We have had an outstanding 2nd six weeks at Brenham Elementary. We just finished up a busy week! We celebrated the 50th day of school on October 29 dressing from the 50’s, hosting a Caramel Apple Bar for the staff, and making 50 happy phone calls home for 50 students who are making great choices at school! These calls were made by members of the Leadership Team, and they were nominated by their teachers for positive character qualities and great efforts and academic achievement!

We had an outstanding time at the Brenham ISD Block Party on October 20 and were so excited to have so many of our students come out to enjoy our yard games booth! Connect 4, cornhole, cup stacking, giant Jenga, sidewalk chalk and giant dice made for lots of funs! We also had some fourth grade boys who were pretty excited about dunking Mrs. Vest in the dunk tank! A good time was had by all!

On October 31, our fourth grade team provided treats for the staff, and we had our Fall Follies Parade where our students dressed up as a favorite storybook character and paraded through the school. This event was attended by many of our parents and was a great opportunity to celebrate our love for reading! On Friday, November 9, we will be honoring our wonderful veterans with a special program. We know that all the freedoms and pleasures we enjoy are not possible without those who have been willing to fight for us to have them, so we are so excited to have a special day to honor them. On November 10 we are excited to announce that we will be hosting our first ever staff-created and staff-run BES Big Top Bonanza! This special event will include a student performance, carnival games, delicious food such as snow cones, popcorn, cotton candy, and Bush’s chicken, and a silent auction! We look forward to this fun community event, and we hope you will join us! Tickets can be pre-purchased at BES or on the day of the event. On November 16, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th grade will participate in Track and Field Day at Cub Stadium, and on November 14, our cafeteria will be serving Thanksgiving lunch. We know many of our families will come to enjoy a special lunch with their children, so we are really looking forward to the upcoming opportunities to have our families in the building!  

During the month of November we will be talking about our Core Value of Cooperation. Students will learn that cooperation means working together to do more than you can do alone. We work on cooperation daily at Brenham Elementary, whether we are working together in groups to create a project, play games in PE, or just navigate the lunch line together. This is a value that will definitely benefit students throughout their lifetime as cooperation is a necessity in life!

We look forward to an amazing holiday season with our Cubs! We are so thankful for the support of this outstanding community and the many ways they help us make Brenham Elementary a fantastic place for students and staff!

Jennifer Vest, Principal

We cannot believe how fast the first six weeks of school has gone at Brenham Elementary!

Our new STEAM Academy is up and running and our students are having so much fun!  They are problem solving, working together, cheering each other on, and learning! It is such a pleasure to walk by and see our first and second graders in our STEAM lab twice a week and to see all of our other grades experiencing STEAM Club approximately once a six weeks! This opportunity for our students is invaluable. Thank you to our STEAM teacher India Randermann for all of your hard work to get this program off to a great start and to all of our teachers for their flexibility during the implementation of this new program.

We are finishing up our first round of MAP testing which allows us to do a quick assessment of where our students have strengths and areas of need so that we can make plans for their instruction. Our teachers have been working diligently in weekly planning with instructional and content specialists to plan engaging and relevant lessons that meet the needs of our 21st Century learners! We hope you are following the learning and fun happening on our campus on Facebook and Twitter - you can find both Brenham Elementary accounts by searching @BrenhamElem in both of these applications.

We delivered our first round of student of the month signs to the homes of the honorees - this is truly one of our favorite days of the month! We love visiting their homes and families to encourage and congratulate them for their amazing effort at school.

We are also excited about the Watch D.O.G.S. program which is coming to all elementary campuses in Brenham ISD. Watch D.O.G.S. are fathers, grandfathers, uncles, and other father-figures who volunteer for at least one day each year. They may read with students, play at recess, eat lunch with students, watch school entrances and hallways, assist with traffic flow and any other assigned activities where they actively engage with not only their own students, but other students as well. On the day of their participation, Watch D.O.G.S. are given a brief review of their involvement and they wear an official WATCH D.O.G.S. ® t-shirt with a disposable ‘Dog Tag’ identifying them as Watch D.O.G.S. We can’t wait to have these awesome men in our school to work with and impact our children!

We enjoyed having our parents in on September 5 for our Fall Title 1 and Curriculum Night.  We were so thankful to be able to share important information with our families that night! Our teachers look forward to meeting with each family during parent conferences in October so that we can share how your student is doing and how we can work together to help them reach their goals!

On November 10, we will be hosting our first ever Big Top Bonanza at BES! This year’s Big Top Bonanza will feature student performances, food, carnival games, popcorn, and we are hoping to procure donations to include moonwalks, snow cones, and cotton candy. We will also be holding a silent auction of themed baskets and other cool items. We hope you will join us and if you are interested in sponsoring an activity or making a donation, please contact the Brenham Elementary front desk at 979-277-3880. We are so thankful for the partnership with our community - we believe it takes our whole village to ensure our students are positive and productive members of our community! Thank you for sharing and entrusting your children to us!

Jennifer Vest

Principal

We were so excited to welcome our Cubs back in the building on August 16 to start the 2018-2019 school year! Our BISD maintenance team has been hard at worked diligently all summer giving our hallways a fresh coat of paint, installing protective coatings on the walls in high traffic areas, and more. Our amazing custodial cleaned and waxed floors and spruced up the building and our staff put finishing touches on the walls! We had an amazing first few weeks of school.

I am thrilled to be starting my second year as Principal of Brenham Elementary and look forward to partnering with you again this year. Our theme this year is “Ready, Set, Grow!” and in Brenham ISD, we are Brenham United! We are thrilled to welcome back Steven Siemsglusz, who has returned in his role as BES assistant principal. Steven was a wonderful part of BES just two short years ago, and we are so thankful to have him return. So many of our students have been so excited to see him again! We are so excited to have Misti Davis join us this year as well as our new BES counselor, and we are so excited to have her enthusiasm and passion for serving children on our team.

On August 9 many new students joined us for New Student Orientation and on August 13 we hosted all our students and their parents for a come-and-go open house. We had such a fantastic turnout for this event!

On September 5, we held our Classroom Information Night, formerly known as Curriculum Night where many parents came to get all the details about what we will do and learn at BES this year!

We hope you will stay connected to BES and all the amazing things happening here by following us on Facebook (@BrenhamElem) and Twitter (@BrenhamElem and @PrincipalVest), and by downloading the Brenham ISD mobile app which gives you access to the Parent Portal, lunch menus, current news, and so much more! Additionally, our BES PTO has also joined us on social media and you can find them on Facebook (BES PTO), Twitter (@BrenhamPTO), and Instagram. We will also have a monthly newsletter which will be e-mailed out to everyone who has an email address on file. If you do not have one on file, please send it to our new registrar Jessica Allen at jallen@brenhamisd.net  

We are so excited for a wonderful and rewarding year of growth with our Cubs!

Jennifer Vest

Principal

Dear BES Families,

We had an outstanding final six weeks at Brenham Elementary!  

Our 4th graders have had so much fun learning and wrapping up their final year here with us at BES.  A favorite of all students was their tour of Brenham Middle School. They loved learning all about their new home for 2018-2019. They have also thoroughly enjoyed their time with our amazing ladies from the Bluebonnet Garden Club.  Our Garden Days have been days of exploration and discovery and it would not be possible without the devotion of these wonderful ladies!  Next, our Fourth Graders attended Ag Day where they learned about the critical role agriculture plays in our community, state, and world. On Local History Day, they learned all about our community and the rich history and traditions here in Brenham.  Finally, our 4th graders had their final field trip to Yogi Bear Park to celebrate all their accomplishments this year. This is an outstanding group of 4th graders, and we will be so sad to see them move on, but we know they will be a fantastic addition to BMS!

Our Brenham Elementary PTO hosted their first ever “Chili’s Give Back Night” and it was a great success! Thank you to all our families, community members, and staff who supported our school in this way. We look forward to more fun opportunities like this in the Fall! Our PTO also elected new officers for the 2018 - 2019 school year.  Congratulations and thank you, in advance, for your service to our new officers:

President: Ashlie Paul

Vice President: Bethany Ivy

Treasurer: Ashley Wilson

Secretary: Amy Winningham

Communications: Amanda Bates

Our PTO welcomes all our parents to take part in our PTO which does so much to support our students and school.  Out PTO meets on the first Tuesday of the month at noon in the BES Library.

We celebrated Staff Appreciation during the week of May 7 - 11, and were so thankful for the delicious lunch from PTO and the many kind words and tokens of appreciation showered on our staff that week.  Many of our families dropped off delicious treats like pies or warm doughnut holes as a surprise by our staff, and they were thoroughly enjoyed by all! That same week, we also recognized some of our employees with 5, 10, 15, 25, 30, and 35 years of service to Brenham ISD and our Teacher of the Year, Jonna Klump, at the Employee Appreciation Banquet at Blinn College.  We are so thankful for our staff who provide quality instruction, consistency, and love to our students daily at BES.

We had our Track and Field Day for Kindergarten and First Grade on May 10 and a good time was had by all! We so enjoyed seeing our littlest learners bring that competitive spirit and good sportsmanship on the field.  Thank you to our Specials Teachers, Amanda Droddy, Lindsay Grimm, Robin Popielarz, and LaCarla Duvall, for all you did to make that day happen!

Our Third and Fourth Grade students participated in our state assessment, STAAR, for Reading and Math on May 14 and 15, and we are so proud of their efforts and hard work, not only on these days, but throughout the year.  We know that one test does not define who our students or staff are and what they know and do, and we are thankful that we have a loving and supportive community that knows, no matter the score, our students and staff are stellar examples of quality character and academic excellence.

On May 22, we honored Mr. Robert Fleming, Principal of Brenham Elementary from 2013-2017, who passed away this year in November.  Because Mr. Fleming loved our students so much and they him, we decided the best way to honor his memory was with a “Buddy Bench” and tree on the playground.  A buddy bench is a special place in a school playground where students can sit when they’re too shy to join in on the fun or feeling lonely. It also encourages students to be kind and invite the child on the bench to come play. Mr. Fleming loved our students and wanted them to feel welcomed and happy and safe, so this bench was a wonderful way to honor his memory.  We want to thank the Brenham Elementary Staff for donating the money to fund the project, the Brenham High School CTE students for creating the bench for free, New Era Coatings for painting the bench at cost of materials, and our BISD maintenance department for helping with getting a beautiful tree and our bench installed.

We had lots of WALKING going on at BES in the last month.  The Elementary Community Fitness Walk was a wonderful event and well attended by our students and staff.  In the last week of school, we also had our “Senior Walk” and 4th Grade “Last Walk.” We loved seeing our Brenham High School graduating Seniors return to BES to walk our hallways one last time to the cheers and adoration of our students and staff.  Not only is this event so memorable for Seniors and their families, it is also an excellent opportunity for our elementary students to see where they are headed and how hard work at school pays off in the end! On the last day of school, our 4th graders walked our hallways one last time as well. We loved cheering them on to their new adventure and more than a few tears were shed! We wrapped up the year with so many special events to celebrate our accomplishments this year - Field Trips, Awards Ceremonies, and our Annual Talent Show, another endeavor made possible by our amazing Specials Teachers.

We are so thankful for such a fantastic year at Brenham Elementary and are so appreciative of the family and community support of our campus. Brenham Elementary is a place like no other, and we are blessed to serve here in this amazing place. Thank you to everyone who contributed to our wonderful 2017-2018 school year!

Dear BES Families,

We had an amazing 5th six weeks at Brenham Elementary!  We thoroughly enjoyed celebrating Brenham ISD and Texas Public Schools Week in late February and were thrilled to have so many of our moms and dads join us for Muffins with Mom and Donuts with Dad! We also started our new program, BES Book Buddies, and were honored to have so many of our parents, district staff, retired BISD staff, BES family members, and community volunteers come to read to our students during this week! Thank you to the following groups and organizations who also supported this effort:

Blinn College

Brazos Valley School Credit Union

Brenham High School (AVID students, cheerleaders, and football players)

Brenham National Bank

Brenham State School

Germania Insurance

Texas State Troopers

Thank you also to our parent involvement volunteer sub-committee for organizing and executing our BES Book Buddy program. This committee includes India Randermann (chairperson), Kelci Adams, Libby Kiecke, and Jonna Klump.

In March, we were so proud to have 3 of our students’ artwork presented at 2 different public events! Congratulations to Weston Collier whose art was shown at the Houston Livestock Show, and to Nai Ginnard and Iris Stone whose art was auctioned at the Education Foundation’s Arts and Appetizers event. Thank you also to our awesome art teacher, Robin Popielarz, for the hard work she pours into our students daily.

During the week prior to Spring Break, one of our amazing classroom aides, Amy Petrzelka, organized a “pop-tab” collection to benefit the Ronald McDonald of Houston, a home-away-from-home providing care, compassion and hope to families with seriously ill children being treated in Texas Medical Center member institutions. Many of our BES students and families have benefitted from a stay there over the years. We collected an enormous amount of pop-tabs and Ms. Petrzelka delivered those to the House over spring break.  We are so proud of the hearts and compassion that our students have for others.

On the Friday before Spring Break, we celebrated positive behavior on our campus with a special event - the Bunny Hop! Students earned their way to this special event by making great choices! Thank you to our PBIS Committee including Mary Gold, Sara Gresham, Jonna Klump, Danielle Courville, Wanda Smith, Shannon Altman, Kaci Murphy, Latrika McBride, Kayla Swonke, Lyndsey Kubos, Michael Murphy, Amanda Droddy, and Robin Popielarz for planning this event and to all our BES staff who helped make it happen! Other exciting events that have happened for our students since spring break are the PPCD field trip to Fireman’s Park, 2nd grade water safety lessons at the Blue Bell Aquatic Center, and 2nd grade financial literacy presentation presented by Brazos Valley Credit Union.

On April 10, we completed our first round of state testing, the 4th grade writing STAAR test, and we were so very proud of our dedicated and hardworking teachers and students.  

On April 11, along with the rest of Brenham ISD, we celebrated Love My School Day! This was an opportunity for us to share the many reasons we love Brenham Elementary with the world. We hope you will take a minute to search the hashtag #LoveMySchoolDay on Twitter and peruse our Brenham Elementary Facebook page to see why we think Brenham Elementary is the BEST school in the world!

We have some exciting events coming up at Brenham Elementary! We hope our families and community will join us on Thursday, April 19 from 5:00 - 7:00 p.m. for BISD STEM Night which will occur on our campus. This event is a filled with lots of opportunities for students to explore Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math in a fun, hands-on way.

Finally, we are excited to announce a new event coming to Brenham Elementary on April 24 from 5:00 - 6:30 p.m. - Get the Summer Scoop!  On this evening, we invite our families to come and go sometime during the evening, enjoy ice cream with their student, and learn about ways to keep learning over the summer. We will also share many family fun events that are happening in the Brenham community throughout the summer. Families will also be able to pick up our BES Summer Challenge!  

We are so appreciative of the positive and productive ways that our families and community support our campus, and are so thankful for the words of praise and kindness that have been shared with us about the staff at Brenham Elementary this six weeks. The support of our families and community is invaluable to us, and our goal will always be to serve our families and communities to the best of our ability.

Dear BES Families,

 We had an amazing holiday season at BES filled with celebrations, fantastic musical programs, and learning! We were thrilled to have the Brenham High School Band lead us in a sing-a-long and Santa even made a visit! We know our families enjoyed the nice, long break, and we were excited to return for the Spring semester and get back to the business of learning and growing.

 Our teachers returned the day before our students and participated in a variety of activities to help them learn and grow as well.  We started the day off with breakfast provided by Brazos Valley Schools Credit Union. Pastor Charles Johnson shared the passion he has for public schools, and many of our staff shared their knowledge with their peers through our EduConference. We also selected our One Word vision for the year to help keep our focus on why we do what we do every day - our students, families, and community! Our Core Value this month is Commitment which we are learning means making a plan and putting it into practice.  We are committed to making this the best semester yet for our Cubs!

 Our first week back with students was amazing, and we are really looking forward to a great semester.  We had our Math and Literacy Family Night January 30 from 5:00 - 7:00 in the evening.  We had a great turnout and many parents and students enjoyed activities together in the cafe, had a yummy pizza dinner, and our Book Fair was packed that evening for late shopping hours! We are so thrilled to see so many BES students with a love for reading!

On February 16, our 4th graders will enjoy our annual trip to Washington on the Brazos where they will experience the unparalleled history of the Republic of Texas. This is a unique opportunity  for our students to connect with the past during their visit to the Birthplace of Texas.

 February is recognized as Black History Month.  Our students will learn about a different person each week who has made a significant contribution to our country and world. This special month will culminate with our annual Black History Program on February 23 at 1:30 PM.

 We hope to see our families and volunteers on campus for some of these amazing events, and, as always, are so thankful for the many ways our community helps us make Brenham Elementary a wonderful place for students and staff!

 Jennifer Vest

Principal

Dear BES Families,

 We had an outstanding 2nd six weeks at Brenham Elementary. In October, we had had lots of themed dress-up days as we celebrated Homecoming Week for Brenham High School and Red Ribbon Week later in the month where we learned about how to keep our minds and bodies healthy so we can be our best versions of ourselves! Our BES Homecoming Float took 2nd place so that was very exciting! Our 2nd graders took a Field Trip to the Oil Ranch and had a wonderful day exploring together. Many students and parents joined our staff at the BISD Block Party on October 21 and we had a wonderful time playing Yard Games and making memories together. We also had so much fun during Fall Follies where our students and staff dressed up as favorite storybook characters and paraded through the school.  This event was attended by many of our parents and was a great opportunity to celebrate our love for reading! That same afternoon, we had a celebration of awesome behavior at our Monster Bashes - students danced and played, and we even raffled off some fun prizes! It has been such a pleasure getting to know all the students we have at Brenham Elementary this year, and with our amazing staff and the fun we have had already, we are looking forward to a banner year!

  In November, we honored our wonderful Veterans with a special program. We know that all the freedoms and pleasures we enjoy are not possible without those who have been willing to fight for us to have them, so we are so excited to have a special day to honor them.  Our 2nd, 3rd, and 4th grade students also enjoyed Track and Field Day at Cub Stadium, and on November 15 our cafeteria served Thanksgiving lunch. Many of our families again joined us for this special lunch with their children and we were thrilled to have our families in the building!  We also learned about our Core Value of Gratitude.  and we learned that Gratitude means letting others know that you see how they have helped you.  All BES students participated in a special Gratitude Project by writing notes of thanks to some of the very special groups in our community to show them we recognize the ways they help us! We are so lucky to have our CARS mentors, our Bluebonnet Garden Club, our Firefighters, and so many other groups that help us in so many ways.  

In the midst of all this excellence, we are also LEARNING! Students are reading, experimenting, writing, problem solving, creating and teaching us so much as we teach them! We are so proud of the learning happening at our school, and we hope you will follow us on Twitter and Facebook @BrenhamElem to get a inside glimpse at our daily happenings!

We have so many opportunities for families to be involved at Brenham Elementary.  First, touch base with your child’s classroom teacher - ask how you can help your student at home or how you can contribute to the classroom - there are so many opportunities to help at home, or to give time at school if you have time to share. Our Brenham Elementary PTO is such a blessing to our campus and would love to have your help!  If you aren’t able to help at school during the day, just making sure that your child gets a good night’s rest, is at school every day from 8:00 until 3:30 is a great place to start! Next, get connected to our campus - make sure you have shared your current contact information including an e-mail address if you have one with the school so you receive our parent newsletters and special announcements. Find our Facebook and Twitter pages to get reminders and an inside glimpse at what happens daily at our campus. Finally, there are many opportunities to volunteer at Brenham Elementary. Our CARS program is a great place to help some of our struggling readers - contact the school and talk to Mrs. Wheaton if you are interested.  We provide the training, so you just have to come to the school ready to support and care for kids!

We look forward to an amazing holiday season with our Cubs! We are so thankful for the support of this outstanding community and the many ways they help us make Brenham Elementary a fantastic place for students and staff!

Jennifer Vest

Principal

Dear BES Families,

We have had quite a start to our school year! With a solar eclipse and then Hurricane Harvey in the first two weeks, our students, staff, and families have had to be flexible and resilient! I have been so proud to see how each of these groups has responded and never more proud as I see the generous donations rolling in this week for our School Supply Drive to benefit Refugio Elementary.  Refugio is a small town near Rockport, Texas that was heavily impacted by Hurricane Harvey, and through connections with our staff to this community, we were made aware of a need.  The Brenham Elementary community has brought an overwhelming response in the first few days, and we look forward to sharing the final results with you after the drive completes on Friday, September 15.

We have had lots of amazing learning going on at BES as well - the teachers have been working diligently in weekly planning with Instructional and Content Specialists to plan engaging and relevant lessons that meet the needs of our 21st Century learners! We hope you are following the learning and fun happening on our campus on Facebook and Twitter - you can find both Brenham Elementary accounts by clicking on these links:

Brenham Elementary Facebook Page Link

Brenham Elementary Twitter Page Link

We have also begun a variety of behavior and character based incentives, and we hope your children have come home to tell you about Pawbucks, Vest VIPs, and our Core Essential values we have been learning about: Respect and Friendship. We will soon be adding our new "It's a Great Day to be a Cub!" ribbons to recognize significant academic achievement and growth.

Thank you for your partnership with us - we believe it takes our whole village to ensure our students are positive and productive members of our community!

Jennifer Vest

Principal

Dear Cub Families,

Welcome to the 2017 - 2018 school year! We are so excited to begin what we are certain will be the best year yet at Brenham Elementary! Our theme this year is "Alone, we are one drop, but TOGETHER, we are an ocean!" We believe that we are truly better together.

Our goal daily is to provide a safe environment conducive to high quality, relevant, engaging learning for our students.  When we make decisions, you can feel confident that we have student safety and achievement at the heart of these decisions. We are thankful for the trust you place in us daily to not only educate your children, but to provide for their safety and well-being. 

We are also thankful for your partnership with us to help provide this high quality education for your student. We strive, as educators, to be lifelong learners and continue to find ways to meet the individual needs of every child. We know that a strong parent-family partnership is critical in this endeavor. We hope you will join us for family events or to volunteer in our school. Your involvement and example have a great impact on our students.

Thank you for the opportunity to serve you and your student. We look forward to an amazing school year!

Jennifer Vest

Principal