Good morning SMS Families,

I have a few messages for you today to keep in mind as we approach the beginning of the school year. Please take a minute to read the following:

Many of you should be receiving EdChoice Acceptance Forms from the Ohio DEW. Please sign those and either bring them to Open House on August 11, or send them in to the office on the first day of school, August 13.

Speaking of Open House, it is scheduled for Tuesday, August 11. This is a great opportunity to meet the teachers, drop off school supplies, and take care of any business you might have in the office. To keep the numbers of people at the school more manageable, if your child's last name begins with the letters A-K come from 6:00-7:00, and if your child's name begins with the letters L-Z please come from 7:00-8:00. Obviously, if you have a major conflict with your assigned time, you may come to the other time.

If for some reason you are not receiving this message via text and email and would like to, please send me a message so I can troubleshoot.

Please remember our golf outing is right around the corner, and will be less than a month away once school has begun. Every family is required to find at least one hole sponsor, and donate a prize. Appropriate prizes include, gift cards, golf equipment, liquor bottles, sports tickets, among other items. We had someone donate a Rumpke trash bin one time, and it went over great! Of course we also need teams, but I know not everyone knows a golfer, so finding a team is encouraged, but not required. This is one of our big 4 fundraisers, and directly helps your child's tuition stay manageable. We are at a new location this year at Laurel Oaks in Maysville. Please help us make this the best SMS golf outing yet!

As you are preparing for the beginning of the year, please make sure you are staying compliant on uniforms. The part of my job that I least enjoy is being uniform police. Your help on uniform enforcement is really appreciated. A couple points of emphasis that need to be brought up.

• Sweatshirts- They should be solid red or black. They may be hoodies or crewneck, and for the 26-27 school year they may also be quarter zip. They must also have the uniform approved logo. All of this can be found in the Family Handbook. The part about quarter zips will be updated soon.

• Shoes- we are pretty lenient on shoes, but shoes that light up, sandals, crocs or slip-ons with no backs are not permitted.

• Necklaces/Chains- Should not be more than 1

• Hair- No unnatural colors

• Shorts/Pants- Black twill, not overly tight

• Skirts- Plaid or solid black, no more than 4 inches above the knee. They should not be rolled up.

I would also like to make a statement about smartphones. Over the past 20 years watching the development of the use of smartphones with students, I can honestly say, not much good has come from it, in fact, most of the serious trouble we have dealt with over the past decade has had cell phones in the middle of the issue. (And what we have dealt with is mild compared to others) Social media can be incredibly toxic, and most children are not ready for the garbage overload they receive from dangerous places online we do not even realize. I would encourage our families to limit, if not ban the use of smartphones altogether, and of course be aware of what your child is doing or viewing online.

Student cell phone use at school is prohibited. They will also not be permitted on the bus. We understand that some students have after school activities and need to be able to contact parents, so if a student has a cell phone it should be kept in their backpack, turned off until they get to school, and turned in to their homeroom teacher as soon as they get to school. They will be returned when the student at the end of the school day. Also, if a child posts something inappropriate on social media, they will be held accountable at school. I appreciate your support in helping to limit these influences on our children.

Our new sinks have been installed! They look great, and will add more handwashing stations for our students, allowing for better cleanliness at school! Huge thank you to our friends at International Paper for providing this opportunity for us, paying for our custom sinks. Thanks also to M&W Contracting for donating their time installing them. They look great!

I know everyone hates to see the summer go, but we are excited about our new school year! We have a great team, it's going to be an awesome year! God bless!