Weekly Stony Brook Update

Dear Stony Brook Families,

Thank you to all families who were able to make it to Back to School Night last evening. I hope you enjoyed meeting your child's teacher(s) and learning more about your child's classroom experience this year. It takes a strong school & family team to help children succeed. Thank you for your showing your support. If you missed this event, please see the video below.

This past week, about half of our classes participated in station rotations to learn more about our school rules. I taught our bus rules, Mrs. Snare taught our cafeteria rules, and Mrs. Frey taught our bathroom rules. We will continue to model and practice our rules and expectations often as the school year gets underway. Please ask your child to tell you one rule they learned about the bus, cafeteria, and/or bathroom. The second half of our classes will go through these station rotations next week.

We will also be learning and talking about our four school rules at our first whole-school community meeting this morning. Community meetings are a time for our whole school to come together as one community to learn, celebrate, and have fun! These are some of my favorite activities of the entire year. I love when all 500+ children come together. It is a joyous time where everyone knows and feels that they belong at Stony Brook.

I would like to give a reminder about our morning walker and parent drop-off procedures. Drop off is 8:40AM-8:55AM. Students should not arrive at school until 8:40AM. We do not have supervision for children prior to this time.

DATE CHANGE - Our Fall Festival will now be held on November 8th. We will need many volunteers on this day, so mark your calendar now. Thank you!

Have a wonderful weekend,

Kelly Harper, Ed.D.

Principal

If you missed Back to School Night, please watch the video below!

CYSD DEVICE PROTECTION PLAN

Central York School District offers optional protection plans for your child's District issued devices. The protection plan fully covers your child's device for any accidental damage that occurs. The cost is $25 per year for iPads and $60 per year for Macbooks. Learn more and sign up: https://dpp.centralyork.org

PLEASE SUPPORT OUR SCHOOL

KEEP EXTRA CLOTHING AT SCHOOL

Happy Friday SB Families!

We hope everyone is having a happy and successful start to the school year! Each week in this newsletter we will update you on what SB’s PTO is doing and how you can be involved. We also encourage parents and caregivers to follow us on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/stonybrookpto) as this is where you will get the most timely updates on volunteer opportunities, school events, and more.

See the attached flyer for all of our PTO events and dates for this school year- please note that our Fall Fest date has changed to November 8, 2024 (previously scheduled for November 1).

Get ready for our first dine-out night of the school year! Join us on September 18 from 4-8 pm at Chipotle in East York, show the attached flyer, and 25% of your purchase price will go back to our PTO! The flyer can be printed or on your phone, and online orders count, too! These dine-out nights are so important for helping us to reach our funding goals for the year.

Please plan to join us next Tuesday, September 10 at 6:30 pm in the SB cafeteria for our first PTO meeting of the school year! All parents and guardians of current SB students are welcome to attend! Please enter by 6:30 pm at the staff lounge doors off the main parking lot.

We currently are still in need of room parents for the following classrooms: KILBRIDE, SLEETH, ZEIGLER. Room parents have minimal responsibility and are only responsible for planning and executing the Fall party (November) and the Friendship Day party (February). If you are interested in learning more, please reach out to me. Room parents are essential for making sure all classes are able to have these fun parties!

We are also looking for a few parents who are interested in working together to plan and execute our December 2024 Gingerbread Shop event. This event requires 2-4 event chairs to plan and manage all aspects of the event including outside vendor shop coordination, pre- and post- event sale reconciliation, planning games, crafts, snacks and activities; volunteer coordination, and event set up. If you’ve been to this event, you know it’s a Stony Brook holiday favorite! These chair positions are currently vacant and would need to be filled in order for us to have this event in 2024.

If you plan to volunteer for ANY of our PTO events, you will need to register/renew your CYSD volunteer badge. Please note that the district is now using a new volunteer portal which requires both new and returning volunteers to update four different clearances/documents. Due to this change, we encourage anyone wanting to volunteer to register asap, as it can take the district up to several weeks to process applications. https://www.cysd.k12.pa.us/our-district/human-resources/clearances

If you have any questions about SB PTO happenings or the volunteer registration process, please don’t ever hesitate to reach out- we are always happy to help!

Brittany Strine

Stony Brook PTO President

brittanystrine@aol.com

717-858-2104

Annual Notices

Breakfast/Lunch Menus

Free and Reduced Meal Program Forms

Community Flyers

Stony Brook Homepage

Parents and Families

Student Handbooks

Educational Trip Form

Volunteer Information

9/10 - PTO Meeting 6:30PM

9/17 - Grade 2 York County Libraries Assembly

9/18 - SB Dine Out Night at Chipotle East York 4:00-8:00PM

9/20 - Early Dismissal 12:30PM

9/26 - SB Popsicles on the Playground 6:30-7:30PM

BUS INFORMATION

Bus/van assignments are available through the Online Bus Portal. The link is also available on our District Website on the Transportation page.

ARRIVAL AND DISMISSAL PROCEDURES

Click on the documents below for more information about Stony Brook arrival and dismissal. If you are driving your child to school, you will stay in your car during drop off. Please have your child practice unbuckling the seat belt or car seat by themselves as parents stay in the car during drop off. If your child is in the walk zone, but you plan to drive your car to the school to pick up your child, your child is now parent pick up and you should follow the parent pick up procedures.

All kindergarten students are required to have an adult pick them up at the bus stop or walk zone. Kindergarten students will not be released from the bus or at the walk zone unless an adult is present to receive them. An adult must meet all kindergarten walkers at the designated crossing guard spot.

For any changes in dismissal, be very clear with your child if they are being picked up early or if they will be parent pick-up when they normally ride the school bus. Any changes in routines or dismissal plans should be communicated to your child's teacher via note or email prior to 9:00AM. If you need to make a change during the day, please call the main office. Our teachers often do not have time to check their email during the school day. The office staff also requests that if you need to change your child's dismissal plan after school has started for the day, please call prior to 2:00PM. It is difficult for our office to communicate to your child's teacher and ensure your child knows about a change if you call after 2:00PM. The school recognizes that sometimes emergencies happen and you need to make a sudden change, but this should be the exception rather than the rule. Thank you!

ABSENCES AND ATTENDANCE IN SKYWARD

Families are encouraged to use the Skyward Family Access Center attendance function to alert the school that their child is absent. This can be done in the Skyward phone app or website. In the event a family cannot log the absence in Skyward, a doctor's note and/or phone call will be accepted as documentation of the absence. If you are unable to mark your child's attendance in Skyward, families should use the school's automated attendance line to alert the school that their child will be absent. This can be accessed 24-7 at (717)846-6789. This number is checked every morning for absences. Families should notify the school no later than 9:00AM on the day of an absence. If we do not receive a call reporting your child absent by 9:00AM, and there is no absence request in Skyward Family Access Center, an automated phone call will be generated via our phone system in order to confirm the whereabouts of your child.

Please note - families have five days by law from the date of a child's absence to report an absence to the district. This may be done in Skyward Family Access Center or by phone on the automated attendance line. Failure to do so will result in an absence being recorded as "unexcused".

All families should be aware that under Act 29, upon a student's accumulation of 6 unlawful or unexcused absences from school, the parent may be referred to Children & Youth Services. Should attendance not improve, the parent may be cited to the district magistrate and could be responsible for fines.

EDUCATIONAL TRIP FORMS

Please be sure to note the policy for educational trips. Approval forms must be obtained from the school office or online through the district website. The educational value and activities of the trip must be stated in detail to be eligible for approval. Thank you for your cooperation with this school policy. For your convenience, click here to download the educational trip form. A reminder that ALL trips MUST be submitted at least 2 WEEKS prior to the trip to be approved.

PARENT VOLUNTEERS

Get the jump on obtaining your parent volunteer approval for the 2024-2025 School Year. ALL parents planning to volunteer must re-apply prior to volunteering in our schools. Additionally, all volunteers must also meet with me during a meeting that will be advertised in the near future. Click here for our district-wide Parent Volunteer Manual that outlines how to begin the process of applying to volunteer or, if you are re-applying for another year. We are looking forward to having a record number of volunteers this year!