Originally emailed to families on September 6.
Dear Families,
I would like to welcome our new families joining the Greenwood School Community. We are excited to have you as part of our school. You will quickly discover our community is comprised of supportive, caring families and staff members that work together to create an excellent education experience for your children. I also welcome back our wonderful returning families and hope you all had an enjoyable summer. The first day of school will be Thursday September 7th. Grades 1-4 will begin at 8:40. Our kindergarten students will come to school at 9:15 Thursday and line up on the playground and will be released at 2:45. Friday, kindergarten students will line up at 8:30 with all students on the playground.
As you can imagine, there has been a flurry of activity here at school during the past several weeks as teachers ready their classrooms and begin lesson planning in preparation for opening day. The building and classrooms look wonderful as a result of the entire staffs’ hard work and dedication. Special thanks to Larry Mathewson and Jason Lowry who worked tirelessly to prepare the building for the return of our students. Our library had new floors and ceiling and has been painted and looks wonderful!
On the first day of school you will be receiving a rather large packet of information from school that we ask you to review. Ms Paiva, our school secretary, has created a checklist so you can review what needs to be electronically returned to school and what is to be kept at home for your records. In an attempt to go paper less we will not be printing all our typical forms. This is a helpful resource for parents and children to review together. Should you not have access to a computer please call the office and we will send a copy of the handbook home with your child.
The school hours for kindergarten – grade 4 will be 8:40 a.m. and dismissal is at 2:45 p.m. Monday through Friday. On Early Release days students will be dismissed at 11:55 a.m. (All students will have lunch prior to dismissal). Students should not arrive on the playground before 8:30 a.m. as there are no adults on duty. When children arrive they should go to the back of the building and find their class line and line up and wait for the bell. In order to increase our instructional time for students there will be a warning bell that will ring at 8:35 am each day. We will say the Pledge of Allegiance as a school community and students will enter the school so that they are in their classrooms by 8:40 a.m. when the bell rings. There will be a staff member at the back door until 8:40 a.m.
Students should only enter the front of the building if they are late for school. Children must check into the office and receive a late slip. Please remind your children to do this as it is an important safety step in our daily attendance procedures. If it is raining, students still use the back door to enter the building and will line up in the gymnasium. All teachers will be on duty this week as we establish morning routines. We ask that parents not enter the back door of the building when the children enter school. Any parent that needs to come in to the school must walk around to the front door, sign in and take a volunteer pass. This is for the safety of the children. As you can imagine when all the children are getting to their classrooms it is difficult for teachers to monitor adults that are in the hallways. The end of the day is a very busy time in the office and we kindly ask families to send notes to school if your child’s dismissal routines are going to change and avoid last minute calls at the very end of the day whenever possible. We do understand occasionally this cannot be avoided but please try and let your child know when you drop them off who will be picking them up after school. Thank you for your cooperation with these important safety requests.
For new families you should know we operate on a six-day cycle. You will receive the six-day schedule that correlates with each day in the cycle, (on the District Calendar). Your child’s teacher will let you know on which day they have art, music, and physical education. If you shared your email with us the weekly Gator Tales newsletter will be emailed to you. This is an important way we communicate with our families so be sure to read it each month! I will also communicate a Principal Message in Gator Tales each Monday alerting families to any information or events happening during the week. I am certain teachers will provide you with their contact information but should you wish to email a staff member you can go to the Wakefield Public School web site http://wakefieldpublicschools.org) and select Greenwood School, at the top right hand of the page in red you will find the Staff Directory and the School Calendar links.)
I can be reached via email: deborah.collura@wpsk12.org anytime should you need to contact me or phone the office during school hours 781-246-6460. On behalf of the entire staff we welcome you back and look forward to an exciting new school year.
Sincerely,
Deborah Collura, M.Ed.
Principal
Greenwood School