We are so excited to welcome all of our students and families back to Sunset Valley for another wonderful school year! We look forward to connecting with you at Meet the Teacher or on the first day of school. Ms. Navarro will also be hosting a short virtual welcome meeting to share staff updates, important information for the first week, and details about arrival and dismissal procedures (see the link and time below).

It is very important that families let their teacher know how their child will go home on the first day of school as well as for the remainder of the year. Teachers will provide two name plates per family, which are required for all car riders and park & walk families. For safety, students will not be released to any individual without the official name plate.

If a name plate is forgotten, please be prepared to show a valid ID. You will then be asked to go into the office, where a staff member will verify that you are listed as an approved contact for that student. If you would like to update your child’s pick-up contacts, please reach out to our registrar, Melissa Arredondo, at Melissa.arredondo@austinisd.org.

The start of the year always comes with many updates and to-dos, so please stay tuned to the information provided below. Sending warm hugs to all of our cheetahs—we can’t wait to see you soon! 🌟

With Care,

Elaine

📋 Registration
Our district is still experiencing challenges with the Frontline and Enroll Austin systems, which has caused delays, errors, and limited access for registrars to complete student enrollment. If your family has been affected, please know you have not been forgotten. We are working diligently to have every student registered by the first day of school.

At this time, our PK3 and PK4 students are facing the greatest delays. Please note that students must be officially entered into our database (Frontline) in order to begin school on Day 1. While we understand this may cause inconvenience, we truly appreciate your patience and understanding as we work through factors that are, in part, beyond our campus control.

For any concerns or updates, please contact our registrar, Melissa Arredondo, at Melissa.arredondo@austinisd.org. We are so eager to welcome all of our cheetahs back soon! 💛

🏫 Class Lists
Class lists have already been shared with teachers, and most families should have received a welcome message or introduction. If you have not yet heard from your child’s teacher, please know this is due to the enrollment delays we’re still experiencing. Teachers simply do not have access to some student information, including parent emails, at this time. Our staff and district partners are working diligently through the weekend, and we hope to have everything finalized by Monday.

If you don’t receive an email in the meantime, don’t worry—our front office staff will have completed rosters available at Meet the Teacher and will gladly direct you to your child’s classroom. ✨

Finally, I want to share a note of gratitude and transparency regarding teacher requests. At Sunset Valley, we do not accept teacher requests. This is because we put great care into creating balanced classrooms that best support all of our students. Allowing requests would create an inequitable system that simply could not serve every family fairly. Equity is one of our core values, and we thank you for joining us in honoring that belief. By trusting this process, you are helping us give every cheetah the best possible start to the school year. 🐆💛

We are excited for an amazing year ahead and cannot wait to see our cheetahs back on campus soon!

Welcome old parents and new! This year, the PTA is working with the principal to make sure that all the information you need is in two places: 

• Emails like this one. There will be a newsletter every weekend, and extra emails if there’s something timely you need to know during the week.

• The online school calendar, which is easy to add to your own calendar app on your phone or computer — just click on the Subscribe button on the right side, and you’ll always have the latest dates on your device. Please note that we’re still setting and adding dates for events throughout the school year, but most things should be in by the time school starts. If anything gets added or changed, this will be the first place you see it. Subscribe to the school calendar.

We also have a WhatsApp community and Facebook groups for parents to connect with each other, but the school does not use those for official communications.

How to sign up for school emails:

If you or another parent are not getting the school emails and wants to, there are two good ways to get on the school mailing list:

• Ask the school to add you. Contact 512-414-2392 or melissa.arredondo@austinisd.org

• Go to the AISD portal and add yourself in Frontline. Here’s a tutorial.

Show off your creativity and help the PTA design our next school t-shirt! The theme is Día de los Muertos. We’re looking for original artwork featuring either:

💀 A skull – bold, creative, and culturally inspired; or

🎊 Papel picado – colorful, festive, and full of flair

It doesn’t hurt to work in our school mascot (cheetah) and colors (purple and yellow), too!

Guidelines:

• Must be original 5th grader artwork (no computer-generated work). Can be drawn or mixed media (papel picado is paper cutouts, after all)

• One design per student

• Design should work well on a t-shirt (1-3 colors preferred)

• Include “Sunset Valley Elementary” in your design

• Submit a high-resolution photograph or scan on a white background, and be prepared to give us the original

• Give us your t-shirt size as well

Deadline is August 15, 2025. Submit your design to president@sve-pta.org.

Top candidates will be picked by the PTA board, and PTA student members will get to vote on the final design. Winner receives a free shirt + design featured in the PTA store.

This summer, our campus has been under major construction as Sunset Valley prepares for the installation of a new security vestibule at our main entrance. The project was originally scheduled to be completed by August 1st, but due to a construction error with the measurements, the vestibule will need to be reinstalled after Labor Day weekend.

The good news is that about 90% of the front office construction is complete, and the space will be ready to support school operations on day one. Students and staff will continue to enter and exit through the main entrance, and visitors will follow updated safety procedures:

• All visitors will be buzzed into the front office to check in.

• After check-in, visitors will be buzzed out into the main building by office staff.

• Visitors will not be able to walk directly through the vestibule construction area.

While the final installation is still in progress, we want to assure you that safety protocols will be in place from the very first day of school. Thank you for your patience and support as we complete this important improvement for our campus.

🐆💛 Together, we are making SVE stronger and safer!

Hello SVE Community! Who’s ready for some gardening?! My name is Baron Cazares, and I am the incoming Garden Chair on the PTA board.

I wanted to share with you all some of the Garden Work days at SVE that are upcoming. If you are able to attend either day - for any period of time - join us in kicking off this year by showing our campus some love. 

Saturday, August 16th, 9am - 12pm (come for whatever time you can give)

Projects: We will be cleaning the front garden and getting it ready for first day of school. We will also be cleaning and showing some love to the area around the marquee. Another project will be getting started on the Umbrella Garden which is located on the backside. We will also have some low impact activities as well such as trash pick up. Fun for everyone!

Saturday, September 20th, 9am - 12pm (come for whatever time you can give)

Projects: We will put the finishing touches on the Umbrella Garden. Our main focus will be getting the PEAS garden ready so that our students may start using it. Lastly, we will be laying down wild flower seeds in designated areas, so come spring you will have no choice but to stop and smell them.

Bring water, mosquito spray, sunscreen, hat - whatever you need to be comfortable. Tools and garden gloves will be provided, but please feel free to bring your favorite garden gloves, rake, shovel, trowel if you want.

Look forward to slinging some mulch with you all! We also need help with litter pick-up in case you are looking for a less physical task!  Children are welcome.