White Marsh Elementary School

It is Teacher Appreciation Week! The WMES PTA has a full week of events planned for our amazing teachers. Please send them a note to let them know they are appreciated!

SMCPS has closed the Volunteer Application site; it will re-open next school year. The final WMES Site Based Volunteer Training will occur on May 7 at 9:30 am. Remember, you must already be a SMCPS approved volunteer and have taken this site based training in order to volunteer for our school.

As the year begins to wind down, please be checking for all items that may belong to SMCPS, including library books, laptops and chargers. Click here for more information.

This week, Grades 3, 4 and 5 will continue taking the MCAP state assessments. Third grade will finish up ELA, while 4th and 5th will begin taking Math. Please make sure your students are well rested and have a charged laptop every day.

The SchoolKidz sale begins on Wednesday, and will be online only. This is an easy way to purchase your student's school supplies for next year! See the link below.

Our Kindergarten students will enjoy a field trip to Elms on Thursday.

Friday is a WMES Spirit Day (wear blue!) and a 2 hr. Early Dismissal. WMES will dismiss at 1:45 pm on Friday.

Have a great week!

Principal Steele

Field Day will be here soon! This year, some of the colors worn by our students will be different than in years' past. Here are the T-shirt colors needed. Field Day will be May 31, 2024. Information about volunteering will be shared in the next few weeks.

The Spring Concert will be here, soon! Our Band, Strings and Chorus students will perform on Thursday, May 23 at 10 am. Doors will open at 9:40 am.

Please note- when signing out a student from school you will be asked to present your photo ID every time.

May 14 Election Day; No School for Students

May 15 PTA Family Fun Night, 5-6:30

May 16 School Dance

May 23 Spring Concert (Band, Chorus, Strings) 10 am

May 28-30 WMES Book Fair

May 31 Field Day!

Jun 3 Awards Day, Kindergarten - Fourth Grade

Jun 4 Grade 5 Awards, 1:55 pm

Jun 6 2 hr. Early Dismissal

Jun 7 2 hr. Early Dismissal, Last Day for Students

Jun 13 HAC Opens for Report Card Viewing

Jun 25 HAC Closes for the summer rollover

• St. Mary’s County Public Schools, in collaboration with Healthy St. Mary’s Partnership, is hosting a Surf the Mental Health & Wellness Wave: A Resource & Education Fair on May 18, 2024, from 10 AM-3 PM, at the James A. Forrest Career & Technology Center. Come interact with and gather information from over 35 Mental Health & Wellness vendors. There will be numerous guest speakers and presentations on several different mental health and wellness topics. Use the QR code in the health fair flyer to view the schedule of events. In addition, there will be food trucks, door prizes, and lots of fun! Please join us!!
  

SMCPS and SMC R&P have partnered to offer the new Summer Sports Academies. Campers will be instructed by area high school coaches. Camps are held Monday - Thursday. Click below for more information. Registration begins March 1st. Don't miss this opportunity.

• https://www.stmaryscountymd.gov/recreate/camps

• https://www.stmaryscountymd.gov/docs/thescoop.pdf

Field Hockey Camp

Basketball Camp

The SMCPS Food & Nutrition Services Department will be providing a 5-day pickup for summer meals.

These meal bags will include five breakfasts, five lunches, a half-gallon of white milk, and two cartons of chocolate milk for each child.

Meal pickups will be on Mondays and we are offering two pickup times for your convenience. 11 am - 1pm or 4pm - 6pm. The schools offering pickup are:

• Chopticon HS
• Leonardtown HS
• Oakville ES
• Spring Ridge MS

Parents/Caregivers must either have signed up ahead of time using this form with their children's information or have the children in-person for meal pickup.

Summer Meals/Parent Signup

Band and Strings students are asked to bring their instruments to school every Wednesday! Sincerely, Mr. Guy

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.

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.

• 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