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Dear MS 839 Families,
We have a few updates for you as we approach the end of July.
Schedules, Dates, and Times
Bell Schedule: Our bell schedule remains unchanged from the 2023-2024 school year. School begins at 8:50am daily, and ends at 3:30pm every day except Wednesdays, when we dismiss at 2:30pm
Thursday, September 5th is the first day of school. We encourage your child to arrive at the MS 839 courtyard by 8:30am. Children will begin entering the building at 8:40am, with our first Morning Meeting of the school year beginning promptly at 8:50am. Staff will be on hand to direct children to their crew leader. Please help get your child into the habit of being on time. Students who arrive after 8:50am are marked late and miss our daily morning meeting, which is a crucial part of their daily MS 839 experience.
Monday, September 7th is the first day of our morning drop off program. Students may arrive between 8:00am-8:30am. The gym, library, and cafeteria are open during this time, and a free breakfast is served. Options for students during this time are pending staff availability.
Monday, September 16th is the first day of our 100% free after school program Roads to Success (RTS). RTS is offered daily from dismissal until 6pm, as well as on many early release days and school closures. Registration paperwork, in multiple languages, is available HERE.
Early Release Days: MS 839 has two early release days planned for early in the school year, on Tuesday, September 24th and Monday, October 28th. On these days, students will be dismissed at 12:30pm. RTS typically offers programming immediately following dismissal on early release days. We will have an MS 839 calendar with all of these dates soon but, in the meantime, here is the official NYCPS calendar for city-wide school calendar dates.
Important Note for 6th Grade Families
Special Education and ENL Services: Our team will be reviewing the needs of incoming students with Individualized Education Programs and students who receive English as a New Language services. We will reach out directly to your family if we have any questions. If you have specific information you’d like to provide us with, or have questions about these services, please click here to request an appointment!
Crew Leaders, Classes & Schedules: Programming and planning balanced classes is an incredibly challenging puzzle, especially as families make enrollment decisions up into the first weeks of the school year. If you have not let us know yet about your enrollment intentions, please do so as soon as you are able, it helps immensely!
You will find out your child’s class and crew a few days before the start of the school year, and even those assignments are tentative until the first day of school. Please remember that everyone in the 6th grade is new, and our teachers take great pride in taking our newest students under their wing as they make the transition to middle school. Orientation-like experiences are embedded into the first days of school to ensure a strong community is built in each crew and class, that your children feel safe navigating the building, and that they get to know all the adults that will support them in their 3 years with us.
Supplies: We will share any needed supplies our teachers are requesting by mid August. In the meantime, feel free to purchase frequently used consumables like pens and pencils.
Your children’s teachers can always use paper towels, non-toxic cleaning supplies, tissues, pens and pencils, and general classroom supplies. If you would like to donate items, you may send in these items with your child at your convenience – remember they are just as useful when donated in February as in September!
Cell Phones and Smart Devices
You may have heard the news that NYC Public Schools is considering a complete ban on cell phones as soon as February.
MS 839 requires that students power off their smartphones and smart devices (including watches) the entire time they are in the school building. If a student violates this policy, an administrator will meet with them and collect the device for the day. A family member will be required to pick up the device after a second violation.
If your child does not have a smartphone, we highly recommend against purchasing one for them. Many families opt for basic flip phones as research continues to emerge about the harmful long term effects of early adoption of smart devices and social media. Michael is currently reading The Anxious Generation, and he encourages families to dive into the research before making enormously consequential decisions about smartphone usage for their children.
If you permit your child to have a smartphone, we recommend practicing powering off the device for stretches of time equivalent to the length of a school day. Have your child do this while at camp, on family trips, or even when they’re at home so they can practice being disconnected from a device before the school year begins. Smart devices have emerged as the number one source of stress, anxiety, distraction, and conflict in middle school, and we need your support in addressing this challenge.
We also remind you that many social media apps require users to be 13 years old or older to use the service. We suggest you monitor the apps and websites your children access on their devices, and caution you against allowing your children to register for apps they are not old enough to access.
As always, if you need to get in touch with your child during the school day, please call our main office at 718-686-2730. Please help us reinforce school policy by not texting or calling your child directly.
Lastly, we are updating our Family Handbook and Communication Guides and will have them available towards the end of the summer or at the beginning of the school year.
Enjoy the rest of the summer and we look forward to seeing you and your children in September!
Your Team at MS 839
PS – Check out our MS 839 PTA online store for cool 839 merchandise!
