Hello Catharine Blaine families,
I’m looking forward to welcoming your students for the start of the 2026-2027 school year! Our teachers and I have been working all week to prepare our rooms, halls, schedules, and instructional materials and we’re almost ready for the first day of school. I know many of you are aware the teacher’s union and the school district are working to establish the next contract for teachers, aides, and office staff. I expect we’ll receive daily updates starting Monday on their progress. I can assure you we’ll be ready to go whenever school begins.
Staff Updates – we have a few new staff members joining us this year:
Siying Chen is joining our Kindergarten team and we’ll have three kindergarten classes for the first time since COVID!
Greta Clogston is joining our middle school team and will be teaching 6th grade social studies, 8th grade English, and a study support class.
Angie Hanna is our new Occupational Therapist. We’re getting her set up in a new space for the year.
Megan Parker is our new Assistant Principal. Megan will be at Blaine Mondays, Thursdays, and every other Wednesday.
Ready, Set, School is our annual back-to-school event. It’s on Tuesday, September 1st from 2pm to 4pm. At Ready, Set, School, elementary students will find out who their teacher is, middle school students will get their class schedules and locker assignments, and all students can drop off shared school supplies, and also tour the building. Middle school students will not receive combination locks until the first day of school, but they’re still welcome to store things in their lockers on Tuesday. New this year, we’ll have a 6th grade orientation at 3pm in the library. Attendance is optional. Middle school schedules will also be visible on The Source on Tuesday.
Blaine PTA – I highly encourage you to sign up for our PTA’s weekly newsletter, Tiger Tracks, which comes out every Friday. This is a great source of information about upcoming events, how to support our school, and community announcements and news. Go to blainepta.com and click on “Sign Up for Tiger Tracks” in the upper righthand corner. You should also join the PTA to support their work. We wouldn’t be the school we are without the PTA.
Drop Off and Pick Up – All students arrive at school on the playground on the east side of the building. There are two gates they can use – the “pool” gate right by the Pop Mounger pool, and the “north” gate which is, as you might guess, at the north end of the playground. Most families use whichever gate is most convenient, but many families of younger students choose to use the north gate as it’s closer to where our younger students line up. Elementary students line up with their classes on the playground and middle school students hang out at the south end of the playground. Families should not drive in the alley on the east side of the playground and should also not drive into the staff parking lot from Raye Street.
Students can enter the playground at 8:40. If it’s rainy, we’ll make an announcement and all students may go inside (elementary to their classes, middle to the lunchroom). The first bell is 8:50, which tells middle school students it’s time to get to class. The second bell is 8:55, which marks the start of the instructional day.
On the first day of school (and again on the first day for Kindergarten), family members may come on to the playground to help their child get lined up in the right spot and to soothe any nervous feelings. For the rest of the school year, family members must stay outside the playground fence at drop off.
For pick up, family members can come onto the playground 10 minutes before the dismissal bell. K-3 students generally exit the building at the north end of the playground while students in upper elementary and middle school exit through the main recess doors. Students who are walking home can exit from the front entrance of the school near the community center. The community center parking lot is not to be used for drop-off or pick-up. The only exception is if you need to pick up a child early or drop them off late. Kindergarten families will receive more information from their teachers about end-of-day routines and pick up.
Thank you for reading all of this, for choosing to send your child to Catharine Blaine K-8, and for helping us ensure students arrive safely and ready to learn each day. I look forward to seeing you soon!
Go TIGERS!
Patrick Gray, Principal
