Dear SLA-MS Families,
Welcome to the 2022/2023 school year! I hope that this letter finds you well and that you
have all been enjoying your summer thus far. In addition to welcoming everyone “back to
school”, I want to provide you with some important information regarding the upcoming school
year.
The first day of school for all students is Monday, August 29. Our school day is from 8:15 until 3:20. Breakfast is served before school in the Cafe from 7:45 to 8:10. All 5th grade advisors will be in the school yard on the first day to meet their advisees and families.
We will start the first day with an advisory period to go over student rosters and orient students who are new to the school to the building. Please enter the school through our new walkway between 36th and 37th streets and go straight into the school yard for arrival. SEPTA is free for all students traveling to school on the first day. Students who already have a SEPTA Key from last year can use that Key again. Students who need a new Key will receive them on the first day to get home. Families who are picking their students up at dismissal can meet their students along Warren Street at our 36th and Warren Streets entrance.
To be prepared for the first day of school, students need a backpack, some pencils, some notebooks, and if they already have a chromebook, that too. We’ll take care of the rest. If you are new to the District or have a damaged/lost chromebook, drop-in centers are open now if you don’t want to wait until the first day of school for a student chromebook.
This year we are excited to share a new report card conference calendar for families and students. Instead of waiting until grades are finalized and talking about what already happened, we are going to conduct conferences at the interim point of each quarter (important dates shared at the bottom of this e-mail). This allows students and teachers to share with families about how performance on classwork and projects is going before final grades are in. At the midpoint of each quarter, plans will be developed with advisors to start doing what hasn’t happened yet, stop doing what is getting in the way of learning, and keep doing what is working well. Families, students, and teachers will meet earlier in the school year and more often with this new calendar.
We are welcoming three new teachers this year. Mr. Powell will be joining team Zephyr teaching students Mathematics. Ms. Peoples will be joining team Phoenix teaching students Mathematics. Ms. McCabe will be joining team Pathfinder teaching students Science. Additionally Ms. Mar will be joining our STEP team as our new Case Manager. We are happy they each chose SLA-MS as their next school to work at and look forward to introducing them to you all during Back to School Night.
If you have any questions or just want to say hello, stop in the office, we’re already back.
Respectfully Yours,
Timothy M. Boyle, Founding Principal
8/29 First Day of School
9/5 Labor Day (no school)
9/16 Teacher Professional Development Day (no school) High School Selection Process Opens
Week of 9/19 Back to School Night, date to be confirmed before school starts
9/26 Rosh Hashanah (no school)
10/5 Yom Kippur (no school)
10/7 Teacher Professional Development (Half-Day 12:20 dismissal)
10/10 Indigenous Peoples Day (no school)
10/11-10-13 Project Conferences (Half-Days 12:20 dismissal, conferences from 1:00-3:20)
10/14-10/15 High School Fair
11/4 High School Selection Process Closes