The school day begins at 8:40am and ends at 3:20pm. Early Dismissal time is 12:45pm. Students in Prekindergarten through 8th grade may be dropped off in the north parking lot (playground side of the school) when adult supervision is available, beginning at 8:20am. When entering the lot, please drive slowly, following the cars in front of you to the area for student drop off. Please observe any direction given by the teachers on duty. Please remember not to cross in front of buses that are discharging students or buses with their stop signs extended or lights flashing both on your way into the lot and when exiting. Bus drivers will report vehicles that fail to comply with these regulations and this will result in a moving violation being issued. How do we pick up students that do not ride the bus after school? Prekindergarten students are dismissed to a parent/caregiver at 3:20pm. Non-bus Students in grades PreK-8 are picked up in north parking lot when school is dismissed. Carpoolers should not arrive before 3:15 and should enter behind the Magowan Center. Once students have been dismissed, children wait with classmates in grade level groups. Please wait for your child at your car. Students will be signaled by the teacher on duty to walk to rows 1 and 2 for waiting rides. Once all the children of cars in rows 1 and 2 have been loaded, these cars will be signaled to exit the lot. In other words, you may not exit the parking lot UNTIL you are signaled to do so when all cars have been loaded. Once the last car from rows 1 and 2 has exited, cars in rows 3 and 4 will be signaled to move into rows 1 and 2. The system repeats until all students have been picked up. All cars should exit to Hopmeadow Street via the "playground gate". Please feel free to ask any teacher on duty or any other parents in the parking lot for help as you become accustomed to the system. Is bus transportation available? Children of Simsbury residents enrolled in grades Kindergarten - 8 are provided with bus transportation that is funded and coordinated through the town of Simsbury. Bus routes are established annually by the town and students may be picked up at their address or at a central stop established by the town. Bus routes are published about 2 weeks before the start of school on the Town of Simsbury's website: www.simsbury.k12.ct.us. Simsbury residents may make arrangements for students to be picked up or dropped off at child care centers located in Simsbury. Requests for these arrangements must be made annually prior to the start of school in writing to the Simsbury Transportation Coordinator, 933 Hopmeadow Street, Simsbury, CT 06070. The school must also be advised in writing of these arrangements. Students residing in other towns are not eligible for bus transportation. Many families are able to arrange convenient carpools. Is there before or after care available at St. Mary's School? Early drop off is available beginning at 7:15am on all regular school day. Click here for more information. Aftercare is available until 6pm on every regular school day. Aftercare is not available on early dismissal days or during parent/teacher conferences. Click here for aftercare program guidelines. Does my child need a checkup before school starts? The State of Connecticut requires the following grade levels of students to have a physical examination before school starts: * All students entering Prekindergarten. NOTE: The CT immunization regulation for children aged 24 months through 4 years (59 months) requires at a minimum 1 dose of influenza vaccine for school entry, each year between August 1st and December 31. Children who have not received the flu vaccine by December 31st must be excluded from school for the duration of influenza season (through March 31st) or until they receive at least one dose of the influenza vaccine. * All students entering Kindergarten. * All students entering St. Mary's School after an out of state relocation (e.g., family moved to CT from another state and is entering a CT school for the first time). Additionally, the State of Connecticut requires all sixth grade students to have a physical examination at some point of the 6th grade year (i.e., anytime after the last day of 5th grade until the last day of 6th grade). Results of these physicals must be reported to the school's health office using the State of Connecticut Department of Education Health Assessment Records. For additional information on health requirements and downloadable copies of the required health forms, click here. Will my child(ren) have an opportunity to visit the classroom and meet the teacher before school starts? A "meet and greet" is scheduled each August for students entering PreK3, PreKindergarten, and Kindergarten through grade 5. Students entering grade 6 and students transferring into our 7th or 8th grades are invited to spend a "morning in middle school" so that they can become accustomed to their schedule, meet their teachers and meet their mentoring faculty member. Does my child's teacher have an email address? When may I contact him/her? All faculty members have an email address. Click here for the email directory. If you would prefer to speak with the teacher, you may leave a message with the office staff or leave a voice mail message so the teacher can call you back. All faculty members have a voice mail box. Click here for a list of extensions. Please note - Dismissal changes should not be requested via voice mail since many teachers cannot check their voice mail boxes until the end of the school day. How can I be sure that I receive all school announcements? St. Mary's communicates with families electronically. Click here to access the school blog and sign up to receive all school announcements via email. You may enter as many emails as you would like but each must be entered separately. Weekly communications to families are published on Wednesdays on our school blog. Blog posts are sent automatically to all families that have subscribed electronically as directed above. When appropriate, email is used to communicate special and time sensitive announcements. Occasionally, information will be sent home directly with students. This is the exception. These notices are generally given to your youngest/only child at the school. It is a good idea to check backpacks daily - just in case! How can I find out about early closings, late openings or school cancellations caused by weather or other emergencies? Use the link provided in the previous question to sign up to receive emergency announcements via email. This information will also be posted on the Home Page of the school website. A Remind text message is also sent out whenever there is an emergency closing, delay or cancellation. Click here for directions on subscribing to Remind. For all emergency closings or delayed openings, St. Mary's School follows the Simsbury Public Schools. If you hear that Simsbury Public Schools are opening late, closing early or remaining closed, St. Mary's School will be doing the same thing. When is the first School Mass and am I welcome to attend? Our school worships as a community at Mass on the first or second Tuesday of the month at 9am. Depending on prevailing health and safety guidelines, we also worship together on all Holy Days of Obligation that fall on school days at the 12:15pm Parish Mass. There are also several prayer services during each school year. At this time, health & safety guidelines prevent us from allowing families to join us for school Mass but this will be encouraged once guidelines are able to be adjusted. What secondary schools do your graduates attend? Students completing 8th grade at St. Mary's School have a number of options available to them for high school. Each year, approximately 50% of our graduates apply for and are accepted for admission to Northwest Catholic High School in West Hartford. Of the remaining 50%, many will attend their town of residence's public high school and several will apply for and be accepted at area private high schools including Westminster School, Avon Old Farms, Suffield Academy, Loomis Chaffee, Kingswood-Oxford, Ethel Walker School and Miss Porter's School. Is tuition assistance available? Tuition assistance grants are made available via a number of sources. Click here for more information. Where should school uniforms be purchased? Our school's supplier for uniforms is Lands End. Our preferred school code for uniform purchase is 9001-3215-0. Uniforms may be ordered via the Lands End website or via telephone 1-800-469-2222. Our Spirit Shop provides a number of "uniform approved" garments including a physical education tee shirt and shorts. Click here for more information about SMS Spirit wear. As a courtesy, St. Mary's also provides a "Used Uniform Exchange". Click here for more information. If you have a question that is not answered here, please call the school office at (860) 658-9412 or email us. We would be happy to hear from you. |
