We had a fabulous 1st week of school!  Thank you to you and your children!  Swiss Point was featured on First Coast News today as School of the Day.  You can look online and "like" the article.

We will have Open House next week.  We are holding this event earlier this year, so parents can meet teachers and learn about each class to better support their child.  In homeroom today your child was given a bell schedule for Open House.  They filled in their courses, room numbers, teachers, etc.  PLEASE ask them for this schedule and bring it with you to Open House, so you know where to go.

7th & 8th grade Open House - Tuesday, August 18th at 6pm

6th grade Open House - Thursday, August 20th at 6pm

The SPMS bus loop and Hickory bus loop will be open for parking as well as the back teacher parking lot.

There will be an 8th grade Washington DC Informational meeting after Open House on Tuesday in the auditorium. After the meeting we will start accepting $250 deposits. The cost per student is $890 and per parent is $990.  The dates are Sunday, January 3rd to Friday, January 8th.  We will operate on a first come first serve basis filling the buses. Once we have enough to fill one bus the rest of the students/parents will be held on a "waiting list" for the next bus until there are enough to fill.  Then we will work on a 3rd bus and so on. We can only take buses that are full.

The district has created Home Access Center (HAC) accounts for each student.  Your child was given information today on a bright green sheet of paper.  Their username and password are on this sheet.  Also, on the bright green sheet is their username and password to use Office365, which is provided free of charge by the district. PLEASE talk to your child about keeping their usernames and passwords confidential and show them how they can log into HAC and keep track of their own grades.

This Wednesday, August 19th, we will have a special schedule.  Students will not attended classes, but will complete school work in an extended homeroom time, so students do need to have all notebooks and books on campus.  On Wednesday, students will attend a Quarterly Behavior Expectation assembly and an assembly to kick-off the PTSO Magazine Fundraiser. We will also conduct our required drills - fire, bomb threat, intruder, and tornado. Please talk to your child about the importance of us conducting drills and appropriate behavior during drills.

The PTSO Magazine Fundraiser kickoff is Wednesday. This is the PTSO's largest fundraiser, so we appreciate all of the families that participate.  All of the funds generated by PTSO go directly to Swiss Point to support our children and teachers.  We want to thank PTSO and all of you for your continued support!

In an effort to improve communication for club meetings and other events, we have linked the SPMS Calendar that is used by teachers and staff to our SPMS website.  On this calendar you will find dates for all club meetings, SPMS sporting events, play rehearsals, PTSO & SAC meetings, daily rotation of silver/black, and much more.  There will be events on the calendar that you really don't need to know because they are for teachers/staff, but we felt like managing one calendar for everyone would eleveate errors and help improve communication.

I have received several complaints about parent pick-up and the time it takes to get through the line.  Part of the delay is that we release half the students at 2pm and the other half at 2:05pm for safety reasons with lockers, so if several cars in the front of the line are waiting for students that don't exit the building until 2:10pm the line is not moving.  In an effort to speed up the line this year, we have asked that parents please place their child's name in the passenger side window for us to call.  Also, please talk to your child about paying attention and looking for their ride instead of socializing with friends.  If your child is eligible to ride the bus, we encourage them to ride to reduce the afternoon pick-up line.  We also ask that you do not tell your child to walk to your car to avoid the pick-up line.  Having students walk down the road to get into a vehicle is dangerous.  Please be patient as we continue to make improvements.

Please remember that parent drop-off in the morning starts at 7:10am.  We have office staff arriving on campus between 7 and 7:15am, so we don't have adequate supervision or people to handle an emergency in case something was to happen.  If your child is eligible to ride the bus, we encourage them to ride to reduce the morning drop-off line.

When students stay after school for a club meeting, intramurals, or extra help, they must be picked up at the designated end time.  Teachers sponsoring these events are responsible for all students until students are picked up, which means teachers can't leave.  Most of the teachers have families of their own with after school committments to attend to and some teachers have part-time jobs.  I have communicated with teachers that 30 minutes after the designated end time if a child has still not been picked up, the teacher can call the parent and place the child in Beyond the Bell. The parent will be charged $15.  The teacher day ends at 2:55pm, so when teachers stay after they are giving up their own time.  Many teachers are very happy to stay after school with students, but would like for parents to be courteous in return by picking up their child on time.  After a teacher has to stay late multiple times waiting with a child, the teacher often stops offering help sessions or sponsoring clubs.  We do not want this to happen, so if picking up your child is an issue with your work schedule, please don't let your child stay for the event or consider purchasing a Beyond the Bell punch card

Yearbooks are on sale now!!!  You can pre-order your yearbook online for only $35.  Yearbooks will ONLY be sold online, so please do not send in cash or check.  Students were given a 1/2 sheet flyer today in homeroom with the directions on how to order.  Just in case the slip doesn't make it to you, the directions are below.

Go to http://yearbookordercenter.com

Search by Order Number 0359

Press continue to confirm you have chosen SPMS.

You will select your order options by filling in the Quantity of the item you would like to purchase.

After you confirm your selections, you will be prompted to insert the student's name and grade level.

You will then be able to insert the Name Stamp you would like to appear on the front of the book and perss Continue.

Once you have confirmed your items, select Checkout.

Complete the billing information and select Review Order.

After reviewing your order, select Submit.