Welcome

Welcome Stallion Families,

     We are very excited to usher in a new school year continuing to grow as a community and offer your child and family a wonderful and wholistic learning experience at Steele. In this letter you will find key pieces of information about the upcoming school year and some exciting new additions to our school community purchased through pandemic relief funds (ESSER funds).

School Hours: morning bell rings at 7:40 and final bell rings at 7:45am. Release is 1:55pm every day EXCEPT Wednesday which students are released at 12:55pm.

School Wide Information & Protocols:

Student Drop Off: Valet drop off is used, staff members meet students at the car and assist them with exiting the car and entering the building in a safe and orderly manner.
  • Drop off window is 7:20-7:40am
  • Do not drop students off prior to 7:20am.
If your child will be eating breakfast, please drop them off no later than 7:35 so that they have time to eat. The bell will ring at 7:40 and they will need to line up and be ready to start class at 7:45am. Student who arrive late and cannot eat breakfast in time will be sent to class and may eat their breakfast at morning break. If you would like to ensure they have breakfast before they go class, you must bring them into the cafeteria and stay with them while they eat.

Student Pick Up: We use a Valet System; this allows you to stay in your air-conditioned car while we provide a safe and orderly release of students.
  • Pick Up: 1:55pm M, T, Th, F and 12:55 every Wednesday.
  • During the first week student will receive a colored card with their first name/teacher to put into your car window.
  • When you pull up, we will call your child via radio and load your child in a quick and safe manner.

If you would like to walk and pick up children, you are welcome to park in the Kenyon lot and line up down by the Sarnoff entrance doors so the staff member at the door can call your child out of the cafeteria. Please make sure to get in line so that our staff can call your student out as quickly and orderly as possible.

Help us keep everyone safe by following these drop off and pick up protocols: In the first weeks as we get started it can take a little longer to move through this process. Once everyone is familiar with the valet system it is a quick and safe experience for all.
  • Students load and unload on the passenger side of the car, or if necessary to load on the driver’s side only do so with staff assistance. o Stay in your vehicle, staff will assist student in exiting and entering vehicles.
  • Only load and unload in the zone where adults are present. Please do not unload down the line and pull out.
  • Please follow traffic laws with regards to making U-turns in and out of the pick-up/dropoff line.
  • Do not drop students off in the Kenyon parking lot, unless you park and walk them to the door.
  • Follow staff directions during drop-off and pick-up.
  • Always model patience and kindness for our students.
Visitors and Volunteers: We are excited to welcome visitors and volunteers back on campus, all guest on campus during school hours must sign-in through the front office. Families are welcome to come onto campus and join their child for breakfast in the cafeteria or before school recess and line up with their child without signing in. If a parent is staying past the school bell to volunteer, they must sign in through the front office.

• After School KIDCO program sponsored by the City of Tucson: If you are interested in having your child attend aftercare on the Steele campus sign up on EZEEreg.com. Registration for KIDCO opens online Saturday, July 16th . If you need of financial assistance for the afterschool program, contact your closest City of Tucson Recreation Center to apply for sliding scale KIDCO fees. You must get approval for sliding scale fee before registering your child online. KIDCO will be offered everyday from dismissal to 6pm for children who have registered through the City of Tucson program (including half days and early dismissal Wednesdays)

We are excited to introduce our Family Community Liaison Ms. Julie Friend. Ms. Friend will be on campus part time and working to support families in ways that help their students have optimal success while at school. Be looking for communication from Ms. Friend once school starts.

• Keep and eye out for exciting new projects at Steele. We anticipate breaking ground on our new Intermediate Playground structure on the east side of our field in September 2022. We are also planning to have a walking track installed around the perimeter of our field, refurbish our sprinkler system to create a beautiful grass field, complete our outdoor classroom and install shading, develop our classroom gardens, in addition to continuing to update our classroom technology. These are all the exciting project to be completed this year with ESSER (pandemic relief funds).

Breakfast and Lunch: Breakfast and lunch are FREE to all students on campus. Menus can be located on the TUSD website.

Covid-19 mitigation practices: Handwashing, hand sanitizing, regular cleaning protocols, Covid19 weekly pool testing program, along with staying home when ill will be our main mitigation protocols at this time. If you child is ill or been exposed to Covid-19, you will need to speak with our Health Office staff for the most up to date district stay home/testing guidelines (see attached for current guidelines). Face-coverings will remain optional for daily school activities as long as Pima County Health Department’s weekly Covid-19 Community Transmission rate stays in the low or medium categories (see attached TUSD’s Governing Board Policies on Covid Mitigation guidelines).

• Meetings: We will continue to offer the opportunity to have meetings with families via Zoom in addition to offering in-person meetings. This will be based on the type of meeting as wells as preferences and needs of all stakeholders.

In closing, I want to let you that as I enter my 5th year as principal at Steele, I am incredibly excited and optimistic about the all the wonderful opportunities we have to grow as a school community. It has been a challenging few years but many of us have been through these tough times together and are stronger for it. We have a dedicated and hardworking faculty and staff at Steele. We believe in working together with our families to make this a positive and successful school year.

With appreciation,

Jessica Harris
Principal
Harold Steele Elementary School