RJ Richey Family Newsletter

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August:

August 16 - First Day of School! First Day of School (parents may walk students to class) *Doors open @ 7:15

August 16 - Parents' Time Out (See flyer below)

September:

September 4 - Student & Staff Holiday

September 5 - No School / Professional Development Day for Teachers

September 11-15 - Book Fair

September 8 - Grandparents' Day @ RJ w/Bookies & Cookies

September 12 - RJ Parent Orientation Night

September 18-22 - Homecoming Week & Start with Hello Week

September 21 - Homecoming Parade

September 25 - No School / Professional Development Day for Teachers

October:

October 9 - No School / Professional Development Day for Teachers

October 10 - RJ Open House & Student Night

October 23-27 - Red Ribbon Week

October 31 - Halloween & Student Costume Parade

We welcome all families to walk their children to the classroom on the first three days of school (Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday)!

• Our classrooms will open to visitors from 7:15 am to 7:40 am for the first day of school! Parents are welcome to walk their students to their homeroom classes.
• Our cafe will begin serving breakfast to students @ 7:15-7:50 daily. Our cafe is not open to visitors each morning due to space, serving time, and limited supply. If your child will eat breakfast at school on the first three days of school, please prepare to walk your child to the classroom first and our staff will be available to help and assist them to our cafeteria.
• Beginning Monday, August 21st, visitors will be required to check in at the front office with their ID in order to walk a student to his/her classroom.
• Please be respectful of the instructional day by only walking students to their assigned classrooms and exiting the building at the sound of the bell.

• RJR doors open at 7:15am.

• Parents, please utilize the front drive for drop-off and stay in your car! The teachers on duty will assist with the unloading of your student.
• Our front drive operates like a well-oiled machine and moves quickly. Please pay attention to our staff that are available and helpful to keep our lines moving.
• Please do NOT park and have your child walk through the parking lot. Our cars are constantly moving and are focused on drop-off areas and are not always paying attention to any crossing traffic. Should you need to park to walk your child into the campus, our front office opens at 7:25. Please park in a parking spot and walk with your child to the front office. *please walk your student up to the campus rather than sending him/her to walk alone.*
• The back and side doors on campus are for bus riders. The front doors are for car riders.

• Students who would like to eat breakfast should report directly to the cafeteria each morning. (It is important to remind your student of this morning procedure.) As students finish their breakfast, they will join their class in our gym holding area.

• Students who have already eaten breakfast prior to arriving at school will report directly to our gym each morning.

• School begins with the first bell at 7:40.

• Students planning to eat breakfast at school should arrive no later than 7:30am.

• Visitors are not able to join our students for breakfast.

• For the first 3 days of school (August 16th-August 18th) we ask that all parents and visitors allow our campus to practice lunch and cafeteria routines. Visitors for lunch on these days will not be allowed, but we welcome parents/families for lunch during your child's regularly scheduled lunch times beginning on Monday, August 21st.
• All lunch visitors MUST check-in through the front office and receive a visitor's badge. Please have your photo ID available and wear your printed visitor badge where it is visible for all staff. Any visitor NOT wearing a badge sticker will be asked to check-in at the front office. The badge authorizes access to the cafeteria ONLY. Lunch visitors are not allowed access to the classroom/playground/etc when visiting for lunch.
• Lunch visitors MUST be listed in Student Skyward access. Visitors coming for lunch with our Bulldogs must be listed in Skyward as a family member or contact to be allowed to eat with a student.
• Lunch visitors must sit at designated tables during lunch time.
• Students with lunch visitors may not invite classmates/friends to sit at the visitors' table.
• Any outside lunch brought to enjoy with your student may not be shared with other students at any time due to state nutrition guidelines and requirements.
• Due to supply issues, any lunch visitor must provide his/her own lunch. Visitor meals can not be purchased through our cafeteria at this time.

• Breakfast and lunch are free for all students at RJ Richey Elementary.

• An extra entree will be $1.00 (if purchased at the time as the complete meal).

Form one, single-file line when turning into the car line. Once off of highway, you may merge to either the far right or middle car lanes. Vehicles will "double stack" waiting to pick up so that traffic is off of the highway. All cars from the 2 lanes will merge at our Car Rider Pro reader and will be directed by staff.

All traffic will merge into one, single lane near the front of the building for pickup and drop-off.

Please do not block or park in the inner circle lane, as this is for emergency entrance/exit and for accessing parking.

Hang your car tag on the rearview mirror with the numbers facing out so personnel can read it.

Stay in your car. The teachers on duty will assist with the loading of your student.

Watch for the person directing traffic. The person directing traffic will send cars from each lane and will alternate between lanes.

Stay in your car and in the car line. Even if you forgot your car tag, stay in line and we will come to you to check your ID.

• If your child has loaded the car, please stay in the car line and wait for the wave of cars to pull forward rather than pulling around them.

Pickup Stations: Students will exit through 1 set of doors and arrive at designated stations and poles in our front drive, supervised by an RJR staff member. Please be patient as the lines will likely be long as we work out dismissal procedures within the first few days of school.

Safety first! Please do not allow your child to hang outside of the car windows or sunroof while traveling through the car line.

No parent walk-ups at dismissal. If your child is a car-rider, we can not accommodate parent pickup other than through our car rider line. Please do not walk-up to the car line to request pickup for your student.

***No in-person pick-up after 3:00pm until the car line is finished. As we work to dismiss our students in a timely and orderly fashion, we must keep the front entry/exit doors uncrowded and office staff available to assist with student dismissal.

As a result, parents needing to check their students out must do so before 3:00pm or after the car line is finished. This is a matter of safety as we work to dismiss a school full of elementary children.

Please take note! If you have a CarRiderPro tag from previous years, toss it out!

BCISD is issuing all new car tags this year. If you had one previously, we had new ones ready for you at Meet the Teacher.

If you've never obtained a car tag but plan to utilize the car line this year (even once), be sure to let our office know!

BCISD utilizes enhanced technology to make pick-up more secure and efficient. Please see the list of Frequently Asked Questions below, and contact your campus office with any additional questions.

How does the system work?

• Each car tag is associated with a student (not a car) in the CarRiderPro software. When the tag is recognized as the parent approaches the reader in the pickup line, a notification flashes to an inside monitor where students are waiting.

  To ensure the number is read, parents must have the tag hanging from the rear-view mirror before entering the pickup line in order for the reader to recognize the number.

How reliable are the tags?

• The system is designed and engineered to work in all weather situations and has been tested by multiple districts in the past with no reports of weather-related malfunction. Should internet connections be lost, the system can run on mobile data plans. In the event that the system is temporarily out of order, campuses can use hard copies of the registration and the physical numbers on tags to release students appropriately.

What does this mean for carpooling and ride-sharing?

• When parents register their student in CarRiderPro, a space is available to add multiple names for ride-sharing. Parents can even specify the day of the week. For irregular schedules, parents can allow a ride-share driver to use their tag temporarily. They may also purchase additional tags for car-pool use.

• Parents driving a carpool should hang all the students’ tags from the rearview mirror so that notifications for each child will be displayed inside. The system is sensitive enough to read multiple tags hanging in one location.

How can I pick up without a tag?

• Just as in prior years with paper tags, authorized adults or parents can pick up without a tag by parking and going inside the school office to sign their student out with a valid ID. Additional tags can be purchased for $5.00.

What if I lose my tag?

• In the event that a tag is lost, parents should contact the school office to have that tag number disabled and a new tag number issued. Replacement tags are available for $5.00.

I have multiple children at multiple campuses. Will I need a tag for each?

• Each tag can be linked with multiple student profiles across multiple campuses. Parents do not need separate tag accounts for each child.

How will grandparents or other occasional pickups be handled?

• As always, authorized adults who are listed in the student’s file for pick-up may park and go into the school office to pick up if they do not have a tag.

Dismissal Bus Rider Information:

• Bus riders will wait for buses to arrive in our gym. Staff will assist students in lining up in the order they will sit on the bus.
• For more information about your child's bus route, please follow the link to the BCISD transportation page here: https://www.burnetcisd.net/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=460127&type=d&pREC_ID=1007509

Submit an email on the same day as the transportation change request by 1:30 p.m. to rjr-transportation@burnetcisd.net.

Include the following details in the email:

• Student’s full name
• Student’s grade level
• Student’s homeroom teacher
• The transportation change you want made for today (bus rider to car rider or car rider to bus rider)

Requests made after 1:30pm will not be processed. Notes, phone calls, text messages and emails sent to any other email will not be processed.

**The two most frequently seen at the elementary level are non-naturally occurring hair colors and mohawks.

*Avoid mohawks and be sure that fun summer color washes out before returning to school.

• Dresses, skirts, all split garments, and shorts must be long enough to maintain dignity while sitting, bending, and standing. Shorts, skirts, dresses, and skorts must be hemmed.
• Pants, shorts and skirts must be worn at the natural waist of the student.
• Knives are not allowed at school or school functions, therefore the wearing of any type of case designed to hold a knife is not permitted as well.

Examples of inappropriate, unapproved dress and grooming include, but are not limited to:

• Hats, caps, beanies, bandanas, sweatshirt hoods, etc. that are worn in the building unless associated with a specific school event.
• Tops with low-cut necklines, or tops with low-cut arm openings as determined by school administration.
• Clothing that exposes bare midriffs.
• Any form of exposure of undergarments.
• Any body piercing jewelry with the exception of appropriately-sized earrings or nostril studs. Excessively large earrings and/or gauges are considered a safety hazard.
• Chains (i.e. wallet chains, dog collars, excessively long belts, etc.).
• Intentionally torn clothing or holes in clothing that is determined to be inappropriate by the school administrator. Any holes in pants above the midthigh are not permitted.
• Excessive or distracting makeup, hair style or hair color: i.e., hair color must be of a naturally occurring color in the human genome. Other hair colors such as purple, green, pink, etc. are a violation of the dress code.
• Obscene or offensive language or symbols, provocative pictures, advertising of tobacco, alcohol or narcotics on clothing, jewelry, or exposed body parts.
• Racially related symbols, emblems, pictures, words, slogans or tattoos.
• Symbols, words, or slogans cut into hair that are obscene, racially related, provocative, or otherwise deemed inappropriate.
• Dark glasses (unless prescribed by a physician).
  
• See-through clothing, or provocative clothing.
• Any accessory or clothing article deemed gang related as determined by the school administration or designee.
• Mohawks.
• Burnet CISD discourages the wearing of expensive jewelry and other apparel and is not responsible for lost or stolen items.

RJR encourages positive thinking, putting first things first, and beginning with the end in mind. To finish the week strong, we've got to start strong!

We welcome all of our RJ Bulldogs to wear their motivational shirts on Mondays!

RJR encourages college awareness! Wear your college shirts on Wednesdays!

Is your child celebrating a birthday? We have a student leadership group, our CeLeBraTion Crew, that helps to recognize every Bulldog birthday! Every bulldog can expect a birthday announcement, birthday pencil, and a little birthday visit from our celebration crew!

Birthday Treats: Feel free to send birthday treats for your child's class. You can drop-off treats in the front office or send with your student. The teacher will serve them at an appropriate time according to each class's schedule.

• please send sharable treats that are easy to individualize with classmates
• please NO balloons or flowers for students

Have you experienced great customer service from a Burnet CISD employee? Has a Burnet CISD co-worker gone the extra mile in supporting you in some way? If so, we want to hear about it!

What is a Staff Shout Out? A Shout Out is a special recognition that acknowledges a District staff member who has demonstrated a special effort, an outstanding job, caring customer service, a project of high quality workmanship, a team mentality, and/or is helping students CRAFT the FUTURE.

Who can submit a Staff Shout Out? Students, parents, teachers, auxiliary staff, coworkers, and all community members. Anyone can submit a Staff Shout Out!

Who can receive a Staff Shout Out? Any employee of Burnet CISD. EVERY staff member is an important part of our team!

Please click the link below to complete a form briefly explaining why this staff member or coworker deserves recognition. All Shout Out will be listed on the Shout Out webpage.

Please follow the quick link below for more information:

The RJ Richey PTO is such a rewarding opportunity to get involved in your child's school.

We'd love to have you join us!

We LOVE and APPRECIATE our many volunteers @ RJ!

Come join us and just click the quick link below for more information!

7:15am Front Doors Open

7:15am Student Drop Off/Breakfast

7:20am Front Office Opens

7:45am School Begins

7:45am Tardy Bell

9:00am Students not in attendance are marked absent

1:30pm Transportation changes due, please email: rjr-transportation@burnetcisd.net

3:25pm Student Dismissal

4:00pm Office/School Closes

Website: https://rjr.burnetcisd.net/
Location: R J Richey Elementary School, East Graves Street, Burnet, TX, USA
Phone: 512-756-2609
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rjrichey