Lunch/Recess and Safety
Lunch/Recess and Safety
Lunch Program
Hot lunches are available daily in the cafeteria. A menu is sent home each month. Lunch boxes/bags should be clearly marked with owner’s name and grade. Students have lunch cards to purchase lunches or drinks or snacks/dessert. Parents may send checks or go through the Internet to put money on student lunch cards using MY SCHOOL BUCKS. Parents will be notified when the card will run out of money before the end of the next week. Parents may limit what students may purchase.
Cafeteria Rules
Cafeteria aides supervise children during lunch, keeping order during this busy event. It is important that your child recognizes that the same expectations of safety and respect that s/he follows in the classroom apply to behavior in the cafeteria. The following Cafeteria Rules are reviewed with children in their classrooms and are reinforced throughout the year. Please review them with your child as well.
1 Walk respectfully in the cafeteria and hallways.
2. Follow the bathroom pass system.
3. Use conversational voices while talking.
4. Raise your hand for permission to leave your seat.
5. Remain seated until you are given the signal to line up.
6. Clean up after yourself. Recycle milk cartons, juice boxes and water bottles in the recycle bins. Throw all of your trash in the proper trash cans.
7. Use a pass when you have permission to go to another area of the building.
8. If the fire alarm rings, leave everything at your table, quietly line up, and wait for your aide to walk you outside.
9. Treat others the way you want to be treated.
Recess
Several factors impact the decision to keep students inside for recess. The two primary factors are sustained rain and winter temperatures. The considerations related to temperature include the predicted wind factors (speed and duration), as well as the actual temperature reading. As always, principals use thoughtful discretion when making these decisions. Generally, unless the wind and temperature factors result in a “feels like” temperature of 10 degrees or below, students play outside for recess. Because these weather factors can vary throughout the school day, please ensure that students at all grade levels bring appropriate outdoor attire (warm coats, snow pants, boots, gloves, and hats) during the winter months.In the case of very bad weather, students will remain in their classroom for recess. Parents are welcome on the playground as volunteer supervisors in the Parents on the Playground (POP) program through PTSA.
Please remember to send in appropriate clothing for recess. During winter weather, snow pants, warm coats, boots, hats, and gloves are needed. During fall and spring months, mud boots are often appropriate. Parents should also send in a complete change of clothes for your child to keep in his/her locker in case clothes get too wet or muddy to be worn comfortably for the rest of the day. During warmer weather, a significant number of playground injuries occur due to children wearing flip-flops and open back shoes. Children who are not wearing appropriate footwear will not be permitted to play kickball, soccer, or other games of this nature, or allowed on the playground structure. Parents can send in an extra pair of sneakers which may be kept in your child’s locker for recess time as an option.
If a doctor has advised that your child is able to go to school but unable to participate at recess, please send in a written note to the Health Office. Arrangements will then be made for your child to remain inside.
Playground Rules
Students are supervised during recess by aides and parent volunteers. Here, too, it is extremely important that children be aware of and follow basic rules of safety and respect. Please help us in reinforcing the following Playground Rules:
1. Follow directions the first time.
2. Stay seated on the swings.
3. Come down all slides feet first, seated, and one at a time.
4. No rough play or tackling.
5. Do not bring food on the playground.
6. Only wear sneakers to play soccer, basketball, or football.
7. Be dressed for the weather.
8. Do not play in puddles, slide on ice, or throw snowballs.
9. 10. Line up immediately at your door when the whistle is blown.
10. Come into the building quietly.
District Code of Conduct
Safety at Mendon Center
Buddy System
The buddy system requires children in grades K-2 to be accompanied by a classmate or adult whenever they leave the classroom on any errand. If they are going to deliver a classmate to the Main Office or elsewhere, three classmates will head out so that two can walk back together after their classmate has been dropped off. When a parent brings and signs in a student late to school, the parent will be asked to walk the child to the appropriate classroom.
Discipline
Maintaining order through effective discipline is an obvious priority in the school. Aside from the desire to create a pleasant and successful learning atmosphere, proper behavior is necessary to ensure a safe environment. MCE focuses on discipline with dignity and self-responsibility. This philosophy builds upon basic tenets of respect and cooperation among students, parents, and teachers. It fosters desirable character traits described in the district's Social Emotional Learning initiative, provides clear expectations outlined as the Levels of Behavior; and is described below in its four stages. It is important that all members of the school community understand and support the program, and we appreciate your cooperation in discussing it with your child.
Stage One: Respect one another.
Each classroom teacher, with the support of the Principal and School Counselors, will teach, promote, model, and practice respectful behavior using the district's Social Emotional Learning initiative tenets:
1. Trustworthiness
2. Respect
3. Responsibility
4. Fairness
5. Caring
6. Good Citizenship
The theme is, always, the “Golden Rule”—treat others the way you want to be treated.
Stage Two: Provide Guidance.
We want to help children become responsible for their own behavior. Every classroom displays the following Levels of Behavior, adapted from Curt Hinson’s 6-Steps to a Trouble-Free Playground (Wilmington: P.E. Pub. Co., 2001):
UNACCEPTABLE Level 1
Not following directions
Not participating
Misusing material/equipment
Arguing, hitting, or pushing
Acting out of control
ACCEPTABLE Level 2
Following directions
Participating
Taking care of materials/equipment
Respecting others
Being under control
OUTSTANDING Level 3
Being self-responsible
Cooperating with others
Returning materials/equipment
Helping others
Acting as a role model
Each classroom teacher will follow a basic but flexible discipline format when any of the tenets of the SEL initiative are not followed to at least an acceptable level:
1. Ask the child to think about his or her specific behavior through a written self-evaluation that will be given to the child to complete.
2. Ask the child to consider how he or she might change the behavior to raise it to at least an acceptable level.
3. If the unacceptable behavior continues, give the child a verbal warning and, when appropriate, use “Time Out” or other appropriate consequences for reflection.
4. Send the child to the Main Office with a “Discipline Slip.” Parents do not need to be concerned at this point in the process. If the situation is perceived as a “concern,” you will receive a phone call.
Stage Three: Call Home.
When a child becomes a “repeat offender,” the classroom teacher will call home and inform the parents of the situation. The call is being made so the parents can help reinforce the buidling's expectations for behavior and to keep parents informed about concerns.
Stage Four: Action Plan.
At the discretion of the Principal, the Assistant Principal, and a School Counselor, an Action Plan will be developed to help correct the situation. At this point in the process, the parents will be informed by the Principal and be involved in developing an Action Plan that will include one or more of the following options:
Option One: Meeting(s) with the child and his/her teacher to set a plan of action.
Option Two: Meeting(s) with the parents and the child and/or the teacher and/or other persons to set up a plan of action.
Option Three: Student attendance at a weekly structured class with a School Counselor that teaches, promotes, and practices the use of common values.
Option Four: A weekly individual or small-group counseling session with a School Counselor.
Option Five: An out-of-school referral to an appropriate counseling professional at the discretion of the parent.
Option Six: Suspension (either in school or out of school) from school at the discretion of the Principal.
Emergency Procedures
Fire drills and shelter-in-place drills are performed throughout the year so that everyone in the building will be familiar with procedures in the event of an emergency. During a fire drill, all children are evacuated from the building and gather on the blacktop on the playground. Detailed plans are posted inside the door of each classroom.
In addition, an Emergency Procedures Plan has been developed and is in use in MCE and throughout the district. For more information, contact the Principal or the school’s Health and Safety Coordinator.
Locked Doors
To help ensure safety, all outside doors to MCE except the Main Entrance doors near the Main Office are locked from the outside after students have arrived in the morning. Please cooperate with this procedure and do not open a door from the inside to admit anyone through another entrance or ask a child to let you in through another door. This includes the side-entrance doors near the parking lots. Visitors should enter the school through the Main Entrance and sign in at the Main Office Reception Area.