Dear Parents,

What a busy year we are having! The second six weeks was over Nov. 16 th which means report cards will be coming home tomorrow. November is a month to be thankful and we do have so much to be grateful for; great students, staff, parents, and community support. We are always looking for better ways to serve our students. Today each Heritage family will receive a parent survey, please return it to your child’s homeroom teacher in the envelope. Thank you in advance for completing our survey.

The Heritage staff, PTA, parent volunteers, and students have been very active with many exciting and fun-filled activities. A very special thank you to Sara Velten, and a host of volunteers who served on the Fall Festival Committees. What a delight to see so many of our former Heritage Hawks from Briarhill and Marcus volunteering at many of the games. We also had our Book Fair and Colonial Heritage last week.

Special thanks to Laura Ramirez and Shelly Diez for conducting our Book Fair and to Jen Adame and Carol Knizner for organizing Colonial Heritage. If you haven’t visited the TOH in a while you must come in and see all the changes. Rachelle Stephenson and her many volunteers have done an outstanding job cleaning up TOH ( Texas Our Heritage). A special thank you to Greg and Donna Fernandez for all their hard work clearing out and preparing both the TOH and grade level flowerbeds for winter. Thank you to those who helped with these major events.

As we approach the cold and flu season please keep in mind that a child can not return to school until after they have been fever free (without Tylenol or Advil) or free of vomiting for 24 hours. Nurse Kay reminds us that a child’s temperature is always lowest in the morning. You may want to keep them home an hour longer and check their temperature to be sure it is indeed normal. Good nutrition, extra sleep, proper clothing due to weather changes ( now is a good time to send a jacket or sweater to be kept in their locker for unexpected weather changes), frequent hand washing and covering the mouth when coughing with Kleenex or their sleeve will help keep the school environment healthy. We also request you notify Nurse Kay and your child’s homeroom teacher if you find any evidence of lice. This allows us to take extra measures at school. Thank you for your diligence and help with these matters. I have enclosed a copy of NAESP (National Association of Elementary School Principals) Report to Parents publication “Making Sense of Vaccinations” for additional health information.

Remember to follow our safety guidelines as explained in the August 30 th and September 27 th principal letters that involve our Heritage Safety-Crisis Plan. I am sure you must tire of personnel reminding you to: sign in, wear a volunteer badge or visitor tag, and not interrupt instruction, and use common sense during drop off and pick-up times. For example, children should not exit vehicles on the driver’s side, do not get out of your vehicle unless you are in a parking space, do not walk in between parked school buses, and never change transportation plans at the last minute. If you have someone pick up your child who is not readily known by the teacher please ask them not to use the carpool line but rather park and come into the office so we can verify their identity. These are just a few of the rules we have in place to protect your children. We will continue to work with our PTA, HV Fire & Police departments, community and parents to ensure the safety of all students. Thank you for entrusting us with your most precious possessions and allowing us to do our job. Our school success depends upon open communication and the collaborative efforts of teachers and parents. We appreciate your continued support.

Sincerely,

BeLinda Nikkel