Stay In-the-Know: This Week’s Top News You Can’t Miss

• This week is Teaching Assistant Appreciation Week. Thank you to all of our amazing TA’s!
• Join us this Friday for the September Administrative Coffee Chat at 8am in the Casis Community Room
• Get excited for Casis Carnival! Links below to sponsor, volunteer, buy wristbands, and host an auction party
• Parent volunteers needed to help with the Casis garden and grounds! Please see information below

Casis Weekly (9/22/26-9/25/26)

• News from The Principal — Staff News, Teaching Assistant Appreciation Week, Administrative Coffee Chat for September, Field Trip Information, Gifted & Talented Referral Window, Young Rembrandts Art Club, Checking Students In & Out During the School Day, Student Handbook & Success Guide, Emergency Drills on Campus, Character Strong Implementation & Practices, Important Dates, Traffic Safety Procedures
• PTA News — Casis Carnival, Casis Garden Volunteers Needed, Save the Date for Next Casis Forest Club Meeting, Help Keep Casis Green, Join Casis Dads Posse, Thank You Volunteers
• Vertical Team News – O.Henry Middle School Round Up, Austin High Future Maroons Cheer Clinic

Have something you want to include in the Casis Weekly? Please send information to PTA VP of Communications Emily Peavey by Wednesday to be included in the following Monday issue.

NEWS FROM THE PRINCIPAL

STAFF NEWS

We’d like to welcome the following new Casis staff member to our Cougar P.R.I.D.E. Family! Kenia Zayas Torres will be joining our housekeeping team to fill a vacant Custodian position. Mr. Castro, Head Custodian, along with his staff, are so excited to have her join their team. We have an absolutely fabulous custodial staff that takes care of our campus. We gladly welcome Ms. Torres to the team and to our school. Welcome to Casis Ms. Kenia Zayas Torres!

TEACHING ASSISTANT APPRECIATION WEEK 

Tuesday, September 22 – Friday, September 25 is designated as Teaching Assistant Appreciation Week. In addition to Classroom Teachers, Teaching Assistants assist in strengthening our schools and learning communities. At Casis we have Teaching Assistants in our Special Education and Pre-Kindergarten programs. We could not do our jobs as educators without the help of other school support staff members like our Teaching Assistants. All of these individuals play a vital role on their education teams and in the lives of students, both inside and outside of the classroom. Together they keep our schools running and our students safe, healthy, and ready to learn every day. We salute all Teaching Assistants in AISD and at Casis Elementary. They are all absolutely fabulous and so well-deserving of this recognition!

ADMINISTRATIVE COFFEE CHAT FOR SEPTEMBER 

Casis Administration will host a series of meetings during the school year, to engage with parents about various school topics and happenings. During these informal meetings, Mr. Tinnon, Ms. Beckham, and Ms. Davis will share school information and dialogue with parents about school topics of their choice. The goal of this platform is to build our shared knowledge and make community connections. Our first ‘Administrative Chat’ will take place on Friday, September 25 at 8:00a.m. in the Casis Community Room. We look forward to having some very authentic conversations with our learning community.

FIELD TRIP INFORMATION

Field trips are wonderful extension experiences for students outside of the classroom learning environment. At Casis Elementary, we will offer a few field trip opportunities for each grade level throughout the school year. Parents will be asked to pay a bulk one-time ‘Field Trip Fee’ to cover the costs of these planned educational outings. Please see the following letters from each grade level, sharing the planned field trips and their associated fees: Pre-K, Kinder, 1st Grade, 2nd Grade, 3rd Grade, 4th Grade, & 5th Grade. Additionally, here’s a flyer that gives guidance on how to process payment: Fee Payment Flyer. All families will be asked to pay this fee by Friday, October 16 We are hopeful to get full participation from all of our families, but regardless, please know that no student will be excluded from any of the year’s field trip events. 

GIFTED & TALENTED REFERRAL WINDOW 

The Gifted & Talented referral window is now open and will remain open until Friday, October 16. To learn more about GT services in AISD and to submit a referral, click here for the English link. Additional languages can be found here. Prior to submitting a referral, it is recommended that parents notify their child’s classroom teacher. For additional information, you may reach out to our campus GT Advocates and presenters, Jonathan Padgett (2nd) and Vickie Price (3rd). 

YOUNG REMBRANDTS ART CLUB

There is still time and room to sign up before the first Young Rembrandts DRAWING enrichment class begins. And you can now enroll your student for a pro-rated, late start! Here’s the FLYER with all the details: YR Flyer – Fall 2026 @ CASIS and you can register here: Register YR – Early Fall @ CASIS. Want to know more about about Young Rembrandts Classes? See more information here: Fun Art Classes for Kids – Austin TX. 

CHECKING STUDENTS IN & OUT DURING THE SCHOOL DAY 

We certainly understand that students will have occasional appointments during the school day. For the safety of your child(ren) and for accountable documentation purposes, please know and adhere to the following campus protocols:

• Students will not be sent to the office prior to parent arrival.
• Plan accordingly and arrive early enough to anticipate some delay in your child(ren) coming to the office.
• If picking up towards the end of the day, please try to arrive at the office by 2:30p.m., as it often becomes much more challenging to contact classrooms and/or find students so close to the dismissal time.
• When bringing your child(ren) back to school, please accompany them to the main office to check them back into school.
• A note documenting the reason why the student missed part of the instructional day should be submitted to the Attendance Clerk (hard copy delivered or emailed to casis@austinisd.org). You may also use this link to: Report An Absence Note.

We appreciate everyone’s cooperation and compliance with the above safety and security standards.

STUDENT HANDBOOK & STUDENT SUCCESS GUIDE 

Please see the most updated editions of our campus Student-Parent Handbook (26-27) and the district Student Success Guide (26-27) for this school year. In alignment with AISD, both of these documents act as guidelines for our school community practices and policies. Please review and reference them throughout the 26 – 27 school year.

EMERGENCY DRILLS ON CAMPUS 

Student and staff safety are a top priority in the district and at schools. At Casis Elementary, we will have monthly rotating drills that practice safety measures that are taken, in the event of campus emergencies. Here’s a visual poster that is in every classroom, explaining all of the drills that will take place during the school year: Safety Poster. If parents happen to be volunteering or visiting during any of our monthly drill exercises, they will be expected to participate and follow the group that they are closest to at the time. It’s important for students to be aware of our safety measures and to participate in these practice drills. Please know that staff members are expected to speak about the topic of safety, using child-friendly language and terms, so as not to cause undue anxiety or stress around these required drill activities. For more information about safety protocols in AISD, visit: AISD Emergency Management website.

CHARACTER STRONG IMPLEMENTATION & PRACTICES 

AISD and Casis Elementary will continue implementing Character Strong, the district Character Education and Behavioral Support program. This program is meant to provide students with the necessary skills and strategies to be the very best humans that they can be in the world. Students will hear morning messages and receive lessons from their teachers about topics like respect, gratitude, honesty, courage and more. Teachers will be providing weekly lessons and sending home monthly information to families about the different program topics learned each month. The lessons derive from a program called, “Purposefull People”. Here’s a Family Introductory Letter about Purposefull People. Each month we will cover a different Character Strong topic and resources will be shared to help families have meaningful conversations at home about the learned trait. Here’s an Overview of the monthly topics that will be taught. The Character Strong trait for the month of September is Respect. Here’s the Family Connection Newsletter – Respect for this month’s theme, as well as a list of recommended books for both school and home: Respect Book List. We are so excited to be ‘Character Strong’ at Casis Elementary!

IMPORTANT DATES 

September – National Hispanic American Heritage Month

Mon., Sept. 21 – Student Holiday (Yom Kippur)/Staff PLED Day

Mon., Sept. 21-Fri., Sept. 25 – AISD Teaching Assistant Appreciation Week

Fri., Sept. 25 – Administrators Coffee at 8:00am (Community Room)

PTA NEWS