a guide to FMS student arrival and dismissal

Students may not arrive on school grounds prior to 8:15am (9:15am on WED). Supervision is not available until 8:15am when students are permitted to enter the building. Students arriving after 8:25am (9:25am on WED) are considered tardy and need to be signed in by an adult. 

Pull up past the building on the right and loop left to drop students off at the sidewalk that runs along the front of the building. Do not drop off students within the parking lot; wait until it is your turn at the sidewalk. This is for everyone's safety, we do not want anyone walking in the parking lot near moving vehicles. While waiting in line, vehicles may not block the sidewalk at High St. This must remain clear for pedestrians.

Students walking or biking to school from the south should enter the school grounds at the yellow poles on the sidewalk on High Street. Students walking from the north may enter the school grounds at the top of the playground where the fence begins or down at the yellow poles. Students biking from the north must get off their bike at Richardson Street and walk them to the yellow poles or they may ride them through the playground. They may not ride down the hill on High Street. The bike rack is located near the yellow poles/basketball court.

It is our desire to have all of our students present every day, all day long. We know that things happen in life that require you to bring your student to school after school starts, dismiss them before the day ends or have them leave for a period of time and then return. Here is some information specific to those situations.

All students arriving after 8:25am (9:25am on WED) are considered tardy and must be signed in by an adult. An adult must also sign in students who have left during the school day and are returning.

All adults arriving at the school to dismiss a student must check in at the front office to sign their student out. Due to our regular dismissal procedures, we are not able to accommodate early individual dismissals after 2:45pm (11:45am on Half-Days).

The safety of our students is very important to us and we work hard to ensure that we get each student to the right place at the end of the school day. Dismissal is a complicated process that requires pre-planning and coordination. We keep a database of our students’ dismissal plans and share it with the homeroom teachers and our dismissal staff, to ensure that we are dismissing students properly. 

Each day we begin our dismissal process at 2:53pm by dismissing our Walkers & YCare students followed by our first round of Bus Riders.

We then dismiss our PickUps followed by our second round of Bus Riders.

Half-Day dismissals follow the same sequence of events, beginning at 11:53am.

WALKERS & PICKUPS have different definitions.

Walkers = students who are leaving the property on foot.

PickUps = students who are leaving the property in a vehicle.

We need you to keep us informed of dismissal changes, whether it is a long-term change or just a change of plans for that day. You can send a note with your student, call the front office or send an email to hspence@rsu1.org. Same day dismissal changes should be reported to the front office no later than 2:00pm. We will not make any changes to your student's dismissal without your permission.

Bus services are provided through a contract with a private carrier. Bus schedules will appear on RSU1 websites prior to the beginning of the school year. All Fisher-Mitchell students who live over ½ mile from the school are eligible for transportation. Students may be required to walk up to ½ mile to a bus stop. BUS RULES: Remain seated. Face the front of the bus. Keep hands and feet to yourself and out of the aisle. Use a quiet voice to talk to the person next to you. No eating and drinking. Keep the bus clean by cleaning up after yourself. Use kind and respectful language. Students who violate the bus rules will be sent home with a bus slip. Upon receipt of a third bus notice, the student and parents will meet with the principal to determine a corrective plan of action. The principal and/or bus service reserve the right to remove students from the bus for a period of time based upon rule violations at any time.

The PickUp time is set for 3:00pm but will begin when the first set of buses has cleared the property. Pull up past the building on the right and loop left to the sidewalk that runs along the front of the building. Students will be allowed to load in the first vehicle only; once the first vehicle leaves, the next vehicle pulls forward to load. This is for everyone's safety, we do not want anyone walking in the parking lot near moving vehicles. Do not leave the line by going around vehicles on the left, as some students must enter their vehicles from the driver side. While waiting in line, vehicles may not block the sidewalk at High St. This must remain clear for pedestrians.

Parking within unmarked parking spots blocks emergency vehicle access and disrupts traffic flow. Parking in marked parking spots and walking up to meet a student results in unsafe pedestrian traffic in the parking lot and disrupts the traffic flow.