"The real preparation for education is the study of one's self."
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We believe that Dater Montessori School exists to provide child-centered effective learning utilizing a holistic Montessori approach. In an atmosphere of creativity, cooperation and dedication, high expectations will exist for students in regard to academic achievement and behavior, and for teachers and administrators in regard to competence and professionalism. We believe that in a positive learning environment which is safe, nurturing, secure and culturally and racially balanced, all children can learn and achieve. We believe that parent and community support is essential to the accomplishment of this mission and that administration serves to support teachers, staff, students and parents and facilitates the sharing of ideas among all participant groups. THE DISCOVERY OF A CHILD Knowledge can be best given where Maria Montessori Montessori education is an effective model of learning that focuses on the whole child including the intellectual, physical and emotional development of the student. Montessori education is not limited to strengthening only mental capabilities but helping the student unfold their potential talents and skills as a person. Students are grouped in multi-age classrooms according to their stage of development not grade levels (3-6 year olds, 6-9 year olds, 9-12 year olds). The multi-age environment provides rich teaching and learning interactions between various age groups. Learning happens in a variety of settings including: individually, partnerships and small groups arranged according to skill and age level as well as subject area. Each classroom is equipped with specific learning materials that provide hands-on experiences to explore learning. As the student progresses through developmental stages of growth, learning is transformed into more complex explorations that demand research and problem solving.
The school office will be open from 8:15 a.m. - 4:15 p.m. Monday through Friday. Our office staff is available to help answer any questions that you may have regarding Dater Montessori School. Our office is a very busy working environment. We ask that all parents remind small children who accompany them to the office that they are to use quiet voices inside of the office and are to stay with their parents at all times. We thank you for being courteous to our secretary and clerk who have to answer the telephones and assist many people within the school office. Our lobby is open for parents to meet and talk with each other. We ask that you refrain from socializing in the office area. Children should remain seated on the bus until an adult greets them. Once dismissed from the bus, children are expected to unload the bus in an orderly fashion and proceed into the cafeteria for breakfast or the auditorium. Once the bell has rung, they are to walk directly to their classroom traveling on the right side of the hallway. If it is before 9:10a.m., all students will wait in the cafeteria or auditorium until it is time to go to class. An adult will walk students to the buses at 3:35p.m. for levels 3-6 and 6-9, and 3:40p.m. for 9-12 students. Students are to walk quietly with their class and stay in line until they reach their bus. Once on the bus, children are to sit down and remain seated for the bus ride home. Deviated bus requests will only be considered for long term childcare purposes. Daily bus requests cannot be honored. Walkers should enter the main entrance of the building no earlier than 8:45a.m. There is no adult supervision prior to 8:45a.m. Students will not be permitted in the building before 8:45a.m. except if they participate in the YMCA before school program, have a Suzuki lesson, or are with a parent. Walkers are to report to the cafeteria for breakfast or the auditorium between 8:45-9:10a.m. School begins promptly at 9:15a.m. Students that arrive at school after 9:25a.m. must report to the office for a tardy slip. Parents of students that are consistently late to school will be held accountable for their child’s attendance. Our school social worker will investigate excessive tardiness or absenteeism as defined by state and local laws as well as school district policies for attendance We ask that all parents use the car drop off service for students that come to school in private automobiles. Our driveway and parking lot are very busy in the morning and this service is provided for the safety of your child. Parents that want to come into the building are free to park their cars in Dater Montessori’s designated parking area and come inside AFTER dropping students off in the car line. Students will remain in class until 3:35p.m. To minimize disruptions during transitions, we ask that parents do not go to classrooms to pick up students and to remain in the front lobby. An adult will escort children to the designated exit. Students must have a note from their parent or guardian if their transportation changes. This note must be presented to the teacher the morning of the intended change. Students who walk home unaccompanied by an adult must leave the school grounds immediately upon dismissal. They may not stay to play on the playground after school. Bikes, skateboards, roller blades, or animals are not allowed on the playground at dismissal time. Parents are responsible for supervising their children as soon as the adult has dismissed them. Parents who allow their children to play on the playground at this time are expected to know and enforce the rules for playground safety. It is important that children be picked up on time. Supervision of students ends at 3:45p.m. If an emergency occurs and students have not been picked up by 3:45p.m., they will be taken to the office. If a child is left and we are unable to locate a parent or guardian by the time the office closes at 4:15p.m. , the child will be taken to the Department of Human Services and a social worker will see that the child’s parent or guardian is located.
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It is our job to keep your children safe while in school. In order to do this we need all parents, volunteers, visitors, and guests to obtain a badge through Cincinnati Public Schools Security Office. This will require a back ground check through the Justice Center. Anyone that would like to be in the building or attend field trips is required to have a badge. Once you have received your badge you are asked to sign in and out in the office before and after going to the classroom. This badge lets all staff members know that you have signed in at the office and are permitted to visit a classroom. Please do not be insulted if a teacher or other staff member asks you to return to the office if you are not wearing your badge. They are required to do this as part of our safety plan. Observing Classrooms or Volunteering Visitors are always welcome at Dater Montessori. We are proud to share our program. In order for the educational process to proceed smoothly, please follow these guidelines:
Safety drills are conducted monthly. Families are encouraged to discuss safety procedures with their children at home as well. In the event of a lock-down situation within the building, the entire building will be secured and no one will be permitted to enter under any circumstance. In the event of a crisis in which staff and students must be evacuated from the building, students and staff will walk to the closest Cincinnati Public school facility which is considered to be safe. Our trained School Incident Response Team (SIRT) will ensure all safety procedures are followed. Parking is very limited while we share our campus with another school. Dater Montessori’s parking is limited to the top lot and the spaces around the front of the school building for staff members. Please refrain from parking in the drop off lane. Our visitor parking is located in the lot on the left at the entrance of the school. The announcement of school closing or delay of yellow bus service on days of inclement weather conditions is made over most radio and television stations. On clear days when the temperature is reasonable, students will go outside for recess. This is at the discretion of the teaching staff. Please make sure your child is dressed appropriately. Gloves, hats, and appropriate footwear are required. Dater Montessori offers breakfast and lunch to students on a daily basis. The breakfast program begins at 8:45a.m. and ends at 9:10a.m. At lunchtime, students will come to the cafeteria with their class. If a child wishes to purchase a school lunch, they will line up alphabetically and say their name clearly to the lunchroom manager. Menus are distributed monthly and are also printed in the local newspaper and on the CPS website. Children who pack lunch may purchase milk. Please note that the lunchroom manager cannot lend money or give lunches to students who forget lunch money. Applications for free or reduced lunch are sent out at the beginning of each school year. The approval process usually takes up to two weeks. Until then, please send lunch money or a packed lunch each day. Children will sit at the tables designated for their class. All children are responsible for taking up their trays, removing all trash and wiping off their table. Paraprofessionals will monitor the children at lunch and on the playground. Children are asked to use a friendly indoor voice while in the cafeteria. When the lights are turned off, all children and adults must be silent.
If for any reason your child cannot take part in any regular play or physical activates, a note of explanation from the parents is necessary. Please do not send a child to school that has a fever, severe cold, sore throat, inflamed eyes, nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea. It is unfair to other children to expose them to illness. There will be times that we may have to exclude a child from school until medical attention is received. The law is very specific regarding these exclusions. You will be required to send a note from your physician or clinic stating that your child is permitted to return to school. It is very common for a few cases of head lice to surface during the school year. Our nurse, teachers, and assistants do their best to check all students in classrooms where reports of head lice occur. Children that are sent home with lice are to remain home for at least 24 hours and be treated for the condition before they can return to school. A parent must accompany the child to school for a head check before the child can be readmitted. All live bugs must be removed in order for the child to be allowed to return to class. Chronic cases of head lice will be evaluated on an individual bases with parent, nurse and school administration.
Cincinnati Board of Education Policy (5141.3) requires signatures of the parent or guardian and physician before medication can be given to a child by school personnel. A special form for this purpose is available in the school office. No medication will be given unless we receive complete instructions from the parent and physician in writing. This policy includes all over-the-counter medicines. Every child must have an updated emergency card on file in the school office. These cards are by far the most important information regarding your child’s safe care. In the event that you or a designated emergency contact person cannot be reached during an emergency, these cards give us the consent to seek medical attention for your child. Parents MUST provide at least three working telephone numbers on the emergency card. These cards will be sent home at the beginning of the school year. Please fill out the forms and return it to your child’s teacher. Also, it is important for you to update the cards if any information changes.
All adults and children should remove their hat when entering the building. This is a school rule for students. Adults can help set a good example by serving as positive role models and removing their hats when entering the building as well. If your child is going to be absent from school for any reason, parents must call the school office and report the absence. If we do not receive a call by 9:45a.m. the day of the absence, the teacher assistant will be calling your home to verify the absence. This policy is for your child’s safety. Please help us minimize unnecessary phone calls by letting us know of absences. Chronic absenteeism will be investigated by the school social worker at the discretion of the principal. Parents that fail to improve a child’s poor attendance may be sited to court and a judge will assign corrective measures. Students can arrive at school as early as 8:45a.m. Our teachers try to make the most of every minute children are in school. Please be sure that your child is in class by the 9:15a.m. starting time. Chronic tardiness will also be investigated by the school social worker. [Top of Page] Homework is a responsibility that Dater Montessori students must take seriously in order to be successful in their studies. The quantity of homework varies from level to level and from classroom to classroom. Generally speaking, you can expect about five minutes of homework per year of life. A first year 6-9 student may have about 30 minutes of homework each night. A third year 9-12 student may have up to 60 minutes of homework each night including long term projects. If the homework demands seem inappropriate for your child, please contact the teacher so that modifications can be made. Students are responsible for completing and turning in the assigned task on time. Not all homework is in written form. Often students are asked to do research, read, or study without doing a written assignment. Parents can help children learn that this type of work is just as important as written assignments by monitoring the amount of time children spend on these types of tasks. Progress reports are sent home four times during the school year. These progress reports give important information regarding how well your child is progressing. Any questions or concerns about the child’s progress should be directed to the teacher. Please sign and return the bottom portion of the report and return to school. Dater Montessori classrooms are multiage environments. Students usually remain with their teacher for a period of three years. During these three years, students can be retained, placed, or promoted. At the end of an academic year, teachers make decisions based on how well students are progressing through the Montessori curriculum and the Ohio State Standards. If a student is not meeting the grade level standards, a teacher may make a decision to retain a student at his current grade level. This decision is made after employing many other interventions to try and help meet the child’s individual needs. A parent-teacher conference will be scheduled to discuss this decision. Remember that not all children learn at the same rate, some children need an extra year to meet the standards. Students that are meeting the standards and are not in a promotion year are placed at the next grade level. Placement occurs for students in grades 1, 2, 4, and 5. Promotion only occurs at grades K, 3, and 6. Students are promoted to the next level only if they have satisfactory progress meeting the content standards. Children are placed in a classroom on the basis of gender, race, ability, space and grade. The teachers as well as administration determine placement of students. Although specific requests are not taken, parents may write a letter DESCRIBING THEIR CHILD AND THE KIND OF ENVIRONMENT that will be best for him or her. This information will be taken into consideration during the classroom assignment process. Every effort will be made to make the best possible match. Once placement assignments are complete students will be invited to participate in a school wide transition day to meet their new teacher(s) and classmates. Changes to classroom assignments will not be granted once the placement process is complete. We kindly ask parents to “trust the process!”Communication with parents is extremely important to the staff at Dater Montessori. We ensure clear and consistent communication with families by utilizing the Tuesday Parent Folder. Every Tuesday, parents should expect a blue folder to be sent home with your child. The packet inside will notify parents of upcoming school activities, fundraisers and other pertinent information. We also communicate with parents through parent conferences, email, telephone calls, newsletters and weekly student work contracts. Conferences are offered quarterly (or more frequently if the parent or teacher feels it is warranted) at a variety of times. In lieu of one afternoon of conferences, teachers schedule them over the period of a week during planning bells, before school, or after school hours. This is to meet the needs of parents’ schedules. Parents are asked to commit to attending two conferences during the year, during the first and the third quarter of the school year. Parents find information about our school events in the school newspaper, Dater Communiqué, which comes out at the beginning of each month, the parent bulletin board or on our school website. Finally, individual teachers will also share with parents their best means of daily communication utilized in their classrooms. Dater Montessori School is a magnet program within the Cincinnati Public Schools. Parents who select Dater for their children have, by that choice, become members of the Dater community. All parents are expected to show support of the program through volunteering, fund-raising, participating in Dater community events, or supporting the educational process by working at home with your child. By selecting Dater as YOUR school of choice, you have made a commitment. You are required to document 10 hours per quarter to support your child’s educational program. Families with multiple children should add an additional 5 hours per child. For example 2 children would total 15 hours, 3 children 20 hours. Failure to complete the volunteer hours may jeopardize your child’s place in the Dater Montessori program. You will be asked to sign a contract that will outline your parental responsibilities while your child attends Dater Montessori. There are many ways in which parents can support the program. Volunteering in the classroom, coaching, shopping for classroom supplies, attending meetings, participating in fund-raisers, paying student fees immediately, helping your child with homework and projects and participating in one of the parent-teacher organizations described in this handbook are just a few ways of becoming involved. The presence of active, caring parents in the building shows our students how much our program is valued and supported. We hope and believe that your participation will prove to be as pleasant and enriching an experience for you as it is for the children whose lives you touch. Each family with children in the Cincinnati Public Schools is asked to pay an instructional fee to help cover consumable classroom materials. The fee varies based on income, the number of children in school, and grade levels. Parents will receive a letter explaining this policy during the first week of school. All school fees must be paid before students are able to participate in field trips. It is a good idea to take care of these obligations in the beginning of the school year so that your child won’t miss any field trips. Kindergarten students are charged an additional class- room fee of $35.00. This fee covers food preparation work, classroom needs and special celebrations. The fee is payable to each 3-6 classroom teacher and is due at the beginning of the school year. All fees must be paid in cash or with a money order. Sorry, but we cannot accept checks. Please send any money in an envelope marked with your child’s name, room number and the purpose of the payment. Children will be given a receipt. Fines are charged when students lose or damage any library or textbook that is assigned to them. The amount varies according to the original cost of the book, the condition, age and the extent to the damage. Student progress reports will be withheld for the nonpayment of instructional fees and book fines at the end of the fourth quarter. Fees that accumulate over years will continue to be charged to students. Records will not be released until fees are paid in full. PTN The Parent Teacher Network of Dater Montessori is an organization made up of parents and teachers who work together for the benefit of Dater Montessori School. PTN sponsored activities are scheduled monthly. The Board meets once a month. Minutes from all meetings are available for review on the Parent resource bulletin board in the Parent Center. One of the major goals of this group is to provide activities and events that will enrich the lives of the Dater student body. The Dater PTN sponsors student assemblies (cultural speakers, COSI, musical performers, etc.) arranges teacher appreciation week activities, organizes Tuesday Taskmasters, arranges parent education nights, as well as many other enriching activities. Dater PTN also supports all the fund raising efforts at Dater by actively encouraging parents to participate. FOD The Friends of Dater Montessori School is an Ohio non-profit corporation and its main responsibility is to raise funds to purchase needed items for the classrooms and the school. It also provides funding to the PTN so they can plan the many special events the children participate in throughout the school year. FOD consists of parents, teachers, administrators, and any other interested person. FOD meets once a month. Minutes from all meetings are available for review on the Parent Resource bulletin board. FOD needs volunteers that are interested in grant writing, fund raising, and serving on the FOD board. Parents are always welcome to attend the FOD monthly meetings. LSDMC The Local School Decision Making Committee of Dater consists of parents, teachers, administrators, paraprofessionals, and community representatives. They meet once a month. Minutes from all meetings are available for review on the Parent Resource bulletin board. The major goal of Dater’s LSDMC is to support the mission and vision of the school. This involves gathering and evaluating information, supporting the Montessori philosophy at the school and district level, and making important decisions for the benefit of the students of Dater Montessori. Parent Education Classes Classes on a variety of topics are offered 2-3 times each year. PTN and FOD help support these classes. All Dater Montessori families are invited to participate in these classes.
All classrooms at Dater Montessori are equipped with a telephone that has voicemail as well as a mailbox in which the teacher can leave an outgoing message about class assignments, events and field trips. The teachers will not be able to receive incoming calls during the school day. Calls made to the teacher during the school day will be sent to the teacher’s voicemail. The teacher will return the telephone call as soon as it is convenient. Parents can reach their child’s teacher’s extension by calling the main telephone number and dialing the teacher’s extension. Messages for a child may be given to the school clerk. The message will be placed in the teacher’s mailbox. Please remember that no classroom will be interrupted to deliver a message to a child except under an emergency situation. A student must have the teacher’s permission before using the telephone. A District-wide Code of Conduct booklet is sent home to parents. It states the District’s rules and the consequences that will result from breaking those rules. Teachers discuss and teach lessons from the District-wide Code of Conduct with their students during the month of September and revisit these lessons throughout the year as necessary. Parents are asked to discuss the information contained in the booklet with their children as well. Cell phones and electronics such as CD players or I Pods are not permitted at school. Electronic devices which are seen or heard during the instructional day will be taken from the student and held in the office. Parents or guardians will be asked to retrieve electronic devices at their earliest convenience.
Teachers have a working discipline plan in place in their classrooms to support students in meeting school expectations. The classroom management plan is developed with the students. Teachers will review the plan as necessary. While teachers may find it necessary to review rules with their entire class, consequences for misbehavior will be applied individually to students. Group consequences will not be used to correct one or two misbehaving students. In addition, teachers use Positive Discipline in the classrooms to proactively handle potential discipline concerns. Specialist teachers also have a classroom discipline plan in place. They are responsible for behavior incidents that occur in their classes and will follow up with appropriate consequences when necessary. The Intervention Assistance Team is available for the staff and parents to consult. It consists of the administration, school psychologist, visiting teacher and other specialists, such as the occupational therapist, speech therapist, special education teachers, and counselors, as needed. The team designs alternative strategies for students who may be having academic or behavioral difficulty meeting school expectations. Our goal at Dater Montessori is to provide fair, consistent discipline for all children. For most children with special education needs, this simply means that the regular classroom management plan will be used with them as with typical students. However, some children with special needs do have a behavior plan included in their Individual Education Plan. The teaching team, intervention specialists and parents develop the plan and carry out the plan for that child as it is written. Should a child develop a need for a behavior plan, the teacher will document the evidence of that need and contact the Intervention Assistant Team.
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