White Marsh Elementary School

Our Spirit Wear Sale is here! You should have received a flyer in Wednesday folders last week; you can also see the link below for more information. The sale will continue through October 6. This will be the only opportunity to purchase WMES Spirit Wear through the school this year.

Running Club starts on Wednesday! The club is open to those 3rd - 5th graders that brought back their permission forms. Students must be picked up at 4:20 by the back gate; please bring your photo ID. Those students that returned their permission slip will receive a reminder notice on Tuesday about Wednesday's start date.

Friday is our very first Dress for Success Day! Studies have shown that what we wear can affect our mental and physical performance. Our Bears are welcome to dress for success on Friday! This is a fun activity that many Bears enjoy participating in! If your student doesn't want to dress up, they can always wears school colors or WMES shirts for WMES Friday Spirit!

Have a great week!

October 9 is designated as a Virtual Instruction Day and 2 hr. Early Dismissal. Students are expected to work virtually, and will not come to school on this day. Students in Kindergarten, First Grade and Second Grade will receive paper assignments to complete. Our 3rd, 4th and 5th graders will complete their assignments on Schoology. Students will also have assignments for the Special Area subject (Media, Music, Art, P.E.) that they have for the day; it will be included in the paper packet for our K - 2 Bears, and on Schoology for Grades 3-5. Students should not plan to work the entire day, since it is a 2 hr. Early Dismissal.

This day is also designated for Parent Conferences. Please look for information from your child's teacher about arranging a beginning of year conference. The best way to conference is in person, but our teachers are willing to conference by phone if needed. Please take advantage of this opportunity to meet with the teacher and learn how your student has been performing. We encourage you to be a partner in their learning!

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

In order to volunteer and/or chaperone at WMES you must do the following annually:

1) register to be a SMCPS volunteer

2) attend a WMES Site Based Volunteer Training.

The SMCPS Volunteer information can be found on the WMES Family Links document, and the next WMES Site Based Volunteer Training can be found on the WMES website by accessing the calendar.

St. Mary’s County Public Schools (SMCPS) is requesting your permission for your student to use the Internet and other computer resources in school. It is important that you and your student review this information. Click here to access The Acceptable Use Agreement.

At the Board of Education Meeting earlier this week, changes were made to the SMCPS system-wide calendar. The Board determined that Pre-Kindergarten students will attend on early dismissal days and participate in the virtual learning days in the same manner that other students K-12 do. A copy of the amended SMCPS calendar was sent home to you last week in Wednesday folders. Click here to view online.

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.

Oct 3 PTA Meeting, 6:30 pm

Oct 4 Running Club

Oct 6 WMES Site based Volunteer Training

Oct 9 Virtual Instruction Day and 2 hr. Early Dismissal; Parent Conference Day

Oct 11 Running Club

Oct 12 Gr 2 (Arnold) and Gr 5 (Cord) to Sotterley

Oct 13 Gr 2 (Myers) and Gr 5 (Wathen) to Sotterley

Oct 13 Kindergarten field trip to Pumpkin Farm

Oct 16 - 20 Bus Driver Appreciation Week

Oct 16 - 20 Mobile Aquatic Agriculture Lab comes to WMES!

Oct 17 Picture Day!

Oct 18 Unity Day

Oct 18 - 25 WMES Book Fair!

Oct 18 No Running Club

Oct 19 School Dance! 3:45 - 4:30 pm

Oct 20 2 hr. Early Dismissal

I (Principal Steele) had the privilege of meeting with all students recently. 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.

• 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