Ridgeview Elementary Go SKYHAWKS

Hello Ridgeview Families,

Happy May, the flowers are blooming and the grass is growing and so are our students everyday. I am excited that this spring season as the weather gets nicer and the students really show what they have learned this year.

As we head in the last 6 weeks of school we have lots of opportunities for students demonstrate their learning, enjoy leaning in new and exciting ways and close out the year in a positive way.

Thank you families for all you do and have done this year.

With much appreciation,

Wayne Reposa

Principal

Ridgeview Elementary

Go Skyhawks!

I want to extend a warm welcome to Lacy McDonald to our Ridgeview family. Mrs. McDonald will serve our Ridgeview community as Principal starting in the 23/24 school year.

Lacy is a long time Springfield resident and educator. Most recently having served as the principal of Page Elementary for the past 7 years. I have know Lacy from her first days as a educator and feel so thankful that Ridgeview will not only be getting a wonderful leader in Lacy but also a fabulous human being!

Welcome Lacy to Ridgeview :)

May 8th Thurston Middle School CREW 5th grade visit

May 9th PTO meeting in the library, 4:30

May 10th Kindergarten Round-up and Orientation, see you there, 6:00

May 15th Orchestra Concert, Springfield Extravaganza, Springfield High School 6:30

May 17th Last day for Orchestra for 22/23

May 17th Ridgeview 5th visit to Thurston Middle

May 23rd Walk and Roll to School

May 24th 2nd grade Concert 5:30

May 25th Kindergarten concert 5:30 & 1st grade concert 6:30

June 16th Last day of school.

You are invited!

Each month we are thankful for group of parents and staff who come together for the sole purpose of supporting our Ridgeview Community! They plan fun events like our recent Movie Night, raise funds to support educational events such as field trips and provide resources to meet the needs within our school and classrooms.

They are also a connection between what is happening in our schools and the home. This is something that has been sorely missed during the pandemic.

Want to find out more? What to learn what is happening? There are so many ways to be involved, behind the scenes supporting an event, planning teams, bringing your ideas and voice to our PTO meetings, or even become part of the PTO leadership team. We would love to have you in any capacity works with you and your family!

Come to our next meeting on: May 9th at 4:30 in the Ridgeview Library.

Hey Families, every so often something comes up that becomes an opportunity for us to work together to make Ridgeview the best place it can be. Currently we are experiencing 3 things that are impacting our school and would greatly appreciate your support with at school.

• Social Media: Primarily this is showing up in our upper grades but it has at times impacted our whole school. We are dealing with increasing amounts of school conflict that stem from social media that is happening outside of school hours, that then comes back into school the following day as peer to peer conflict. The coaching I give students who are having trouble with peers on social media is: 1. report it to your parents, 2. screenshot bullying and/or harassing behaviors for evidence for your families to see and us as needed, 3. leave any group chats if they become mean or unkind in any way, 4. friends want good for us not harm so spend your time with people who are kind and respectful to you.

• After School Playground usage: Early this year we asked that students go directly home after school and only come back on campus with parent permission after 4:00, hoping this would help reduce the chance of incidents happening after school. Unfortunately we continue to have peer to peer conflicts after school hours once students come back on campus. Some of these conflicts even involve our elementary students with older students from the middle or high school. This is very concerning to me and scary for our students. Along with wanting our students to be safe at all times, these incidents, much like the social media come back into the school the next day, using up tremendous resources, putting out fires between students and disrupt learning. In response I am asking for your help. I am asking that elementary students are supervised when on campus after hours. Having some adults on campus after hours will be a great preventative measure. Also I am closing campus until 6:00 each day to support our community partnerships such as Willamalane who rents our facilities each day until 6:00 and the many sports programs who use our facilities. Thank you for understanding and helping keep our students safe after hours if on our campus.

• Roasting, what is that? A new trend is taking place on campus where students "roast" each other for fun. Often this is done between friend groups but not always and in all cases ends up going too far, using unkind and disrespectful phrases toward a peers and hurting each others feelings. Each time we hear it, or its reported we correct the behavior and reteach our school expectations around being respectful. Unfortunately It has become a daily issue as such I talked with the whole school during morning meeting to help students understand that this "just having fun" behavior can be hurtful even among friends. Please support our goal of eliminating the behavior of Roasting at Ridgeview by supporting us with a conversation with your kiddo about this.

Thank you as always for your partnership and support it is greatly appreciated and let me know if you have any questions.

Wayne Reposa

It is such a privilege to serve here at Ridgeview!

Thank you families for all you do, it is really appreciated!

Wayne Reposa

Principal

Ridgeview Elementary