White Marsh Elementary School

Welcome to May! The Bears continue to work hard this year, and we will have another busy week! MCAP testing continues this week. We will transition to Math testing on Wednesday. Please continue to have students come to school rested, and with a charged laptop.

On Tuesday, our First Graders have a field trip to Elms. April's Bear Crawl will also occur on Tuesday. The Running Club will meet on Wednesday; pick-up is at 4:20 with a photo ID. Also on Wednesday, the PTA will meet at 6:30 pm. Our Fifth Graders will enjoy a field trip to St. Mary's City on Thursday.

Have a great week!

This week, we will have the Bear Crawl for those students with Perfect Attendance (Bell to Bell) in April! Students will get to crawl like bears and ROAR down our hallways! Please be sure to check your students' attendance on HAC. If they have an absence that you feel should be excused to allow them participation in this event, email Mrs. Steele with the date(s) and the reason for the absence by Monday, May 1, 2023.

The Bears continue to work to improve their daily attendance. The Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) goal is 94%. We have not reached this for quite some time. However, we are showing improvement from last year; currently we are at 93.6%, and this time last year we were at 92.6%. MSDE monitors our school attendance, and this is an important component in our School Ratings.

Despite the improvement, we still have 17% (over 30 students) who are considered chronically absent. This means they have missed 10% or more of the instructional days this far. At this point in the school year, that is 14 or more absences. When you think of this in terms of 6-7 hours per school day, this is an incredible amount of time.

Every day matters.

May 10 PTA Family Fun Night with Food Trucks, Popsicles and Book Swap! 4:30 - 6 pm

May 11 Kindergarten to Elms

May 12 Virtual Instruction Day

May 17 Running Club, Last Day!

May 18 Spring Dance!

May 24 PTA Bike Safety Night, 5-6 pm

May 25 Spring Concert- Band, Strings, Chorus 10 am

May 29 Memorial Day Holiday

May 30 - Jun 6 Book Fair!

Jun 2 Field Day

Jun 6 5th Grade Fun Day

Jun 8 K - 4 Awards Assemblies; Times TBD

Jun 9 2 hr Early Dismissal, Last Day of School!

Please be thinking about a safe place to store your child's laptop for the summer. Students will bring them home for the summer, and will be responsible for their safety. Students will use the same laptop next year.

Suggestions and information:

1. Keep your laptop in a secure place. The laptop should not leave home or be taken on vacations.
2. It is your responsibility for the care and upkeep of your device.
   
3. A school laptop costs 500.00.
4. Laptop charger replacements cost 40.00.

If you break a laptop, there is a repair cost. Please take care of your device.

See more information in the general reminders section below.

"Spring Fever" has set in, and the Bears and I had a conversation last week about appropriate behavior choices while at school. Topics that needed to be addressed included:

• Hands, feet, objects to self
• Kind words
• Respectful attitude/comments/behaviors toward adults
• Proper device care

We also discussed overall student safety including Stranger Awareness and never sharing food at school or eating items when you don't know where it came from.

Please reinforce these important topics with your children.

Band and Strings Rehearsal Schedule:

A Week: Wednesday and Friday

B Week: Wednesday and Thursday

Parents and guardians should be mindful of all debt that their students accrue throughout the 2022-2023 School Year. Student debt could take any one of the following forms:

• Lost/Damaged Computer Devices

• Lost/Damaged Textbooks

• Lunch Debt

Parents/Guardians play a key role in monitoring not only their student's actions but also their fiscal responsibilities regarding lost/damaged issued devices (such as computers and textbooks) and/or food purchases made by your child in our school cafeteria. Payment can be made in the form of cash or check and should include your child's five-digit Student ID# (e.g., #12345). For further convenience, families may also pay by credit card online at http://www.myschoolbucks.com/. All questions and concerns should be directed to the school bank or the principal's secretary.

You may have noticed receiving an email earlier this week with a link to this newsletter in Schoology. Events have also been added to the Schoology event calendar. Did you know that parents can access Schoology? We will continue to post links to the Smore and school events in Schoology. It is our hope that we can transition to having this resource be a one stop shop for your information. As your students get older and proceed through middle and high school in SMCPS, it will become very useful tool for you to monitor grades, assignments, and other information. Here is a link to the Schoology Parent Resources site, which can provide lots of helpful information!

Please consider joining the PTA; the membership form is here.

ALL students in SMCPS must have a completed Acceptable Use Agreement on file for School Year 2022-2023.

Elementary (PreK-5th) Link: https://bit.ly/22022-2023_Elementary_AUPForm

From the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE)-

Chronic Absenteeism: Students are chronically absent when absent 10% or more of the school days while enrolled at that school. For example, a student who is registered to attend a school for 30 days and who is absent 3 of those 30 days is considered chronically absent.

WMES will follow up with chronically absent students through the Pupil Services Team, Pupil Personnel Worker, and the Department of Student Services. In order to reduce the number of our students with Chronic Absenteeism, incentives to encourage good attendance include participation in the Bear Crawl, Running Club, and School Dance.

SMCPS Text Alerts are a great way to get information quickly. They are not sent often, and usually only in the event of an unexpected school delay or closure. On occasion, WMES will send a text alert about a late bus, substitute bus, or school event. Click the link for information about registering for text alerts.

Email: jwsteele@smcps.org
Website: schools.smcps.org/wmes
Location: 29090 Thompson Corner Road, Mechanicsville, MD, USA
Phone: (301)472-4600
Twitter: @wmes_smpcs