Back to School Parent Guide

We are thrilled as we prepare for the 2025-2026 school year. Our school theme for year 12 is "LET'S GO! GAME ON SPURS!" and we plan on making sure you feel like you are on the right team here at Richard J. Lee Elementary. We cannot wait to see you and to have you as part of our "FamiLEE!" Please continue reading for all of the latest information you need for a successful start to the school year.

Best,

Chantel Kastrounis

Principal

Please click here to learn more about your school Principal.

Mrs. Garvin-Counselor l Mrs. Kastrounis-Principal l Ms. Buchanan-Asst. Principal

Join me in welcoming the following educators to our Richard J. Lee Elementary FamiLEE:

• Monica Martinez- Second Grade Designer
• Lisa Gonzalez- Third Grade Designer
• Virginie Royer- Fourth Grade Designer
• Hanna Drabble- Fifth Grade Designer
• Alison Adame- Art Designer
• Liliana Rojas- Language Acquisition Specialist
• Jamie Fields- Special Education Designer
• Hitaishi Sharma- Special Education Paraprofessional
• Julie Bowles- Learning Coach
• Amy Searight (welcome back) - Principal's Secretary

We can't wait for you to meet them and welcome them to our Lee community.

We are overjoyed to travel through Lee neighborhoods to welcome you back to school. Please mark your calendars for Monday, August 4. You can wave from your house or join us at one of our stops. We are ready to remind you how special it is to call Lee Elementary your HOME! Click here for a map of our route. Please keep in mind that times are approximate as traffic and construction could delay us.

Address Verification is done, annually, to ensure all enrolled learners live in our attendance zone and so that we may assign your learner a spot in a classroom.

We have made this process easy. Simply fill out this form: https://forms.gle/NR64uAT58UZCWZkAA.

• If you have moved, and are still in our attendance zone, you must submit your new lease or closing statement in addition to your utility bill. There is a place on our form to upload your documents.
• If you have updated shot records, you can email those to arose@coppellisd.com .
• Every family must verify their address before your learner will be assigned a classroom. If you do not verify your address, you will not receive a personalized invitation from a Designer inviting you to Meet the Designer Night on August 11, from 4:30-5:30 pm.
• We will contact you if we do not have all of your verification information.

Your child must be present on the first day of school, August 13th, in order to ensure their spot at Lee Elementary. We cannot hold spots for learners starting after the first day of school.

We will communicate with you by 4:00 PM on Friday, August 8, where your learner will go on the first day of school. Thank you for your patience as we reorganize some of our classes due to enrollment numbers and reduction or addition of classrooms. Remember that we do not honor parent requests for specific designers. We will phone you, before 4PM on August 8, if your child's house is being adjusted. For our new families, we do our best to place family members in the same house.

If you do not receive an email by 4:00 PM on August 8, then there is an issue with your enrollment or residency verification. Please email LeeEnrollment@coppellisd.com if you do not hear from us Friday evening. We will work our hardest to get this cleared up before Meet the Designer Night. We will handle these in the order that they arrive.

Your child must be present on the first day of school, August 13th, in order to ensure their spot at Lee Elementary. We cannot hold spots for learners starting after the first day of school.

Want an EASY way to get all of the school supplies your learner needs for Back to School? Sign in on our PTO website and purchase them on our Spur Webstore.

If you are new to Lee or missed the deadline to order school supplies, PTO has a LIMITED SUPPLY of extra kits for sale. You can order them on the Webstore. There will be a limited supply available at Meet the Designer Night.

Here is the 2025-2026 School Supply List by grade.

We'll see you in-person for our Meet the Designer Night on Monday, August 11th. Come say "HI" to the Lee Designers (teachers) and support staff, and check out your classroom for the upcoming year. If you did not purchase school supplies through our PTO, you can bring your supplies to school and leave them in your classroom. If you ordered your school supplies and spirit wear through our Lee PTO, they will be delivered to your classroom for you.

Swing by the cafeteria and back car loop before or after meeting your Designer to enjoy a gourmet popsicle from Frios. This is a great opportunity to mingle with fellow RJL FamiLEE and catch up with friends old and new. Frios is generously donating 15% of their sales to the RJL PTO.

I am so excited to care for your learner at school this year. To set up for success:

• Please make sure to discuss any health conditions with Nurse Annah directly. Email our school nurse at arose@coppellisd.com
• Please make sure to keep an extra set of clothes in every learner's backpack for spills, mud, accidents, etc. Children are often more comfortable in their own clothes than in ones that are borrowed from the clinic.
• If your learner has had any diarrhea, vomiting, or a fever of 100 degrees or higher in the last 24 hours, they cannot be at school or a school event.

Durham School Services is the district's transportation provider, not Lee Elementary. All questions about transportation should go to 972-304-8012 or transportation@coppellisd.com. New and current families request bus transportation as part of your enrollment/re-enrollment forms. Copies of these forms are emailed to families if you requested bus transportation for your eligible children. Bus routes, pick-up times and locations will be communicated, from Durham, to families for the 2025-2026 school year no later than August 13, 2025.

Bus Zone is the bus riding app you can use to securely track the location of your child's bus.

Information about CISD Bus Service and answers to transportation questions can be found here.

All learners will have a district-issued iPad for school use. You are encouraged to participate in this annual program, otherwise you are responsible for the full cost of repair or replacement of the device. Information about the CISD Device Protection plan can be found here.

Before receiving devices, all Lee Spurs will be trained in digital citizenship. Devices in grades K-4 will not go home and will stay overnight, at school, this year.

Let's make this the best 1st Day of School ever! We are ready to welcome you and start the school year. Here are a few reminders to make sure you are ready to go:

• Send your learner with a refillable water bottle LABELED with their name. You may also send them with a small healthy snack, if you like.
• For returning CISD students, send your learner with their charged CISD iPad and charger.
• Be sure your child's educator knows how they will get home.

ALL parents can walk their child to class the morning of the 1st day of school. You may park, enter, and exit through the front door of the school. We will not permit entrance from the cafeteria doors due to bus drop off in the back of the school. On the second day of school, please follow our arrival procedures.

Kindergarten parents, please read this important information about the first week of Kindergarten.

Morning arrival will have TWO places for drop off. Please yield to any bus and do NOT let your child out of the car unless a staff member is there.

• Remember that it is illegal to be on your phone in a school zone.
• After the first day of school, please stay in your cars and follow the guidance of our staff on duty.
  

Learners being picked up early for an appointment need to be signed out of the front office before 2:45. Please be extra watchful of our walkers going home to Sage Hill and August Hill during afternoon dismissal .

• Remember that it is illegal to be on your phone in a school zone.
• Remember that we do not permit parents to wait at the front of the building at dismissal time. Our learners will come out in organized lines to help with a safe and timely dismissal. You will be asked to go back to your car or to the Sage Hill Crosswalk. This includes rainy days.
  

Don't forget to hang you car tag for easy identification.

CISD has developed a one-stop resource for families to prepare for the first day of school on Wednesday, Aug. 13. CISD’s Parent Hub is available at www.coppellisd.com/parenthub and offers beginning of the school-year resources and information on school breakfasts/lunches, transportation and more.

To support a focused learning environment and ensure campus safety, we kindly ask that students arrive at school fully prepared for the day. This includes bringing their lunch, jacket, water bottle, and any necessary school materials with them in the morning.

Please note:
For the safety of all students and to maintain the efficiency of our front office, we will not accept late drop-offs of items after the school day has begun. We ask that only those with an appointment or a specific need come to the front door.

We appreciate your understanding and support. Our goal is always to create a safe, uninterrupted learning environment for your child.

We’re excited to welcome families to campus for FamiLEE Friday Lunches starting in October, and you’re more than welcome to bring lunch then!

Learners have to learn the routine of eating school lunch. Starting October 3, guests can join their learners at lunch on Fridays. Please sign up by 3PM on Thursdays so that we can have a visitor badge prepared for you ahead of time. We will have the sign up link/form posted on our campus website at the end of September. Why are we waiting until October? This gives our campus, cafeteria, and custodial staff time to put practices and procedures in place. You will be impressed in October when you see how responsible our learners are!

Campus and District link for excuse notes for 2025-2026:

Coppell ISD has requested that families use the link below to share absence excuse explanations for documentation: https://forms.coppellisd.com/Forms/AbsenceNotification.

Campus email address for campus attendance questions:

Please use the leeattendance@coppellisd.com email address to communicate questions or concerns about attendance with Lee administration and front office staff, but only the link listed above for attendance excuse notes.

CISD Attendance Hub

Cross one thing off your to-do list, and complete your Volunteer Background Check NOW! This is a step that has to be re-done each year. Go to https://www.coppellisd.com/page/visiting-and-volunteering for the CISD Visiting and Volunteering practices. The volunteer approval process can take from 7 to 14 days.

We want safety first and for you to be able to volunteer when our campus is open for volunteers.

We invite you to connect with Richard J. Lee Elementary online by checking out our school website at www.coppellisd.com/lee .

Also, engage with us on social media by "liking" or "following" us at:

• @FamiLEErjl on Instagram
• Richard J. Lee Elementary on Facebook
• @NetZeroLee and/or #rjlyear12 on X