I can’t believe this school year is coming to an end! What a wonderful year it has been. The last day of school for students for the 2024- 2025 school year will be Wednesday, June 4, 2025. A special thank you to all our families for all your support this year! Thank you for everything you do to support the Mars Area Primary Center! Best of luck to all of our first graders moving on to MAE next year. We will miss you! Wishing all our students & families a happy and safe summer!

The Mars Primary Center held its 17th annual “Stuff the Bus” Diaper Drive from April 7-11. Students and families were encouraged to bring in new sealed packages of diapers. 4,242 diapers were collected and donated to the Lighthouse Foundation to restock their supply. Thank you to all who sent in diapers. The diapers that were collected by the Primary Center will fill the shelves at the Lighthouse for the months to come.

The PC held its Spring Book Fair April 15-19, 2024. Thank you to all the parents and families who supported our school to help support Mrs. Vandevort, our PC librarian in purchasing new books for the Primary Center Library! Our total proceeds totaled $4,657.01. Your generosity is greatly appreciated!

This year, kindergarten students will have their "field trip" at the Mars Area Primary Center. The Carnegie Science Center's Mobile FAB Lab will be visiting the Primary Center on May 7 & 8 to present hands-on science instruction to our kindergarten students.

May 7: Mrs. Duff, Mrs. King & Mr. Richards

May 8: Mrs. Lumpp & Mrs. Nusser

Grade 1: Keystone Safari

Tuesday, May 13: Fox, Huggins, & McKee

Wednesday, May 14: Davis, Diani, & Wild

Thursday, May 15: Rhea, Shine, & Shuck

Friday, May 16: Detore, Raible, & Rios

First Grade Picnic Schedule

When: May 20-22, 2025 (Rain or Shine)

Where: Mars Area Primary Center

Please be sure to bring a blanket, we hope to eat outside!

*To avoid tears, please be on time.

*All parents and guardians (NO SIBLINGS) wishing to participate, MUST have their driver’s license scanned at the Primary Center.

Schedule below:

K-6 Special Consideration Letters

Principals are approaching the time of building classes for the 2025-2026 school-year. Regarding future teachers and class placement, most children will function quite well with most classroom assignments. We do, however, recognize that there may be special circumstances that warrant special consideration. In light of this, the following guidelines and procedures are to be used if a special circumstance warrants your parental input for a classroom assignment:

1. Parent input should be made in writing when an identifiable need exists…or if there is pertinent information, of which you believe, we need to be aware.

2. If you wish to provide input, you may submit a letter describing your child’s personality, learning style, and other pertinent information.

3. The purpose of a letter is NOT to request a specific teacher OR the classroom assignment of students with specific friends.

4. Please note that specific teacher requests and students with specific friend requests will NOT be honored.

NOTE: Special consideration letters are to be sent to the receiving grade level building principal by: May 9, 2025.

First graders will visit the Mars Elementary School on either May 22 or May 23 with their classmates to take a tour of their school for next year. These visits help ease the transition from first grade to second grade.

Students at the Primary Center will be participating in PTO's sponsored Fun Day activities on Thursday, May 29, 2025. Please be sure that your child wears clothing that is conducive to play that day. We are looking forward to celebrating the end of the school year during Fun Day with all types of games and activities.

Parents please be reminded that if your child is absent for any reason, you are required to provide a written excuse for the absence. On the excuse, please provide your child’s first and last name, date of absence, classroom teacher’s name and reason for the absence.

Any student having to be picked up for an emergency early dismissal or needing to be a car rider for the day of and did not have a note for their teacher, please call the office to let the school know. Our teachers are busy teaching and instructing and may not see their email until the end of the working day. Please call the office and we will relay the message to the classroom teacher.

If you need to pick up your child during the instructional day, please write a note to your child’s teacher letting them know the day and time you will be picking your child up. All AM Kindergarten students need to have an early dismissal no later than 11:00 AM and Grade 1 and PM Kindergarten students may have an early dismissal no later than 3:00 PM.

We are so proud of all of our students for displaying "The Mars Way!" this year. This was our second year of implementing our PBIS initiative and our students and staff did amazing! We can't wait to keep our school-wide positive behavior supports program going next year! Thank you to our families for all of your support recognizing our "Positive Planets!"

The Primary Center completed the Principal Challenge this year! Students and their families registered online to join our Kids Heart Challenge team. The winning classes of the most registered students and donations made to the American Heart Association were Mrs. King’s PM kindergarten class and Mrs. Diani's first grade class. As promised, the winning classes will “Silly String Mrs. Semler” on Friday, May 30, 2025.

With the school year coming to and end, our lost & found table located in the main entrance of the PC is overflowing with belongings left outside on the playground, in the cafeteria and/or hallways. Please have your child check the lost & found for any missing items.

If your child’s learning center has changed for the upcoming school year or you have any transportation related questions for the 2025-2026 school year, please contact the Transportation Director, Tina Smith at 724-625-1507 or email: transportation@marsk12.org