Be Prepared for the First Day of School

This year, for safety reasons, parents across the local district Northeast will not enter the campus at drop-off or pick-up. For morning drop off students may enter any of the following three gates. I highly suggest that TK, Kindergarten, and first-grade students get dropped off at the gate on Weddington and Saloma. All gates open at 7:30 am and close promptly at 8:00 am. The other two optional gates are the gate on the corner of Weddington and Lemona, or the Kiss and Drop gate on Lemona between Weddington and Clark. Any child who is not yet ready to walk independently to the lineup area should not use the Kiss and Drop gate. Staff is not available to accompany children to their lineup area. If your child arrives after 8:00 am you will need to walk them to the main office and check in as being tardy. For an afternoon pick up students in grades TK, Kindergarten, and first grade will be walked to the gate on Weddington and Saloma by their classroom teacher for parents to pick them up. Gates will close promptly at 2:40 pm and any child who has not been picked up by a person on the student’s emergency card will need to be picked up from the main office. Students in second grade and third grade will exit campus using the gate on the corner of Weddington and Lemona. Fourth and fifth-grade students will be dismissed from the Kiss and Drop gate on Lemona between Weddington and Clark. If you have multiple children here at Kester, we recommend having your oldest children exit the same gate as your youngest child. Starting in the morning on Tuesday, August 16th the Kiss and Drop valet on Lemona between Weddington and Clark will be in place, thanks to our amazing volunteers. We will ask each grade level to volunteer to help with the valet throughout the year. This is what we call the Kiss and Drop, and is designed to help alleviate parking congestion. It is only provided in the morning at drop-off.