SCHOOL PROCEDURES

STUDENT ARRIVAL DISMISSAL PROCEDURES

The safety and welfare of your children is the absolute priority of our school. Our responsibility to you and your children begins with their arrival each morning and does not end until all students are safely dismissed at the end of the day. With that in mind, we ask for your full cooperation with our arrival and dismissal policies.

Arrivals
• Students should arrive each day between 7:45 – 8:00 a.m. All Kindergarten – 8th grade students will enter the school through the front doors adjacent to the gymnasium. Pre-K students may enter the school through the Pre-K entrance, which is to the right of our Parish Center doors at the opposite end of the school.
• School bus drivers are instructed to drop students off each morning at the curb directly in front of our main entrance, and therefore, buses must be given access to that area. Cars should not be parked on the roadway in front of the school when parents escort their children to classrooms. The school parking lot adjacent to the gym or the church parking lot at the south end of the school should be used. We ask that everyone respect all "NO PARKING" signs.

Dismissals
• All students who take buses home will be escorted to their buses by faculty members beginning at 3:05 p.m. on full days and 11:00 a.m. on half days. South Colonie buses pick up students in the parking lot outside of the 3rd and 4th grade wing. All other districts utilize the entire curb area that runs in front of the school and convent. Access to these areas must be made available to buses.
• All students who get picked up by parents will be dismissed through the school doors located at the far end of the upper wing nearest to the church parking lot. Cars picking up the students should park in the adjacent parking lot near the convent. Parents/Guardians who pick up students will not be allowed to enter the school through the main school doors. The main school doors will only be used by students exiting to their buses. The doors to the far left of the main school entrance at the end of the upper wing adjacent to the science lab will be opened to parents at 3:05 p.m. on full days and 11:00 a.m. on half days. Students who will get picked up will wait in those classrooms closest to that entrance and will be sorted alphabetically by surnames. Parents picking up children must come into the school to get their child(ren). No students being picked up will be sent from the school unescorted by a parent or guardian.
• All students who walk will go to assigned rooms in the upper wing until dismissed.
We thank you for your cooperation, and we look forward to a safe and rewarding school year.

SCHOOL BUSES

In most cases the district in which your child resides provides bus transportation. If you have any difficulty with the bus schedules, etc., you may wish to call your school district's transportation department. Be aware that some school districts will not bus students from a different district. Bus transportation should be verified if you want your child to go to a friend's house via another district's bus.
North Colonie 785-9486

Troy (Durham) 266-9330

South Colonie 869-8527

Niskayuna 370-0160

Shenendehowa 881-0240

RCS 756-5241

Menands 465-4561

Bethlehem 439-3830

East Greenbush 477-9288

Guilderland 861-6434

Averill Park 674-7070

Wynantskill 283-4600

The children are assigned rooms in school where they report for the bus to go home. Conduct on the bus is the responsibility of the bus driver, but it is also a reflection of a child's respect for others. Please stress to your children that good behavior on buses is mandatory.

SCHOOL CLOSINGS AND DELAYS

Delay Due to Inclement Weather
For the safety of our students and staff, St. Pius X School will follow the weather delay policy of the North Colonie Central School District, the district in which our school resides. If North Colonie announces a morning delay due to poor weather conditions, St. Pius X School will delay its opening accordingly.
For instance, if North Colonie has a one-hour delay. St. Pius X will open its doors at 9:00 a.m. In the event of a two-hour delay, St. Pius X will open its doors at 10:00 a.m. Because snow delays indicate treacherous driving conditions, our staff will not be here to receive any students prior to the announced delay.
All such delays will be announced on the local television channels and radio stations.
If you need further clarification on our school delay, school closing or early dismissal policies: please feel free to contact our school office at 465-4539.

Closings Due to Inclement Weather
The North Colonie School District is followed in regards to closing for weather conditions. However, on rare occasions St. Pius X School has closed while North Colonie has remained open if the administration feels that weather conditions and concern for students and staff safety warrant it. In all cases closings will be announced on the radio as well as the local television stations. Please note that these school closings only refer to closings that take place prior to the arrival of any students. These announcements would appear either the evening before the school day or beginning at approximately 6:00 am the day of the closings. If the North Colonie Central School District does not open, then St. Pius X School will not open regardless of what other school districts decide.

Early Dismissal due to Inclement Weather
When weather conditions necessitate the early dismissal of certain school districts, such as North Colonie, St. Pius's dismissal procedures are affected. Because we serve so many districts, as a school, we do not close if North Colonie dismisses early. However, if a school district decides to pick up those children they bus from their district, the children will be dismissed on the bus unless we have specific instructions from you indicating that your child should not take the bus home. Because the public school districts give us very little or no time at all to prepare for an early dismissal, we cannot guarantee that every parent can be notified by phone of such dismissals. It is very important, then, that when weather conditions become threatening, parents, or friends and relatives, listen closely to the media for information concerning early dismissals by the district responsible for their child's busing. On such days, our afterschool program remains open, but for the safety of our staff, we encourage all parents to pick up their children as early as possible.
Parents always have the prerogative to pick up their children early from school if they feel that weather conditions justify it. In such cases, parent/guardians should report to the main office, and their children will be called from their classrooms.
In our August mailing each family received a form on which to put dismissal instructions for their children in the event of an early dismissal. Please note that if the form was not returned to the school, your child(ren) will be released to their district's buses for transportation home as those buses arrive at St. Pius X School.

STUDENT ARRIVAL/DISMISSAL PROCEDURES OTHER

Students should report to their classrooms starting at 7:45 a.m. 
After school plans should be determined before the student leaves home before the school day begins. If there is a change to where the student is to go after school, a written request must be given to the student's teacher. If the teacher does not have a written request, the child will be sent home as they are normally. If a situation arises where a parent must change the student's after school plans, then a phone call must be received in the office by 2:40 p.m. to ensure the message will get to the child and the teacher. Students are discouraged from making calls from school to parents concerning dismissal.

ABSENTEEISM

Attendance is a critical factor in school success for students. Consistent school attendance, academic success and school completion have a positive correlation. School attendance is both a right and a responsibility in New York State. Parents are expected to make sure that their children attend school on a regular basis.
Parents should notify the school by phone between the hours of 7:30 a.m. and 9:00 a.m. regarding a full day absence of their child. When parents know in advance that their child will need to be released from school for part of the day, an excuse should be submitted the day prior to the partial day absence from school. Parents are required to send in written, dated excuses for all absences.
Absences are defined as follows:
1. Legal — sickness, severe storms or impassable roads, quarantined by contagious disease, sickness or death in the family.
2. Illegal—
o Unlawful absences occur when a pupil is absent from school with the knowledge and consent, stated or implied, of his/her parent for reasons other than legal.
o Truancy—occurs when a student is sent to school, the parents expect that the child will be in school, but the child does not attend for other than lawful reasons.
o Pupils removed for vacation purposes are responsible to complete all missed assignments. Please note this is an illegal absence. Teachers are not required to provide work or assignments for students who are illegally absent.

TARDINESS

All students who arrive after 8:10 a.m. must be signed in at the secretary's office by a parent or guardian. Students who are late are also required to give their teacher a written excuse stating the reason they are tardy.

INDIVIDUAL EARLY DISMISSAL

Good attendance and success in schoolwork go hand in hand. Students should make every effort to maintain a good attendance record. Parents are requested, where possible, to avoid making appointments for students during school hours. If it becomes necessary for a student to leave school before dismissal, the parent should write a note to the homeroom teacher. Any child receiving such permission must be picked up at the school office by the parent or someone authorized by the parents. For the protection of your child, a parent or an authorized person must report to the school office to sign his/her child out. After parents have signed their child out in the school office, someone in the office will call the classroom for the child to come to the office. Parents are not allowed to go to classrooms to retrieve students.

PARENT/SCHOOL COMMUNICATION

Parent/School communications are essential to the success of our school and its mission. Therefore, the school will be communicating frequently with the families throughout the year. We encourage you to contact us with any concerns or questions. Look for our monthly Newsletter at the beginning of each month.
Please notify us immediately when you have a change of address, phone number, family name or work number so we can update our school records.

If you are not a parishioner of St. Pius X but would like a church bulletin or school newsletter, please call and request one.

PARENTS VISITING OR VOLUNTEERING

For safety reasons, those visiting our school must park in the lots on either end of the school. Do not park in front of the school. That area is reserved for school buses. All visitors should enter through the front doors of the school and check in at the school office to sign in and pick up a visitor pin.

WHEN PARENTS OR GUARDIANS ARE AWAY

If you, as the parent or guardian, will be going away for business trips, vacation, etc., please provide the school with the name(s) and telephone number(s) of those responsible for your children in your absence.