Bobcat Families,
The staff of Hamlin PK-8 hopes everyone has enjoyed their summer break and is excited about returning to school! Our Story 26-27 begins on August 17, 2026, and we hope you are looking forward to a great school year where everyone Achieves to Succeed!
We are including some pertinent information about start/end times, traffic patterns for drop-offs and pick-ups, Open House, sixth-grade orientation, cell-phone policy for students, and locker usage.
Our drop-off will be the same as the past several years. All students, except for PK students, will be dropped off at the middle school gym. Parents/Guardians should turn onto Bobcat Lane from Route 3. There will be staff members there to assist your child from exiting the vehicle. We will have blue cones out that you should pull up to so staff members can assist students. Please pull to the farthest cone available. We will begin drop-offs at 7:15 this year to alleviate long lines on Route 3. Please have students prepared to exit the vehicle. We will assist with car seats. Buses will begin drop-offs at 7:25 and continue to approximately 7:40. PK teachers will send information out about drop-offs for PK. PK begins August 24, and you will be contacted about PK orientation.
Students are expected to be at school by 7:40 so they can attend the Morning Meeting. We will be in the middle school gym until 7:45-7:50ish. Students arriving after 7:50 should report to the office in the building that their homeroom is located. Evening pick-ups will be the same. Elementary students will be coming out the end door where the blacktop playground is located. Parents may pick up their students from teachers/aides as they exit the building. Dismissal times are staggered about 1 minute between grade levels. PK will be dismissed at 2:55, Kindergarten at 2:56, and so forth until all pick-up students have exited the buildings. Students that ride the bus home each evening will have a different routine this year. Teachers/aides will take bus students to the middle school gym where they will be lined up according to the bus they ride and by grade level. Buses will arrive three at a time and bus students will exit to the bus with a teacher/aide. This is a safety measure we felt was needed to alleviate all the congestion on the blacktop. We may have to adjust as we go to make the change smooth.
The county will continue utilizing the cell phone policy that is directed by state law. Please read the guidelines for that policy as far as discipline is concerned. It is exact in the consequences for students with cell phones. Our policy has been and continues to be elementary students are not allowed to have cell phones at school. The middle school students have been allowed to use them at the end of the day after school is dismissed to contact parents regarding pickups and sports-related issues. We will continue this policy. Phones for middle school students are to be kept in their backpacks and turned off. We have found discipline referrals increase tremendously with the use of cellphones.
Our middle school students will continue using lockers this year. There will be a $5.00 service charge if a lock is destroyed or lost. In the past we charged for lockers, but we will only charge for lost or destroyed locks this year.
Sixth-grade orientation will be Thursday, August 13, from 4:00-5:00, in the cafeteria before Open House begins. Students and parents will meet with core subject teachers in the cafeteria to receive pertinent information and to have questions answered. They then will move throughout the middle school building with a teacher/student leader for a tour of the building. Schedules should be available on Thursday so students and parents can be shown where classrooms are in the building. Locker assignments will be available so students may practice since they haven’t used lockers previously.
Open House will be on Thursday, August 13, from 5-7, in the middle school gym. Come out and meet your teachers and get some refreshments! We will have sign-ups for Schoology as well. It is very important to utilize Schoology to keep abreast of your child’s progress in school. We look forward to seeing everyone at Open House.
Working together we can make your child’s school year very successful. Our test scores attest that we are moving in the right direction! Please contact the school if you have any questions or concerns throughout the school year!
Thank you,
Mrs. Huffman and Mrs. Bates