Ridgeline eNews
April 11, 2024
RIDGELINE CALENDAR OF EVENTS:
Full calendar: http://www.ridgeline.org/calendar
Thursday 4/11 Board Meeting 6-8 pm
Friday 4/12 No School - Professional Development
Sunday 4/14 Mulch to the Moon Outdoor Work Party at Ridgeline 10 am -2 pm
Friday 4/19 Volunteer Appreciation Tea 8:30-9:30 am - Ridgeline Gymnasium
Saturday 4/27 Student Marketplace 10 am -12:30 pm at Ridgeline
Tuesday 4/30 Fundraising Committee 9-10:30 am
Tuesday 4/30 Class Placement Input Form due
Wednesday 5/1 Ridgeline Equity Committee 7pm
Friday 5/3 No School - Professional Development
Monday 5/6 Staff Appreciation Week starts
Wednesday 5/8 - Spring Bike, Walk, & Roll to School Day
Be sure to check the full calendar at https://www.ridgeline.org as some dates may change. Please note that Ridgeline’s calendar differs slightly from 4J elementary and middle school calendars.
NEW NEWS
Need volunteer hours? Join the epic Mulch to the Moon work party this Sunday!
Ridgeline’s campus looks great thanks to the double work party this past weekend! It’s about to look even better, with 3 units or 22 cubic yards of fresh mulch coming this weekend. Sign up here to help shovel, distribute, and spread bark at the Mulch To the Moon work party, this Sunday, April 14, from 10am - 2pm.
Please sign in when you arrive and know tasty snacks will be provided! We also encourage you and any helpers that come to bring a water bottle, check the weather, and bring plenty of layers. If you are not able to stay the full time, that is ok - please still sign up! We need YOU!
We are going to have an absolute mountain of mulch delivered and hope to mulch all of the Amazon Drive facing beds on the property so it looks beautiful for the Student Marketplace event. Ridgeline has four wheelbarrows, several shovels, many buckets, some rakes, and a few pairs of gloves.
Ridgeline Fundraiser - Student Marketplace 4/27 - invite friends & family to come shop!
Student Marketplace is a student-inspired arts and crafts fair and will be on Saturday, April 27, from 10 am - 12:30 pm at Ridgeline.
This event started as a handful of students selling magic sand on the playground to add whatever they could to help purchase our school and has grown exponentially every year since. In 2023, we had 109 student vendors selling handmade crafts and raised over $2,200 in one day. We are hoping to have even more engagement with our community and our student vendors this year since we have moved this to a spring event. All donations go to the school wide fundraising effort.
Countdown to Staff Appreciation Week - May 6 - 10
There is less than a month until we set aside a week to honor, feed, and spoil the staff who make Ridgeline magical! See the flyer below for the special ways Ridgeline families are invited to help celebrate and thank Ridgeline staff for all the ways they invest in our children. We hope everyone finds at least one way to participate in expressing gratitude! Keep an eye in the eNews next week for more details and to sign up to volunteer.
Oregon BottleDrop – Earth Week Give Matching Funds
Do you have full Blue Bags at home? Hold onto them a little longer or grab a new one because Ridgeline Montessori is registered for BottleDrop’s Earth Week Give matching promotion. We’ll receive a 20% match from BottleDrop Give on funds raised from April 22 – May 4. This matching campaign also benefits from online donations from your BottleDrop Green Bag accounts if you don’t have a blue bag on hand.
The Ridgeline office has extra tagged blue bags. Reach out if you need one sent home with your student. We’ll also have 100 tagged bags available for pick up at Student Marketplace on April 27, so make sure to stop by and check out the amazing goods created by our students, grab something from the continental breakfast, and grab another Blue Bag to fill up and return it before May 4, 2024.
We've raised just under 75% of our fundraising goal for this school year. With just 10 weeks left in the 2023 - 2024 school year, this match is a great way to boost your participation in our school fundraising efforts. Every dollar matters, so we send thanks in advance to those who choose to participate!
State Testing - Snack and Appointment Reminders
Starting Monday, April 15 through Thursday, May 2, third through sixth grade students will be working on state testing from 8:45am -11am. Parents of Middle Schoolers, your students will be testing May 6 - 17.
To help your student be successful we encourage the following:
Be diligent with bedtime routines and help your student get plenty of good sleep. Try turning on lamps, powering off screens, and climbing into bed 15 minutes earlier with a good book.
Pack an additional snack or two for your student during this testing period. We notice students have increased appetites when they are highly focused and using important brain fuel.
Please aim to be on-time or early! Getting to school with extra margin will help your student ease into their day, rather than feeling the stress of a hurried morning.
If you are able to look ahead and move morning appointments to the afternoon, or reschedule them during these 2-week windows of time, that is highly encouraged!
Thank you for helping us protect these important work periods. State testing information is incredibly valuable for Ridgeline teachers, because it helps them identify trends and make adjustments in their classroom curriculum. Thank you in advance for partnering with us to help your students put forth their best efforts.
VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES
Volunteer Thank Yous
Thank you to the following folks and the additional kids and grandparents who came and worked so diligently to clean up the school grounds over the weekend:
Aaron Dilla, Devin Hughes, Elizabeth Zetlmaier, Kathleen Grover, Jason Varner, Ethan Varner, Zack Wilson, Michelle Osgood, Laura Allen, Peter Ralph, McRae Naayers, Lauren Lanahan, Jeff Schroder, Jess Wood, Kurt Mueller, Marcus Largent, Jenny Landaverde, Colleen Vehafric, David & Laurel Stark, Daniel & Quinn Wilson, Dawn Schanafelt, Alyshia Fox, Jacob Siegel, John Sims, and Mackenzie Cudaback - we appreciate you! If we missed your name, please know we are very grateful for you!
We filled up all the yard debris containers on Saturday, arranged to borrow a trailer (thanks Kurt!) to haul away all the weeds and branches, AND then we filled them all up again on Sunday! Great work all!
Volunteer Opportunities - NEW
Marketplace Volunteers - help needed!
The Student Marketplace is Saturday, April 27 and it's a fabulous fun-d-raiser! We will need volunteers to help with day-before prep on Friday, April 26. We also need volunteer help at the Marketplace event. If you are still working toward your 40 hours, this is a great way to get in volunteer time.
Don’t Forget to Log Your Volunteer Hours!
Volunteer hour reporting is important for us to show support for Ridgeline when applying for grants and for reporting to our sponsoring district. It will also help us prepare for Volunteer Appreciation Week in a couple of weeks! Right now is the perfect time to check your calendar and jog your memory and log past hours. Don’t worry too much, estimates and bulk logging are fine.
If you know that you volunteered in the classroom but aren’t sure which days, simply log: classroom volunteer, 15 hours. It is easy to add your name to Track it Forward, just click on the link and follow the instructions. It is even available as an app if it is easier for you to use your phone!
Track it Forward
Ridgeline uses Track it Forward for volunteer sign-ups and to log your volunteer hours. If you are new to Ridgeline or have not yet created an account, please do so! Last year we had a lot of folks forget to log their hours. Volunteer hour reporting is important for us to show support for Ridgeline when applying for grants and for reporting to our sponsoring district.
If you are a first-time Track It Forward user and have not set up an account you will need to create an account first. If you already have an account, skip to step two.
1. Go to https://www.trackitforward.com/user
-Select sign in
-Create your account
2. Go to the app store on your device and search for Track It Forward
-Download the app
-Log In
You are all set!
Volunteering
Volunteers are an integral part of the Ridgeline Community. Families pledge to complete 40 hours of volunteer time per school year. There are a myriad of volunteer opportunities throughout the year. Volunteers serve on committees, make materials at home, do grounds work, act as crossing guards, help in classrooms, chaperone field trips and much more. To help us get to know you better and your areas of interest, please fill out the Volunteer Interest form here.
To fully participate in most volunteer opportunities, volunteers are background checked. In addition to the background check, volunteers need to complete the volunteer code of conduct. After that, they will be issued a green badge with their name on it and notified that they are ready to go! Visit our website for more information on volunteering.
CONTINUING NEWS
Class Placement Input Form
Is your student moving levels? Do you believe there is information that would be helpful in considering a new placement for your student? This letter to families outlines the process for student placement at Ridgeline. The Class Placement Input Form will be available from April 4 until midnight on April 30.
Save the date: Volunteer Appreciation Tea - Friday, April 19
To express our gratitude and say thank you, we are hosting a Volunteer Appreciation Tea on Friday, April 19 from 8:30am - 9:30am in the Ridgeline gymnasium. No RSVP is needed - we hope you can pop by for a few minutes, have some tea and enjoy tasty treats. We can't wait to celebrate YOU! Since August 2023, we've had 171 different parents and family members volunteer their time, bring in donations, and invest in Ridgeline students directly.
Ridgeline would not be the amazing community it is without your help. There are a myriad of ways that you have poured into helping Ridgeline be successful and continue to grow. Don’t forget to log your volunteer hours in Track it Forward so that we can honor all the work that you do! We really appreciate our incredible volunteers!
Kindness Campaign - happening now!
Families can assist students by noting acts of kindness performed at home. Have your student share their acts of care and kindness with you and then write them on the provided strips of paper (check your students backpack by Friday). Your student should bring their completed links back to the classroom each Monday, now through May 6th. Every link will contribute to the classroom ’s kindness campaign chain. Each classroom aims to create a paper chain long enough to encircle the gym.
Examples of acts of kindness include:
"I smiled and said good morning to our neighbor Mrs. Jones" and “I helped mom unload the groceries."
RIDGELINE COMMITTEES & ORGANIZATIONS
Ridgeline Board Meeting - April 11 at 6pm
The Ridgeline Board will have a regular meeting on April 11th from 6:00 to 8:00 pm over Zoom and in person in the library. Action items on the agenda include: COLA 2024-25 and Repeal Policy GAB-- 4.9. Information and Discussion items on the agenda include Recruitment and Board Roles for 2024-25, Project Management Update, COLA 2024-25, Budget Priorities 2024-25, Budget Committee Members, and Policy GAB--4.9. All are welcome to join the regular board meeting and there is time at the beginning of our agenda to make a public comment.
The agenda will be finalized and posted here by Tuesday, April 9th and here is the Zoom link to join.
You can always reach the board by email (board@ridgeline.org). Members of the public may also provide comments to the board in written form by emailing board@ridgeline.org prior to the meeting. The board will read (not aloud), review, and take into consideration all comments. In order to be fully considered at this meeting, comments must be received by noon on the day of the meeting. Please clearly label the email subject line as: "Public Comment."
COMMUNITY NEWS
Oregon Youth Suicide Prevention Resources
The rates of suicide attempts and related deaths among Oregon's youth often increase each spring. There is a call to action from ODE, OHA, and Lines for Life to provide resources and action items to equip trusted adults, with skills to support students who may be at risk for suicidal behaviors and refer those students to qualified mental health providers. See below for resources to review.
Spring Creek Events and Summer Camps
Singing Creek Educational Center offers hands-on educational history programs for kids and families. There are several local upcoming events featured in their current newsletter here.
Singing Creek is also offering multiple summer camps for your family to choose from. They have been doing children’s history based summer camps since 2008! Each camp will feature crafts, games, stories, outside exploration, walking field trips in the park, cooking, and more! Campers will enjoy visits from special guests who teach them, trade with them, and share stories. Times are Monday - Friday 9am to 3pm. Children ages 6-10 are welcome. Children bring their own lunches and water bottles each day.