White Marsh Elementary School

This week will be a full week of school for the Bears. On Wednesday, the PTA will host a Popsicle Social! All families are invited to attend this outdoor event. Come enjoy a popsicle and meet some other Bears and their families! Friday is a White Marsh Spirit Day. Our Bears are encouraged to wear blue, or WMES clothing. Come show your school spirit!

Have a great week!

Please remember that our school day begins at 9 am and ends at 3:45 pm. Early sign-outs and late arrivals contribute to missed instruction. In addition, students need to be present all day, every day, in order to participate in the Bear Crawl each month. Please support the importance of the academic day by only having your student miss school when absolutely necessary.

On Fridays, snacks (ice cream or chips) will be available for purchase for students in grades 3, 4, and 5. Students must have funds available on their MySchoolBucks account in order to purchase snacks. If you do not wish for your student to purchase snacks, please contact Mrs. Hackney, Cafeteria Manager.

Parents will be informed by the end of next week who is eligible to rent an instrument from WMES. Sincerely, Mr. Guy

Sep 20 Grade 1 to Elms

Sep 21 2 hr. Early Dismissal (WMES dismisses at 1:45 pm)

Sep 22 Professional Day; No school for students

Sep 25 Spirit Wear Sale Begins

Sep 29 Dress for Success Day!

I (Principal Steele) had the privilege of meeting with all students this past Friday. We talked about expectations for school, and our school rules: Be Respectful, Be Responsible, Be Ready to Learn. We also talked about the reasons we were called the Strong and Mighty Bears, and that it takes hard work to earn that title. Another important component of our discussion was student attendance. They learned that one missed day of school equals about 7 hours of instructional time lost. They were able to calculate that just missing 2 days per month it would add up to about 20 days or 140 hours of missed instruction! WMES is working to address our chronically absent (missing 10% or more of instructional days) population. Thank you for your support!

Be looking for a paper version of the WMES Family Handbook to come home the first week of school. In addition, we have created this electronic version of the WMES Family Handbook for you to view. It has important information about school policies and practices, including Volunteer Information, Breakfast and Lunches, School Celebrations, and more!

We have created a document for families with links to important system and school information. Check out this link and be sure to bookmark it! We will update it periodically so that you can have quick access to needed information.

The Acceptable Use Agreement must be completed for each student in SMCPS. The form is linked in the SMCPS Student Accountability Newsletter.

If you would like to chaperone or volunteer in any way, you must be an approved SMCPS volunteer. You must re-apply every year. In addition, WMES requires all volunteers to participate in a Volunteer Training prior to working with students. Once scheduled, those trainings are on the WMES School Calendar. Trainings last approximately 20 - 30 minutes.

For our new families, and reminders for our returning families-

There are lots of ways we will communicate with you. Once school begins, you should receive a weekly email with the WMES Smore Newsletter for the week. (It will come on Sunday evenings; contact the Main Office if you don't receive the newsletter.) Be sure to review it every week; it is kept up to date with important information for you and your student. We also communicate via Twitter, and our PTA has a facebook page. If you have not elected to receive texts from SMCPS, please do so! This is our fastest way to communicate in the event of a delayed bus, or other important information. Finally, our teachers also have a variety of ways to communicate with our families; you will receive more information the first week of school.

Here is a link to the SMCPS Back to School Resources page. Here, you can find information about Buses, Breakfast and Lunch, and much more!

• Student Laptops and Chargers

• Accountability Newsletter

• Print and Resource Accountability for SMCPS Students

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.

Julia Steele, Principal

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