August 30, 2026

Thank you to all of our Parker families who joined us for Academic Open House last week! It was great to have so many families on campus, engaging with teachers, learning more about the classroom experience, and seeing what instruction looks like for our Lions each day.

I also want to give a HUGE thank you to our teachers, staff, and admin team for all of the preparation that went into last week. Between the regular school day and two long Open House evenings, it was a full week, and I appreciate everyone who helped make the experience meaningful for our families. Especially to the PTO for supporting the late crew with dinners each night.

This week, we continue with our Music Open House experiences! Each music area will host an opportunity for families to learn more about their programs, expectations, and the experiences available to our students. We hope to see you there!

During our Academic Open House sessions, I received a few questions from families that I thought would be helpful to answer here. If one parent had the question, there is a good chance someone else was wondering the same thing!

Yes! Mr. Kabay will share GT information and updates through the Parker Pulse when needed. He will also be creating a GT group in ParentSquare so that families of GT students can receive more direct communication throughout the year.

No. GT students were never scheduled to be pulled during Academic ENCORE.

Our student pullout services are intentionally scheduled during 2nd Teach, which is the dedicated portion of our instructional block for reteach, acceleration, enrichment/extension.

This is also when our teachers and service providers work with students based on their individual needs and schedules, including SPED, Dyslexia, GT, Speech, and English Language Development services.

The purpose of this structure is important: we want students in the classroom with their grade-level teacher for their full core Tier I instruction. Students receive that first instruction alongside their peers, and then additional support or extension can happen during 2nd Teach at different points throughout the school day.

We also coordinate these schedules closely for students who receive multiple services. Our goal is to avoid putting a student in a position where they have to miss one needed service in order to receive another.

Snack time is not a dedicated part of the campus master schedule, with the exception of Pre-Kindergarten. Grade-level teams have autonomy to determine if and when they provide students with a dedicated snack opportunity.

Our campus expectation is simply that snack does not interrupt Tier I instruction. Snack can take place during times such as Do Now, 2nd Teach/workstations, or recess.

Our Kindergarten team has established a recess snack routine. Students are given the opportunity to eat their snack at the beginning of recess (if they choose to) and can use the remainder of that time to play.

For questions about your child's specific classroom snack routine, please reach out directly to your homeroom teacher or grade-level administrator.

Yes. As a campus, we use DOLs (Daily Demonstrations of Learning/Mastery Checks) and CADFAs (Campus-Administered District Formative Assessments) as graded measures of student learning.

DOLs are designed to give us a quick picture of whether students mastered the day's learning objective. More importantly, teachers use that information immediately to determine what students need during 2nd Teach: reteach, additional practice, acceleration, or extension.

For grading, DOL performance is considered across the week using the weekly average or an upward trend in student mastery. See the image below for additional details about how this works.

Other classroom grades are determined by the teacher. As a campus, we do not assign grades to work sent home for additional skills practice. Teachers may choose to use those items for extra credit.

Your child's classroom teacher is always a great first point of contact. Families can also reach out to Ms. Heather Grosso with questions about language development supports.

One of our campus priorities this year is making sure supports for students are not just something written into a lesson plan, but something students actually see, access, and know how to use during instruction.

Teachers are expected to customize their lesson materials & slide decks to provide appropriate supports based on the students in front of them. For our EB students, this can include visuals, cognates, foundational word translations, sentence stems, anchor charts with visuals and thinking steps, graphic organizers, manipulatives, hands-on learning experiences, and other classroom scaffolds.

Many of these strategies are not just good for our EB students; they are just good instructional practices that support all learners.

We are continuing to work with teachers on both continuously providing these supports and explicitly teaching students how and when to use them. The goal is not simply to have a sentence stem, anchor chart, visual, or graphic organizer available. We want students to recognize, "This is a tool that can help me," and independently know how to use it to access grade-level learning.

MAP gives us valuable information about each child’s academic learning, both achievement and growth. Achievement helps us understand how a student is performing now, while growth helps us understand how their achievement is changing across testing periods and school years.

Looking at both gives us a more complete understanding of a student’s academic progress. At Parker, teachers use MAP alongside classroom performance and other information to recognize strengths, identify areas for support or additional challenge, and determine next steps.

As you review your child’s MAP results, look at both current achievement and the pattern of growth over time. If you have questions about your child’s results, please reach out to their teacher.

Learn more in the MAP Family Toolkit.

Click Here for the narrated Slide Deck from Open House.

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Greg Kabay, Teacher Specialist

(GT Coordinator & Testing Coordinator)

email: gkabay@houstonisd.org

If your child needs HISD bus service, you must complete a Transportation Survey. The priority deadline is Sept. 3 to submit the survey and secure your route.

Find the survey and additional transportation resources at HoustonISD.org/Transportation.

Next week, HISD will implement two significant changes in HISD transportation: SMART Tags will be distributed to active bus riders on Monday, August 31 and starting Thursday, September 3, only students who are officially assigned to a bus route and listed on the route roster will be permitted to ride an HISD bus.

• Students who are not assigned to a bus route will be not be permitted PM ridership beginning 9/3.
• Between now and 8/28, campuses and the transportation team are working together to ensure all bus riders have a transportation request survey submitted and processed for eligibility.

SMART Tags will be distributed to confirmed student riders by bus drivers beginning Monday, 8/31 at PM dismissal. Parker will one staff member assigned to each bus route to assist with distribution.

For questions about HISD bus transportation at Parker please feel free to contact Mrs. Ashley Kolb.

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Ashley Kolb, Magnet Coordinator

(Campus Transportation Coordinator)

AKOLB@hosutonisd.org

Students, get ready for our “Don’t Be Tardy for the Party!” challenge!

Starting Monday, August 31 through Friday, September 11, you can earn a ticket every day that you are in your seat and ready to learn by 7:30 a.m.

🎟️ The more days you’re on time, the more tickets you earn—and the more chances you have to win!

Winners will be announced on Monday, September 14.

So remember: Show up! Be on time! Be ready to learn! Earn your ticket!

No tardies = more chances to win!

🎉 Let’s get this party started—ON TIME! 🎉

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Parker Attendance Committee

We are excited to begin this year's Gifted & Talented (GT) Pull-Out Program this week! The GT program is designed to ensure that advanced learners continue to grow through meaningful academic challenge. Throughout the year, students will engage in Project Based Learning experiences that encourage them to investigate real-world questions, think critically and creatively, collaborate with peers, and develop original solutions. Our goal is not simply to provide more work, but to provide the right level of challenge that helps students continue to grow as learners and problem solvers.

Students will attend GT pullouts during their designated 2nd Teach/extension block, so they will not miss core classroom instruction. During our first few weeks together, we'll focus on building a collaborative learning community, establishing routines, and introducing students to the project-based learning process that will guide our work throughout the year.

We know families are an important part of the learning journey! Throughout the year, you can look forward to regular updates through ParentSquare, where we'll share project highlights, photos, celebrations, and ways to continue the conversation at home. We're excited to partner with you as our GT students explore, create, and grow this year.

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Greg Kabay, Teacher Specialist

(GT Coordinator & Testing Coordinator)

email: gkabay@houstonisd.org

The Phase 1 School Choice Application will launch on December 8, 2026, and will close on February 12, 2027. Please see key dates for the application timeline in the memo table. Reach out to School Choice and Enrollment for additional support: SchoolChoice@houstonisd.org

For additional resources, please visit the School Choice website at https://www.houstonisd.org/schoolchoice.

We are proud to share that Parker Elementary has been recognized by Houston ISD as a Champion Family Friendly School for the 2025–2026 school year!

The Champion designation is the highest level of HISD’s Family Friendly School recognition and celebrates campuses that demonstrate a deep and sustained commitment to making family engagement and partnership part of the everyday culture of the school.

This recognition belongs to our entire Parker community! Thank you to our families for continuing to show up, stay connected, share your voices, ask questions, volunteer, participate in campus events, and partner with us in support of our students. Your engagement makes Parker stronger.

We also celebrate our teachers, staff, PTO, and campus leaders who work throughout the year to create meaningful opportunities for families to feel welcomed, informed, heard, and connected to our school.

At Parker, we know that educating children is truly a partnership between school, home, and community, and we are incredibly proud to have that commitment recognized at HISD’s highest level.

Many Lions. One Pride. One Mission. 🦁❤️🚀

Learn more about HISD’s Family Friendly Schools and see the recognized campuses:
HISD Family Friendly Schools

Volunteers Needed: Numerous volunteer opportunities are available, both upcoming and ongoing. Be sure to visit https://parkerpto.membershiptoolkit.com/volunteer and find out how to get involved. Be sure you are VIPS approved.

Grandparent's Day Lunch: Find all the details you need to know about Grandparent's Day Lunch to attend and register here. https://parkerpto.membershiptoolkit.com/grandparentsday

Class Shirts: All class shirts are due October 1st. To order, visit the PTO website, log in to your account. Click on the "My Stuff" tab, then scroll down to "My Forms." You should find a link to order your child's shirt! All shirts are $15.00 this year.

Pro Tip! You will find a list of all the items you can purchase, including performance shirts from the school store, fundraising items, and more at this same place!

Visit the PTO calendar for a list of all our upcoming events:

https://parkerpto.membershiptoolkit.com/events

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Crystal Laurie

President, Parker Elementary PTO

www.parkerpto.org

832-978-2052 (PTO)