White Marsh Elementary School

Thank you, families and PTA, for showering our teachers with love last week. Each day was a different theme of goodies, and our teachers loved each one! Thanks, too for the handwritten notes and messages to our teachers. All of your kind words meant so much to our teachers!

State testing continues this week. Grades 3, 4 and 5 will each be taking the Math assessment at some point during the week. Please make sure students are well rested and come to school with a charged laptop. Also continuing this week is the SchoolKidz online supplies sale. The information and link is below.

SMCPS is now registering for next year's Kindergarten! There is a link and more information below.

This week is another busy one at White Marsh. Tuesday is Primary Election Day. There is no school for students on Tuesday.

Wednesday evening is the PTA Family Fun Night, beginning at 5 pm. Come join us for popsicles and a book swap! We will also have food trucks here from both Pizza Hotline and Salted Scoop. See the flier below.

DJ Pink will return on Thursday for the School Dance! This is a fundraiser that will benefit MTSS and beautifying the school grounds. Permission slips went home in Wednesday folders on May 8, 2024.

Friday is Dress for Success Day! Students are encouraged to dress nicely on Friday.

Have a great week!

Principal Steele

Do you know of a former White Marsh Bear that is graduating from high school this year? If so, invite them to walk our halls and be congratulated by our students and staff!

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

May 23 Class of 2024 Walk-through 2 pm

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