School begins for students in grades 1-5 on Monday, August 26.
Doors open for students at 7:40am and close at 7:55am for instruction to begin at 8am. Students need to be in class by 8am.
Parents/Guardians are responsible for students 7:40 when doors open. Students who arrive earlier are not monitored by staff and entrance to the building is not permitted prior to this for any reason.
DISMISSAL - TRANSPORTATION:
Routines are extremely beneficial for children! Thank you for establishing a consistent dismissal routine for your students. These routines are crucial to ensuring safety for all students and allow for an efficient dismissal process for our large school community. Consistency reduces student stress and anxiety, as frequent change causes confusion and worry for our students. Thank you, once again, for establishing a consistent dismissal routine for your students. You will be asked to share your student's plan as part of the Sneak a Peek classroom visit. If a change is needed on a given day, it MUST be communicated in writing by sending a note or email to your student's homeroom teacher and the main office via folgermckinseyES@aacps.org
Please consult the AACPS bus route information here for this year. We do have a few new bus routes for our school. The bus routes post morning pick up times but do not include afternoon drop off times. Dismissal begins at 2:25, with buses leaving the school around 2:35. Afternoon routes for buses are in the reverse order of morning pick up. Of course, be mindful that the first few weeks of school are a little slower as everyone gets familiar with routes, routines, traffic, etc. Thank you for your patience!
Car riders arrive and are dismissed via the Arundel Beach Road entrance. Please adhere to these procedures:
Drivers remain in vehicles at all times and follow direction of school staff.
Students exit and enter vehicles at the top of the loop only (not the parking lot), per direction of school staff.
At pick up (dismissal), please display the visor tag with student last name.
The car line moves quickly once we get started. Arriving too early results in a traffic problem on Arundel Beach Road. Thank you for helping us to be a good neighbor in the community. Please do not arrive before 2:20pm.
Only the main entrance will be used for arrival and dismissal.
Students who walk home from school will meet adults at the bottom of entrances (Arundel Beach Road and Sunset). Adults should remain at the school signs. Please do not come to the front entrance, as we need to keep that clear for our dismissal process.
We encourage you to begin the transition to the school-year schedule now. Start easing back into routines, including good bedtime routines to be ready for back to school wake up for the first day of school on August 26.
ATTENDANCE INFO - absences, late arrivals, early dismissals
Please see the chart below for the procedures to communicate absences, early dismissals, and dismissal changes. Helpful information is also printed in the take-home folder. (Please note that at the time the home folders were printed, AACPS Parent Portal was being utilized to communicate early dismissals. That is no longer the case this year. Parent Portal will only be used for full day absences this year.)
For both late arrival and early dismissal, the parent/guardian will be admitted to the main entrance vestibule to sign the student in or out of school by completing the provided form.
With late arrival, the parent/guardian must bring the student(s) into the building (vestibule) and sign the student(s) in. Dropping off students outside in the parking lot once the school doors have closed and instruction has begun is not safe nor acceptable.
For early dismissal, which is permissible until 2pm, if you are sending another adult, such as a grandparent, that too must be in writing, and please remind them to also have identification available.
The late arrival/early dismissal form is to be completed once on-site at the time a student is arriving or leaving the school. The time the form is completed/signed is critical to these matters and needs to be accurate as it pertains to the student time in/out of school.
If you are arriving when students are entering/exiting the building (i.e. for recess), please step to the side and wait for their safe passing. Do not enter amid staff and students. Thank you for adhering to this important safety practice!
A friendly reminder about Chronic Absenteeism - This topic was discussed last year at the District level and at our school. The State Department of Education defines a student who misses 10% of the school year, or 18 or more days, as chronically absent. As you know, attendance directly impacts not only a student's achievement, but their overall experience, including their friendships and social/emotional well-being. Like you, we want the best possible learning experience for all students. Attendance makes a difference! Obviously if your child is sick, they should stay home. Please see the Health Room section of this newsletter for further guidance on when to keep a child home from school due to illness.
