Dear WRE Parents,

The first two weeks of the school year have been wonderful at WRE! We are busy in the best way and are quickly getting back into the groove of things.

This week at WRE, we conducted RISD Safety Week and it was a huge success! Each morning, students learned the purpose of each drill and how we practice it. Each lesson was created by RISD to teach and support elementary-aged students. The lessons and drills are directly correlated to the Standard Response Protocols (SRP) that we follow. You can read about the drills we followed this week below.

Thank you so much for your support and have a great weekend!

Principal Stevens

MONDAY: Hold Drill - students and teachers are to remain in their room or area until the all-clear is announced. This drill might happen due to a medical episode or an emergency in a hallway when we need the halls to stay clear.

TUESDAY: Secure Drill - used when it is desirable to secure the school due to an emergency situation occurring outside and not related to the school. In this situation, all exterior doors remain locked and are monitored to allow any students from outside to enter. Classes continue to function normally, but recess is on pause until the issue is resolved. Some examples of when we would have this drill would include a report of a wild animal on the playground or police activity in the neighborhood.

WEDNESDAY: Lockdown Drill - called when there is a threat or hazard inside the school which demands locking individual classroom doors, offices and other securable areas, moving room occupants out of line of sight of corridor windows and having room occupants maintain silence.

THURSDAY: Evacuate/Fire Drill - a method of practicing how a building would be evacuated in the event of a fire or other emergencies.

FRIDAY: Shelter Drill - called when specific protective actions are needed based on a threat or hazard and training includes response to threats such as a tornado, earthquake, or hazmat. We are lucky at WRE to have a certified tornado shelter where we go for Shelter Drills.

We will have additional safety drills on the scheduled four "I Know What to Do Days" and an Evacuate (fire) drill each month. Parents will be notified of any safety drills that are conducted at WRE.

We hope you can join us for our annual Curriculum Night coming up on Thursday, August 29. This is a great opportunity for parents to learn from their child's teachers about classroom policies, expectations, homework, grade level curriculum, and more. This event is for parents only - students should not attend.

Parents can attend any of the three sessions. Teachers will be presenting the same thing at each session. Sessions will be held at the following times:

• 5:30-6:00
• 6:00-6:30
• 6:30-7:00

Sessions will be held in teacher's classrooms. Please note that 5th grade teachers will present their sessions in the cafeteria and these classrooms will not be open during the presentations.

Additionally, WRE PTA will hold the first general meeting of the school year from 5:00-5:30 in the WRE cafeteria that evening. We hope to see you there!

LAST CALL! Parents, have you fill out the grade level t-shirt form for your WRE students?

Each year, our PTA provides each WRE student and teacher with a grade level t-shirt to wear for field trips and special events. Parents, please help us get the shirts ordered and distributed soon by filling out this form for each child that attends WRE as soon as possible. Thank you so much!

To enhance safety and security protocols, RISD is implementing student badges this year for all elementary students. The badges will include a photo and bar code, and students will be expected to wear them while at school or on school-sponsored field trips during the school day. RISD secondary students have been required to wear similar ID badges at school for approximately two decades.

• In the event of a safety protocol, building evacuation, or reunification event, the badges allow RISD staff or first responders to quickly verify the identity of students and ensure that all students are accounted for.
• Later this semester, students K-12 who are transported on RISD buses will be required to swipe their student ID in order to ride a bus. This will ensure that RISD transportation staff know which students are on a district bus at a given time in the event of a breakdown or accident, prevent students from accidentally getting on the wrong bus, and prevent anyone who is not enrolled in RISD from getting on an RISD bus.
• In elementary cafeterias, badges will allow students to pay for meals with a swipe instead of having to memorize a PIN.
• Elementary students will also be able to use their badge to check out or return library books.

Badges will be distributed to students in the first weeks of school, and each campus will have the ability to create new or replacement badges as needed. Each campus will determine processes for primary-age students to leave their badge at school upon parent request, and for students who may need special assistance. A student’s ID badge photo will be identical to the photo that a teacher or parent sees when they log into Focus. Like all student directory information, RISD securely maintains student photos for internal use in accordance with parent/guardian privacy choices.

For more information about the safety & security protocols used in RISD, please visit https://web.risd.org/safetysecurity/.

Our wonderful counselors, Mr. Mendenhall and Mrs. Simmons, would love for WRE parents to follow their brand new Instagram page! Parents can follow along for WRE counseling updates and some great tips and tricks from Mr. Mendenhall and Mrs. Simmons!

If you need to reach a WRE counselor, you can contact them here -

Cotton Mendenhall - 3rd-5th Grades and PreK

cotton.mendenhall@risd.org

469-593-2707

Lauren Simmons - Kinder-2nd Grades and PreK

lauren.simmons@risd.org

469-593-2651

WRE Counselors

We have not yet started hosting lunch visitors at WRE. We take the first few weeks of school to allow students the time to learn and practice our cafeteria expectations. In the meantime, if your child has a birthday that you were hoping to celebrate at lunch, please check them out in the front office during their lunch time. You are welcome to picnic in your car or outside in our beautiful new space out front!

The start date and protocols for lunch visitors will be announced in a Principal Post soon.

As shared at the end of last school year, the district is implementing a new Richardson ISD Code of Civility this school year to set expectations for how students, parents, employees, and visitors treat and interact with each other while at school or communicating about school-related activities.

“It’s important that everyone value safety, respect, and responsibility when interacting with someone at school or activities related to school,” said Superintendent Branum. “Treating each other with civility is an expectation in our schools and when interacting with our educators. We can all support students most effectively when we prioritize safety, respect and responsibility this school year by understanding the practices and attitudes of the Code of Civility.”

Please click here to read more about the RISD Code of Civility. RISD is a beautiful community in which safety, respect, and responsibility are an active part of the fabric of our schools, community, and staff. Play your part by adhering to these practices and attitudes.

Parents can find RISD Back to School information and resources here.

• Create a Focus account – RISD provides electronic access to a student’s attendance, grades, and other information via the Focus school software system.

• Download SchoolCafe app – RISD’s school cafeteria payment system is called SchoolCafe.

• Download RISD Mobile Parent app – Access student information, view the latest news, receive important alerts, review archive of parent messages sent by RISD, view school menus and lunch account balances, find your bus stop, access student schedules, assignment grades, attendance and more via the RISD Mobile Parent app.

• Follow RISD on social media

• FB: @RichardsonISD
• IG: @instaRISD
• X: @RichardsonISD
• YouTube: RichardsonISDVideo

• Volunteer in RISD – There are a lot of opportunities to volunteer on RISD campuses all year long. If you are interested in becoming an RISD volunteer, please sign up through risd.voly.org.

  All volunteers must complete a background check through the VOLY system EACH YEAR.

If you would like your child to ride the school bus to or from WRE, you must complete this Google form:

Click here for more information:

RISD TRANSPORTATION DEPARTMENT INFO

If you would like to volunteer at White Rock Elementary, you must complete a volunteer background check EVERY new school year. Volunteering could include helping by 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 full length of 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.