It’s been a wonderful fall semester! We have worked hard to ensure your child has a safe and positive learning environment. We appreciate our families and all that you do to support each child’s education.
I wanted to mention a few things that you may not be aware of.
The Be Safe App can be downloaded onto your phone or you can access it through the Bryan ISD website. Parents, staff and students are encouraged to follow a “see something, say something” mindset in anonymously reporting suspicious behavior to a 24/7 report team, who will notify law enforcement if necessary.
The app is tied to Crime Stoppers and will allow the person who reports suspicious behavior to communicate directly with the B-Safe support team to clarify or gather more information.
Attendance has been lower than normal. We know that the time a student misses in school cannot be made up in a quick “catch up session” with the teacher. Students who have excessive absences are more likely to be retained, be reading below grade level and to drop out of high school. Please only keep students home if they have fever, diarrhea or throwing up. Let’s stay healthy by:
- Washing hands consistently
- Coughing or sneezing into your sleeve
- Keeping students home who are running fever, have diarrhea, or throwing up
Reminder, we can accept handwritten notes to excuse an absence if they are received within 5 days of the absence. Doctors notes are also accepted.
Our incentives for attendance are:
- Classes spell out DREAM IT! Each day that the class has exemplary attendance they add a letter to spelling out DREAM IT! Classes pick rewards such as extra recess, shoes off, wearing PJs or a popsicle party.
- Classes with the highest attendance for the week in each grade level get to keep a stuffed Rocky the Raccoon for the week.
- Students with exemplary attendance for the 6 weeks get to eat at a specially decorated table and have ice cream for dessert.
- Students with exemplary attendance at the end of the year will be invited to go to Cici’s Pizza for lunch.
We have had a few students sleeping in class because they are up all night playing video games. Please consider locking up all devices so that students do not have access. As you can imagine, being up all night is detrimental to any learning the next school day. Here are the sleep recommendations:
- preschool (3–5 years): 10–13 hours, including naps.
- school-age (6–13 years): 9–12 hours.
- teens (14–17 years): 8–10 hours.