| Only two more full weeks until Thanksgiving!Have you marked your calendars yet? Our Middle School Fair is set for 9 a.m. -1 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 13 at Eastside Early College High School.泭Also, dont forget to set your clocks for daylight savings time. We all get an extra hour of sleep! Unless youre like me and you have young kids at home, in which case youre just getting up when they do, daylight savings or not.And now, the news |
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| Family Newsletter |
| By Scott Thomas Nov 05, 2021
Smart Brevity count: 4.5 mins... 1144 words
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Only two more full weeks until Thanksgiving!
Have you marked your calendars yet? Our Middle School Fair is set for 9 a.m. -1 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 13 at Eastside Early College High School.泭
Also, dont forget to set your clocks for daylight savings time. We all get an extra hour of sleep! Unless youre like me and you have young kids at home, in which case youre just getting up when they do, daylight savings or not.
And now, the news
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1 Big Thing: Vaccines now available for ages 5-11
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熱えapp will be ready in the coming days to offer the COVID-19 vaccine to students ages 5 through 11.
Driving the news:泭The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday泭.
By the numbers: The newly authorized age group泭mostly consists of students in kindergarten through fifth grade,泭approximately 35,000 students in 熱えapp.
Yes, but:泭The COVID-19 vaccine is not required at our schools.
Whats next:泭Families will be contacted through email as vaccine opportunities become available, or they can check the泭COVID-19 vaccine page for all upcoming clinic dates.
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2. Our enrollment numbers are in
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Each October we send our official enrollment number to the Texas Education Agency, and this year we clocked in at 74,727.
Why it matters: our funding is tied to enrollment.泭To put it in perspective, every 1,000 students represent about $6.1 million.
Go deeper:泭While we didnt hit the enrollment target, we did stop the decline weve seen in the past several years. Increasing enrollment is going to take a few years.泭
Were continuing the day-to-day work of connecting with families who live within the district but may not be going to 熱えapp schools.泭
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Last month, Central Office staff called more than 700 sixth-grade students who had attended AISD elementary schools but who hadnt shown up this year to their middle schools.
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Not-so-fun fact: We lose the most students during the transition grades, like sixth and ninth grade.泭
Scotts thought bubble: The days of schools opening their doors and watching the kids pour in are over. Were working hard to reconnect with families who might have left and bring in new ones.
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3. Have it All: Partnerships open up hands-on opportunities for students
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熱えapp students are working with business partners to get hands-on experience and training in some of the areas most high-demand fields.
Why it matters: We offer programs called P-TECH that allow students to get two years of free college while also earning industry certifications, and these partnerships open up training, internship and interview possibilities for our students.
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Industry partners include Dell, Ascension Seton, Austin Board of Realtors, Austin Hotel and Lodging Association, Visit Austin, the Austin Board of Realtors, and IBM.
Dive deeper: Students in these programs called P-TECH earn two years of free college, can get industry certifications, and earn an associates degree at the same time as their high school diploma.
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Programs offered include cybersecurity, health careers, Tomorrows Teachers, real estate, construction technology, and more.
Yes, but: Programs are campus-specific, but transportation is available if a student who doesnt live in the campus boundary attends a P-TECH program.
Whats next: You can apply for any P-TECH program via our
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4. District proactively monitors aging infrastructure 泭
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District staff are proactively monitoring our aging infrastructure to hopefully deter issues like we saw this week when Bowie High School lost water due to a leak twice.
Why it matters: Our infrastructure is aging and the winter storm in February further stressed many of our systems. Our families should know were not sitting around waiting for issues like Bowies to happen, were constantly monitoring to try to prevent them.泭
Yes, but: No amount of monitoring or preventative work can stop all issues across the district.
To make sure were staying on top of things, were going through the long-range planning process now.
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5. COVID cases decline again泭
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Our COVID cases are down again last week with 43 total cases, a 21% decline from last week.泭
Why it matters: You know the drill we keep cases down, we keep kids learning and each week we get one step closer to getting our youngest students vaccinated.泭
Big picture: Our cases are still way lower than surrounding districts.泭
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6. Lets Talk Question of the Week: Whats going on with report cards?泭
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| 6. Note: This weeks question is a composite. |
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Families can ask us anything via泭Lets Talk, our two-way question and answer platform. Each week, we highlight some of the questions we get that might help you.
Question: Why dont I see comments on my students report card? How do I get the report card?
Answer: First of all, if you havent received a report card, check that your contact information is updated in the .
You can view the PDF version of your students report card by clicking on the Student Documentation tile in the portal as well.
Weve also gotten reports泭that the teachers comments arent filled out.
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To close our week, Halloween photos.
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Thanks for sending your awesome Halloween photos. We wish we could have used them all, but here are a few of our favorites.
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Like this style and format? to Axios HQ the tool and templates you need for more engaging team updates.
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