Dear Northern Oaks Lower School Families,

Wow! What an incredible Fiestaval this year! It was a beautiful day and a wonderful way to celebrate the coming of spring and the Fiesta season. I have always been in awe of how many families attend this event, but a big thank you to those who came and enjoyed time together. We are so grateful to all the parents, teachers (especially those who took turns in the dunk tank), the student volunteers, and to the PSO leadership for making this so organized and fun.

I want to once again thank the Academy Advisory Committee for the work and time put in to discuss concerns and ways to improve our campus and student life. We recently held our final meeting of the year on April 5^th. I want to share a special thank you to Charles Smith, Marcy Mitchel, DeAnna Macias, Steve Jordan, Josh Collins, Matt Soileau, Cheryl Cornelius, Tamara Vazques, Theresa Guidry, and Brian Warzinsky for the constructive conversations and ideas that they advised on this year. They have helped Mr. Funes and I look closely at areas of growth, training needs, areas of awareness, and action items with campus policies, facilities, and parking needs that we will continue to work toward improving. This has been an incredibly high-functioning team and a valuable process. In early May we will send out information on how to apply for next year’s academy advisory committee. You can find a summary of the meeting here.

The next meeting of the Great Hearts Texas Board of Directors will be Wednesday, April 17 at 6 pm at the Great Hearts Irving Upper School. Zoom access will also be provided on the Great Hearts Texas Board Meetings page ahead of the meeting.

Our STAAR Testing window continues this week. Please click here if you missed the email detailing the grade level schedule. We will have restricted access to visitors on the testing days. We ask that you do your best to reschedule appointments on these dates so that we can limit the number of make-up tests that we have to provide.

PSO is looking for a new parent leadership! Please read Wendy Kim's PSO Letter to anyone interested in future PSO leadership roles. Please reach out to Mr. Funes and/or myself to apply. We are hoping to announce the next PSO president at the May 2^nd PSO Quarterly Meeting (this will be the last general PSO meeting of the year and where parents can sign up for interest in committees next year). 

We will have our Spring Choir Concert on Friday, May 3rd. We will be holding the concert at Trinity Baptist Church, which shares space with our Monte Vista Upper School Campus, closer to downtown on Mulberry Avenue.

The summer is quickly approaching. Our last day of school will be May 30^th. We always have a small number of families who are eager to begin their summer break early therefore it is important to remind parents that we have many important end-of-year traditions such as Kinder and Sixth Grade Promotion both on May 29^th, the House Banquet on May 30^th, and multiple end-of-year celebrations. Please remember that we at Northern Oaks teach from the first to the last day of school. During the final few days of school, students will have a final math test, Spalding test, or poetry recitation depending on their grade level. Attendance is mandatory to receive credit on these final assessments of the year.

Sincerely,

Charles Brogan-Headmaster Lower School

Thank you to all the students who donated a book this week to their classroom libraries in honor of their birthdays! We are so excited to continue this tradition to celebrate our students and expand our classroom libraries at GHNO! If you’d like to donate a book for your child’s birthday, click here for more info.

The Great Hearts Texas Board Meeting will be held on Wednesday, April 17th at Great Hearts Irving Upper School (3520 World Cup Way, Irving, TX 75038) from 6:00-9:00 pm CST. 

Great Hearts Texas (GHTX) proudly operates academies in Bexar, Dallas, and Tarrant counties as well as one Online school serving families across the state. To better represent our full GHTX community, the Board and GHTX leadership intend to hold GHTX board meetings in both San Antonio and North Texas in the future.

Additionally, GHTX has received feedback from parents/members of the public who have voiced interest in attending live, yet have difficulty doing so when meetings are held during work and school hours. While evening meetings may not always be feasible, the Board and GHTX leadership hear the public's feedback and will strive to offer both daytime and evening meetings for each region throughout the school year. Please note that Board Meeting recordings and or minutes are available 24 hours a day on the GHTX website.

As a friendly reminder, meeting details will be included on the agenda and posted here no later than three days prior to the meeting. 

As a charter school, GHNO depends on our families’ financial support each year. Scheduling monthly donations is the best way to break up your charitable giving into affordable installments. Click here to schedule monthly contributions! if you have questions about how your gifts are set up for the 24-25 school year reach out to DeAnna Macias our Director of Community Engagement and Academy Giving.

·        Charter Priorities for Texas’ 89^th Legislature: The 89^th Legislature will not convene until January 2025, but charter schools are already working to set their legislative agendas. The Texas Public Charter School Association has identified increased funding for charter school facilities as its top priority in the next legislative session.  TPCSA will advocate for removing the current funding cap for charter school facilities; creating a stairstep increase over the next biennial budget cycles; and converting the facilities’ allotment to a per-pupil basis.

·      Stay in the Know:  The Texas Public Charter School Association (TPCSA) is our statewide organization representing all Texas charter schools. They are working to ensure that those who have benefited most from charter schools have the opportunity to share their experiences with legislators and make their voices heard. Great Hearts works closely with them to protect educational choice as an option for our families. Please consider signing up to receive TPCSA’s emails, updates, and action alerts to participate in their important grassroots efforts by clicking this link. To learn more about charter advocacy, contact GH’s Family Advocacy Manager Bridie Chaudoir

Volunteering: Interested in supporting the school through volunteering, go to www.ghnopso.org and see how. To reach out to PSO leadership email at northernoakspso@gmail.com.

Stay in the Know: The Texas Public Charter School Association (TPCSA) is our statewide organization representing all Texas charter schools. They are working to ensure that those who have benefited most from charter schools have the opportunity to share their experiences with legislators and make their voices heard. Great Hearts works closely with them to protect educational choice as an option for our families. Please consider signing up to receive TPCSA’s emails, updates, and action alerts to participate in their important grassroots efforts by clicking this link.

To learn more about charter advocacy, contact GH’s Family Advocacy Manager Bridie Chaudoir at bridie.chaudoir@greatheartstxschools.org

Attendance Matters-

We receive state funding for all students who are in their classes at 10:45 a.m. each day!

If a scholar will be out for a doctor's appointment during attendance time, please be sure to submit a doctor's note upon return so we may count him or her present for the day.



For full-day absences, please notify the Lower School Registrar, Mrs. Lauren Clark

Batlle of Flowers – No School – April 26^th

Spring Music Concert – May 3^rd

For more events including early release Fridays and special dates see our Family Campus Calendar.