• If eligible, have your child ride the school bus.

• If you are driving your child to school, we ask when you arrive on campus that you pull forward as far as possible and have your child  exit your car where it stops along the curb.

• Don't forget to do "the loop" between the hours of 7:15-7:45am.

• Students riding bikes must wear a helmet!

• Please do not arrive prior to 1:45pm for afternoon dismissal.  This is a safety/security concern for us.

• Vehicles entering the property are urged to be cautious and cognizant of school buses.  If their lights are flashing, you may not pass.

• Car pick up occurs after school buses have left the campus.  To facilitate this, any vehicles entering the driveway for dismissal, must take the first left into the parking lot and will queue in two lanes.  After the buses have pulled away, a staff member will then direct traffic to the curb where you will meet your child.  Similar to the morning, please pull up as far as possible before stopping for your child to enter the car, this makes the process move faster for everyone.

• Regular, punctual attendance is extremely important for success.  By 8th grade, attendance is a better predictor of a student's likelihood to drop out of high school than test scores.  Missing just 2 days each month (regardless of the reason) adds up to missing 10% of instruction!

• Students must be on time to school, they are allowed no more than 3 unexcused tardies per quarter.  If your child is tardy, he/she can enter without you as you do not need to walk him/her into the building.

• If you must dismiss your child early, please provide your child with a note which he/she will bring to the office, and, in turn, will be given a dismissal pass.  This helps us reduce classroom disruption, and enables your child to be ready for your pickup.  If you do not send a note, we will wait until you arrive at the school to call your child down.  You must come into building to sign your child out.

• Our primary means of mass communication with families is through email.  Please be sure that your email is up to date with the school, and check it frequently.  We try to limit "robo-calls" to quick announcements, emergencies, and the most vital information.

• Want to stay informed with the good news, pictures of events, etc?  

  • Like us on Facebook

  • Follow us on Twitter @GMS_Smithfield

  • Download the Smithfield Public Schools App

  • Visit our school website and check out our news stories and live feed

• Stay Up to Date with your child's academics by using the Parent Portal!

• Communicate any conerns or questions directly with your child's teachers.  Email is the easiest way to do this.

Lockers are provided for students to keep jackets, books, lunch, etc., during the school day.  Many sixth graders are very nervous about remembering/operating the lock, but we give time to practice and all of our sixth graders quickly get used to this new routine.

• Technology has become an integral tool for education.

• At the middle school level, students are provided with email within a "walled garden", which means the email does not send or receive messages outside of the Smithfield Public Schools domain.  We work with students on developing good email habits, and use it as an important means of communication between students, teachers, and staff.

• Students are assigned school-owned chromebooks for academic use at school and home,  and have the responsibility of keeping them in good condition.  If students have a personal device at home, they are able to access all of their school work on that device.  In that case, we encourage students to keep their chromebook in their homeroom cart so that it is charged and ready for the next day.

• We teach and expect good digital citizenship with all technology use.

Parent Teacher Association

Jenn Matteson, President

gmsparentcouncil@gmail.com