on campus!

While on campus, WATCH D.O.G.S may-

• work in small groups with kids,

• support staff out at recess,

• support lunch room clean up and etiquette eat lunch,

• monitor the school entrances and hallways,

• assist with arrival and dismissal,

• mentor students, and much more!

How to get Involved-

1. Read through the expectations and sample schedule

2. Register as a Leander ISD Volunteer

3. Fill out the RPE Watch Dogs Registration Form

4. After confirming volunteer status, our assistant principal, Lacy Olmstead, will reach out with more information and schedule.

Here are our Titan Community Communication Tools-

• River Place Elementary School Website
• Twitter Account
• PTA Facebook Page
• Remind App for River Place Insiders

Email: ContactTeacher@leanderisd.org
Website: https://riverplace.leanderisd.org/
Location: 6500 Sitio Del Rio Blvd, Austin, TX 78730, USA
Phone: 512-570-6900
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RiverPlaceElementaryPTA/
Twitter: @RiverPlaceTitan