A Welcome Back Letter from Chief Operating Officer Ian Moorhouse
Dear Families,
I hope you are excited and ready for another fulfilling year at Wheeler. It has been a fun and busy summer on both campuses as we complete critical projects in Providence, including a new weight and training room, outdoor seating area, and upgrades to a number of classrooms. It’s equally exciting at the farm, where our camps are wrapping up another incredible summer, and after breaking ground in the spring, the walls of the new Nest building are going up.
I am always extremely grateful to be surrounded by such a dedicated and wonderful group of professionals who work all summer at Wheeler, some of them running our camps and others getting our campuses deep-cleaned and ready to go for the fall.
As we prepare for the upcoming school year, I want to update you on a few things and remind you of some important details before we start. Since my letter provides a lot of information, I am highlighting the areas where action may be required on your part. They include signing up for a meal plan, signing up for transportation, and signing up for our After School Program.
The CulinArt Dining Experience
As a reminder, there are two options for dining and eating:
- The Market provides a variety of options, including breakfast sandwiches, premade salads, and snacks.
- The Cafe continues to focus on providing healthy homemade meals, with an increase in menu options for vegetarians and vegans and an enhanced salad bar.
Weekly menus will be available on our website. You can also access the menus webpage by scanning the QR code on your wall calendar.
The cost for the daily meal plan, which includes a hot meal, an open salad and vegetable bar, a deli bar, and a variety of flavored water, is as follows:
- Lower School – $6.50 per day or $950 per year
- Middle School – $7.50 per day or $1,050 per year
- Upper School – $8.50 per day or $1,150 per year
Families who sign up for the yearly meal plan will receive monthly invoices through their student’s account. To sign up for the annual plan, please complete this form.
Payment Options
We will continue to use My Kids Spending to track any purchases. All billing will continue to be processed through student accounts, and you will receive monthly invoices from our Business Office.
Our community can use bank cards and ApplePay to pay for items in The Market. Cash will not be accepted.
Water Bottles/Reducing Plastic Use
We are continuing our goal of reducing the amount of plastic we use and increasing our recycling as much as possible. With that in mind, we will no longer use single-use plastic cups in The Cafe, so we ask that all students bring a reusable, non-plastic water bottle daily and use the refilling stations throughout campus. Students can purchase reusable water bottles in The Market and are also more than welcome to bring other reusable water bottles from home.
Transportation To and From School
Once again, we will offer bus transportation along the Route 95 corridor and the South County area. For more details, please visit our Transportation webpage.
Although Wheeler does not coordinate carpools, we encourage families to log in to the Parent and Guardian Portal, search the Parent Directory by town, and reach out to others in their area to organize ride-shares for students who live near each other.
We will also continue to offer a shuttle bus to and from the farm.
If you would like to use the school’s transportation, please sign up using the links on our Transportation webpage.
After School Programs
We are excited to welcome Madison Baiocchi as our After School program director!
Our after school programs will start on Sept. 9. In addition to the regular after school programs, additional care will be offered on some days when school is not in session, such as conference care days and professional days. You can find more information on the After School webpage, and you are welcome to reach out to Ms. Baiocchi if you have any questions that aren’t covered online.
Campus Safety
Over the last six months, we have reviewed our current on-campus notification systems. As part of this work, we developed a fully integrated approach, run through the AlertUs platform, that will now allow us to communicate through computer screens and PA systems. We will continue to run multiple drills throughout the year and keep everyone updated as we continue to assess and make any needed adjustments to our safety systems and protocols.
That is all for now. I look forward to seeing you in person soon! Enjoy the rest of your summer, and as always, if you have any questions, please feel free to reach out.
Best,
Ian A. Moorhouse
Chief Operating Officer