Bobcat Bulletin August 5th-10th

The staff has come back this week and are preparing for your students. We have missed your kids and look forward to seeing them next week. We are welcoming a few new staff members this year:

1st Grade--Jenna Wesley

5th/6th Grade Science--Beth Copeland

6th Grade ELAR/SS-Rebekah Chavez

SPED Resource/Caseworker-Carolyn Balderaz

Counselor-Cathleen Langill

Mrs. Funke is going to teach 5th/6th Math this year.

We have a couple of exciting new things this year. One of which is, we are going to be installing a House System (think Harry Potter Houses). Students will be sorted into four houses during the first couple of days of school. Each House has a special color and students will wear their House colors on Wednesdays and on special House Days. Students will earn points for their House for good citizenship, work ethic, grades, attendance, etc. Houses will get together each month for some time of team building activities and service projects. The House with the most points at the end of each of the semesters will win a special field trip. (This will take the place of the PRIDE trip on the elementary side).

See you soon,

Mrs. Gibson

We are very excited to add to our staff a second counselor. Cathleen Langill will be primarily a elementary counselor, but she will help all students as needed.

We are also excited to welcome this year our Therapy Dog, Pepper. She will be on campus everyday the first week of school to greet students and share her love. She has been a Therapy dog for 2 years and has been in several different campuses and loves all kids. Her schedule is posted outside Mrs. Langill's office and in the lower elementary hallway. Please make your child aware of her being on campus and that if they do not feel comfortable being around dogs to say something, but rest assure that might change once they meet Pepper

Official football practice starts this week!

We are excited to start year two of volleyball at Smyer! This year we will add JV Volleyball in high school as well as 7th and 8th grade teams.

Welcome to Coach Lawrence who will be the assistant volleyball coach!

Information from Coach Shipley:

XC schedule for the next two weeks. HS attendance is required, JH is optional (but recommended).

Make sure all paperwork is done beforehand!

If you have questions, ask questions.

August 5th-9th (Monday-Friday) 7:00am-8:30am for running, lifting, sprinting, stretching

August 7th (Wednesday) 3:00pm-4:30pm --runners will load up and travel to Mae Simmons to practice. Time to return will be flexible, but close to 4:30pm.

Senior Picture Day is August 5th. Please refer to the Parent Square sent on July 29th for the details. If you have any questions please contact Dana Bradley at dana.bradley@smyer-isd.net

Attention seniors:

Coach Shipley and Student Council will be in the auditorium during your senior pictures so you can sign up to decorate your parking spot.

A parking spot is $20, and all designs need to be approved through Coach Shipley. Please bring your money, and a drawing to have approved. Decorating dates is August 6th - August 13th. All designs are approved before starting.

For any questions, or submission of designs email payton.shipley@smyer-isd.net

This school year we are going to focus on student attendance. Some researchers say it takes 10,000 hours of quality practice in somthing (sports, music, reading, math) to become an expert in it. When a student misses school they are losing the ground to become the best they can be.

We want our kids to be set up success and not struggling to make up the exposure they lost from being absent! This year we are going to have a STRIVE for FIVE goal--no more than five absences for the school year.

If you have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to contact us. You can reach out via the following links: