Cherrydale Primary School

Building Access

Our school opens for supervised arrival of students at 9:00am. If you arrive earlier than the supervisory staff, then you must stay with your student(s) until the teacher’s exterior door and/or the front and back double doors of the foyer are open. If you arrive after 9:10 and the doors are closed, you must walk your student to the office for a Tardy slip.

During school hours, access to the building is restricted to Staff, Students and cleared Volunteers. Parents may not accompany their students past the front office at drop off. If you intend to chaperone field trips or otherwise be in the school while children are present, you must be an approved volunteer. The process can take a couple of weeks, so don’t wait until you need clearance to apply. If you want to register to volunteer, please click https://www.steilacoom.k12.wa.us/who-we-are/departments/volunteers

Before/After Care

If you need to drop off your child earlier than 9:00am or pick up later than 3:35pm (2:35 on Wednesdays, 12:35 on Half Days), you may want to enroll them in the Before/After Care program called Right At School. For more information, you can contact Cherrydale Right At School at 253-349-8195, visit their website at https://rightatschool-cherrydale primary.jumbula.com/#/programs or email them at cherrydale@rightatschool.com. There may be other Before & Aftercare options that bus to & from school.

Attendance and Changes to dismissal procedure

Attendance and dismissal changes must be communicated to the office via ParentSquare direct message to Cherrydale Office Attendance Secretary, emailed to cherrydaleoffice@steilacoom.k12.wa.us or called in to the school voicemail (253) 983-2500. You may let the teacher know as well, but you must let the office know. If your student is marked absent by the teacher and you have not notified the office regarding the absence before 9:30am, you may receive an Automatic Attendance Alert from ParentSquare. When leaving a message about your child, please make sure that you say your child’s first and last name clearly, the teacher’s name, and the reason for your call. To ensure that we can excuse your child's absence for a medical appointment, please remember to bring a note from the healthcare provider upon their return. We appreciate your partnership in keeping our attendance records accurate. It is also best practice to let us know in advance if your student will be Absent, Tardy or going home early. If you will be going on a trip or know in advance that your student will be out, please fill out the Planned Absence Request.

If at all possible, please do not pick up your child in the last 45 minutes of the day. We understand that there will be times when it is unavoidable, but the end of every day is very busy, both in the office and in the classroom.

Calling or emailing Changes to Dismissal must be made no later than 45 minutes before end of day. For calls received later than that, we cannot guarantee that we have received the message and will be able to get the message to the teacher and student in time. Your child’s class might be at specialist (Library, Music, STEAM or PE) at the end of the day with no plans to return to the class before dismissal. The earlier we have the information, the better. It is never too early to let us know that your student will be absent, tardy, picked up early or going home a different way than is on their backpack tag.

Lunch Accounts

Cherrydale has qualified for free breakfast & lunch for all students based on the applications submitted the previous year. Please make sure you apply every year, even if you don’t think you will qualify. For questions about Food Service and to apply for Free/Reduced Meals, click https://www.steilacoom.k12.wa.us/who-we-are/departments/food-services

Busing Information

Durham Transportation is the bus company that Steilacoom Historical School District has contracted with. Please call them at 253-584-1365 about problems regarding anything happening at the bus stop, on the bus to or from school, or problems with the Bus Zone app. We are happy to help in any way that we can, but your best first call is to Durham at 253-584- 1365 option 1 for dispatch for urgent calls.

Lost & Found

Our Lost & Found area is located in a bin in the front foyer and periodically organized along the hallways for easy viewing. We diligently try to return named or initialed items to their owners. Please note that any unclaimed items will be donated to Caring for Kids during the upcoming breaks: Thanksgiving Break, Spring Break, and the last day of school.