Students begin arriving at school either via school bus or parent drop-off at 7:45 am each day. Upon entering the building, students proceed to the gymnasium where they sit with their grade-level peers and are supervised by JCOS faculty and staff. The school day officially begins at 8:20 am when the bell rings. Students then stand with their homeroom and listen to the daily announcements. Following the daily announcements all students participate in prayer and pledge. A different grade level is responsible for leading prayer and pledge each week.
Following Morning Meeting in the gymnasium, students report to homeroom to unpack and get ready for the day. While in homeroom, students engage in 30 minutes of either i-ready reading and math or Fast ForWord reading. These programs are both computer-based adaptive learning systems. These programs provide students with daily lessons in reading and math on their instructional level. The programs provide differentiated, individualized instruction for each student, thus providing remediation in areas in which students need extra support as well as enrichment in areas in which students are currently functioning on grade-level.
After homeroom, all students in the fourth through the eighth grades departmentalize for ELA/Reading and math. Students departmentalize based on their instructional levels in reading and in math. Students have 90-minutes of ELA/Reading each day, followed by a 10-minute snack, and then 60-minutes of math each day. After reading and math students return to homeroom and then report to social studies, science, religion, or writing workshop.
Students then have lunch and recess. Students in the second, third, fourth, and fifth grades eat lunch for 20-minutes and then have 20-minutes of recess. Students in the sixth, seventh, and eighth grades have recess first for 20-minutes and then they have lunch. All students have the option to either bring their lunch to school or to purchase lunch through our school lunch program, Lunch with Lou. Students who bring their lunch from home have the option to heat up their lunch in a microwave. Every Thursday is “Pizza Thursday.” On Pizza Thursday students have the option to purchase either one or two slices of pizza and a bottle of water. Lunch and recess are supervised by our JCOS teaching assistants each day.
Following lunch and recess students have three periods of instruction. The instructional periods after lunch are social studies, science, religion, or writing workshop. The afternoon bell rings at 2:20 pm. At that time, all students return to homeroom to organize their materials for homework and to pack-up their belongings. The final bell rings at 2:30 pm. At that time, students who are being picked up by their parents report to parent pick-up. Students who are taking the bus home, report to their respective bus when their bus number is called.