Dear Students, Parents, and Guardians,
As always, we hope that this letter finds you all well and that your summer provided the opportunity to take some time to rest, relax, and create wonderful family memories! New Canaan is such a supportive, caring, and nurturing community that places great value on supporting the schools, and we are so honored to be a part of the South School learning community and New Public Schools as a whole. Along with the central office, our building administrative team and assistants, our maintenance and custodial staff and so many others, we have been working diligently to prepare the building for the new school year. Our faculty have been making their way back to South over the last week or so to begin their preparation for the return of our South School scholars to classrooms!
Safety is our primary key to ensuring students and staff feel emotionally comfortable and are able to focus on teaching and learning when in school. Ensuring anyone who enters our building has a legitimate reason to be here is one of our first lines of safety. As a reminder, all adults who come to visit the school must enter through the main entrance and have a valid photo ID to present to the campus monitor, office staff, or administration every time you visit the school. A visitor sticker will be issued which must be clearly visible at all times while in the building. Visitors should not visit rooms or spaces where they are not expected. We thank you in advance for your cooperation with these safety measures.
Placement: We know all of you are eager to receive placement information; placement will be sent via email this Thursday, August 22nd. To ensure the work that our faculty and administration engaged in to create balanced classes, changes in placement cannot be made.
Enrollment Updates: We welcome back all of our returning students and families, 90 new kindergarteners and 21 new students across Grades one through four. As of today, we have 482 students enrolled for the school year. The grade breakdown is as follows:
Kindergarten -
90 students in 5 sections
Grade 1
- 93 students in 5 sections
Grade 2 -
106 students in 6 sections
Grade 3
- 95 students in 5 sections
Grade 4
- 98 students in 5 sections.
This enrollment represents a decrease of total sections from 27 last year to 26 this year.
Staff Updates: As is the case each year, we have had some staff changes for a variety of reasons. We welcome the following new staff to South School this year:
Some faculty or staff that have moved to new positions or changed roles:
Elementary School Hours: The instructional day for students is 8:40 a.m. to 3:10 p.m. Students can begin arriving at 8:30 a.m. and report to their classrooms. Buses will also begin arriving as early as 8:30. Students arriving after the second 8:40 bell will be marked tardy.
Bus Transportation: You will receive a letter from the transportation department about your child’s bus information soon, with the bus stop location and times for pick-up and drop-off. Every year, it takes a week or two for bus routes to settle out, and we respectfully ask for a little extra patience during this time. As a neighborhood school, we do have a lot of walkers. Please talk to your children about using the sidewalks and crosswalks for safety.We also encourage all eligible students to ride the bus to help reduce the amount of traffic around and on campus at drop-off and pick-up times.
Pick-up Area for Kindergarten and Grade 1 Walkers: To alleviate people traffic on the bus platform at dismissal, the pick-up area for Kindergarten and Grade 1 Walkers is located at the double doors to the right of the original South School sign and the Be Your Best Self vinyl banner on the Gower Road side of the building. Older siblings in Grades 2 through 4 meeting younger kindergarten or Grade 1 siblings to walk home with them will be directed to exit through the bus platform doors and walk around the north wing to sign out their siblings at this location. No parents will be allowed on the bus platform during dismissal to facilitate a safer and more efficient bus loading process.
Early Bird Program: South School offers an Early Bird Program for a fee, which allows working parents to drop off their children as early as 7:30 a.m. Information about the Early Bird Program can be found on the South School Website by clicking on Menu, then Parent Resources, and then Early Bird Program.
Meet & Greet Sessions, Grades 1-4: We will host our annual Meet and Greet opportunity for all students in GRADES 1 - 4 on Wednesday, August 28th from 10:30 to 11:00 a.m. in the classrooms. Adults must have a valid photo ID to enter the building for this brief visit time.
Kindergarten Meet & Greet Sessions: A separate letter will be sent to all kindergarten parents explaining our Kindergarten Meet and Greet sessions for kindergarten students which will be held on Thursday, August 29th.
New to South Tours: For families new to South, our PTC will conduct tours of the building on Wednesday, August 28th from 9:30 to 10:00 a.m. just prior to the Meet and Greet session for Grades 1-4. Please enter through the main entrance.
Popscile Playdates for Students New to South & All Incoming Kindergarteners: All new students are welcome to come to the South playgrounds on Tuesday, August 27th from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m. This is a great opportunity for students and parents to meet other new South families so they will know a few familiar faces on the first day of school. Kindergartners will meet on the playground in front of the school (off Farm Road), while new students in grades 1-4 will meet on the Lower Playground behind the school (off Gower Road). Families with children at both levels will have to visit both playgrounds.
First Day of School: The first full day of school for all students in Grades 1 through 4 is Thursday, August 29th - 8:40 a.m. to 3:10 p.m. The first full day of school for Kindergarten students is Friday, August 30th - 8:40 a.m. to 3:10 p.m. (Please see the separate Kindergarten Parent Letter for the Kindergarten Meet and Greet Schedule for Thursday, August 29th.)
PTC - PAWSOME PARTNERS IN OUR WORK: Please read the email communication from the South School PTC that was sent out yesterday. Their mailing will have more information for all families about their work and many exciting upcoming events as we launch this new school year.
South School Student/Parent Handbook: The South School Parent/Student Handbook can be accessed online on the South School website by clicking on Menu, Student Resources, and then Student Handbook.
We are all so very excited to welcome our new students and families to South School, and of course we are excited to see all of our returning scholars and their families back at school for the 2024-2025 school year! See you very soon!
Respectfully,
Matt Kascak, Principal
Siobhan McCormack, Assistant Principal