About Leon Heights Elementary

Leon Heights welcomes you to our campus! We hope that you feel comfortable visiting, eating lunch with your child, volunteering in classes, or helping out in any way! We greatly desire to work with you in providing your child the very best education in a supportive and nurturing environment! If you should ever have concerns or questions, please do not hesitate to call or schedule an appointment @ 215-3200.

Attendance

It is very important that your child attends school and be on time. The doors to the building will not be opened until 7:15 am. If your child eats breakfast they may go directly to the cafeteria. If they do not eat breakfast Pre-K through 1st grade sit in the cafeteria and read books until the first bell rings at 7:40 am. 2nd & 3rd grade students play on the front playground and 4th & 5th grade play on the east playground. Breakfast is not served after 7:35 am. The tardy bell rings at 7:45 am. Every student is expected to be in his or her seat ready to learn by this time. Please be sure to arrive early enough to allow your child to get to their classroom before the tardy bell rings. Parents must come in the front office and sign students in that are tardy. Tardiest (or partial absences) and entire day absences are recorded. If your child will be absent, please call the school at 215-3200 and inform us.

Behavior

Students are expected to be kind and respectful everyday in every way. Students will assist their classroom teacher in creating a Social Contract. The contract is a list of expectations, consequences, and rewards that the students agree on following in order to create an environment in which all can learn! We prefer to focus on “Catching Students Being Good.” Students are sent to the principal’s office only in extreme circumstances or situations. Students earning “Exemplary Behavior” in PE, Music, and the Classroom will be rewarded each six weeks with a special privilege. Please encourage respectful behavior!

Box Tops for Education

We will be collecting box tops during the 2008-2009 school year. Students may bring (5) box tops to the front office on Fridays to receive their choice of a wash off tattoo! There are many participating products that have BoxTop coupons on their labels (ie. Cereals, yogurts, Betty Crocker products, Green Giant products, Pillsbury dairy/frozen items, and fruit snacks). Thanks for your support!

Doors

All doors will be locked during the day except for the two front doors. This is for the safety of our students. Students will be taught not to open the doors for anyone. Please do not ask them to do so. All visitors need to use the front doors. All visitors are to sign in and out in the front office.

Morning and Afternoon Traffic Patterns

Traffic in the front of the building can be rather hectic. If everyone follows the same guidelines it will make drop off/pick up more efficient. They are:

No left turn into the circle. (Please go further down and turn around if needed)
It is difficult to make a left hand turn from 15th. If you need to go left on Main after leaving the school, please go to N. East and then to 14th to make your turn. This will prevent back up of care on 15th!
NO PARKING ALLOWED in the circle from 7:00-8:15 a.m. and 2:00-3:30p.m. If you want to park and walk your child into the building, please park in a parking place by 15th or up the street.
The right lane only will be used for loading and unloading. Please watch those on duty and move up to available space as needed. This will help us load more children at one time. We will send your child to the space in which you have moved.
NEVER pass a car that is being loaded. Be patient and practice safety.
NO PARKING, LOADING/UNLOADING, AND NO STOPPING your car on 15th other than in the designated spaces. It is very tempting to pull up behind the parking places on 15th to let your child out, but please get in line and let them out with the other children.
If walking, teach your child to use the cross walk and wait for the guard to give them permission to cross.
DO NOT DROP OFF OR PICK UP YOUR CHILD BEHIND THE SCHOOL. This area is for teacher parking and bus loading/unloading only.
Only a parent or someone designated on your child’s emergency card may pick up your child from school. If you need to add someone to the list, you MUST send a note stating the change or come by the office to make the change. Your child MUST know who is picking them up or how they are getting home. Not knowing this information makes kids anxious and unable to concentrate on school work. Please be as consistent as possible!

Parent Involvement Policy

PARENT INVOLVEMENT POLICY

Statement of Purpose

Belton Independent School District is committed to the goal of providing a quality education for every child. In order to accomplish this goal, partnerships must be established with parents and the community. Everyone gains if school and home work together to promote high achievement for our children. Neither home nor school can do the job alone. Parents play an extremely important role as children’s first teachers. The District recognizes and encourages parents in the four key roles that they play in their children’s learning as:

Teacher – helping their child at home,
Supporter – contributing their skills to the school,
Advocate – helping their child receive fair treatment, and
Decision Maker – participating in joint problem-solving with the school at every level.

Parent Involvement in Developing the Policy

The district Parent/Community Advisory Board, consisting of approximately twenty-five members is composed of parents, community leaders, school board members, and district personnel. The Advisory Board has direct input in developing the parent involvement policy on an on-going basis. The Campus Improvement Committee on each campus provides input concerning the campus-based policy. Parent comments from parent/teacher conferences, parent surveys, and other meetings to solicit parent input are used in the development and revision of this policy.

Belton ISD Parent/Student Partnership Pledge

In order for school, parents, and students to share responsibility for high student achievement, the Belton ISD/Parent/Student Partnership Pledge is reviewed each year by campus improvement committees and by the Parent/Community Advisory Board. This pledge is included in each campus handbook for the school official, parent and student to sign and return to the home campus. A copy is distributed to parents at the parent/teacher conference. The Pledge outlines school, parent, and student responsibilities necessary for effective learning to take place.

Types of Parental Involvement

The district Parent Involvement Director, in coordination with campus principals, provides the technical assistance and other support necessary to help schools plan and implement effective parental involvement efforts. The Director may also provide teacher training in working with parents. Realizing the value of parents and their contribution to the partnership of creating successful students, input will be requested to assist education personnel in building upon that partnership relationship to strengthen ties between home and school.

The following are possible opportunities for home-school partnerships that parents are encouraged to take advantage of throughout the year.

Parent education workshops
Parent/Teacher Conferences
Home visits
Parent involvement bulletin boards
PTA/PTO
Belton ISD Parent/Student Partnership Pledge
Title I meetings as designated by each Title I campus
Parent Resource Library
Belton ISD website
Parent Surveys

Staff/Parent Communication

Communications with parents, as well as materials and notices sent home, are provided in Spanish as needed.

Teachers will provide progress reports for parents every three weeks. At least one conference concerning the child’s progress will be held at the end of the first reporting period and during the second semester at the elementary level. Secondary level conferences are held as needed. Conferences may also be held at the request of the parent or teacher. Additional communication may come home in the form of: phone calls, newsletters, weekly memos, notes home, school marquee, and district and campus websites.

Coordination and Integration with Other Programs

BISD will coordinate and integrate parenting programs with other programs, such as Head Start, State-run preschool programs, and Community Education. Utilization of Family Frameworks materials through trained personnel and provision of transitional activities for Head Start to Pre-K and Kindergarten will be offered through Belton ISD.

Evaluation

Evaluations will be conducted through:

District Parent Involvement Advisory Board Review
Annual Title I meetings on Title I campuses
Annual Public Hearing for Title programs
Campus surveys conducted with parents

The district and campuses will use information from these sources to design strategies for school improvement and to revise the parental involvement policy.

Questions, concerns, and comments may be directed to Jill Ross, Director of Federal Programs/Parent Involvement at 254-215-2032.

PTA

Tiger Time

The Leon Heights PTA Newsletter

November 2008

A Note From Your President

Thank you for a great start to the year. The PTA will be sponsoring two tax- free fundraisers. The first is the Family Fun Festival scheduled for November 8, 2008. Please plan to attend and join in the fun and fellowship.

Our next PTA meeting is scheduled for Monday, November 10, 2008, at 6:00 p.m. Winners from the Reflections Contest will be announced.

There will not be a PTA meeting in December. Meetings will resume in January.

Rosie Montgomery, PTA President

Yearbook Update

Have you taken some great photos at any of our school events this year? Our yearbook team would love to see your photos for possible inclusion in our yearbook. Copy the photos to a disk and leave them at the office to be placed in the PTA box. Order forms will be sent home soon. Thank you!

2008/2009 Reflections

“WOW!”

Please join us at 6:00 p.m. Monday, November 10 for our PTA meeting where all Reflections entries will be on display. We thank students, parents, and teachers for their efforts this year. Awards will be presented at the meeting.

Family Fun Festival

November 8 from 10-1

Please join us for fun, games, and great food! If you signed up to bring sodas or baked goods, please bring them by the office on Friday, Nov. 7. (If you did not sign up you can still bring something anyway!) Volunteers are needed to help with each booth. Please contact your child’s teacher, Courtney May (613-4812), or Robin Schilling (939-3476). We hope to see you at the festival Saturday!

Mr. Pollard’s Literacy Tip

We need your help!!!!! The faculty at Leon Heights has noticed that many of our students (at all age levels) need help with their handwriting skills as well as basic rules of print. Please work with your child as they practice printing and cursive handwriting. Also, help us reinforce basic rules of writing such as:

Capitalize the first word in a sentence.
Indent new paragraphs.
Use appropriate spacing between words.
Always place some form of punctuation at the end of a sentence.
Always capitalize the word “I.”

Write within the margins of your notebook paper.

Thanks,

Barrett

T-Shirts

2008/2009 T-shirts Now Available!

Buy your t-shirt on Meet the Teacher Night

And have it ready to wear on the first

Day of school! Child and adult sizes

Available For just $10 each (tax included).

End of Day

If you are walking up the school entrance to wait for your child in the afternoons, please wait outside on the benches. It gets noisy inside and the receptionists/secretary cannot hear on the phone. Only come inside if you need to pick your child up early for an appointment. DO NOT pick your child up on a regular basis 10 and 15 minutes early. They miss important instructional time! That adds up to an hour or more of missed opportunity each week! Checking students out early counts as a partial absence.The teachers are ending the day and giving the last instructions for homework ect. This will keep any interruptions for that time.

Visitors

We love having visitors on our campus. Come eat lunch with your child anytime. Just remember to sign in and get a visitor badge before going to the cafeteria. If you bring something your child forgot from home, someone from the office will take it to the classroom for you. We want to limit all disruptions during instructional time. If you need to visit with a teacher, please do so before school, after school, or schedule an appointment during the teacher’s conference time. That way the teacher can give you her/his undivided attention. If you would like to observe in a classroom, just remember, the teacher cannot conference with you about your child during instructional time.

Volunteers

Volunteers are needed and welcome! Please complete PTA forms and our PTA will get you actively involved as soon as possible. Don’t forget to sign in when entering the building for any reason! This is for the safety of our children. We need volunteers that are interested in working with small groups of children such as playing board games, reading, working on computer etc. We also need volunteers that are interested in coming in for 30 min. or 1 hour per week to run copies for teachers (Don’t worry, we will show you how to use the copier!) or to help our staff supervise students during lunchtime. We need extra hands to help children during lunch!

The History of Leon Heights

Leon Heights Elementary School opened in January of 1956 in its current location. The school originally consisted of first through sixth grades. Luckily, the school also had a part – time music teacher!

In 1970, Leon Heights doubled its size. Sixth graders moved to the junior high school in 1971. Currently, students from pre-kindergarten through fifth grade call Leon Heights their school.

Education at Leon Heights came to a screeching halt on March March 2002. A structural fire destroyed one third of the building and smoke damaged the rest of the building. The faculty and staff were on spring break and no one was injured. The students were welcomed onto other campuses to complete the year. Tarver Intermediate School welcomed the entire Leon Heights family for the next school year. The building was cleaned up and put back together. Leon Heights reopened for the 2003 – 2004 school year.

Leon Heights has a long history of academic success. Our students have performed above the state average on all state mandated exams. Every year, the Leon Heights U. I. L. team works diligently to represent its school with pride at the school district meet. Many students display their talents at the annual P. T. A. Reflections contest. Some entries have even gone on to compete at the state level!

Leon Heights Elementary School has a long history in Belton Independent School District. It is more than a building where students learn. It is a place where students grow from learners today to leaders tomorrow.

Leon Heights Celebrated it's 50th year of education on January the 13th. 2006. With a 50's theme. Students and Staff celebrated with a birthday cake and singing Happy Birthday to the school in the cafeteria. At 12:30 all students and staff gathered in front of the school to see the parade of former Principals,Teachers and other distinguished guest. Students showed off their dancing and hula hooping skills for all the guest. The former principals along with our lovely superintendent

Dr.Vivian Baker arrived in vintage cars. Mr. Willie one of our first grade teachers did our valet, dressed in his vintage clothing. Students did a count down and released red balloons for the celebration. Guest were invited to the cafeteria for a reception.

The Leon Heights Honor Choir entertained our guest.

Students are wearing birthday hats they decorated themsleves to celebrate Leon Heights 50th Birthday.

Dick Darnell escorts Mrs. Whitley Freddie Washburne escorts Mr.&Mrs. Ayers

Bobby Giniewiez escorts Dr. Baker & Mrs.Neves Students perpare to release balloons for celebration

Distinguished guess arrive in vintage cars as students wait to release balloons to celebrate.

Students show off their 50's dance and hula -hoop skills for birthday celebration.

Students prepare to release balloons for 50th a group of former Principals,Teachers and Celebration ! Some former Staff gather for photo to celerate 50th Birthday !