RMS Staff eNews

Tuesday 8/4

New Teacher Curriculum Day

**Wednesday 8/5**

All Staff Return to Campus

9am-12pm Welcome Back

Join Zoom Meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88331309423?pwd=S1JnZVcvY2kyQlJ1bXFoZ2NWMExzUT09

Thursday 8/6

District Day

Friday 8/7

District Day

Monday 8/10

Campus Day

Morning- Virtual Convocation & T-TESS Refresher

Afternoon-On Your Own

Tuesday 8/11

Half Day-Campus TBD

Half Day-Work Day TBD

Wednesday 8/12

First Day of School

• Direct Deposit: Please use link provided to submit changes online https://myforms.pisd.edu/Forms/directdeposit

• W-4: Please use link provided to submit changes online https://myforms.pisd.edu/Forms/W4_2020-standalone

• Payroll Questions: If an employee has a payroll related question, please have them send an email to payroll@pisd.edu.

• Benefits 20-21 Enrollment is now open until August 21
  

• Action is required for all employees. You must either enroll or decline coverage online. Login to TEAMS Employee Service Center to complete enrollment or decline coverage.

• The Benefits Website has everything needed to assist you with making decisions for your benefits.

• Send any and all questions to benefits@pisd.edu. The benefits department is ready to assist you with anything needed as you make decisions for this next year.

Safe Schools: Highly recommend you get all of your SafeSchools trainings done for the year to avoid missing deadlines in the future. ***(if you ALREADY completed all of your SafeSchools trainings, double check. A COVID-19 safety training was recently added and is due on 8/5. See below for a picture of what it looks like.)

**From Nurse Brandi:**

Teachers,

All staff members are required to complete overview training for anaphylaxis (severe allergic reaction), seizures, and diabetes. Links and other information regarding these trainings are available on PISD website (https://www.pisd.edu/Page/7071). Everyone is required complete “Diabetes Level I” (https://www.pisd.edu/Page/6076). If you have a diabetic student in your class, you will be receiving an additional email from me with your required training specifics. Although not required, there are trainings for bloodborne pathogens, asthma, & covid-19 as well. I will be placing basic information sheets covering diabetes, anaphylaxis, seizures, & asthma in your mailbox. Please place in an easily accessible location (may want to include with your sub info too). Student specific plans are coming soon!

Hello Renner family! My name is Angie Ritchie, and I am thrilled to be joining the Renner family this year. I will be teaching 8th grade US History, making this my 22nd year of teaching. I have taught at the high school level for the past 14 years, most recently teaching Humanities, and I am excited to get back to my middle school roots. I am married, and my husband Jason and I are blessed with two amazing boys. Hunter is 17 and lives for high school band, while Blake is 14 and loves playing baseball. Most of my spare time is spent watching my kids do what they love, traveling (when not sheltering at home), and cheering for my beloved Texas Aggies. I look forward to a great year at Renner and meeting all of you!

Greetings Renner family! I am elated to be a new member of the Renner community. After teaching English and drama for eight years, I spent the last few years assessing teachers and am looking forward to returning to classroom instruction. I love to use theatre and performance as a tool to help students bring literary texts to life and have experimented extensively with readers theatre as well. I have lived in four different countries and am blessed with an amazing husband and two beautiful sons. Apart from teaching, my passions include fitness, travel and spending quality time with family; I also just started writing my first children's book! I look forward to soaring into the world of the imagination with my students.

Hello Renner Family! My name is Beth Ridley, and I am thrilled to join the Renner community. I have been on the east side of PISD for the last two years. I am so very excited and proud to be a Mustang. My husband Jack and I have been married 27 years. We have two beautiful daughters, Hannah and Claire. Hannah teaches third grade in Austin, and Claire is in graduate school at the University of Texas. I have two rescue dogs, Lulu and Rosie who run the house. When I am not reading or working crossword puzzles, I enjoy listening to music and gardening with my husband. I look forward to meeting all of you and to a great year!

Hello Renner family! My name is Susan Stern and I am thrilled to be joining the Renner family this year. I will be teaching French and English Language Arts. This marks my 17th year in education! I am married, have two amazing children and a 5 month old golden retriever. I am an avid runner and love to be active with my family on walks, playing sports or swimming. I also love to read and watch movies. Thrilled to be joining the Renner Mustang family this year!

Hello! My name is Ernesto Frazer and I’m excited to be joining the Renner family this year. I will be joining you as the new BASE teacher for the campus. I worked in a similar position at Allen ISD, for the past five years, at the high school level; this will be my first time working at a middle school. During my spare time I enjoy frequenting the gym and watching sports on television. I am looking forward to meeting everybody and having a great year.

Hello Renner Family! My name is Matt Sekerak (Sa-care-ick) and I am thrilled to be joining the Renner Middle School family! I will be teaching 7th and 8th grade Math. I previously taught Math and coached basketball in Las Vegas for 8 years. I just moved to Texas from Ohio where I spent the last 5 years working and learning the trade of bricklaying, along with working as an education consultant for an educational company. My wife and I will be celebrating our 13th wedding anniversary this December and we have a two-year-old daughter named Savannah. My wife is also in the education field. I spend most of my spare time with my wife and daughter, exercising, wood working, and doing home renovations. We also have a 10-year-old black and white boxer mix named Sasha who spends most of her days sleeping. I look forward to this wild journey this 2020-2021 school year brings at Renner and meeting all of you!

Hello, my name is Nick Colombo, I'm so excited to be joining Renner! I am a first year teacher and received my BS in Special Education from Texas A&M University-Commerce. In my spare time, I like to nerd out with my fiancee and our four kids (count 'em! 11½, 10, 3½, and 2) and am discovering the unexpected joys that accompany planning a wedding during the Covid era. I look forward to getting to know everyone!

" Hola!! Mi nombre es Martha Gonzalez,

I am overjoyed to have a new home at Renner Middle School, teaching ESL.

Teaching has always been my passion, 10 years professionally. My husband and I chose Plano to raise our two boys, our first-born graduated Academy High School and our youngest will be a junior at West. Plano ISD teachers and administrators have been an inspiration to us, so joining PISD, I aspire to be an inspiration to the PISD families."

Hello! My name is Sarah Brawdy. This is my 9th year of teaching. I am coming from Carpenter Middle in central Plano where I taught ESL, and I look forward to teaching ESL here at Renner. My husband, Alan, is a percussion teacher in Frisco, and we have two very fluffy dogs, Max & Hope. I'm a lover of anything cute, the outdoors, rom-coms, cosplay, Nintendo, plants, and afternoon coffee --each especially enjoyed if it's time spent with friends or family. I am really excited to meet everyone and become part of the Mustang family!

Hello Renner Family! My name is Erin Laizerovich, and I am elated to be joining the Renner family this year. This will be my 14th year in an educational setting. This year I will be teaching sixth-grade language arts and reading. I have recently acquired a Master of Education in reading and writing from SMU (Pony up!), and my certification as a reading specialist. I am married, and my husband and I were blessed with having both a son, aged 8, and a daughter, 4 years old. I am an aunt to eight awesome nieces and nephews, with another on the way! When I am not scrubbing grass stains out of soccer jerseys and participating in dance parties with my daughter, I enjoy spending time with family and friends, relaxing outside in the fresh air, reading with my children, working out, and traveling to experience new scenery and foods (I am such a foodie!). I look forward to a wonderful year working with such an elite school community!"

Hello Renner Family! My name is Caitlyn Bennett and I am ecstatic to be part of the Renner community this year. I will be teaching 7th grade science as my first year a teacher in the great state of Texas! I feel fortunate to be part of Plano ISD and am proud to say that I am at Renner Middle School. Outside of work, I enjoy dancing, kickboxing, playing guitar, spending time and traveling with my husband and our two dogs. In addition to my passion for teaching science, I am very passionate about fitness and music. I look forward to creating a fun and cultivating science experience for all my students and know this will be a great school year! I look forward to meeting and getting to know all of you.

Hello Renner families ! My name is Athulya Bright. Athulya is a Sanskrit language word, meaning 'Unique' :)

I have been engaged with Renner for the past 3 years in different roles and I am so excited on the new role as Teacher. I had a brief stint as Student teacher in California, before joining PISD. A little about myself, I am married for 15 years and mom of a high-school girl, a middle-school boy and an adopted little Shih-Tzu (my cute Dixie girl). Outside of work, I spend most of my time with family - cooking, playing badminton, etc and I do enjoy road trips. I look forward to this new adventure of teaching Math in the upcoming fantastic year at Renner.

I have been teaching for 30+ years. I was born and bred in New York on Long Island. My entire teaching career has been in special education, the majority of it in middle school. I just moved here from New Braunfels to be closer to my family. I have 2 brothers one of which is here in Dallas, the other is in Columbia as an HSI agent and attaché for the Ambassador. I have 5 nephews that I adore, and two Shih-Tzu named Henry and Pebbles. I am excited to be back in the Dallas area and teaching here at Renner. When I am not at school or with my family, I am either Netflix binging some supernatural show, doing crafts, or reading. Traci

Hello Renner Family! My name is Ashley Greenberg and I am beyond excited to be joining the Renner family this year! I will be teaching 7th Grade Pre AP / 8th Grade Math as well as coaching Basketball and Track. This will be my second year as a Middle School Teacher/Coach and although I am new to PISD, my family has lived in West Plano for many years! My partner in crime is my friendly Labradoodle mix, Big Tex! Most of my free time is spent skating, cooking, playing sports, making art and exploring nature with Tex! Empowering young minds is my passion, and making learning engaging and meaningful is my goal. I could not be more ready to take on the year we have ahead of us with such an amazing team! I look forward to meeting all of you!

AUGUST

Kevin Kelln 8/2

Brad Allcorn 8/5

Jenna Park 8/5

Anna Hensley 8/9

Brandi Shrier 8/14

Crystal Tutson 8/14

Matthew Reisinger 8/22

Tragsdale 8/23

Sue Boisvert 8/24

Erin Gardner 8/25

Martha Gonzalez 8/25

Tragsdale

Master Schedule Guru! We know you have not been working 16+ hours a day to get everything up and running. Thank you for working so hard. We know it's not easy!

Dionne Hudson

Thank you for stepping in at the last minute to take on a student teacher!

Maru Lopez

She has been so great about helping out with our Spanish speaking parents...even from home! Thank you Maru!

Jill Engelking

Your leadership through this crazy time has been unparalleled! Thank you for keeping us in the loop!

**To give a staff shout-out or two, please complete the form. It doesn't take long and it goes a long way to support one another. Link here: https://forms.gle/s5S2SzGgBQ6y7hea6

Tragsdale is working hard ya'll!

As soon as we can get your schedules to you, we will. We appreciate your patience and know it is super difficult to not be able to plan for your classes. Just know that we are working as hard as we can as quickly as we can.

Chromebooks and ELA novels and Math books and Library Book return and and and!!!

Thank you to everyone that volunteered! We could not have done it without you!

Last year, for Principal Appreciation Day, staff members submitted some beautiful messages for Jill. We compiled that list of messages and created wall art for her.

Picture 1: Jill seeing the wall art for the first time

Picture 2: The wall art up close

*Shout out to Lori Groves and Kelly Newman for making this happen!

When the school year starts, we will have the positive phone call form available for you to complete. You will just need to complete the form and Ms. Cindy Clay will make the phone calls on your behalf.

Form here: coming soon

**Please make sure to include the student's entire first and last names when filling out the form.

*There will be some Remote Learning Resources put in one folder on the google drive.

*We will also have a Google Classroom setup that will contain any PD's that are not included in Safe Schools

If you have read down this far, my hope is that you have read the Smore in its entirety. So, such behavior should surely be rewarded, shouldn't it? If you have all (100% completion) of your SafeSchools training completed by Friday, August 7th, I will put your name in a random drawing. Three teachers will receive gift cards!

You DO NOT have to email Dot when you have completed SafeSchools, I can pull from a report.

Anyone can win! Let's go!!!