The Mustang Message

Dear Mustang Family,

What a fantastic week at Daniels Elementary! 🎉 We had so much fun celebrating our students at our 1st 6-Weeks Academic Pep Rally and are incredibly grateful to all of the family members and friends who joined us to cheer on our Mustangs. Your support helps make these special moments even more meaningful! A special congratulations goes out to Piper and Violet for receiving our Principal and Assistant Principal Awards. We are so proud of you both! 👏⭐

🍁 With cooler fall weather finally arriving, we know our Lost & Found is about to grow quickly with jackets, sweatshirts, hoodies, and other cozy items. Please take a moment to label your child's belongings with their name. A simple label makes it much easier for lost items to find their way back home!

🧹 On Friday, we had the opportunity to celebrate Custodian Appreciation Day, and we want to give a huge THANK YOU to our incredible custodial team. They work tirelessly behind the scenes to keep our campus clean, safe, and welcoming each and every day. We truly have the best team around! ❤️

🧡 We are excited to continue celebrating our Capturing Kids' Hearts Leadworthy Trait of the Month for October: Self-Direct. To help kick off the month, we encourage all Mustangs to wear orange on Wednesday, October 7th as we focus on taking initiative, making responsible choices, and being leaders of our own actions!

🍎 Finally, October 5th is World Teachers' Day, and we would like to recognize the amazing educators and staff members who make DES such a special place. Their dedication, passion, and commitment to our students do not go unnoticed. We are incredibly thankful for our outstanding team and all they do for our Mustang family each day! 💙💛

With Mustang Pride,

Katie Miller, Principal

What does it mean to Self-Direct?

Self-Direction is the ability and learned skill to cast a vision of future goals and then take intentional steps toward who, where, and what we want to be. Instead of focusing on things to control or avoid, we emphasize our responsibility to make positive choices related to our emotions, attitudes, and actions.

Why focus on Self-direction?

• Self-direction strengthens relationships. Self-direction helps to grow social skills and develop meaningful, positive relationships with others.
• Self-direction teaches personal responsibility. Learning to self-direct teaches students to take responsibility for their own actions.
• Self-direction helps us to regulate emotions: Self-direction empowers students to regulate their impulses and emotional responses to situations and circumstances in their life.
  
  

Self-Direction in Action:

• Practice goal setting and action planning. When we establish goals and develop action plans, we learn to take intentional steps to successfully achieve goals.
• Monitor and adjust. Provide students with regular feedback and opportunities to self-assess progress toward goals to make adjustments and improvements in their behaviors.
• Reflect and evaluate. Facilitate discussions and reflection to prompt students to examine what they do, think, and say against their goals and vision for their life and learning.

💙💛 Mustangs, we need YOU! 💛💙

Join the Tom Daniels Elementary PTO and be entered to win exciting rewards every 6 weeks! The more you participate and volunteer, the more chances you have to win.

Let's work together to make this school year unforgettable for our students!

October 3rd: Kerrville Public School Foundation Annual Trivia Night

October 5th: World Teacher's Day

October 6th: Happy Birthday, Mrs. Miller!

October 7th: Wear Orange for CKH Leadworthy Trait of the Month: Self-Direct

October 7th: CAM Concert for 3rd and 4th Grade

October 8th: Fire Safety Presentations

October 9th: Pink Out for Tivy Football

October 12th: Student and Staff Holiday

October 14th: Health Screenings (Vision and Hearing)

October 14th: Happy Birthday, Ms. Olga!

October 15th: Chick-fil-A Spirit Night from 5-8 p.m.

October 16th: 1st Grade Field Trip to Jenschke Farms

October 16th: Minon Theme for Tivy Football

October 17th: Happy Birthday, Officer Baldwin!

October 19th: Fall Individual Photo Retakes

October 20th: Happy Birthday, Miss Zirkel!

October 22nd: 2nd 6-Weeks Progress Reports Sent Home

October 22nd: 2nd Grade Field Trip to Riverside Nature Center

October 22nd: 2nd and 3rd Grade Lunch Switch

October 23rd: Kinder Field Trip to Pipe Creek Pumpkin Patch

October 23rd: Blue Out for Tivy Football

October 29th: Life Skills Field Trip to Jenschke Farms

October 30th: DES Field Day

Each Wednesday at Daniels, our staff will be trying to help promote CCMR (College, Career, and Military Readiness) by wearing shirts of different colleges, careers, and branches of the military. Although attending college is a great option for students when they graduate from high school, it isn't the only option that can lead to a rewarding and successful future. Our students may be young, but their future is bright! We invite all of our Mustangs to join in on Wednesdays and wear their favorite CCMR shirt!

Please note the following procedures that will be in place to help this process go smoothly.

• Visitors MUST check in at the front office by presenting their ID and obtain a visitor's pass.
  
• Visitors will be able to eat with their student in the designated seating. No friends or classmates will be able to join.
• Visitors are not permitted to sit at the student tables with homeroom classes.
• You are welcome to bring food for your student, but it cannot be shared with other classmates.
• Visitors will NOT be able to walk with students back to their class after lunch or attend recess with them.
• Visitors MUST sign out in the Office before leaving campus.

Scheduled Lunch Times

Kindergarten: 10:45-11:15 a.m.

1st Grade: 11:05-11:35 a.m.

2nd Grade: 11:25-11:55 a.m.

3rd Grade: 12:35-1:05 p.m.

4th Grade: 12:15-12:45 p.m.

5th Grade: 11:50-12:20 p.m.

Our campus goal this year is 96% school-wide attendance. Regular attendance is extremely important. If your child is absent from school, please call or email your child's homeroom teacher and our Attendance Secretary as soon as you know they will not be attending school that day. Please include the reason for the absence. Excused absences are illness, medical appointments, or death in the family. Notes, calls, or emails must be received within 3 school days of the child returning. Unexcused absences may result in your child being placed on an attendance plan, prevent your child from being promoted to the next grade level, or may result in truancy charges being filed. Attendance is taken each day at 10:00 a.m. A student must be on campus at that time to be counted present.

Students are counted tardy if they are not in their class by 7:45 a.m. Parents are required to bring the student into the office to check them in if arriving after 8 a.m. Chronic tardiness will be addressed by administration. It is vital that students arrive to school on time. This time is important to helping develop social skills, organization skills, and learning to begin the day prepared. Students that arrive after 7:45 often come in behind the rest of the class, causing anxiety and stress on the student. Always allow time for traffic delays due to weather conditions and the first few weeks of school.

All visitors and volunteers must sign in at the front office before entering the campus. Our Raptor system requires a valid photo ID for all first time visitors. Each year this is reset. Visitors will be unable to enter the campus if they have not signed in with proper ID, even if the DES team knows you. We will not allow visitors to be released to classrooms unless the teacher has previously let the office staff know.

Parents are welcome to visit at lunch time during your student's grade level lunch time starting Monday, August 31st. We will continue to have a visitor's table.

At the conclusion of their visit, all visitors MUST sign out in the office before leaving campus.

Birthday treats must be store bought with a nutrition label. Treats from bakeries must also include a nutrition label.

Birthday treats may be dropped off in the front office. Visitors will not go to classrooms for birthday celebrations. Teachers will celebrate the last 15 minutes of the day, prior to dismissal. Flowers and balloons are not to be sent to school for delivery for any student.

If your student needs a transportation change for the day, please contact the office by 2:00 p.m. As it gets closer to 3 p.m., it can sometimes be difficult to locate students as the dismissal process begins. We understand that emergencies happen and will assist when those arise.

We also ask that students who need to leave early are picked up by 2:30 p.m. as well. This will allow our office staff to focus on dismissal and to ensure that it runs smoothly.

Thanks for your cooperation and understanding!

Breakfast and Lunch are offered on campus daily. Please check the menu frequently to see any changes that might occur.

2026-2027 Meal Prices

Breakfast Paid Student - $1.75

Breakfast Reduced Student - Free

Lunch Paid Student - $3.50

Lunch Reduced Student - $0.40

Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) is an evidence-based, tiered framework for supporting students’ behavioral, academic, social, emotional, and mental health. When implemented with fidelity, PBIS improves social emotional competence, academic success, and school climate. It also improves teacher health and wellbeing. It is a way to create positive, predictable, equitable and safe learning environments where everyone thrives.

Kerrville ISD is utilizing PBIS on all four elementary campuses.

At Daniels, we have adopted the acronym of PRIDE. Our Mustangs are expected to show PRIDE in all they do and in all areas of the school. Students are asked to wear their badge so they can be rewarded for showing PRIDE throughout the school and by all staff members. Students are able to use their points to shop in Teacher Stores and to participate in school-wide incentives.

The safety of our students and staff remains a top priority. To support a coordinated response during emergencies, our campus follows the Standard Response Protocol (SRP) developed by the I Love U Guys Foundation. The attached graphics explain the five SRP actions and what they mean. We encourage families to review this information so we can partner together in promoting a safe school environment.