We are excited to welcome back (virtually) our students one week from today! In this newsletter, you’ll find information about:

  • Tonight’s deadline for selecting in-person or virtual learning on Sept. 8 
  • LISD moving to Remind platform to better serve families
  • Child Nutrition Services information on safety, family assistance
  • Our Back to School Checklist 
  • Virtual Open House dates
  • Friday’s laptop deployment for elementary students moving to Henry MS 
  • Supporting our heroic educators by signing up to become a substitute teacher
  • Our Launch to Learning Guides and FAQs
  • Serving on our districtwide committees

Deadline to select virtual or in-person learning beginning Sept. 8 is TONIGHT!

The Student Selection for in-person and Virtual Empowered Learning (VEL) closes at midnight tonight.

The first three weeks of the 2020–21 school year (Aug. 13–Sept. 7) will be entirely online, with all students in Virtual Empowered Learning. Starting Sept. 8, students can choose between in-person and virtual learning. We are asking families to tell us their preference so that we can efficiently prepare our campuses. In order to assign teachers and students into classrooms and minimize change, we need parents and guardians to select their choice by TONIGHT at midnight. 

Schools are working to connect with individual students who have not submitted a choice. Each school will have a process for updating selections at the grading period changes. Please look for communication from your student’s school.

LISD moving to Remind platform to better serve families

Beginning next week, ahead of the start of the 2020–21 school year, Remind will replace SchoolMessenger as the bulk notification platform used by Leander ISD to connect with families and students through text, email and phone broadcasts.

By switching to Remind, all LISD communications will consolidate into a single platform, with Remind being a convenient tool to view messages from the district and your student’s principal and teachers.

Remind provides the district a text message-focused delivery platform, which we’ve seen to be the most effective way of communicating directly with most families. Each user can set their notification preferences, including selecting email instead of, or in addition to, a text message.

Remind’s robust mobile app and web-based platform create a one-stop shop for parents to keep track of messages relating to their students. While the mobile app and web platform are the best ways to utilize Remind, we do not require you to download the app. You will still get text messages or emails without signing into Remind.

For information on how to get started, please check out the LISD’s Remind support page.

Child Nutrition Services information on safety, family assistance

As the 2020–21 school year approaches, our Child Nutrition Services (CNS) team is continuously working to ensure that our students continue to have healthy and delicious meals during Virtual Empowered Learning (VEL) and beyond. Throughout emergency COVID-19 food service beginning in March and continuing through the summer, CNS served nearly 200,000 meals! The fact that there were so few interruptions to the services our families depend on is due to the strict adherence to safety protocols.

Here is how we plan on continuing our support for Leander families and virtual learners:

Free & Reduced Lunch Applications

Apply online at https://www.mymealtime.com/Apps/SignIn or download a printable form online on the CNS website.

Mobile Apps

Make a payment!

Easily make payments to your student’s account through My MealTime on iPhone (My MealTime) or Android (My MealTime) for free!

Menus and mobile ordering!

Find our menus and mobile ordering features online!  Download free now for iPhone (Nutrislice) or Android (Nutrislice)!

Order Ahead!

Order ahead for multiple-day meal service at one pick-up time that works best with your family’s schedule! Download Nutrislice or order online at https://leanderisd.nutrislice.com/.

Locations: All 9 Middle Schools Service: 10:30 – 11:30 AM Begins: August 13, 2020

Returning to in-person learning

When in-person learning returns in the future, CNS has got your back. We have thoroughly vetted numerous feeding models for all grade groups & various food packaging options to ensure the continued safety of our students and Leander family. 

Got questions? Call us at (512) 570-0670.

Back-to-School Checklist

With the first three weeks of the school year completely online, we know back-to-school looks different this year. In an effort to assist our families with planning for the start of this school year, we created the 2020–21 Leander ISD Back-to-School Checklist.

Virtual Open House Dates

We’re excited to connect with our students and families at virtual open houses over the next several weeks. Please join us! 

  • PreK Open House – 5 p.m., Monday, August 10
  • Elementary Meet the Teacher – 5 and 5:45 p.m., Tuesday, August 11 
  • 6th Grade – 6:45 p.m., Tuesday, August 11 
  • 7th and 8th Grade – 6:30 p.m., Tuesday, August 18 @ 6:30 p.m. *Please note change from original date of Aug. 20
  • High School – Monday, August 24 – start time determined by campus

Each campus will be sharing details about these events with our families through email and/or on their campus websites. We look forward to seeing familiar faces and meeting new ones!

Elementary laptop deployment on Friday moved to Henry MS

To deploy devices more efficiently to our elementary  families and to aid traffic congestion, the Friday, Aug. 7 Chromebook deployment has moved to Henry Middle School, which will flow through Vista Ridge High School.  There will be no Chromebook deployments at Pleasant Hill and Grandview Hills Elementary Schools.

From 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., elementary families will enter at the North entrance of Henry Middle School and proceed through the HMS campus to Vista Ridge.

Support teachers! Substitutes needed for the 2020–21 school year

Our teachers have never needed the support of our community more than the upcoming school year. It takes all of us to make a great year happen, and we are actively recruiting substitute teachers ahead of the start of school. 

As a substitute teacher for LISD you may:

  • select the campuses you want to serve, 
  • choose your preferred grade levels and teachers, and 
  • fulfill assignments as little or as much as you can under the circumstances.

Extensive safety measures are in place at each campus and applying is quick and easy. 

Launch to Learning Guides and FAQs

You’ve got questions? We’ve got answers to help you make the best decisions for your family in our Launch to Learning 2020–21.

We know that our community will still have questions; if you are unable to locate your answer, please feel free to submit your question using the Let’s Talk button on our Launch to Learning site.

Share your voice: LISD’s district committee applications open

District committee applications are open from August 3 through August 17. To learn more and apply for a place on the Districtwide Educational Improvement Council (DWEIC), Community Curriculum Advisory Committee (CCAC) and/or the School Health Advisory Committee (SHAC), please visit the Committees page.