Frequently Asked Questions (2023)

Note: During the 2022-2023 school year, early drop off and school hours may be affected by Covid-19 policies and procedures.

The Preschool (26 Willow Place) is open for early drop-off beginning at 8:20 a.m. and children are expected in their classrooms at 8:30 a.m. Dismissal is at 2:45 p.m.

The Kindergarten (124 Henry Street) is open for early drop off beginning at 8:15 a.m. Classrooms open at 8:30 a.m. and children are expected in their classrooms by 8:40 a.m. Dismissal is between 2:45 p.m.-3:00p.m.

The Lower School (in the Farber Building at 153 Pierrepont Street) is open for early drop off beginning at 8:15 a.m. Children are expected in their classrooms by 8:30 a.m. Dismissal routines will be communicated by the Lower School Office. At 3:15 p.m., any child who has not been picked up will be taken into the After School Program, and parents will be billed at the daily rate. After School ends at 5:30 p.m. The Lower School Office is located on the 3rd floor.

Children in the Preschool, Kindergarten, and Lower School must be accompanied to and from school by an adult. The school must have written consent on file from a parent or guardian in order for a lower school student to travel to and from school on their own.

The Bosworth Building (129 Pierrepont Street) is open from 7:00 a.m. until 6:30 p.m. for regularly scheduled activities. Team practices, reviews, rehearsals, etc. may necessitate earlier opening, later closing, weekend and/or holiday use. The High School Office is located on the third floor. The Upper Middle School Office (6th-8th grades) is located on the 9th floor. The Lower Middle School Office (4th and 5th grades) is located on the 8th floor.

Fourth grade students are due in their homerooms at 8:20 a.m.; all other middle school students are due at 8:35 a.m. for their first period classes. Fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students have homeroom for the first day of school only. Dismissal times vary according to individual schedules. Unless they are meeting a teacher, Middle School students should not be above the lobby floor until 8:15 a.m.

The Rubin Building (124 Pierrepont Street) is open from 8:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m.

The Parish House (157 Montague Street) is open from 8:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m.

There is no school bus service at Saint Ann’s. Students get to school in whatever way makes the most sense for each family.

Some students are eligible for student metrocards or transit passes. These are distributed through the divisional offices, but please note that eligibility for such passes (and the type of pass) is determined by the Department of Education of the city of New York, not by Saint Ann’s.

In every division of the school we ask that families try to get students to school on time so they can have the best possible start to the day. Coming late can have a ripple effect on the rest of a child’s day. In the transition from the Lower School to the Middle School punctuality becomes even more crucial as students move to a fully departmentalized schedule. In fourth grade, far-flung first period classes begin at 8:35am, directly following homeroom.

The MTA, traffic and errant phone alarms sometimes stymie our best efforts at timeliness. Phone calls, emails or notes to division offices in these instances are always appreciated. Middle school students who are late should report to the appropriate division office upon arrival before going to class.

Preschool and kindergarten students bring their own lunches to school each day. In lower school (beginning in first grade), lunch is provided by the school and is included in the school’s fees. In middle school (beginning in fourth grade) and high school, students have the option to purchase food in the dining room and charge it to their student account by typing in their last name. There is a set daily fee for middle school students; high school students pay by the item. High school students are also allowed to leave school to purchase food from local restaurants any time they have a free period. Eighth grade students in good standing may also go “out” for lunch.

We try to accommodate any special dietary needs and, while we don’t claim a “nut-free” environment, we avoid serving nuts and peanut butter in school lunches. Contact foodservicehelp@saintannsny.org for help or more information.

In the Preschool, Kindergarten and Lower School the school day officially ends between 2:45-3:00pm; the division office will communicate specific dismissal routines. Lower School students who are not picked up by 3:15pm will be brought to the After School program and parents will be billed at the daily rate. After School ends at 5:30 p.m. Middle and high school students will have different start and end times to their school day depending on their individual schedules.

We have an on-campus After School program available to currently enrolled students in kindergarten through sixth grade that students can attend on a semester, monthly, weekly or daily basis. After School runs until 5:30 pm each day that school is in session. The Director of After School contacts families directly about registration and enrollment. Click here to read general information about the program or contact Emily Bolevice, Director of the After School Program at ebolevice@saintannsny.org. Please note emails are checked periodicially during the summer months, and there is no preschool After School program.

• If NYC public schools are open for in-person learning, Saint Ann’s will also be open.
• If NYC public schools are closed for in-person learning, Saint Ann’s will also be closed. As a policy, Saint Ann’s will NOT automatically switch to distance learning on snow days. Any exceptions to this policy will be clearly communicated to families, faculty, and staff in advance via email, text message and on our website. Families should ensure that your contact information is kept up-to-date in theParent Portal.
• If school is already in session and NYC public schools close early, Saint Ann’s will NOT necessarily close early as well. We will communicate with families, faculty, and staff via email, text message and on our website.
• NYC public school closing information is available vianyc.govor by calling 311.

Students are welcome to bring a special treat to school on their birthday or half-birthday to share with their class. We ask parents that such treats be entirely nut-free. Whenever possible please bring enough of the same treat for everyone in the class; it can get tricky if there are 10 vanilla cupcakes and 10 chocolate but 12 children want vanilla.

When inviting students to birthday parties we ask parents to be mindful of feelings: make sure to distribute all invitations outside of school and please keep birthday discussions and plans outside of school as well unless the whole class is invited.

In the Kindergarten and Lower School, children should leave all electronics, toys, and collectibles at home. This includes Pokemon and other trading cards. Teachers will not allow these items in the classroom and will remind your child to leave them at home.

Please be aware that scooters will be stored outside of school buildings during the day. Bikes should be locked in bike racks and can’t be stored inside. Wheeled shoes and wheeled objects are not allowed inside school buildings.

If it’s too valuable to lose, it may be best left at home. Middle school students – and, on request, high school students – are provided with lockers which, when locked, are the safest place to store personal belongings. Locks are available free of charge in division offices. Students younger than high school should leave cell phones at home or store them in lockers or otherwise away for the duration of the school day. (You can read more about our cell phone policy below.)

It’s a reality that kids tend to leave their things around. Labeling clothing and other belongings with a student’s name vastly improves our ability to return missing items to their rightful owners. Parents are asked to label items for young children and encourage older children to retrieve lost possessions.

In the Lower School there are lost and found bins outside the lunchroom and on floors 2-5. In the Bosworth Building, bins are on the 8th, 9th and 12th floors. Division offices are also good places to look for missing items or ask for help in finding them.

We periodically announce lost and found cleanout times to give students a final opportunity to collect their belongings before we dispose of or donate items that have not been claimed. Students are responsible for their own belongings; the school has no liability for missing items.

Click here to visit the nursing office section of our website and use the links on the left hand side to find our policies on health forms, immunization and keeping or sending a child home sick. You can also read our concussion management plan and what we require before a student can participate in interscholastic sports. Our school nursing staff can be reached at nurses@saintannsny.org.

Please note that some interscholastic leagues in which Saint Ann’s participates have minimum practice count requirements before students can play in games. Additional information about these requirements and other need-to-know information for parents of student athletes can be found on the recreational arts pages of our website as well as in the Student Handbook via the Parent Portal.

Attendance
One important time to email us is if your child needs to miss the whole day of part of a school day, and to do so again for each day that they are absent. You can email the appropriate division office using the contact information found on the back page of the art calendar and on the Parent Portal.

Beyond Attendance
We also encourage parents to call or email division offices with everything from changes in that day’s after school plans to changes in address, family structure, custody, child care arrangements, or a health situation or family crisis at home. Division offices are here to help and can relay information to other administrative offices and teachers as needed to support your child. Please be in touch if there is something you think we need to know about.

You can always update your address and contact information directly through the Parent Portal. To update your primary email address, contact registrar@saintannsny.org.

The art calendar and the Parent Portal contain contact information for most administrative offices. We ask parents to communicate information and concerns about their children through the relevant division office rather than calling, texting, or emailing individual teachers.

You can expect regular email communications from the school about community news and events. Division offices will often email about division-specific events and will contact you when they have anything to communicate about your individual child.

However, it is important to note that, consistent with our goal of nurturing student independence, middle and high school parents should not necessarily expect to hear every time there are auditions for the play or try-outs for the basketball team. Older students have regular assemblies with division heads who frequently communicate important information to students directly. Parents are always welcome to contact division offices with questions.

Middle and high school students have highly individualized schedules depending on what classes they are taking. Fourth graders have daily homeroom; other middle and high school students are due at school for the beginning of their first class of the day.

In the middle school, the day will generally end either at 2:35pm, referred to as an “early day,” or 3:25pm, sometimes called a “late day.”

In the high school, the beginning and end of each school day is truly unique to the student and can change if a student adds or drops classes. The last “regular” period on the high school schedule ends at 4:15pm, but it is followed by the seminar period, during which some students will elect to take classes that run until 5:50 pm. On the other hand, some students will have days where their last class ends at 2:35pm or earlier. Grade advisers work with students to design courseloads and schedules that work for that student.

One important aspect of high school schedules are free periods. During “frees,” high school students are truly free – they can leave campus during these times if they so choose and need return only when they are due to be in their next class.

When the school year begins, if you are a middle or high school parent you will be able to view your child’s schedule through the Parent Portal. If you need to schedule extracurricular activities before the school year begins you can contact the division office for dismissal times, but full schedules are not available until the first day of school.

We encourage students who wish to make schedule changes – even our youngest middle schoolers – to speak directly with their division head or grade dean, rather than expecting their parents to mediate this process. Those administrators must ultimately approve all schedule changes. The first few weeks of the year generally function as an add/drop period, especially in high school, where students have a chance to iron out the details of their schedules with the division office.

In high school there are occasionally scheduling “conflicts” that get worked out on an individual basis; for more details please contact your child’s HS grade dean.

We rely on ongoing dialog with students and parents in addition to checklists (twice annually, “fall” and “spring”) and narrative reports (twice annually, “mid-year” and “year-end”) to communicate about what’s going on in the classroom. Written feedback begins at the Kindergarten level. Checklist reports begin at the middle school level, in fourth grade. All checklists and anecdotal reports are read by your child’s division head or grade adviser before they arrive at your home. If you have a question about an individual checklist or report, the division head or grade adviser is the person to call. You can read some thoughts from our Head of School, Vince Tompkins, on “Why We Don’t Use Grades” here. Formal parent-teacher conferences are held once a year in November; we try to make the dates available to you during re-enrollment the previous year so that you can plan ahead. If you cannot attend parent-teacher conferences or wish to schedule an additional conference with a teacher please contact the relevant division office.

Generally, in the middle and high school, families will receive the first set of checklist reports shortly before the November teacher-parent conferences, where you will have an opportunity to discuss them with your child’s teachers. More detailed mid-year reports that describe both the classroom curriculum and your child’s learning are mailed home about halfway through the year. Different grades will arrive at different times – first semester officially ends about halfway through January. Year-end reports generally arrive at home after classes have ended for the year. In middle and high school these are accompanied by a letter from the grade adviser or division head summarizing the student’s year and offering guidance.

In general, the school considers checklist reports and cover letters to be “internal” documents that do not become part of a student’s formal academic record and are not sent on when a student applies to a summer program, transfers schools or applies to college. There may be individual exceptions as adjudicated by the division head or grade adviser. With the exception of senior year, mid-year reports are not sent to colleges.

If you have questions or concerns about your child’s learning or would like to request a meeting with a teacher feel free to contact the division office.

At Saint Ann’s, instructional technology follows and directly supports the pedagogy of our teachers. The diverse range of disciplines, subjects, teaching styles, projects and classroom activities offered by our faculty is reflected in our use of technology. The design and deployment of technology favors innovative, adaptable, unobtrusive and robust solutions suited to the wide spectrum of individual faculty and student needs.

We avoid platforms and technologies that distract or detract from the beauty and integrity of a true learning experience, and look beyond the horizon to identify the skills, tools and lessons our students will need to be successful and safe in their interactions with technology both inside and outside the school environment.

We are not a “laptop school” and we do not provide each student with a computer. Faculty are not required to post student homework or course syllabi online. Students in grades 4-12 are issued Saint Ann’s Google accounts that enable them to use school resources, such as Chromebooks. There are workstations available to students for completing and printing school work in the division offices and throughout campus.

If a student does not have access to a computer or other technology at home that they need in order to complete school work, parents are strongly encouraged to get in touch with the relevant Grade Dean or Division Head who will help find a solution.

Complete information on our educational technology resources and use policies is available in our Student Handbook through the Parent Portal.

In our younger divisions, equity work has focused on curricular review and establishing a framework for creating anti-racist classrooms and teaching equity-related skills and concepts across Preschool, Kindergarten and Lower School. In the middle and high schools, in addition to ongoing curricular review across departments, students in all grades have both structured and unstructured opportunities to talk and learn about topics related to equity and inclusion. These are facilitated by teachers as well as by division offices in collaboration with the Diversity and Institutional Equity office, and include Lower Middle School diversity workshops, Upper Middle School community meeting, Upper Middle School affinity spaces, High School Friday meeting, High School race-based affinity spaces, and student-initiated, student-run groups like High School Black Student Union or Upper Middle School and High School Women in STEM.

You’ll find more details about what equity work looks like on the ground under “In Practice” on the Diversity and Institutional Equity section of our website.

The school has a dedicated team of trained professionals who work together as Student Support Services. Student Support Services is made up primarily of the school’s psychologists, learning specialists and testing coordinators, but they also work closely with school nurses and health educators. The Student Support Services team are here as a resource for students, parents, and teachers and are in regular contact with division offices. It is important to note that, especially in the younger grades, the presence of support staff in the classroom is an ordinary part of the school day that does not necessarily indicate a “problem” in that classroom.

The Teaching and Learning Center (the “TLC”) is located on the ground floor of the Bosworth Building, right next to the Ritchey Art Room. The TLC is open Monday through Friday from 8:15am-4:30pm. All middle and high school students are welcome to drop in during their free periods, including lunch. They can also stop in before classes begin to print out homework or get needed class supplies. Learning specialists staff the TLC and are there to support students with anything they need that is related to school work. They are happy to help with studying for tests, writing papers, understanding reading assignments, organizing materials, and managing time, among other things.

Support staff are available to speak with parents. Click here to visit the Student Support Services page of our website, where you’ll find a who’s who of the team and information about where they are located and how you can contact them. The Director of Student Support Services is our School Psychologist, Liz Bernbach, PhD. Click here to visit the nursing office section of our website.

Saint Ann’s aspires to meet the needs of each student, and to work with them to overcome obstacles so they can benefit from the school’s unique curriculum and pedagogy. The school strives to work in partnership with parents when it comes to supporting students. That partnership includes communicating with families and clinicians to ascertain if a student has received a diagnosis that impacts their learning. Diagnosed learning issues may be disabilities under the law. When such a diagnosis is present, Saint Ann’s engages families in an interactive process, based on testing and medical/psychological information provided, to determine a reasonable accommodation which enables the student to participate in the School’s program.

The School will reasonably accommodate such disabilities in accordance with legal requirements. It is important to note that the law does not require the requested accommodation nor the best accommodation. The School is not required to provide an accommodation if it would constitute an undue hardship or fundamentally alter the School’s program.

Please visit the finance office pages of the school’s website for information on our financial aid policies and processes. Currently enrolled families can find full details of the financial aid process on the Parent Portal. Questions about the financial aid process from currently enrolled families should be directed to financialaid@saintannsny.org.

Families applying for admission to Saint Ann’s can find information on the financial aid application process by visiting the Admissions page of the School’s website and clicking on the Financial Aid link. They should direct questions about financial aid policies to the Director of Admission, Diana Lomask (dlomask@saintannsny.org).

We are a community that values in-person connection and conversation, and our policies for the use of cell phones and similar personal electronic devices reflect our commitment to being unplugged and present with one another while at school or engaged in school activities. Before ninth grade, students are not permitted to use cell phones in school. Cell phones, smartwatches, and similar personal electronic devices may be taken away by faculty or administrators if a student in any division is using one inappropriately or disrespectfully. Thus, 9th–12th grade students may use their cell phones in designated areas (the third floor of the Bosworth Building and below, and in the High School Annex of the library.) If a high school student must use their phone when on another floor or in another building, they should step into a division office, department office, or similar, so as to do their part in keeping our corridors and common spaces device-free. High School students using their phones outside of designated spaces will be asked to put it away by a faculty/staff member or administrator, and are expected to meet that request with equanimity and understanding. We ask parents and guardians to support our efforts to limit the use of personal electronic devices at school by refraining from contacting your child on their personal device while they are at school.

Our full policy on cell phones and similar technology is outlined in our Student and Family Handbook, which is available as a PDF through the Parent Portal.