The School Day
School starts promptly at 8:20 a.m. Free breakfast is served starting at 7:55 a.m. for all students who wish to eat, and there is supervision for students in the Lunchroom starting at that time. If families arrive early, parents may wait with their children in the Auditorium until 8:15, when students are free to go to their classrooms. Families usually bring K/1 students to their classrooms, while older students go up on their own.
Dismissal time is 3:10 p.m. Kindergartenerss and first graders are picked up at their classrooms. While our auditorium is undergoing renovations, all others students are dismissed from the gym. When renovations are completed, parents will pick up students from the new and improved auditorium. Students who are not picked up promptly must wait in the Main Office for their parent or caregiver.
Pre-Kindergarten
PS 3 currently offers a full day pre-kindergarten class and morning and afternoon pre-kindergarten classes as part of the state’s universal pre -K program. Priority for enrollment in the full day pre-kindergarten class is given to students who live in PS 3’s zone. Children are dropped off and picked up in the pre-K classrooms. There is a maximum of 18 students in each session with a teacher and an assistant. The pre-K classrooms provide an inviting and safe space for children to become accustomed to school.
School Bus
Information regarding yellow school buses and public-transportation passes can be obtained from the Main Office. Children taking the bus home are dismissed slightly early by their teachers and gather in the Hudson Street vestibule. A school aide brings the K/1 bus riders down and is responsible for seeing that all children get on the correct bus. Please remember that it takes a while for the bus routine to stabilize and for the drivers to become familiar with their routes. Parents of younger children may prefer to wait a couple of weeks until routes and times become regular before using the service. Please note that drivers cannot wait for children in the morning, nor leave a child if there is no adult at the bus stop in the afternoon. You should get to the bus stop early. If possible, introduce yourself and your child to others at the bus stop, make sure that a parent will stay with your child if you are delayed, and offer to do the same. In recent years, drivers have been enforcing Bureau of Transportation rules which state that non-bus children will not be allowed on the bus to go home with friends after school, and that children carrying class pets will not be allowed on the bus. Also, any child who is issued a public-transportation pass will not be allowed on the yellow school buses. For more specific information on whether your child qualifies for yellow school busing, please speak to a staff member in the Main Office.
Lunch
Soon after the start of school, all families are required to fill out a Board of Education Lunch Form for each student. Please fill out the form even if you know you do not qualify (simply write “not interested” across the financial-information area and hand it in). For those who do qualify, lunches are free or discounted. The Lunchroom is on the basement level (accessible by stairs at the rear of the Gym and to the left of the stage in the Auditorium). It has long tables, a new washroom, and a complete kitchen where breakfast and hot lunch are available both on a regular and an occasional basis. Information on pricing and payment options are available in the Main Office. Breakfast and lunch menus are posted each month in the Main Office. If they prefer, children may bring their own lunches to school each day in a lunch box or bag labeled with their name. They may buy milk in the Lunchroom or bring their own beverage, which should not be in a glass container. Any child who forgets or loses his/her lunch will be provided with a meal in the Lunchroom. Check with your child’s teacher for snack policies, times and schedules, which vary from class to class. When a class is away on a field trip during the lunch period, the teacher will make advance arrangements for bag lunches to be provided for students who are signed up for hot lunch.
Lunch/Recess Period
Students have a 25-minute lunch period and a 25-minute recess period. Because the Lunchroom has to accommodate so many students (including the middle-school students in the building), lunch periods stretch from 10:40 to 12:30. Children eat with their grade level. The Lunchroom is staffed with one or two school aides, and we rely on parent volunteers to provide additional help. Parents are strongly encouraged to assist at lunch and recess whenever they can, whether regularly or occasionally. The younger children need help learning the system, washing their hands and opening their containers. Older kids benefit too from the presence of additional adults. It’s also a good opportunity for parents to get to know a lot of kids fast and to become a familiar face.
During good weather, recess is held in the rooftop play area on the second floor. When the temperature drops, or when the surfaces are wet or frozen, recess takes place in the Gym. Here, again, parent participation is essential and appreciated. The Lunch/Recess Committee holds workshops to train parent volunteers.
Health Matters
Families of all new students are required to submit the School Health New Admission Examination Forms, filled out by their pediatrician. Board of Health regulations state that any child who is not up to date with immunizations will not be permitted to remain in school. If your child needs to receive medication in school on a regular basis, please be sure to speak to the School Nurse and receive a 504 form.
Emergency Forms and Contact Information
At the beginning of each year families are asked to complete a “blue card” for each student. This contains contact information and a list of adults permitted to pick the child up from school. It is extremely important to return this promptly and to notify the school secretary if any of this information changes.
Absences and Early Pick Up
If a child is absent, it is important to send in an absence note with the dates and reasons when s/he returns to school. If a child has a serious illness or is going to miss more than a couple of days of school for any reason, it is important to notify the school.
If a family needs to pick up a child before the end of the school day because of illness or any other extenuating circumstance, the child must be signed out in the Main Office.
Communication and Contacts
There are many systems in place for disseminating information. Most handouts regarding school matters (such as special school schedules, field trips, health advisories) are sent home via 'backpack mail.' Please be sure to check your child’s backpack daily and respond promptly when a response is called for. Many teachers now send home a weekly update or e-mail, listing the highlights of the previous week and upcoming events. Class parents, who serve as liaisons between the parents of their child's class and the PTA, will also be in occasional communication. In addition, the Parent Coordinator has instituted a weekly e-mail note home listing important dates; if you want to receive this, be sure to add your name to this list. The monthly newsletter summarizes the activities of the PTA and the school.
Minutes of the monthly PTA meetings are e-mailed to EC members and gathered in a binder in the Community Room. Literature racks in the Lobby provide paper copies of all e-mailed correspondence as well as additional copies of backpack mail. The school also has its own website - www.ps3nyc.org including a parent only blog, which is updated regularly. Login information for the blog can be found in the office.
Facilities
We share the facility with the Greenwich Village Middle School, which has an entirely separate administration and is located on the fifth floor.
The exits on the Grove Street and Bedford Street sides of the buildings are for school bus access and emergencies only. All parents and caregivers enter the building via the Hudson Street lobby. You are asked to show your ID card to the School Safety Officer at the desk, even if the officer knows who you are. Cards can be obtained in the Main Office.
Though the facility is old, it has been upgraded and maintained, and the custodial staff works with zeal to keep the building clean and safe. In recent years the exterior has undergone a major repair, some floors have been replaced, the exterior and the interior have been repainted, the front and back stairwells rebuilt and the climate control system upgraded.
The Community Room (RM 301A) serves as a gathering place for parents, a meeting room, a mail room for PTA officers, the Afterschool headquarters, and a resource room. Parents and caregivers are welcome to stop by to seek information or solutions to problems.
