Hello and welcome or welcome back to Cambridge Street Upper School, Home of the Cobras!
We hope your scholar is enjoying their summer, and is ready to begin the school year. The first day of school is Tuesday, September 3rd. Please see below for important back to school information for CSUS, including details
about scholar schedules, phone policy, transportation, arrival and dismissal, materials lists, new staff at CSUS, and our Back to School Night on September 26th.
Scholar Schedules
Scholar schedules will be available online on Monday, August 26 via ASPEN at this link. New to CPS caregivers will receive a login id and temporary password for their ASPEN account via postal mail and/or email on Monday. Caregivers with older children already enrolled in CPS can use the
same ASPEN account information for all of their children. If you have any questions regarding how to log in to ASPEN, please contact Kimberly Gabbidon at [email protected].
Some notes on schedules:
- Schedules may change prior to September 3. Lots of things impact class scheduling! For example, we have a few new staff hires who are not in our system yet, so some teachers’ names may change or be added prior to the start of
school.
- If you see my (Ms Sammy’s) name in your schedule, it just means it is a class you will be placed in when school starts. This is intentional, and allows us to customize groupings based on scholars’ strengths, needs, and
preferences - this is the same for everyone’s schedule!
If you have any schedule-related questions or concerns, please contact me at [email protected]. If your child is a 7th or 8th grader new to CSUS this year, we will be reaching out to determine their World
Language course selection. Scholars in our SCALE program will have unique schedules; these schedules may not be accurately reflected in ASPEN until September.
Arrival and Dismissal
The school day at CSUS officially begins at 8:30AM and ends at 3:15PM (2:45PM on Wednesdays). All scholars should report directly to their
first period classroom if they arrive at school after 8:30AM. Information about your scholar’s teachers and classroom locations are available on your scholar’s schedule. Scholars that arrive earlier should wait in the cafeteria
until they are released to classrooms by supervisory staff. Staff and volunteers will be positioned in the main lobby, cafeteria and throughout the upper school to help scholars find their way.
Phone Policy
Our goal is to ensure our school is supportive of scholar focus and learning, and to continue to align our policies with other Upper Schools in Cambridge.
Cambridge Street’s cell phone policy is as follows
- At school, from 8:40AM-3:15PM, phones and communication devices (including watches and airpods) must be silent and away: not used, visible, or heard.
- This includes all parts of the school day (classes, transitions, recess, lunch, field trips, etc.)
- This includes all school spaces (classrooms, hallways, restrooms, cafeteria, playground, etc.)
- Advisors will collect phones at the start of each day; phones will be kept in a locked, secure location and redistributed at the end of the day
- If a scholar’s phone is seen or heard in any space, an adult will ask for the phone. The phone will be held in the office to be picked up by the scholar at the end of the day.
- We ask that when families need to reach their scholar or scholars need to reach their families during the school day, that school phones be used. Families can contact CSUS during the school day at 617.349.3050 to relay any important,
time-sensitive messages.
- If you are interested in our full policy and rationale, it is available here.
Transportation
If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact the CSUS Main Office at 617.349.3050. Any transportation-related questions should be directed
to the Office of Transportation at 617.349.6862 or here.
Other important reminders for the first day
Back to School Night
We warmly invite all parents and caregivers to attend our annual Back to School Night on Thursday, September 26th from 5:30- 7PM.
More information regarding Back to School Night and other important events, including upcoming meeting times for our School Council and Parent Caregiver Organization (PCO), will be shared with you via the weekly Tuesday Take-Home email.
We encourage you to sign up for ParentSquare to receive updates about the Back to School Block Party and other upcoming CSUS events.
New Staff
We are pleased to welcome the following new faces to Cambridge Street this fall
DeShaun Velez - Grade 6 Mathematics
Gabrielle Joella - Grade 7 ELA
Vahna Mirzoyan - Grade 6 Science
Seth Hurwitz - School Psychologist
Your child grade level teachers will reach out in the coming days to welcome you and provide additional start of school information. We are looking forward to meeting and getting to know all of our incoming scholars and welcoming our
returning 7th and 8th graders and their families back to CSUS. We look forward to seeing your scholar on September 3rd, and to your continued support throughout the year!
Fatima Sammy
Assistant Principal
Cambridge Street Upper School