We've had a wonderful start to the school year and the kids are settling in and doing great. We are just about full this year and have 615 students enrolled! I'm thankful that we have had a little break in this heat and have been able to have some outdoor recess time. Please take a few minutes to read through this newsletter for some important information from PTA and some different events coming up in September. Here are few reminders that will help our front office out:

• If you are running late and arrive after 8:05, parents need to walk students in the building and sign them in for the day. Only the main office doors are open after 7:50 am.
• If you are changing the way your child goes home from school, please email the teacher as early as possible to let them know about the change. Best practice is at least one day in advance.
• If you need to pick your child up early for an appointment, please come prior to 2:30. We will not release students between 2:30-3:10 unless there is a true emergency or a pre-arranged agreement with the principal.
• If your child forgot their lunch and you need to drop it off, please bring it to the office by 10:30 AM.
• We do not allow food delivery services to send lunch to your children at school.

Ms. Wall and I met with students in grades 3-6 to review highlights of the RISD Student Code of Conduct last week. Please be sure to talk to your child about what we discussed and also be sure to use the Code of Conduct as a reference as needed. Here are some highlights:

Appropriate Dress:

• Modest dress at school. Ripped jeans will be monitored for modesty.
• Please be mindful of the length of shorts and tennis skirts.

Safety:

• Per the RISD Dress Code, all students must wear closed toe shoes to school.
• No slides or crocs. Last spring we had several accidents and student injuries from students wearing these during recess.
• No horror movie or scary screen print t-shirts. These are inappropriate for school and scary to our PreK-2 students.

Cell Phones:

• Cell phones and smart watches will be collected each day in your child's homeroom and given back at the end of the day. Students may not use either one during the school day.

Thank you for your help with all of these expectations. Our goal is always to provide a safe learning environment for all students and keep our focus on learning.

The district has updated the Elementary Dress Code. Please be sure your students are dressed appropriately for school each day. Please let me know if you have any questions.

• Parents, staff, and students have likely noticed an increased presence of uniformed, armed officers at our school this year. RISD is working to comply with a new state law requiring armed personnel at every school, and our campus will be visited each school day by a uniformed, armed, off duty police officer. The officer may not be the same person every day, but they are here to provide a visible deterrent, help ensure our doors and grounds are secure, and support our campus safety protocols.

  
  

  RISD is using rotating off duty police officers as a temporary measure while the district hires and trains campus security officers (CSO) as new RISD employees. Eventually, the district’s goal is to be able to assign an armed campus security officer to our school, and once fully staffed, CSOs will replace the rotating off duty police officers at our school. When we are assigned our CSO, we will introduce them to our school community, and they will become part of our campus staff.

  
  If you have questions about armed officers on our campus, any of four safety-related drills or protocols, or how RISD is approaching the new law, please ask your campus principal or visit risd.org/safetysecurity and check out the FAQs.
  

Parents are welcome to come visit duing lunch and eat with their students. We ask that you sign up for a day at time using the sign-up genius below. In order to keep students safe and to accommodate everyone, please read through these reminders for visiting Northlake for lunch:

• Sign up for your visit using the Sign Up Genius.
• No Siblings, due to limited space on the stage.
• You may eat lunch with your child only.
• Please do not take pictures of your child while at lunch.

Thank You, Parents! You are all doing a great job with arrival and dismissal procedures. We appreciate your patience as we get our procedures down and get the traffic pattern going. Please be sure you bring your carpool tag each day and leave your tag posted until your child gets in the car.

The school day is from 7:50-3:10

• The building opens at 7:30.

• Breakfast is served in the classroom from 7:30-7:50.

• Your child is tardy at 7:51 and will receive a tardy pass to get to class.

• Your child is late for school after 8:05 and a parent will need to sign them in at the office.

• If your child arrives to school after 9:00 AM they are counted absent for the day.

• If you child is absent for any reason, please be sure to send a note to school on the day your child returns, letting us know the reason for the absence. Any excuse notes must be received within 3 days of returning to school in order to receive an excused absence.

If you have any questions regarding attendance, please email our Student Data Specialist, Ms. Martinez at melinda.martinez@risd.org.

If you would like to volunteer at Northlake Elementary, you must complete a volunteer background check EVERY new school year. Volunteering could include helping with class parties, attending field trips with your children, working in the library, helping at Field Day, or many other activities. We will not allow anyone who has not completed and passed the volunteer background check to volunteer. Please click on the link below to complete the background check. You MUST also watch the very short powerpoint at the end to complete the entire background check. Failure to watch the powerpoint will make your application incomplete and you will not be able to volunteer.

We are so fortunate to have a wonderful PTA. We have an amazing PTA Board and are gearing up for a great year ahead. We need your help! We are working hard to grow our PTA membership. It costs $8 to join PTA and there is no time commitment needed. We always need volunteers at PTA school events such as Carnival, Multi-Cultural Night and Buddy Fun Day. But, we are flexible and you can work as much or as little as your schedule allows.

You can find more information out about our PTA on their . Thanks in advance for supporting our school!

We will be selling student spirit shirts for $2 this year. Order forms came home in Tuesday folders yesterday. Once we receive your order and money, we will send a spirit shirt home with your child. This discounted price is available for NLE students only and is possible thanks to the generosity of one of our community members who made a donation to offset the expense for our families. Our goal is for every student to have a spirit shirt to wear each Friday. We also wear them on field trips, etc. PTA will be selling spirit shirts for parents at Meet the Teacher Night in September, these will most likely cost about $10.

Parents must apply for their child/children to receive free or reduced breakfast and lunch. Last year everyone received free school breakfast but this year families must apply to receive free or reduced breakfast. The application must be completed as soon as possible to ensure that there is no interruption to their meal service. This application needs to be filled out every year. Please click on the picture or link below to get to the lunch application.

Students are welcome to pack a nutritious lunch from home or a lunch may be purchased in the school cafeteria. If your child happens to forget their lunch from home, please drop it off in the front office by 10:30 AM. This will ensure that the lunch will reach your child by their lunch time. Please refer to the RISD Child Nutrition website for menus, pricing and payment options.

In the interest of safety & security, every visitor to a Richardson ISD campus must present a valid form of identification and be processed through the Raptor background check system each visit, regardless of previous checks. Please be sure that you have your valid identification with you every time you visit Northlake Elementary. Thank you for your patience and understanding as RISD works to ensure the safety of students and employees. Volunteer questions may be directed to the office of Strategy & Engagement.

Additionally, the front office staff will use the intercom system to ask visitors to identify themselves and the purpose of their visit before granting access to the office. This is part of our heightened security measures. Please be cooperative and patient as we all get used to these new measures. As you enter the building, please do not allow others to enter with you or to follow you through the doors as you enter or leave. Everyone who enters should ring the buzzer and speak to someone in the office before entering the school building.

September 1 - College Colors Day - wear a college t-shirt

September 4 - Labor Day - No School

September 7 - PTA Board Meeting - 6:00

September 14 - PTA General Meeting and Meet the Teacher - 5:30-7:00

September 18 - Paw Prints go to P.E. - 6:00