Pine Street Elementary

Summer days are beginning to wind down and the excitement of a new school year is upon us. The teachers and staff at Pine Street are eager to welcome our new and returning students back to school for the 2024-2025 school year. This year, we are embracing the theme, "Learning is an Adventure," and we are ready to embark on an incredible exploration of knowledge, creativity, and discovery with our students and families!

As you and your child also prepare for the upcoming year we hope you will find the following information helpful. If you do have questions please feel free to contact our office by phone or email. The office at Pine Street is open for phone calls daily from 7:00-3:30. The office phone number is (269)792-1127.

We are eager to see all the amazing places our learning adventure will take us this year. Here’s to a fantastic year ahead, filled with exploration, growth, and fun. Welcome back, and let the adventure begin!

Your partner in education,

Robyn Robinson

Principal, Pine Street Elementary

August

August 20: Open House

August 21: First Day of School - Half Day

August 30: No School - Labor Day Break

September

September 2: No School - Labor Day

September 3: Sub Sale Begins

September 16: WIPTO Meeting at the Middle School

September 18: Picture Day

October

October 11 - 14: No School

October 18: Fun Friday

October 21: WIPTO Meeting at Pine Street

Please take a few moments to look through our Student Handbook and discuss the rules and expectations with your student.

If you have not done so already, please be sure to complete the annual online registration for each of your students enrolled at Wayland Union Schools. This needs to be completed each summer!

At Pine Street, students are assigned to a homeroom teacher and a switch teacher. One teacher will teach language arts and social studies and the other teacher will teach math and science. Students spend about half of their day with each teacher.

Parents can check Parent Portal after 4:00 PM on Friday, August 16th to find your child's homeroom teacher.

To log into the portal:

- Click the menu in the upper left hand corner (three horizontal lines)

- Click "Schedule"

- You will then see the teacher's last name and the room number

Breakfast and lunch will be provided free of charge again this year! Students can head to the cafeteria when they arrive in the morning and enjoy their breakfast before heading to class.

Students will have about a 20 minute lunch period and 20 minute recess each day. Half of each grade level will eat at one time while the other half are at recess, then they switch. This is based on your student's homeroom teacher.

You can find breakfast and lunch menus on the school web-page under the food services tab.

Students will have a time to eat a snack each morning. We encourage you to send a healthy snack with your student each day as well as a water bottle. Water is the only drink that will be allowed in the classrooms. We highly encourage students to bring a clean, well marked water bottle to school each day. We do have water bottle fill stations on each floor and in the gym.

Find more information on breakfast and lunch prices as well as an application for Free and Reduced Lunch on the Wayland Food Services page at this link:

https://waylandunion.org/departments/food-service/

Student Drop off begins at 7:15 a.m.

• The front doors will be open at 7:15 a.m. Please do not drop off your student before 7:15 am. Students will be greeted by a staff member at the main door and instructed where to wait for school to begin.
• If you drop your students in the morning please drop them on the south side of Pine Street so they do not have to cross the road. The line becomes long so please have them ready to exit when you pull up to a safe place to drop. If dropping on the north side of Pine Street please have them use the crossing guard. This is for their safety.
• Students can also be dropped of near our gym off of Pearl Street. Students will then need to walk on the sidewalk to the front door.

Student Dismissal begins at 2:30

• Students will exit the building on the Northwest side, near the corner of Pine Street and Pearl Street.
• Parents can park and wait for them to come out of the building on Pearl Street or Pine Street. There will be a crossing guard at that corner to assist students crossing the road.
• If there is a change in end of day plans for your child, please call the office before 1:30 PM so we can get a note to them regarding the change.

For safety, students walking to and/or from school should use the traffic light and crosswalk downtown as well as cross with crossing guards. Crossing guards are located near Henika Library to cross Main Street, near TCP/DeWeerd Heating to cross Superior and at the corner of Pine and Pearl to cross over to school. All students need to cross at the corner of Pine Street and Pearl. Please do not cross in front of the school.

Wayland Union Schools provides elementary students with school supplies. The only supplies that we ask you to provide are:

• Gym Shoes: The Pine Street gym is across the road from the school building. In order to ensure only dry shoes are on the gym floor, every Pine Street student will need to bring in a pair of gym shoes for PE class.
• Calculator (5th grade only)- Calculators should be scientific but do not need to be graphing. Texas Instruments Calculators are suggested (TI-30Xa or the TI-30X llS). These calculators can typically be found at stores such as Target, Walmart and Meijer ranging in price from $9.00- $12.00.
• Healthy Snack and a water bottle: students will have time for a quick healthy snack daily. Please be sure to send your student with a water bottle and their healthy snack every day. Water is the only drink that will be allowed in the classrooms.

If your child needs to take prescription medication at school, you will need to complete a medical authorization form. Forms need to be completed by a physician. Absolutely no prescription medications will be administered without a doctor's consent form.

Over the counter medication can only be given if a parent signs a medication release form.

Antibiotics, inhalers, prescription drugs, cough drops, Tylenol, cold medicine, anti-itch medicine, etc., should never be sent to school with students. If medication must be given to a student at school, both prescription and over the counter medication, parents should drop the medication off in the office along with a signed medication form.

While office staff make every effort to track the remaining medication and notify parents when quantities are low, it is ultimately the parents' responsibility to ensure that medications are provided before the student runs out. We suggest noting the number of pills brought to the office on your calendar to help you keep track of how many are still available at school

Dear Wayland Union Schools Families,

As we prepare for the upcoming 2024-2025 school year, we would like to remind you of an important policy regarding all parents/guardians who volunteer at school, attend school parties, or chaperone field trips. All parents/guardians who wish to volunteer, attend school parties, or chaperone will need to complete a background check that will be processed with the Michigan State Police.

We want to assure you that is being implemented with the safety and well-being of our students as our top priority. We believe that this is an important step in ensuring that our school remains a safe and secure environment for all our students.

The background check process is simple and straightforward and can be completed at this link. Rest assured that all information provided will be kept confidential and will only be used for the purpose of the background check. You will only be contacted if your background check prohibits you from attending school functions.

We understand that this may cause some inconvenience, but we hope that you will appreciate the importance of this policy change. We are committed to providing a safe and secure learning environment for our students, and we believe that this is an important step in achieving that goal.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding this policy change, please do not hesitate to contact us. We appreciate your cooperation and support in ensuring the safety of our students.

The Wayland Intermediate PTO (WIPTO) is an organization for parents at both Pine Street Elementary and Wayland Middle School. They meet monthly to plan activities and support both of our schools. Please like their Facebook Page, Wayland Intermediate PTO, for updates and valuable information.

Throughout the school year information is provided in several different ways:

• Monthly Pine Street Press Newsletter
• Visit our website https://waylandunion.org/schools/pine-street-elementary/
• Peachjar flyers via email or on our website
• Like us on Facebook @ Pine Street Elementary School

Principal

Email: robinsonr@waylandunion.org
Location: 201 Pine Street, Wayland, MI, USA
Phone: 269-792-1127

Assistant Principal

Email: omnessm@waylandunion.org
Location: 210 Pine Street, Allegan, MI, USA
Phone: 269-792-1127