Article 3 - Use of Buildings and Grounds

Entering and Leaving the Building:

Beginning Of School:  Students should not be on school grounds prior to 8:00 a.m. unless they have scheduled practices or receive special permission from the Principal.  All students who are in the building will report to their classrooms at 8:05 a.m.  The tardy bell rings at 8:20 a.m.

During the School Day:  Students are to remain on campus unless excused through a note or phone call to the office by a parent or guardian.

End of School: Our regular school day ends at 3:30 p.m. Make-up work, special help, assignment after school, club meetings, and other school activities begin after that time. It is important that students who are involved in any of these activities report to the designated area on time. All other students must clear the building as soon as possible.

Safety:

All K-6 students who walk or ride bicycles to school are to cross the highway in front of the elementary at the crosswalk.  A traffic control light is in operation and all children are expected to cross at that area.  Students riding bicycles should leave them parked at the elementary school in the bike racks.  The bicycles should remain in the bike racks until the end of the school day.  Parents are requested to drop off and pick up children in the elementary parking lot located west of the elementary school.  Unfortunately, we do have limited parking available and ask that you are careful to avoid parking in the posted loading zones and the handicapped areas.

Visitors:

All visitors must report to the office, upon entering the west entrance, to sign in and receive a visitor's pass. Parents or legal guardians are welcome at all times and encouraged to visit children’s classrooms; however, visitors must obtain permission from the Principal or teacher at least one day in advance of the scheduled visit as to avoid any scheduling conflicts. When visiting while classes are in session, parents are required to limit visitations to a maximum of one hour at a time. Visitors are asked to avoid reading block times to visit, as all students have 60 minutes of uninterrupted reading during the day.  Please sign in/out at the office upon entering/exiting the west entrance to the school. Visitations during the first week of school and the last week of school will require extraordinary reasons or permission from administrators.   At times parents have brought items to school to be delivered to the student.  Please note that we now ask that these items be dropped off at the elementary office, and a school staff person will deliver them to the student.  Bringing items to a student is not an excuse to interrupt learning.  If visitors have made arrangements ahead of time with the teacher or Principal, they will be granted permission to deliver the item to the classroom.  Visitors must respect the learning environment and maintain appropriate behavior and decorum.  Disruption of the orderly process of the school is prohibited.  The principal or his/her designee is authorized to deny access, ban or bar future access, remove or request the removal of any visitor whose behavior is disruptive to the educational/working environment of the school.  Any visitor to the schools who has been denied access or who has been asked to leave may appeal to the Office of the Superintendent.

Volunteers

The vision of the parent volunteer program is to promote educational success for students by having parents, grandparents, or special friends volunteer occasionally in the school to assist the teacher with a variety of tasks to ensure academic success for all students.  If you are interested in being a parent volunteer, please contact our elementary.  Parent volunteers are then assigned by the elementary office to specific classrooms.  Parents, grandparents, or special friends who wish to volunteer at Sutton Public Schools will be asked to complete a volunteer agreement that outlines specific guidelines for volunteers at Sutton Public Schools.

Smoke-Free Environment:

Sutton Public Schools declares all of our schools buildings to be smoke-free.  We would appreciate your help in meeting the goal of a smoke- and tobacco-free environment for our children.  When you attend school events, including athletic events, please remember that our building is smoke- and tobacco-free and abide by our District’s policy.

Pets:

Pets are a nuisance and a real problem on a school playground.  A friendly pet often becomes vicious when excited by many children.  Please see that dogs and other pets are kept home and not allowed to follow pupils to school.  If you are bringing a pet to share with your child’s classroom, prior approval must be made with the principal.

Soliciting:

Students are strongly encouraged not to sell fund-raising items at school such as Girl Scout cookies, Boy Scout foods, 4-H items, etc. 

Parties and Treats:

Party invitations will not be distributed at school.  We appreciate your cooperation as to help avoid hurt feelings and/or uncomfortable situations for teachers or students.  Class parties may be held to celebrate holidays at various times of the year.  Teachers will sometimes provide treats and parents may also bring treats on special occasions.  Please notify the teacher if and when you plan to provide treats.  When bringing treats, bring enough for all members of the class.  Nutritious and healthful snacks are encouraged.  As a general rule, gifts to school personnel by students is discouraged.  Exceptions to this are to be cleared through the building principal.

Care of School Property:

1.                    Students are responsible for the proper care of all books, equipment, supplies and furniture supplied by the school.

2.                    Students who disfigure property, break windows or do other damage to school property or equipment will be required to pay for the damage done or replace the item.

Fines are determined on books according to the following criteria:

School-issued items that are stolen or damaged from desks, etc. are the responsibility of the student to whom they were issued.  Students must pay all fines before they can receive their end of the year packet.

School supply lists can be obtained from Deb Osterhaus, elementary secretary.

Desks and Assignment Notebooks:

Each student will be assigned a desk.  Students must use their own desks and are not to share desks with other students except as assigned by school officials.  Students are also responsible for the cleanliness inside their desk.  Students may be assessed a fine for damage to desks.

Fourth, fifth and sixth grade students will receive an assignment notebook at the beginning of the school year compliments of the school district.  If a student loses their assignment notebook, he/she will need to purchase another assignment notebook from the elementary school office for $2.25.

Searches of Lockers and Other Types of Searches (Canine Inspection):

Student lockers, desks, computer equipment, and other such property are owned by the school.  The school exercises exclusive control over school property.  Students should not expect privacy regarding usage of or items placed in or on school property, because school property is subject to search at any time by school officials.  Periodic, random searches of lockers, desks, computers and other such property may be conducted in the discretion of the administration.

Canine Inspection

The school principal may within the scope of district policy and regulation and without advance warning other than this clause, employ the use of specially trained canine for the purpose of determining the presence of illegal drugs or contraband on school grounds, whether in a desk, student locker, vehicle or any other place on school grounds including any and all student bookbags.  Any illegal drugs and or contraband discovered pursuant to such inspections or searches shall be confiscated and turned over to law enforcement authorities.

Use of Telephone:

In-coming calls:  The office will always attempt to cooperate with parents/guardians in order to get a message to students during school hours.  Only in cases of extreme emergency will students be called out of class.  Calls for students during school hours are disturbing to both student and teacher and should be held to a minimum.

Out-going calls:  The school telephone’s primary use is for school business and should not be used for personal calls.  Students finding it necessary to make a call are to ask their teacher for a phone pass to use the office phone. 

Computer Software:

CD’s/software brought from home to be used on school computers will not be allowed.  If used, they will be confiscated.  If the problem persists the student will lose computer privileges.

Student Valuables:

Students, not the school, are responsible for their personal property.  Elementary students do not have student lockers.  All personal items are stored in desks or back coat rooms.  Students are cautioned not to bring large amounts of money, or items of value, to school. If it is necessary to bring valuable items or more money than is needed to pay for lunch, leave the money or valuables with a staff member in the school office for temporary and safe-keeping.  Even then, the school is not in a position to guarantee that the student’s property will not be subject to loss, theft, or damage.  This includes cell phones.  Cell phone use during the day by students is prohibited.

Lost and Found:

Students who find lost articles are asked to take them to the office, where the articles can be claimed by the owner. If articles are lost at school, report that loss to office personnel.  It would be very helpful if parents could label every possible item with the child’s name.  Parents are welcome and encouraged to search through our lost and found box throughout the school year.  At the end of the school year, all items that are unclaimed will be donated to Goodwill.

Copyright and Fair Use Policy:

It is the school’s policy to follow the federal copyright law.  Students are reminded that, when using school equipment and when completing course work, they also must follow the federal copyright laws.  The federal copyright law governs the reproduction of works of authorship.  Copyrighted works are protected regardless of the medium in which they are created or reproduced; thus, copyright extends to digital works and works transformed into a digital format.  Copyrighted works are not limited to those that bear a copyright notice.

The “fair use” doctrine allows limited reproduction of copyrighted works for educational and research purposes.  The relevant portion of the copyright statue provides that the “fair use” of a copyrighted work, including reproduction “for purposes such as criticism, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research” is not an infringement of copyright.  The law lists the following factors as the ones to be evaluated in determining whether a particular use of a copyrighted work is a permitted “fair use,” rather than an infringement of the copyright:

• the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
• the nature of the copyrighted work;
• the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole, and
• the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

Although all of these factors will be considered, the last factor is the most important in determining whether a particular use is “fair.”  Students should seek assistance from a facul­ty member if there are any questions regarding what may be copied.  

Playground Rules:

1.        Follow directions

2.        Make appropriate safety choices

3.        No throwing objects (snow, rocks, etc.)

4.        Use good sportsmanship

5.        Use equipment provided by school; exception is baseball/softball gloves

6.        Treat equipment appropriately and use for intended purpose

7.        No boots – No playing in the snow

8.        Do not sit on the split rail fence

9.        Stay off the green termite boxes that are around the building

Indoor Recess Gym Rules:

1.        Please follow Rules #1-6 on the Playground Rules for Indoor Recess

The following will NOT be allowed:

•          Tag games, Red Rover games, climbing up ropes, climbing on mats, tossing balls against school building