RPS Update

BRAVO to our very own Steven Hergenrother, RHS cross country runner, who continues to make news as he earned a spot at the Nike National Championship in Oregon—first since 2014, and 3rd ever. I can’t help wondering what it was like playing “tag”with Steven when he was a young child. Wow… and good luck, Steven.

At Monday evening’s Board of Education meeting, our RHS choral students along with their choir director, Lauren Verney-Fink had the audience at their feet with the beautiful sounds of the holiday season. Ms. Verney-Fink and her students welcomed our new Board of Education members while also setting the stage (pun intended) for an agenda item- RHS Auditorium Renovation Feasibility Study.

While much of our “front facing” work is often focused on teaching and learning, one of our other important responsibilities is to monitor our facilities, and communicate short and long-term needs to
our Town Boards and the community. By doing this, it helps our community prioritize and plan financially for the years ahead. You can listen to our outstanding performers, while also learning more about the auditorium, new courses, and the capital plan budget by watching here.

We continued with our school tours this week, visiting RHS and Scotts Ridge Middle School. Thank you to members of all three Town Boards for participating. Members braved the cold and viewed the facilities with members of the administration. In addition to seeing our schools, members were able to see and feel the climate of our District. We appreciate the significance of each Board’s responsibility to the Town, and the time provided to us.

Also on Monday night, the Board elected officers. Tina Malhotra was re-elected as Chair of the Board of Education, Amy Casey was elected as Vice-Chair, and Jonathan Paradiso as Secretary. Congratulations to all!

Congratulations to Team RPS for winning the “Bonnie B. Carney Award of Excellence for Educational Communications” presented by CABE. We pride ourselves on consistent, transparent, and clear communication. We extend our thanks to Alison Pratt, our media/communication lead who captures the many moments that make Ridgefield a special place.

Warmly,

Susie

Susie Da Silva, Ed.D

Photo Captions: (Above): Steven Hergenrother with some of his medals signing his National Letter of Intent to run at Princeton University. IBelow) RHS choral students with their teacher Lauren Verney-Fink at the Board of Education meeting.

A Parenting Workshop! The RHS Winter Concerts! Author Visits! Play Try-Outs! Please read more below and check your school's calendar for important dates.

The BOE approved Friday, June 14, as the RHS Class of 2024 graduation date. Graduation will be at RHS again this spring. More information about time and tickets to come.

In this week’s episode of Ridgefield Tiger Talk, host Dr. Wes DeSantis welcomes back Dane Street, Ridgefield High School’s Director of Athletics. He brings us up-to-date on the impressive accomplishments of this past fall season, current accomplishments of our amazing student athletes, some really cool updates to the athletics program, and a preview of the winter sports season. Thanks for listening!

Please check your students' e-Backpack for this important information and other programs across the district. Organizations that meet the RPS policy may submit their request for inclusion to cmelagrano@ridgefieldps.net.

RPS ie offering virtual DROP-IN tutoring sessions for Middle School students! Math, English Language Arts, and General Academic support sessions are offered throughout the week. This program does not replace the valuable help students already receive from their teachers before/after school or during the school day but is meant to offer extended academic support to students and families when questions arise at home in the evening. This virtual tutoring program is open to all 6-8 students. Tutors are certified teachers from both ERMS and SRMS.

The schedule with Google Meet links and Google Classroom access code was sent directly to ERMS and SRMS families before Thanksgiving. To stay up to date with announcements or schedule changes, please remind your child to join the tutoring Google Classroom using their RPS Google account.

Triboard tours of the schools continued this week with members of the Ridgefield Boards of Education, Finance, and Selectmen joining administrators and teachers. "This is so helpful," said one member after touring the RHS auditorium." Board members saw up close the accessibility and maintenance concerns of the RHS auditorium.

"Think about award day," said RHS principal Dr. Jake Greenwood, "a student in a wheelchair can't go up and receive a prize; they need to leave the room and go around. The same accessibility challenges would be in theater productions, assemblies, and debates." The RHS auditorium was built in 1971 long before the American Disabilities Act passed in 1990.

"If it was just one thing," Superintendent Dr. Da Silve added, "We would fix that thing. But, it's everything, The accessibility, seating, lights, tech, storage, and stage floor. It doesn't work for the high school's purposes anymore."

Members took the new handicapped-accessible golf carts to Tiger Hollow. They visited the new Tiger Talk TV studio and caught a part of the presenter's fascinating life as a White House news producer. They saw the new desks that allow for collaboration and flexibility, a bathroom renovation, and the Industrial and Jewelry Design space before moving on to Scotts Ridge.

Before the break, Triboard members visited Barlow Mountain, Ridgebury, and Scotland (photos below) elementary schools. Tours continue next week.

RPS is proud to partner with Project Resilience to offer workshops for families. On Tuesday, December 12 from 7-9 p.m. we will offer The Student-Athlete in College.

This week, RPS Update launches a new column, Veteran Teacher Feature, with a brief Q&A with Ridgefield High School math teacher, Amy Christofer. Ms. Christofer teaches Geometry Intermediate, Algebra 2, Pre-Calculus, and Statistics at RHS. She’s from North Carolina and graduated from University of North Carolina. She lives in Wilton with her family.

How long have you taught?

This is my fifteenth year teaching, my tenth year at RHS. I spent five years teaching in New York City before coming to Ridgefield.

The District theme this year is Level Up. How do you approach leveling up?

I’m always trying to improve my practice—thinking about how I can make it better. That might mean changing the sequence of how topics are taught or the way I teach a subject. Asking how we can improve is also the culture in the RHS Math Department. As a group, we consider how we can try new things and use the professional development time productively. It’s a collaborative and constant process to level up.

What is your best memory of teaching?

My favorite part of teaching is those “aha Moments,” when you can see that a student understands a concept. Sometimes, it’s something small but sometimes it’s a big moment when a student makes multiple connections at once. Outside the classroom, I’ve found that I love advisory. I had a group of seniors graduate last year who had been with me since they were in ninth grade. Because we meet weekly, we are able to build a strong relationship as a non-academic group, and they are are able to open up to me and each other.

Who is your role model?

I knew I wanted to be a teacher since first grade but my senior year calculus teacher, Mrs. Bentley inspired me to specialize in math and math education. She was a great teacher but more importantly, it was the connections that she made with me and other students. I want to teach my students math but I also want to make those connections. Reflecting back, I think that was the hardest part of the pandemic. It makes me appreciate being in the classroom, seeing their faces every day, and knowing my students.

In this week's RPS Update, our new Student Correspondent, ninth-grader Mae Carpenter covers a historic collaboration. Mae's story follows.

For the first time in Ridgefield’s History, the Ridgefield Historical Society will work with the town's youth to conduct a LGBTQIA+ oral History project, which will document and record the senior LGBTQIA+ community experiences.

Members of the RHS Gender and Sexuality Club were given the opportunity to aid this project earlier this year and are now gaining experience and training for the art of preserving oral history.

With over 200 oral history interviews from Ridgefield residents (with topics ranging from WWII to the recent Covid pandemic), the Historical Society’s archives are already expansive. However, they are excited to diversify the collection with this project.

“I think it's a very exciting and important project. I’m thrilled it's finally happening, and having so many RHS students being involved is great,” says Stephen Barkus, the Executive Director of the Historical Society. “It's so important for the community, documenting underlooked and underrepresented people to be a part of the historical record.” After an interview is recorded and professionally transcribed, it will be cataloged in the Historical Society’s online record as well as the Connecticut digital archive.

The project will be guided by Dr. Susan Ferentinos, a professor and historian from Washington State. “I think this is such a great opportunity for students to learn about the past, meet elders in the community, and contribute to this historical record,” says Ferentinos.

In addition to hosting a talk at the Ridgefield Library, Ferentinos gave an oral history program at Ridgefield High School on November 16. Participating Ridgefield students met in the RHS Library to learn how to properly conduct an oral history interview.

The program opened with a brief overview of major events in LGBTQIA+ history, such as the Stonewall Uprising (A 5-day riot, and what many consider the birth of the Gay Rights Movement). It then went onto teaching techniques to keep an interview open and welcoming, while also keeping control of the direction of the interview. The program concluded with a question making workshop. “The program was so intriguing, and I can’t wait for the project to start. This is such a great step for the town – I’m sure this is an opportunity to help people of all ages gain a better understanding of the LGBTQIA+ community,” says Ace Carpenter, Vice President of the GSA and an RHS junior. “That is so important.”

In this festive collaboration for good, RHS Product Design students created the tree and art students made the ornaments for the RHS submission to the annual Ann's Place Festival of Trees. Their submission contributed to this community fundraiser and earned most creative.

RPS is working with the Town of Ridgefield to distribute the 2023 Ridgefield Senior Survey to all age 55+ Town residents. Your responses will help the Town and nonprofits serving seniors identify the needs of Ridgefield's older residents.

The survey closes today. It is not too late to have your voice heard! The Town's hope is to reach 100% of our seniors and soon-to-be-senior population. The survey is anonymous and there is a group of committed volunteers available to assist you if needed.

Please use this link to take the survey online, https://bit.ly/ridgefieldsurveyemail stop in for a paper copy or call 203-894-7434 and leave a voicemail. A paper copy can be delivered to you and picked up when you have completed it and a volunteer can assist you in completing it.

The RHS Sports Marketing students created, promoted, organized, and ran the annual Dodgeball tournament. Business Lead Teacher Jesse Peterkin (on Team Biz Bombers) provided the following stats:

16 Teams

90 Players

$370 worth of gift cards and prizes

$615 raised for the Special Olympics

The team in the bottom right photo took first place! Everyone had fun for a good cause!

On Wednesday, ABC News White House producer Jon Garcia visited RPS to share stories with the RHS Media Production Class and Barlow Mountain Elementary's budding journalists. Mr. Garcia shared stories from Air Force One, the newsroom, and other adventures in a career in political journalism. Media Production is a new class at RHS, which takes advantage of the refurbished Tiger TV studio and earns college credit. Barlow Mountain Elementary's Before School Enrichment includes Barlow Mountain Bulletin covered in the November 17 issue of RPS Update.

As planners of the Macy's Day Thanksgiving Parade blew up floats, programmed routes, checked mechanical issues, and lined Fifth Avenue, so did Scotts Ridge sixth graders on a smaller scale. This interdisciplinary project had some students making "floats" that would go on Spheros (small robotic balls). Students fashioned floats—turkeys, an adorable minion, Spiderman, Sponge Bob, and Santa Smurf—out of balloons, crepe paper, pipe cleaners, and other found objects.

Other team members programmed the Spheros "floats" to follow the parade route, stop and pose for cameras at a designated point, and finish the parade. Students lined the halls to see which team would complete the course with the float on. This STEAM (Science Technology Engineering Arts Math) exercise was a fun and creative team activity with real-life applications.

The RHS Music Department announced that the musician of the month is Graham Kitchin. Graham is fully involved at RHS, including his embodiment of school spirit as the tiger mascot. Read the full report of Graham's extensive contributions in this Hamlet Hub article written by student Julia Salomone.

RPS secretaries got together this week to have fun and kick off the holiday season. For many families, students, and staff (including the RPS Communications team), the secretaries are the District's undersung heroes. Seeing them mingling—in some cases meeting for the first time—warms the heart. Thank you and happy holidays, RPS secretaries!

On the Wednesday before Thanksgiving Veterans Park Elementary hosted its annual VP Gives Thanks event. Students and a family or friend representative gathered at VP to do grade-level activities to share the abundance of our community and spread joy. Below, the community works with fifth graders to make blankets for the Tiny Miracles Foundation, a Darien-based nonprofit that provides support for families with preemies.

Football great Christian McCaffrey once again showed his support for the Logan Project, a local nonprofit inspired by late RPS student Logan Hale, which buys gaming consoles for hospitals so that kids going through treatment can stay connected with friends and family. McCaffrey asked fans to vote on which cleats he should wear in his game against the Eagles on December 3. He announced today that he will wear one cleat for the Logan Project and one for veterans—a tie that even football fans can get behind!

We would love to hear from you! Families and staff can submit stories, comments, or corrections to RPS Communications. Please follow us on Social Media with links below.