Family Handbook Information – Assumption School

School Hours

Grades K – 8 7:45 a.m. to 2:15 p.m.

Pre-School 8:15 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

All half-day sessions end at 11:00 a.m. This applies to ALL students. (Pre-school through 8 grade)

Visitors

All school doors will remain locked after 7:45 a.m. Access to the school can be obtained by pressing the buzzer located next to the front entrance. A door will be unlocked remotely after screening by the school office.
All visitors must sign in at the front desk before entering the school during the school day. Prior to entry you may be asked to show identification.
All visitors will be required to wear a “visitor lanyard” while in the building.
Parents are asked not to visit classrooms during the school day. Messages, forgotten lunches, and other “left at home” items must be left at the front desk for delivery to the classroom at scheduled breaks.

Arrival & Dismissal

Arrivals – K through Eight

Students may not arrive at school before 7:15 a.m.
Buses will unload students in the schoolyard behind the cafeteria.
When driving your child to school in the morning, please pull to the far end of the driveway. Students should exit your car on the passenger side only. It is an active driveway and we do not want anyone getting hurt.
Please refrain from using your cell phone while in the drop-off line.
Please give your child(ren) their lunch money, papers, notes, homework, and all hugs and kisses at home, before you leave for school. Children should have all their school items within reach when arriving at the drop-off line.
Please be patient and move with the line, rather than darting in/out.
Please NO LEFT TURN from the school driveway.
If you wish to accompany your child into the building, you must park your car on the street. Please do not get out of your car in the front circle. There are teachers available in the driveway to assist your child.
Absolutely NO PARKING is allowed in the front driveway until 8:00 a.m.
Please review these few procedures with everyone who drives your child(ren) to school.

Pre-School Arrivals

Parents or drivers must walk all pre-school children to the preschool doors. Their teachers will meet them at the door.

Delayed Arrivals

It is important for all students to arrive at school on time each morning. If your child will be unavoidably delayed, please notify the school before 8:00 a.m.
All students in grade K through Eight who arrive at school after 7:50 a.m. must obtain a “late pass” from the front desk before reporting to their classroom.

Dismissal – Grades K through Eight

Walkers will be dismissed at 2:15 p.m. after the bus riders are dismissed. All walkers must present a note to their teachers stating that he or she will be a walker all year or a note each day he or she will be walking. If your child(ren) are walker(s) please meet them at the crossing guard by MacCulloch and Miller Road. If you have a younger child who is a walker and you feel you need to meet them at school, please do NOT block the gym doors but instead meet your child in the front of the school entrance closest to the school buzzer on the wall of the entrance. Students and any parents waiting to pick them up must exit immediately upon dismissal of the walkers so that the students who are riding buses may be dismissed in a timely manner. Please have all walkers cross the street with the crossing guard at the corner of Miller and MacCulloch. Students will not be permitted to cross at the corner of Perry Street and MacCulloch without an adult.
Buses will pick up students in the front driveway at dismissal. Cars may not enter the front driveway while buses are present.
Please DO NOT park on the school side of MacCulloch Avenue during school hours or during pickup.
Car riders: All cars must line up on Miller Road, but not before 2:10 p.m. Cars are not permitted to park on MacCulloch Avenue or enter the school circle by taking a left turn from MacCulloch Avenue. Cars must present a name tag on the visor with the family name on it. Tags can be held in place with a rubber band. Once the buses have left the circle at approximately 2:15 p.m., the cars may begin to pull all the way forward in the circle. Please do not block driveways when moving forward in the car line and stay as close to the side as possible to allow traffic to pass. Students will be dismissed to the cars once the cars in the line have come to a complete stop. Exit the circle by following the car in front of your car.
If there is a change in the usual way your child will be going home, an email before 12:30 to your child’s teacher or a dated note to your child’s teacher is required.
Please do not call the school office with changes in dismissal unless it is absolutely necessary.
Students may not be left at school after dismissal unsupervised. Students who have not been picked up by 2:30 p.m. will be taken to the After School Program.
Absolutely no parking is allowed in the front driveway after 1:00 p.m.

Pre-school Dismissal

All Pre-School 4 students will be dismissed from the rear parking lot door and all Pre-School 3 students will be dismissed from the front door at 1:00pm.
Please do not email your child’s teacher after 1:00 pm. with dismissal changes. Please call the school and ask that a note be delivered to the teacher.
On half days all PK students and their siblings will be dismised at 10:30 a.m. from the preschool rooms. All preschool parents must exit the parking lot as soon as they have picked up their child(ren) to allow room for others to enter the parking lot.

Early Pickup, Illness & Absence

Early Pickup

If you find it is necessary to pick up your child early from school on a particular day, a note must be sent to the teacher that morning.
Your child should be picked up in the lobby (not the classroom) at the agreed-upon time. It imperative that each child be signed out at the front desk with his/her name, time of departure and the name of the person picking him/her up documented.

After School Program

Coordinator – Mrs. Janet Sullivan

The After School Program is available for all students in grades PreK4 through Eight. This program is staffed by Assumption faculty members and provides students with supervised activities, quiet time, snacks, and grades 2 – 8 will have homework time.
The program is available for regular or occasional use from 2:00 pm until 5:00pm. Care for PreK4 students is available beginning at 1pm.
Parents are charged an hourly rate for services.
After School services are available each full day. The program is not available on half-days, early dismissal days, or school holidays.

Parking

Parking is permitted in the circular driveway in front of the school from 8:00 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. only. Do not block the fire lane immediately in front of the school entrance at any time.
Parking is permitted in the parking lot behind the cafeteria only during morning pre-school arrival 8:00 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. and half day dismissal for pre-school students at 10:30 a.m.
No parking is available for parents in the faculty parking lot (behind the school on the flagpole side).
Parking in side driveways is prohibited at all times. These driveways must be left free for emergency vehicles.
For special occasions, such as Christmas Store and Enrichment Day, please consider using the main and lower church lots.
Street parking is available, but be mindful of the parking signs as the Town will issue tickets.

Adverse Weather Conditions

Assumption School uses an automated messaging service in the event of a school closing, delayed opening or early dismissal. Please make sure all of your contact information is always current and accurate in the system and your mailbox is not full.
If weather conditions begin to worsen throughout a school day, please check the Online Bulletin on the school website for an early closing announcement. You may come to the school office to pick up your child at any time during adverse weather conditions. Students will be dismissed only after being “signed out” with the school office.
When dangerous weather conditions are forecasted to begin the following day, you will be asked to send in a note indicating how you would like your child sent home that next day, as a bus rider or a car rider, in the event of an early dismissal.

Illness & Absence

Parents of students in grades K through Eight must contact the school before 8:15 a.m. to report any absence. Please email absences to attendance@assumptionnj.org and provide a brief description of your child’s illness or reason for absence.
Extended absences should be reported each day that the student is absent from school. A doctor’s note will be required after five consecutive missed days.
Homework can be requested when calling in an absence. Arrangements can be made to have homework sent home with a sibling or neighbor or to have it picked up by a parent in the front vestibule.
If your child is diagnosed with strep throat, conjunctivitis (pink eye) or any other illness requiring the use of antibiotics, they must be on the antibiotic for 24 hours before returning to school.
If your child vomits or has diarrhea during the night or in the morning, please do not send them to school for 24 hours after last episode. If your child becomes ill during school, you will be called to pick them up.
If your child has head lice or nits, please notify the school nurse. If your child is found to have lice or nits at school, you will be notified to seek treatment as advised by your physician. Clearance from the school nurse is required to assure that the child is nit free before returning.
If your child has chicken pox, they must remain home until all pox lesions are scabbed and dry. Clearance from the school nurse is required to re-enter the classroom.
If your child needs to be excused from Physical Education, a note from the parent/guardian or your physician is required. If your child has a cast or brace or needs to use crutches or a wheelchair, please notify the school nurse.

Prescriptions

All medications must be stored and administered by the school nurse. No medication – with the sole exception of asthma inhalers – may be carried by any student in the school. (See nurses for guidelines on asthma inhalers.)
Written instructions signed by the parent and physician will be required to administer any medication. Instructions must include student’s name, name of medication, dosage, and time to be administered. All medication must be in either the original over-the-counter medicine bottle or the prescription bottle with pharmacy name and prescribing physician’s name clearly displayed.
If your child has an inhaler or EpiPen at home, we must also have one at school in case of emergency.
Parents must inform the school of any change in child’s health or medication.
Written instructions, signed by the parent and physician, are also required for non-prescription medications.

Medical Excuses

Notes regarding medical excuses from school activities should be sent directly to the appropriate teacher.

Insurance

The Diocese of Paterson provides mandatory insurance for each student. The fee for this coverage is incorporated into tuition.

From the Nurse’s Office:

It is recommended that every student have a yearly physical. Forms are available on-line. All new students and students entering Kindergarten must have a completed physical form in order to attend school in September.
Emergency cards for each student are kept on file in the nurse’s office. Please be sure to notify the school office of any changes of home, mobile, or work phone numbers.
It is important the school has at least one phone number of a parent/guardian who can be reached during the school day and can make decisions on the care of your child.

Bus Riders

Transportation

Children can only ride on their assigned school bus.
If you have any problems with your child’s bus route, pick up location or transportation questions, please call your public school district transportation office.

School Bus Safety

A major hazard to children riding school buses is being struck by their own bus. In the United States, approximately 2/3 of students killed outside a school bus are not struck by other vehicles, but by their own bus.[1] Recently, many buses have been equipped with wire or plastic arms which extend from the front bumper on the right side of the bus while it is stopped for loading/unloading. The purpose of the device is that children who need to cross the road will be forced to walk several feet forward of the front of the bus itself before they can begin to cross the road, thus ensuring that the bus driver can see them as they cross in front of the bus, avoiding a common blind spot immediately in front of the bus.

The key concepts for preventative measures are under the control of school bus drivers and their riders:

Danger Zones

Students can only ride on their assigned buses.
If you have any questions or problems regarding your child’s bus assignment or route, call your public school district transportation office.

Protecting children from their own bus

A stationary bus cannot run over a rider. In the morning, students should already be at a bus stop and standing stationary as a bus approaches, rather than running toward it as it approaches. Likewise, many school bus drivers avoid after-school loading hazards by arriving and positioning their buses for loading before dismissal whenever possible, so that buses are not moving as the students are dismissed and prepare to load.
A school bus driver will not run over a child he or she can see.
School bus drivers cannot accidentally run over children who are on board. If backing up or other traffic maneuvers are to take place at the same location as a bus stop, consider a routine to have the children on board while the movement is made.
Planned routines are safer than last-minute changes.
Riders should never run when approaching a school bus.
Get away from the area close to a bus when you get off.
Never immediately go back near a stopped bus to retrieve anything you may have dropped.
Avoid drawstrings on clothing and possessions which may get entangled while boarding or getting off the bus.
The area in front of a school bus has long been known as generally the most hazardous “danger zone”. An increasingly sophisticated array of mirror systems have been developed to enable school bus drivers to see children who may otherwise have been obscured from view in what was long a “blind spot.” Crossing gates (also called crossing arms) were developed to encourage those children crossing in front of a bus to move away from the bumper area and into an area with a better view of drivers. Additionally, there has also been a trend toward bus designs with less inherent blind spots at the front.
The second most dangerous zone is the area on the right side and at the right rear wheels. For this reason, many schools and parents provide safety instruction urging students: – When boarding, stay well away from the bus until it is fully stopped. Never approach a moving bus. – When leaving the bus, if not crossing the street or road, move away from the bus immediately after getting off, rather than walking closely along the side of it.
The third area of hazards are the loading doors. A drawstring or loose clothing may catch on something as a student gets off. If the driver isn’t aware, the student may still be attached to the outside of the bus as it begins to pull away. To reduce the risk of this happening, school bus manufacturers have reduced the types of handles and equipment near the stepwell area, and children were urged to consider this risk factor when selecting clothing and accessories. Older students are at equal risk with younger ones in this regard.

School Dress Code

Please remember to mark all articles of clothing and personal belongings (backpacks, lunchboxes, etc.) with student’s name and grade. The lost and found, located in the cafeteria, should be checked for missing items. Unclaimed clothing and other “orphaned” items will be discarded periodically.

Flynn and O’Hara is the official Assumption School uniform company. Uniform purchase order forms are available by calling Flynn & O’Hara at 1.800.441.4112, by visiting the Flynn and O’Hara uniform store on 130 Baldwin Road in Parsippany or by visiting the web site https://www.flynnohara.com/

If your child has outgrown his or her uniform, or you are in need of uniform items, an ongoing uniform exchange is available at school. Contact the HSA for further information on the uniform exchange.

Pre-School

All students in pre-school are required to be in the Assumption School gym uniform purchased from Flynn and O’Hara. Students may wear a uniformed collared shirt with the gym pants or shorts.
Sneakers are allowed on any school day and must be worn on gym day.

Grades Kindergarten through Six

All students in grades Kindergarten through 6 are required to be in school uniform.
Flynn and O’Hara is the official Assumption School uniform company.
All knit shirts must be purchased at Flynn and O’Hara and must have the Assumption “A”.
The uniform sweater is optional for both boys and girls.
The gym outfit (purchased at Flynn and O’Hara) may be worn on gym days only. The Assumption gym outfit includes navy sweatpants, or navy shorts in warmer weather, an Assumption t-shirt and/or a gym sweatshirt (purchased at Flynn and O’Hara or from the Assumption Shoppe) and must be worn on gym days only. Ripped/cut pants or shirts are not acceptable.
Only Assumption sweatshirts may be worn with regular and gym uniforms for warmth.
No dyed or two-toned hair color or unruly hair is allowed.
No excessive jewelry may be worn.
Shoes must be appropriate school shoes or clean sneakers. Boots, platform shoes, high heels, backless shoes, UGGS, or sandals are not acceptable.

Boys

Boys are required to wear gray, khaki, or navy slacks (these need not be purchased from Flynn and O’Hara) or shorts (these must be purchased from Flynn & O’Hara in grades K through Four).
A uniform knit shirt or an oxford shirt and tie must be worn.

Girls

Girls are required to wear the uniform skirt, navy walking shorts, or navy slacks.
Girls in grades Kindergarten through four may wear the school jumper.
A uniform knit shirt or an oxford shirt must be worn (a turtleneck may be worn under an oxford shirt only).
Navy or White knee socks or tights must be simple and match the skirt, slacks, or shorts.
No leggings or sweatpants maybe worn under skirts.

Grades Seven and Eight

All students in grades seven and eight are required to be in school uniform.
All golf shirts, button down shirts, vests, skirts, and girls’ slacks must be purchased from Flynn and O’Hara.
Girls are required to wear the gray/maroon plaid skirt or classic khaki pants. White or maroon/cardinal long or short sleeved knit shirt or white button down shirt may be worn. Maroon or grey knee socks or tights are to be worn with the plaid skirt. With pants, a regular sock that covers the ankle is acceptable. No leggings or sweat pants may be worn under skirts. All shirts must be long enough to cover midriff.
Boys are required to wear classic khaki styled pants only. No oversized or multipocketed pants/shorts are allowed. White or maroon cardinal long or short sleeved knit shirt or white buttoned down shirt may be worn. During specified times, shorts that are classic khaki style, plain or pleated front, that reach close to the knee or longer length may be worn.
Shoes must be appropriate school shoes or clean sneakers. Boots, platform shoes, high heels, backless shoes, UGGS, or sandals are not acceptable.
The Assumption gym uniform includes black sweat pants or shorts, in warmer weather, with the Assumption “A”. Ash colored tee shirt or other Assumption shirt (purchased at the Assumption Shoppe) gym sweatshirt with the Assumption “A” or other Assumption sweatshirt (purchased at the Assumption Shoppe). Gym clothes are to be worn on gym days ONLY. Ripped or cut pants or shirts are not acceptable.
Only Assumption sweatshirts may be worn for warmth with the regular and gym uniforms.
No dyed, two-toned hair color or unruly hairstyles are allowed.

Dress Down Days

Clothing may be relaxed but still appropriate for school.
No “short” shorts, tank tops, sleeveless shirts or bare midriffs.
No excessive jewelry can be worn.

Dress Down Days

Clothing may be relaxed but still appropriate for school. No “short” shorts, tank tops, sleeveless shirts or bare midriffs may be worn.

No dyed or two-tone hair color is allowed.

Lost and Found

Please remember to mark all articles of clothing and personal belongings (backpacks, lunchboxes, etc.).
The Lost and Found is located in the cafeteria and should be checked for missing items. Unclaimed clothing and other “orphaned” items will be donated periodically.

Athletics and Team Sports

Assumption School offers a number of opportunities to participate in team sports, clubs, and clinics. The Home and School Association actively supports the following athletic programs with parent volunteers:

Boys’ Baseball Grades 7-8

Girls’ Softball Grades 7-8

Boys’ Soccer Grades 7-8

Girls Soccer Grades 7-8

Co-Ed Volleyball Grades 7-8

Boys’ Basketball Grades 4-8

Girls’ Basketball Grades 4-8

Cross Country Grades 3-8

Track Grades 3-8

Physicals

A new physical is required for each student every year. Physical forms and immunization records should be given to the school nurse. Please keep a copy home for your files.
If a student is playing a school sport it is required that the physical forms be dates within 365 days of the start of the sport (try-outs, practices, and/or games). If the physical date is not in compliance, the student will be unable to participate until appropriate physical forms are brought to school.
If the student is in compliance, he or she will receive a Blue Card indicating them as being cleared to play. If the student is not in compliance, he or she will be given a Red Card indicating that they are unable to play.

Lunch Program

A hot lunch program is offered on a daily basis. Lunch is not available on half day sessions. Please go to https://www.ezschoolapps.com/ParentLogin.aspx and login to create an account. Menu and prices are available once you create an account.

Any questions, please contact ggallo@assumtionnj.org.

Lunch Times

10:40am – 11:10am = PreK & Kindergarten
11:10am – 11:30am = 1st & 2nd Grades
11:30am – 11:50am = 3rd & 4th Grades
11:50am – 12:10pm = 5th & 6th Grades
12:10pm – 12:30pm = 7th and 8th Grades

Recess Times

11:30am – 11:50am = 1st & 2nd Grades
11:50am – 12:05pm = 3rd & 4th Grades
11:30am – 11:50pm = 5th & 6th Grades
12:30pm – 12:50pm = 7th and 8th Grades

Messages

All messages concerning your child should be in writing and submitted early in the day. This will ensure that teachers are properly notified.

Scouting

Many grade levels have Scout Troops at Assumption. Correspondence is sent home at the beginning of the school year listing representatives you may contact for information.

Student Ambassadors

Moderator – Ms. Paton and Mrs. Endres

Students in grades Six through Eight participate may participate.

Cell Phones:

If you would like your child to have a cell phone at school, a Cell Phone Usage form from the website must be filled out and signed. Note that the phone is to be turned off and remain in the student’s backpack at all times during the school day.
NO STUDENT may make or receive phone calls or texts during the school day.
Phones will be confiscated if a form is not on file or if a child abuses this privilege.