Navigating the River

Each week, you will receive our newsletter containing important dates, events, and school news. Navigating the River is one of the best ways to stay up to date on what's happening at the River and ways to get involved to help make this school year the best yet! #RMSGoodAsGold

• October 10th - Vision Screening for 7th Grade students
• October 10th - Dress for Success Day
• October 10th - 8th Grade Career Pathway Discovery Fair (4:30 - 6:30 @ Lanier Tech)
• October 10th - Football vs. SFMS (6:30 @ LHS)
• October 11th - Scoliosis Screening for 6th and 8th Grade students
• October 12th - 6th Grade Band Concert
• October 13th - Last Day of the 1st 9-Weeks
• October 16th - Georgia Student Health Survey Administration
• October 18th - PTSO Spirit Night @ Chipotle
• October 19th - Progress Reports available on Parent Portal
• October 19th - Online Learning Day (Parent/Teacher Conferences)
• October 20th - Student Holiday
• October 23rd - 27th - Red Ribbon Week
• October 26th - 6th Grade Boo Bash
• October 30th - November 3rd - Scholastic Book Fair

**CTAE Pathway Nights for each high school will occur during the months of October and November. Please see the infographic below for more information!

Sign up here!

LAMBERT LONGHORNS VARSITY FOOTBALL HOMECOMING GAME – FRIDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2023

On Friday, October 6, the undefeated 5-0 Lambert Longhorns Varsity Football Team will host the Forsyth Central High School Bulldogs in the first region game of the season and we will celebrate our Homecoming Court! Game time is at 7:30pm, and our gates open at 6:30pm. Please take a moment to review Lambert High School's Football Game Day Guidelines. We are excited to have you come out and support our football team, band members, and cheerleaders, and appreciate your adherence to these guidelines:

• Tickets are $8 and can only be purchased online through the GoFan app or through the Lambert HS GoFan page. There are no cash options to purchase tickets.
• All Elementary and Middle School students MUST be accompanied and supervised by a paying adult.
• Students may not bring any type of bags (backpacks, drawstring, fanny packs, computer bags, etc.) into the stadium. Bags that are brought into the stadium will be subject to a search.
• Lambert students are not permitted on the visitor side.
• Fans are not allowed on the field/track, including in the cheerleading section.
• Signs are permitted if they are in good taste and contain no commercial or political messaging, profanity, or derogatory statements. Signs may not block the view of other guests, be affixed to walls or rails or cover any existing stadium signage.
• No outside food or beverages are permitted. Concessions will be available.
• No animals/pets are allowed into any Forsyth County athletic facilities (except trained service animals).
• No footballs or other objects intended to be thrown.
• Lambert HS Administration and the Forsyth County Sheriff's Office reserves the right to eject any guest whose behavior is unruly or illegal in nature.
• Lambert Longhorn fans are expected to show good sportsmanship at all times!

Horns Up and Hook ‘Em!

The Georgia Department of Education (GA DOE) requires all public schools to participate in their Georgia Student Health Survey. To see the GA DOE informational website click here. The survey has 2 parts: one for parents and one for students in grades 3 -12. Each school must have a 75% participation rate on the student portion of the survey. Schools failing to meet the 75% student participation rate will score 0.00 points on the school's CCRPI survey calculation under the survey portion of the School Climate Star Rating. The GA DOE also encourages parents to participate in the Georgia Parent Survey because schools with less than 15 parents participating in the Parent Survey will see a negative impact on their School Climate Star Rating for 2024-2025. All Forsyth County School students will participate in this survey starting on October 16, 2023 unless their parent opts them out.

This GA DOE developed survey asks questions that are covered by the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (PPRA). For more information about PPRA, click here. PPRA requires that schools provide parents/guardians with advanced notice of student participation, the option to preview the student survey, and the ability for parents/guardians to opt their students out of any surveys that include PPRA protected areas. If you would like to opt your student out of participation in this survey, please email your student's principal requesting that your student not participate in Georgia Health Survey prior to October 16, 2023.

For links to preview the student surveys, click on the links below.

Georgia Student Health Survey - Elementary School (grades 3-5)

English - click here

Spanish - click here

Georgia Student Health Survey - Middle & High School (grades 6-12)

English - click here

Spanish - click here

To complete the parent survey, please click on the link below.

https://gshs.gadoe.org/Pages/parent.aspx

Thank you,

FCS

Forsyth County Schools How-To Guides

From our newsletter and our explanation at Curriculum Night, we hope you have enjoyed learning about how we show Panther PRIDE at Riverwatch. An important facet of teaching positive behavior is the acknowledgment. Now that student have learned about expectations and procedures at the River, they are ready to use their PRIDE points to redeem fun activities and treats in the PBIS Rewards App. October 2 – 6 is the purchase window when students may spend their points. We hope this first experience with Q1 Rewards helps your child see the value in making great choices every day!

Riverwatch Middle School 6th grader, Scott Lee of Suwanee, won an Honorable Mention Award in the One Earth Young Filmmakers Contest for his film "Lost But Not Forgotten." The Global Awards Celebration occurred Sept. 17, at the Gene Siskel Film Center, in Chicago, Illinois.

Using stop-motion paper cutouts, Scott created a heartfelt story in his 4-minute film “Lost but Not Forgotten.” A sea turtle hatchling emerges from its egg mutated by pollution, with two heads instead of one. After navigating through an ocean full of bottle caps and plastic bags, this unusual hatchling is captured by marine biologists who perform surgery. Scott’s compelling narrative uses original dialogue, dramatic sound effects, and effective backgrounds, prompting viewers to think more about what we can do to curtail ocean waste.

In his contest submission, Scott wrote: “I made this animation inspired by the idea to give a message to stop sea pollution.”

Since its inception in 2013, the One Earth Young Filmmakers Contest has grown from a local Illinois project to a highly competitive international competition garnering 403 submissions. Countries such as Brazil, Australia and Mexico and states such as California, Georgia and Indiana will be represented among this year’s winners at the Global Awards Celebration.

“This year our awards event will include a sneak peek of our Honorable Mention winners. We will be screening a compilation of these 12 films. This is the first time we will be recognizing the Honorable Mention winners at our main event, side by side with our top 10 winners. It’s all very exciting,” explained Contest Founding Director Sue Crothers. A full screening of the Honorable Mention winners will occur in November online.

“The secret ingredient to our success is youth. They have opinions, ideas and viewpoints about the climate emergency,” continued Sue. “It’s hard for people to deny what’s happening when they’re living through extreme floods, fires, and tornadoes. And the younger generations have something to say about the mess our generation has made.”

The Young Filmmakers Contest asks students from age 8 to 25 to create a 3- to 8-minute environmental film that inspires change or action. Animated or stop-motion films can be a minimum of 45 seconds long. A jury of 32 film and sustainability experts evaluated this year's films.

Thank you to all of our generous families that have already joined PTSO! If you would like to support the RMS PTSO in its mission to support teachers and students, we are still accepting donations. If you have not had a chance to join yet, we are still trying to reach our budget goal of $9,500 in membership funds.

Why join RMS PTSO? PTSO depends primarily on donations from our RMS families to finance initiatives to support teachers and students. All funds raised go directly back to RMS. Your membership fee is your donation to the PTSO, and because we are a 501c3, your donation is tax deductible and eligible for corporate matching if your employer offers that benefit.

What if I don't have time to volunteer? That's ok! We will happily accept financial donations without any obligation to volunteer.

How will you use my donations? PTSO funds a variety of initiatives to support teachers and students. Our three big commitments this year are:

1) 22 new Chromebooks and a cart for student usage;

2) Teacher grants for educational supplies, club support, and school improvements;

3) Funding to support the PBIS rewards program.

To see a more detailed breakdown of how PTSO spends funds, you can view the 23/24 budget HERE.

How can I join? If you would like to support RMS PTSO, please click HERE.

VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITY

PTSO is looking for parent volunteers to help out with the Bookfair, starting with set up on 10/26. For more details about dates and shifts, please click HERE.

• No check outs will be processed after 3:30 PM.
• Students will only be released to a parent or adult listed in Infinite Campus. No student will be released to anyone under the age of 18.
• A government-issued identification is required to check out a student. We cannot accept a photograph of an identification in lieu of the identification itself. Parents/guardians will be asked to return with their official identification or make alternate arrangements for checking out the student.

Please remember to email Ms. Hayworth at f41677@forsyth.k12.ga.us if your student is absent for any reason! Absence letters/emails must be received within 5 days of your student's absence.

The front office staff is not permitted to relay transportation messages to students. Transportation changes are not permitted during the school day.

Students are assigned one bus stop, morning and afternoon. FCS Transportation does not authorize bus stop changes where students can go home with friends or relatives or get off the bus at a bus stop other than their designated bus stop assigned to them and their home address. The only exception is in court-ordered joint custody scenarios where an additional address has been updated and verified in their IC profile.

We will have a Basketball Parent Informational Meeting in the gym on October 4, 2023 at 5:30 PM. If your child is planning to tryout for basketball, please plan on attending this meeting.

Basketball intramurals start the week of September 11th. Doors will open at 7:20 AM and close at 7:30 AM.

• 8th grade boys’ intramurals - every Monday.
• 6th and 7th grade boys’ intramurals - every Wednesday.
• 6th- 8th grade girls’ intramurals– every Tuesday and Thursday.

The last week of intramurals is October 2-6. Students SHOULD NOT leave their cars unless there is a coach present at the door. Doors will close at 7:30 AM, and students should NOT be dropped off for intramurals after doors are closed.

Basketball tryouts will take place in the middle of October. Any 7th or 8th grade student interested in trying out MUST upload a current physical form to Dragonfly by October 9th. If your 7th or 8th grade student is interested in trying out for basketball, please have them fill out this form: https://forms.gle/ELUpzFz4gk4CAB3o6

Please note: the basketball season runs from October to January. This is a long season, but keep in mind it is because of Thanksgiving and Winter break. Players MUST be able to commit to the entire season, which includes attending all practices and games.

Basketball intramurals start the week of September 11th. Doors will open at 7:20 AM and close at 7:30 AM.