Hello from your first EMS Weekly Update of the 2024-2025 school year! We are so excited for Open Houses to take place tomorrow, Monday, August 19, 2024.

• 7th grade will be from 8:00 to 9:00 am.
• 8th grade will be from 9:30 to 10:30 am.
• 6th grade will be from 6:00 to 8:00 pm.

You must attend the appropriate grade-level open house due to parking, grade-level building preparation, and teacher availability. If you can print your schedule at home, please bring it with you to Open House. If you cannot print or access your schedule, copies will be available in the cafeteria alphabetically by last name. You will be able to follow your schedule and meet your teachers. Below is more Open House information.

Students will not be permitted to use their cell phones/personal electronics at all during the school day. All cell phones/personal electronics are expected to be off and out of site at all times. Please also review the SMCPS cell phone policy. Students who have their cell phones/personal electronics out or are using them will receive consequences in accordance with the SMCPS Code of Conduct. More detailed information is outlined below. If you have not watched the SMCPS Board of Education meetings from this summer, I would encourage you to do so using this link. Please ensure that you review this policy with your child(ren) before the first day of school. Teachers and Administration will also be reviewing this policy with all students.

All students in K-12 have been issued a SMCPS laptop and charger. The laptops and chargers are the property of SMCPS and come with the same responsibility as any other school-issued resource. Parent(s)/Guardian(s) and students should visit the SMCPS Website to review the SMCPS Student Handbook, Code of Conduct, and the device accountability resource document, which all outline information in regards to reporting damage, costs incurred for damage or loss, and the consequences for damage to school issued property. Current pricing can be found here.

There are changes to the Acceptable Use Policy this school year. For students under 18, Google requires parental consent to access non-core services (these include YouTube, Maps, Translate, etc.). All students will be able to use Gmail, Calendar, Drive, etc. (core services). Because of these changes, we will only require a signed AUP form from the parents who want to allow their child to access Google's Additional Services. The parent consent form can be found here. There is also more information in the links below.

In preparation for the start of the school year, students need to locate their laptops/chargers, run updates, and make sure they are ready for school. The slideshow below will be reviewed with all students at our back-to-school assemblies.

Free breakfast will be available for all students who would like one. Students will eat in their homeroom class. Grab-and-go breakfast stations will be in the following locations: sixth grade in the main gym, seventh grade in the cafeteria, and eighth grade in the back hallway. Free and reduced lunch meals will only be available for those who qualify using the Meal Benefit forms for SY 2024-2025. More information and resources can be found here. Please make sure to complete this form as soon as possible! Use this link to put money on your child's lunch account.

MySchoolBucks is an online payment service that provides a convenient way to pay for school-related purchases using a credit/debit card or electronic check. We will be expanding our MySchoolBucks services at EMS this year. If you do not already have a MySchoolBucks account, we encourage you to create one. Click this link for more information.

We are excited to start the school year on Wednesday, August 21st!

The administration will dismiss all students from the buses at 7:05 am. Students who want breakfast should go to the appropriate grab-and-go location to get their breakfast and then go to homeroom. Students who do not want breakfast will go straight to homeroom from their buses. Don't stress; staff members will have homeroom lists to help students find their homeroom teacher in the morning. Cell phones will not be permitted to look up schedules. We will have printed schedules for all students in their homeroom class.

Please review the SMCPS Dress Code Policy when planning your first day of school outfits! All parts of the Dress Code Policy must be followed.

7th-grade parents - if you have not already turned in your child's immunization records, please do so as soon as possible. On Wednesday morning, the nurses will start calling parents to inform them if their child is ineligible to attend school due to not being up-to-date with immunizations. Please contact our nurses with any questions: Lauren Hall (lmhall@smcps.org) or Brittany Krum (bnkrum@smcps.org).

We are so excited to start another successful school year! Wednesday, August 21st, will be an A DAY.

Bus schedules and other transportation information can be found on this website.

The top parking lot of EMS is utilized for parent drop-off. Please stay in the appropriate lane for student drop-off, as staff members are coming and parking. Students are to go to the corner of the parking lot, closest to the field, to drop off and walk across the crosswalk and down the sidewalk to enter the doors closest to the gym. Students should not be dropped off before 6:55 am since we do not have staff on duty before that time. Students will wait at the gym entrance until 7:05 am when students can enter the building. In the afternoon, the bus loop will be utilized after buses are gone for parent pickup. Parents must show their ID to the EMS staff member walking their child to the car for the first week. It must match a person on their contact list or from the car rider form. Please wait patiently, as we will have as many staff as possible to check IDs. After the first week, staff will track attendance pickup in the cafeteria and dismiss students to the parking lot once all cars are parked. Please complete this Every Day Car Rider or Walker Form if your child will be a regular car rider or walker.

Please stop by the EMS PTO table during open house! The EMS PTO will be holding the first meeting of the year in September. Please be on the lookout for the date to follow soon. We will discuss fundraising efforts, give backs, and plan for the year. As always, we are here to answer any questions at esperanzamspto@gmail.com!

Our Fall Picture day will take place on Tuesday, September 24th. More information to come soon!

Website: https://schools.smcps.org/ems/
Location: 22790 Maple Road, Lexington Park, MD, USA
Phone: 301(863)4016
Twitter: @ems_smcps