Back 2 School 2023-2024

Whether you are new to PPMS or have been around the block, Open House is a great opportunity to meet all the amazing people that work in our building. On Thursday, August 17 from 5:30 - 6:30pm, join us at PPMS to kick off the school year by seeing friends, meeting staff members, and if needed - dropping off supplies (first hour class). A printed copy of each student’s schedule will be available. If you can’t make it, that is completely okay. 

As your student continues to prepare for the "big day," here are some helpful guides  for "landing" and "taking off" at PPMS!

School Hours: Our school day starts at 8:10am with first period and ends at 2:56pm. Please note - due to our ability to provide supervision for your student - our doors do not open for students until 7:40am. 

Drop-off and Pick-up Procedures: As you come in the Farmingdale/PPMS entrance, please ensure you are obeying all traffic signs and please be patient if there is a line or back up of vehicles.  As you come into the middle school parking lot, remember that buses will be pulling in on the left side to follow the bus lane around the building. Car riders being dropped off or picked up should stay right as they come into the parking lot and again, follow all traffic signs. Please pull as far forward in the unloading/loading area as possible to ensure more cars can fit in the space. Please exit the unloading/loading area in an orderly and safe manner by following the roundabout when leaving the parking lot or circling the entire parking lot. Please do not drive through the parking spaces.  

When students enter PPMS in the mornings, 8th graders will be in the commons and 5th, 6th, and 7th graders will be in the gym. Each will have their designated areas. Students are expected to be in their assigned areas, not the hallways, until the first bell rings at 8:00am. If a student plans on eating breakfast, they should go straight to the commons upon arrival and eat at the designated breakfast tables.

Attendance:  Please note every day matters at PPMS!  It is crucial to have your student at school as much as possible, as we love having them with us! The office tracks monthly attendance data to ensure we are supporting all of our students and families. 

Please call (217) 626-1041 as soon as you know your child will be out for the day. If you call before 7:30am or if you do not get an answer feel free to leave a voicemail with your child's name, parents name, grade and why they are absent! You can also email either of our amazing secretaries, Mrs. Morrissey (cmorrissey@ppcsd8.org) or Mrs. Reddy (jreddy@ppcusd8.org) to inform them of absences. They will start making calls at 9:00am to find out why students are missing if they haven't heard from anyone. They can also enter attendance in advance, so you can call anytime when you know your student has an absence coming up, like an early appointment the next day, so it is not forgotten in the morning rush. 

If your student will need to leave school during the day, we would appreciate it if you call the office in the morning and let us know what time they will need to leave, so we can have them ready. We will then let teachers know what to expect. Please note that you will need to come into the office to sign your student out as well as to sign them in on return. This is also the case if your student arrives at school late/tardy (after 8:10am).  Doctor’s notes can be brought to the office when your student returns or they can be scanned and sent to the same email for Mrs. Morrissey or Mrs. Reddy.

Daily Schedule: PPMS follows a daily schedule where students attend all of their scheduled classes each day for roughly 47 minutes. During the day, students will attend their 4 core classes (Math, Science, Social Studies, and Language Arts), PE, an elective period that rotates quarterly, WIN (What I Need - where we focus on extra support for math and reading, as well as social emotional support/strategies), lunch, and P.A.C.E  (Plains Achieving Curricular Excellence aka Study hall) to wrap up the day. Students in Band and/or Choir will also meet during our W.I.N period. You can find a breakdown of the times of each hour of the day on the school website.

Lunch: Students will get their lunch card on the first day and we will have PPMS lanyards available for purchase for $2.00 each. Students who have lost their lunch cards will need to pay $3.00 to the cafeteria to replace them. Funds can be uploaded to your student’s lunch card via TeacherEase or checks can be sent with them and dropped off in the lock box in the commons. Extras, snacks, and drinks are available to purchase during lunch with a students lunch card. Please make sure you have discussed with your student your expectations on what they can spend the money in their account on. Please also note that these extras are all only available to purchase if a student has his or her lunch card.