Welcome Back to School, Walnut Square Superstars and Families!
Dear Families,
Welcome to the 2026–2027 school year! I am so excited to welcome our returning Superstars back to school and extend a warm greeting to all of the new families joining our community. To help your family prepare for a smooth and successful start, I have compiled the Walnut Square Elementary School Family Guide. The Family Guide has information about school hours, scheduling, arrival and dismissal routines, communication, school policies and expectations, SUPERSTARS values, guides about curriculum, behavior expectations, discipline, and social and emotional learning.
I would also like to welcome our Kindergarten students and families! Prior to entering Kindergarten, all students will have the opportunity to be screened with one of our Kindergarten teachers. The screenings are scheduled for September 2-4, 2026, and each screening is 30 minutes per student. While your child participates in their brief screening, families complete intake paperwork on-site. Please stay tuned for additional details and updates about Kindergarten screening.
Please join us at our Open House scheduled for Tuesday, September 1st, from 4:00-5;30 pm to visit our school and meet the wonderful team here at Walnut Square! To stay informed about all important dates, please visit our calendar https://walnutsquare.haverhill-ps.org/walnut-square-calendar.
Please take a few moments to review these details to help ensure a safe, organized, and successful year for every Superstar.
All of the information included in this post can also be found on the Walnut Square School website here: https://walnutsquare.haverhill-ps.org/walnut-square-family-information. I look forward to a wonderful school year of learning, growing, and shining bright!
Sincerely,
Jen Rubera
Principal
Walnut Square Elementary School 
Family Guide
2026-2027
School Start Times/Half Day Times
School starts at 9:00 am and ends at 3:15 pm. Supervision on the playground begins at 8:45 am.
On Early Release Days, student dismissal time is 11:35 am.
Communication
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Please visit our school website, https://walnutsquare.haverhill-ps.org/, to get the following information:
Family Updates (posted weekly)
Calendar with upcoming events: https://walnutsquare.haverhill-ps.org/walnut-square-calendar *also can follow and subscribe to calendar on Parent Square
School Improvement Plan
Site Council Information and meeting minutes
Title 1 information
PTO information and meeting minutes
Family Guides for teaching and learning, social and emotional learning, routines and procedures, and discipline practices at Walnut Square School
Parent Square: Parent Square is a communication and organizational tool to keep families informed and involved in our school community.
Social Media: Please follow our Facebook page, Walnut Square Elementary School, follow us on Instagram, @walnutsquaresuperstars, and/or follow us on YouTube, @jenrubera, to get updates and see all of the fun and learning taking place at Walnut Square.
Walnut Square Arrival Procedures
Families can drop children off at 8:45 AM. Teacher supervision begins at 8:45 AM.
Students who walk or ride their bikes can be on the playground starting at 8:45 AM.
The family rolling drop-off area on North Avenue is between the two signs. Students exit from their cars on the sidewalk side. For students being brought to school by parents, for the safety of all, only students and staff are allowed in the play area in the morning.
Students riding buses will be exiting their buses on the Main Street side beginning at 8:45 AM.
At 9:00 AM students will line up by class in the designated area (white lines in the front of the school).
Children eating breakfast at school will enter the building at 9:00 AM with their class. There will be breakfast available for them to take and eat in their classrooms.
Only students and staff are allowed in the building for safety issues.
For safety reasons, if a student arrives after all students have been led into the school, a parent/guardian must walk his/her child to the Main Street side door and wait until the student is let into the building. This ensures they are supervised at all times.
Students arriving after 9:15 AM are considered tardy and need to be signed in at the office by a parent or guardian.
Walnut Square Dismissal Procedures
Students are dismissed as either bus students or parent pick up.
Bus Students: Bus students will be dismissed on the Main St. side of the building. Each student has a bus pass that will be kept on a lanyard attached to his/her backpack. It is expected that students will swipe when they enter and exit the bus.
Parent Pick Up: Parents may wait in the schoolyard for students to be dismissed. Please note that there is NO PARKING between the signs on North Ave. to ensure safety for all, and the spots are intended for quick, continuous pick-up flow, where parents remain in their cars and students walk out to them and get in the car on the sidewalk side. For safety, we kindly ask that if you plan to park and exit your vehicle to meet your child, please use the available parking spaces elsewhere and leave the designated curbside-only spots open. This ensures an efficient and safe flow for all.
Kindergarten and Grade 3 students will be dismissed from the middle door.
Grade 1 and Grade 2 students will be dismissed from the North Ave. side door.
When school is dismissed at 3:15 pm, there is no longer Walnut Square staff supervision on the playground. The school building is closed, and parents are responsible for supervising their own children. The Walnut Square staff kindly ask that the playground area and school grounds are respected and play equipment is used appropriately.
Attendance
Attending school regularly helps children feel better about school and themselves. Start building this habit in grades K-3 so they learn that going to school on time, every day is important! Good attendance is a skill that will help them succeed in later grades and beyond. If your child is absent, tardy, or there are any changes to his/her regular school dismissal routine, please follow the procedures listed below:
*Please refer to the HPS Student Handbook for more information about attendance.
Breakfast/Lunch
Haverhill Public Schools is enrolled in a program called the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP). All students enrolled in HPS are eligible to receive a healthy breakfast and lunch at school at no charge to their household each day. No further action is required. Your child(ren) will be able to participate in these meal programs without having to pay a fee or submit a meal application. More information and meal plans are available here: https://www.haverhill-ps.org/food-services/.
School Supplies
It is recommended that your child bring the following items to school each day:
Backpack
Lunch bag if they bring their own snacks/lunch to school.
Water bottle- we have water bottle filling stations at Walnut Square.
Change of clothes
**Please label all of the items with your child’s name so they can be easily returned if misplaced or lost.
Indoor or Outdoor Recess
Walnut Square uses the Child Care Weather Watch Chart to determine if there will be indoor or outdoor recess.
No Cell Phones/Smart Watches
Cell phones and Smart watches are not allowed to be used during the school day. The expectation is that they are turned off and kept in the student’s backpack during school hours. They may not be used at any time during the school day, including lunch and recess. If a cell phone or Smartwatch is seen by a staff member, it will be collected by a staff member for safekeeping and/or turned into the main office. The device can be picked up at the office by the student at the end of the school day. Repeated offenses may require the parent to pick up the device and/or require the student to drop it off daily at the office.
No Toys Please
Students are not allowed to bring toys from home into the school. This includes trading cards, fidget toys, figurines, toy cars, dolls or games. Toys are expensive for parents and we would hate for them to get lost or broken. Furthermore, toys brought from home can disrupt the learning at school. While we understand that children may wish to carry familiar toys with them and to show their friends items they consider precious, it has been our experience that bringing toys from home to school can create difficult situations to manage. The students have many toys and games to play with here at school. If toys are found at school they will be collected by staff for safekeeping and returned after school. Thank you for your cooperation and attention to this matter.
Bullying Prevention and Intervention
Walnut Square follows the HPS Anti Bullying Policy (you can find this on the HPS website, https://www.haverhill-ps.org/parents-students/).
We are Walnut Square SUPERSTARS!
Each month, students will participate in learning experiences that focus on our monthly SUPERSTARS theme.
DESE Curriculum Family Guides
Family guides to the Massachusetts learning standards help families understand what students are expected to know and be able to do by the end of each grade. They were designed to help families and teachers work together to support learning.
Walnut Square School Behavior Expectations and Discipline Practices
The Walnut Square Behavior Expectations and Discipline Practices guide helps families understand behavior expectations and provides information about the discipline practices implemented at Walnut Square.
- Walnut Square Behavior Expectations and Discipline Practices English
- Walnut Square Behavior Expectations and Discipline Practices Spanish
- Walnut Square Behavior Expectations and Discipline Practices Portuguese
Walnut Square School Social and Emotional Learning
This guide helps families define Social and Emotional Learning and helps families understand Social and Emotional learning at Walnut Square.
- Social and Emotional Learning at Walnut Square English
- Social and Emotional Learning at Walnut Square Spanish
- Social and Emotional Learning at Walnut Square Portuguese