Margaret Newton Elementary: From the Principal’s Desk

Thank you to those of you that contact us when your child is sick or will be out of school. Those phone calls count as a parent note in which the student may have up to 10 parent notes per year. If you take your child to the doctor and turn in a doctor’s note, the doctor’s note will replace your parent note. There are an unlimited number of doctor notes.
Please remember to send a note if your child will have a change of afternoon destination that day. The purpose of the note is to let the teacher know when and where to send your child in the afternoon dismissal process as well as give the bus driver permission to transport your child as well as an accurate location/address. Bus drivers are not allowed to add and remove students without a paper note that goes with the bus driver on the route. Most people do not know that bus drivers have to keep a log of each and every student that rides his/her bus daily. At MNES, we have a bus roster for each bus with our MNES students listed. Each student is checked off as he/she enters the bus in the afternoon. It’s a process that is very important and last minute changes to the process always seem to cause confusion as well as the possibility of placing a student on the wrong bus. This is why we STRONGLY DISCOURAGE anyone to call us after 1:30 with a change of destination. We collect notes every morning from students/teachers and have it documented and ready to roll by 9:00 every morning for that afternoon. Last minute changes always seem to throw a wrench in the plans and students do not get to their correct destination.
I strongly encourage you to join your child’s teacher page for parents if you have not already. Teachers post updates and things you need to know.
Please read to your child and with your child at least 20 minutes a day. The research is clear on the importance of reading to your child. If you do not have books at your home, please let me know and I will hook you up!
Thank you for allowing us to love and teach your child!
MNES Faculty & Staff