Country Montessori School
Admin Corner
August 25, 2021
“True peace … suggests the triumph of justice and love among men; it reveals the existence of a better world where harmony reigns.” Dr. Maria Montessori
Upcoming Dates/Events:
- Labor Day, September 6-School Closed, No Child Care Available
- CMS Shirts Available to Order!
- Parent Portal Directory Preferences -Update by 9/3
The First Week of School
The first 8 days of the new 2021-22 school year have been wonderful! The returning students have settled into their classroom environments with ease and our new students are exploring their new classes and new schedules. Thank you for entrusting your children with us and being a part of the CMS family.
Communication
Your classroom teachers will continue to be in contact with you with classroom news and updates. We understand that the beginning of a new school experience can cause some tears in the first few weeks of school. If your new student is having a difficult time when arriving at school please call the office and we can check in with their classroom teachers to see how they are doing and let you know.
School Calendar 2021-2022
We modified our calendar through September in case you have a copy of our older version. The Montessori Journey, Grandparents Day and the Ice Cream Social have been cancelled. We will be in communication regarding October calendar events.
CMS T-Shirts
We are excited to offer CMS T-shirts to our families. CMS T-shirts are worn on Spirit Fridays, field trips and for the Spring Fling where white shirts are required.
Please fill out 1 form per shirt order. Please note that you will be able to submit another order right after you hit “submit”. Each shirt is $15, and will be billed in Renweb.
Please get your order in before Wednesday, September 8th! Shirts will be available for distribution by the end of September.
Spirit Days
To celebrate the amazing sense of community and spirit that we have here at Country Montessori School, we are happy to announce that we are expanding our weekly spirit Fridays. You will be receiving an email from our Spirit Coordinator with all the specifics.
Parent Directory – Update by 9/3
With the start of the school year we want to ensure that everyone has an opportunity to update your ParentsWeb Directory and ParentAlert preferences.
Our ParentsWeb Directory lists name, address, home phone, cell phone, and email address for each family individual, available only to CMS families. If you would like any of these items to be excluded from the directory, please update on your Parent Portal.
CMS also uses ParentAlert to send messages either as voice message or text message. We will only use this system for important notifications or in the event of emergencies. Currently we have it set up so that both parents receive these alerts. If you would like for these alerts to only be sent to one parent, simply update which parent should receive parent alerts. This setting refers only to our ParentAlerts and does not impact regular phone calls or attempts to contact family members.
Our system defaults the parent directory to share names, email addresses, phone numbers, and addresses. If there is any information you would like to have omitted from the parent portal please adjust your preferences by following these steps.
- Log into your Parent Portal (See below if you have not set an account up yet)
- From the left-hand menu select Web Forms
- Click on Custodial Parent Form
- Scroll to bottom under Parent Preferences:
- Any information you want omitted click on the directory block next to that information item – once your preferences are selected click save.
Returning CMS families, we have been able to keep your existing preferences for both the ParentsWeb Directory and ParentAlert from the previous year. If you have any changes to those preferences, please update by September 3rd!
After September 3rd the RenWeb directory will display the information that you have selected to be shared.
We appreciate your time to update your family preferences so that we can continue to improve our communication practices and offer you the best experience possible.
Arrival and Picking Up Parking Lot Procedures
- Please turn right only out of the parking lot
- Please do not reverse your car in the parking lot or curb unless you are motioned to by a staff member
- If you have an elementary student and arrive after 8:30 please drive through the parking lot and an EC teacher will get your student out of your car
Attendance and Tardiness
It is important for your student to be on time each day for school. Daily attendance is taken each morning and recorded. All students should be in class by 8:30 with the exception for early childhood students who are given until 8:40, this does not apply to elementary students. Absences and tardies will be reflected on the students report card and we discourage excessive tardiness and absences.
Late Arrival Procedures
If your student is late to school you need to park and accompany them and wait outside the office in the enclosed area. Administration will take all tardy students to class at 9:00 AM. Please make every effort to have your student to school on time.
Child Care
Morning child care is offered every morning at 7:30 and after school child care is from 2:45-6:00 PM. Please let Susan know at Susank@countrymontessori.org
Parking
For visitor parking please use the spots in front of the school. The parking spots located by the dumpster are employee parking and certain staff arrive at different times of the day.
New CMS Families – Setting up your Renweb Parent Portal
Be sure to set up your FACTSMgt (RenWeb) Parent Portal account
- Visit https://factsmgt.com
- Click Parent Log in
- Select FACTS Family Portal
- The Family Portal Login Page comes up. – You will click Create New Family Portal Account
- Country Montessori School District Code: CO-CA
- Type your email address and click Create Account
An email will be sent to you with a link Click to change password. This link is only valid for 15 minutes
The browser displays your Name and RenWeb ID
- Type a User Name, Password and Confirm the password
- Click Save Password
A message at the top of the browser, “User Name/Password successfully updated You can now log into ParentsWeb using your new Username and Password
Country Montessori School App
If you have not done so please be sure to download the Country Montessori School App. You can look up the app in the App Store or Google Play Store on your device. Simply search for Country Montessori School or use the following link https://a3a.me/
You can use the Country Montessori School App to:
- Complete your daily sign-in for morning arrivals
- Daily sign out (for Early Childhood students)
- View / Pay child care
- Access Family Directory
- Link to CMS Facebook / Instagram
- Access Admin Corner Newsletters
- View Report Cards (once released)
- Process Re-enrollment
- Additional FACTS (RenWeb) Parent Portal features
- Register for your Walk-A-Thon individual student page
School Health & Safety
Country Montessori School is committed to continuing to provide a healthy and safe environment for all our students, their families, our staff and the community. We will continue to follow the California Department of Public Health, the San Diego County Office of Education, community care licensing and CDC recommended safety measures.
- Daily temperature checks are mandatory for all students and staff before drop-off. Any student with a temperature exceeding 100 degrees will not be allowed to attend school that day.
- Any student or staff member who have any of the symptoms listed on the Decision Tree will be asked to follow the protocol
- Visitors on campus are limited and must be allowed in by administration
- CMS will follow enhanced sanitation practices and practice frequent handwashing
- Handless sanitizer stations will be in all buildings
- Staff will sanitize supplies and facilities throughout the day
- Daily cleaning and enhanced sanitation will occur at the end of each day with a focus on disinfecting all “high touch” areas
- Lunch areas for all students will be set up to allow for social distancing
- CMS staff will wear face mask throughout the day
- All students are required to wear masks indoors and outdoors.
- Outdoor space will be utilized as much as possible
- Water fountains will be taped off
- All outdoor playground toys / equipment used will be sanitized regularly
- Parents will sign in using a no touch sign in with a QR code they will scan with their smartphone camera app.
- Parents who are dropping off must also wear a face mask that covers their nose and mouth
- Parents will be asked to fill out a daily self-disclosure form
Daily Self-Declaration by Families
In an effort to protect the health and safety of our entire community families and staff will need to fill out a daily self-declaration prior to entering the campus.
Classroom Environments:
- Designated cubby space for lunches, work
- Student water bottles will be permitted
- Each student will have a pencil box of supplies on their table
- Group snack
- Assigned lunch tables/seats-Rotation
- Utilizing outdoor learning spaces
- Open windows
Cheers,
The CMS Family