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Dear ,

Thank you to all who attended our Trunk or Treat! It was exciting to greet our students and see the creative displays prepared by our Wharton families.  We appreciate our PTO for sponsoring this event.

Don't forget to complete the Student Information Verification application to ensure information is up to date. The form is now available in the HISD Connect Parent Portal. Check out the helpful how-to video.

Have a great and safe weekend!

Student Holiday / Virtual Staff Professional Development Day
Nov. 3, 2020
Don't forget! There are no virtual or face-to-face classes on Tuesday, Nov. 3.

School Choice Application Deadline
Nov. 6, 2020
See information about applying to Kindergarten at Wharton below.  Also, 5th and 8th grades have to apply for middle and high school, respectively.

Allstate Barceló and Associates Insurance, Juan J. Aguirre Attorney at Law, LeFevre Law PC, Baeza Ventura Family, Sternaou Family, Wharton Family.

And now for our pumpkin decorating contest winners ... drum roll, please!

• Pre-K:  Frozen - D. Rodriguez
• Kinder: Witch - KR tied with Jackolantern - L. Gonzalez 
• 1st: Sonic - D. Rodriguez
• 2nd: Dinosaur - KR 
• 3rd: Bear - L. Duran
• 4th: Owl - B. Blanco
• 5th: Minion - K. Hernandez
• 6th: Haunted House - Ventura
• 7th: Dracula - Soto
• 8th: Sugar Skull - Aguirre

Each of our winners will receive an Amazon e-gift card next week. Parents, please make sure to check your emails.

Calaveritas Literarias Contest
To celebrate el Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), Wharton PTO's Heritage Group is sponsoring a "Calaveritas Literarias" contest. Submissions deadline: Nov. 6. 

What is a calaverita literaria? A form of poetry popular in Mexico during Día de los Muertos. These poems can be teasing, joking, fun, satirical, or critical. They are often written in ‘honor’ of a specific person or famous personality. They typically are written in metric verse with a rhyme scheme. 

To participate:

• Create your calaverita literaria in English or Spanish, or challenge yourself to write a bilingual one. Check out thishow-to guidewith examples.
• Send your calaverita toheritage@whartonpto.orgby Nov. 6, 2020. Include the student's name, grade, and teacher.

Three winners will each receive a $15 Amazon gift card.

Spirit Night at Torchy's Tacos
Save the date for our November Spirit Night at Torchy's Tacos (2411 Shepherd Dr)! Nov. 18 from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Print Your Holiday Cards and Support Wharton!
If you are purchasing holiday cards or gifts, visit Minted.com and use Wharton's unique code: FUNDRAISEWK8DA to receive a 20% discount. Wharton will receive 15% of sales on orders placed with our code through December. For the fine print, please log into our Wharton PTOMinted page.

Our school is an International Baccalaureate (IB) school thanks to the generous contributions of parents over the years. The IB program is funded entirely by Wharton's PTO, and each year we need to raise $43,000 to cover its costs. We need your help more than ever this year! Any amount helps. 

Well, what an interesting two weeks. Can you believe it has only been two weeks? We have had a couple of CoVid scares and the building has been deep cleaned twice this week. The good news is that so far, the tests have been negative.

I would like to reiterate the procedures for CoVid exposure (i.e. within 6 ft, for greater than 15 minutes, continuously). We require quarantine for 14 days, unless the students have been cleared by their doctor (note required). Please contact the nurse (me) before returning to school.

If you are CoVid-19 positive with symptoms, you must quarantine for at least 10 days from the onset of symptoms and be symptom-free for 24 hours without medication to return to school.

Algorithm for contact/exposure/symptoms:

• Nurse gets a notification that a sick child is either in school or at home
• Isolate the child with the nurse and notify parents to pick up immediately
• Isolate the rest of the class in their classroom or outside
• Contact trace to determine the risk of others – Nurse notifies the closest contacts and reports to the Health and Medical/Health department
• General notification to the parents via e-blast
• Deep clean (fog the building)
• Continue to monitor for symptoms and update parents and staff as more information is collected.

Any time your child is sick, please have them stay home and notify the nurse before you send them back.

Fire drill today and 2 drills next week (Shelter in place – Weather/Chemical/Active Shooter): Please talk to your child about the drills next week. We realize that this can be traumatic. Remember -  RUN, HIDE, FIGHT.

Walker safety: We are doing our very best to keep your children safe during drop off and dismissal. Please keep in mind that it is dangerous for students to cross in front of the car entrances/exits. I have attached a map to help you determine the safest route for your children.

Thank you and have a great weekend. Happy Halloween! Tell your children to look for the BLUE MOON and tell me about it on Monday.

Nurse Dana

To the parents who received an invitation for their child to attend Academic Bootcamp: 

HISD compiled a list of students to be invited to attend Academic Bootcamp on November 23 & 24, December 21 & 22, and March 15, 16 & 17. This list was compiled using data from the student Beginning of the Year (BOY) Renaissance 360 screening when all students were in virtual learning and having just returned from the 2019-2020 4th cycle of virtual learning followed by summer break. Therefore, this data is not necessarily an accurate assessment of how your child is progressing academically. Teachers have a more accurate idea of how your child is doing and will make you aware of any concerns they may have. Receiving this invitation does not mean that your child is struggling academically.

Wharton teachers already have interventions in place with their students who have academic challenges. These interventions take place during the school day. Some students may be invited to tutorials after school or on Saturdays in the spring if their teacher thinks this would benefit them and if circumstances allow. 

HISD’s Academic Bootcamp is not required and will not be held on our campus. Students who opt to attend may participate virtually or in-person with teachers from other campuses. Parents should consider whether Academic Bootcamp or taking a well-deserved and needed break on these days would be a better choice for their child.

HISD currently experiencing technical difficulty with the Request for Evaluation form within HISD Connect. Please complete the form on HISD Connect, print a copy of the completed Request for Evaluation, scan it, and email the complete form to Ms. Patricia Selin, Wharton GT coordinator at pselin@houstonisd.org. 

Click here for instructions on how to complete the Request for Evaluation. The deadline to apply is Nov. 6.

Please note: We do not do "Entering K" GT testing for Pre-K students on our campus.

The HISD deadline to apply for Kindergarten, Middle School and High School for the 2021-2022 school year is fast approaching! Deadline for online application is next Friday, Nov. 6.

Complete your online applications for your school selections at HISD Choice.

If you have a student currently enrolled in Pre-K at Wharton DLA and are planning on returning for Kindergarten, you do not need to complete an application. Our Pre-K students automatically enroll in to Kinder. Remember our 5th grade students must reply for Wharton Middle School or any other Middle School of their choice. All 8th grade must also apply to the HIgh School of their choice or attend their zoned school.

For more information regarding magnet applications, please see the HISD Magnet website.

If you have questions directly related to applying, you are welcome to email Ms. Syreeta Lazarus or Ms. Elizabeth Cortez.   

Our last Virtual Magnet Thursday will be held at 9 a.m. via Microsoft Teams on:

• Thursday, Nov. 5 (click to join the meeting)

Virtual Middle School Dance: Parents, if you would like to help organize our first virtual dance, please send us an email today. We are hoping to bring back our "Dia de los Muertos" theme for early November.

See more in our Facebook Album>>

Wharton K-8 Dual Language Academy PTO

900 W Gray St

Houston TX 77019