We have four more days of Term 3 before Spring Break! We are excited for the week ahead and incredibly proud of the success our students have had in Term 3. Please be sure to remind your students at home about the importance of finishing strong - we have worked so hard to achieve great things academically, behaviorally, and socially. Encourage students to take the time this week to finish any closing assignments, turn in late or missing work, and be at school every day.

The ORHS Performing Arts Center is celebrating the fine arts with an art show and concert tomorrow night at ORHS - many of our middle school students have artwork that will be on display! Don't miss out on this special event. See the flyer below for more information.

Many of our students have expressed interest in the NCAA Black History Month essay contest. Please encourage your student to take a few minutes this week or during Spring Break to participate in this annual contest. There is a flyer in the newsletter below for those interested.

School attendance is continuing to improve at RMS! The ORS Board of Education recently recognized Robertsville Middle School and Linden Elementary school for having the lowest number of student absences this past reporting period. Thank you for recognizing the importance of students coming to school and be sure to finish strong this week. Every day is important for us to stay on track this school year to reach our goal! Remember - students that miss more than 18 days of school are considered chronically absent and are at risk of falling behind grade level learning expectations.

Thank you so much to the many students and families that joined our staff and took the time last week to provide feedback on our school. We will utilize the results in the coming months as we begin closing out this school year and taking steps to prepare for next year!

The next Ram Report will be published by Sunday, March 24th prior to students returning from Spring Break. As a reminder, Spring Break is from March 11-25. Students will return to school on Tuesday, March 26th.

As always, please reach out if there is anything we can do to better support our students and families. Have a great evening and a wonderful week!

-Nick Corrigan, Principal, njcorrigan@ortn.edu

-Christy Free, Vice Principal, ccfree@ortn.edu

-Christopher Williams, Dean of Students, cewilliams@ortn.edu

Monday – March 4 MVP Testing Math Subparts 1 & 2

Cheer Practice 2:45-6:00pm (Gym)

Drama Club Canceled

TSA (All Students) 3:00-5:00pm (STEM Lab)

Track Practice 3:00-4:30pm

Tuesday – March 5 No School for Students/Teachers

Election Day

Wednesday – March 6 MVP Testing – Science Subparts 1 & 2

SECME Meeting 7:00-7:30am (Room 120)

PTSA Executive Board Meeting 9:00-10:00am (Conference Room)

Café Catch Up 12:45-2:00pm (Cafeteria)

Cheer Practice 12:45-5:00pm (Gym)

TSA State Competition March 6-9 (Chattanooga Convention Center)

Thursday – March 7 MVP Testing Social Studies Subpart 1 & 2

Ram Cart Day! (during lunches)

RMS/ORHS Student Council Lunch Meeting 11:30-12:30pm (Library)

4-H Club 3:00-4:00pm (Library)

Board Games Club 2:45-3:45pm (Room 111)

Cheer Tryouts 2:45-6:00pm (Gym)

Track Meet @ Farragut High School 4:30pm

TSA State Competition March 6-9 (Chattanooga Convention Center)

Friday – March 8

GIVE Club 7:00-7:30am (Room 224)

Pi Celebration Day for Staff (Lounge)

Well Child Exams (appx 28 students in Auditorium)

Track Practice 3:00-4:30pm

TSA State Competition March 6-9 (Chattanooga Convention Center)

SPRING BREAK - March 11-25

• Reminder there is no Spring Intersession
• Students Return – Tuesday, March 26th

We are so proud of our students for SHOWING UP everyday! They received the most recent District Student Attendance Award recognition! Check out the positive trends in school attendance as well as the decrease in chronic absenteeism at RMS so far this school year. Let's keep this momentum going!!!

Thank you to the many families who have shown so much patience in the morning's last week as our Transportation Department made adjustments to cover their morning routes. We are including some information below as reminders that might be helpful. Route adjustments will continue this week in the morning for the families that were notified last week.

The PDFs of the bus routes have been posted online and are available to families on the transportation website. Additionally, families can log on to the Tyler Versatrans website and check their route information there. The directions for that are below.

Tyler Versatran Log In

Username: (use student’s name) firstname.lastname

This is case sensitive–example: john.smith

Password: (use student birth date) in this format 03122007 for March 12, 2007

Transportation Dept Information & Points of Contact can be found at:

https://www.ortn.edu/district/bus-routes/

MyStop Mobile App Login - Check on the location of your bus!

Option #1 - Use a computer - Parent/Student login: Click for MyStop Onscreen Login for Computer

• Username: (use student’s name) firstname.lastname
• This is case sensitive–example: john.smith
• Password: (use student birth date) in this format 03122007 for March 12, 2007

Option #2 - MyStop mobile app available in your app store

Go to: Versatrans My Stop™ provides mobile access to bus information. This app displays the location of the user’s assigned school bus, as well as the estimated time of arrival to their stop. Students can plan for late or on-time arrival and prevent missed pick-ups or being left outside in inclement weather.

Students will soon take benchmark assessments for each of the core content classes (ELA, math, science, social studies). These assessments are used to allow educators to take a deep dive into the teaching and learning happening in the classroom. They can identify areas where students excelled and areas of concern. And with common formative assessments, teachers can compare data and share best practices to improve their teaching efficacy.

Please be sure to speak with your child about the importance of trying their absolute best on these assessments so that we can accurately plan instruction for Term 4. RMS administration, instructional coaches, and teachers regularly review the data from these assessments to ensure we are providing high quality instruction and adequate support for our students. A broad overview of what this process looks like is in the chart below.

Additionally, the schedule that students will follow each day of Benchmark Testing is below.

This Week

Monday, March 4 - Math Subparts 1 & 2

Tuesday, March 5 - No School - Election Day

Wednesday, March 6 - Science Subparts 1 & 2

Thursday, March 7 - Social Studies Subpart 1 & 2

Last week, students and staff conducted a Level IV lockdown drill. This was a planned drill in accordance with our Emergency Operations and Safety Plans. A Level IV (Full Security Lockdown) is called when a situation inside or outside the building threatens the safety of students and staff within the school. The drill lasted approximately 15 minutes while school administration, School Resource Officers, and our building custodians worked to check that we met all recommendations in current Emergency Operations protocol. Students returned to their normal schedule at the conclusion of the drill.

The safety and welfare of our students and staff is our highest priority. Robertsville Middle School administration & staff, in cooperation with our ORPD School Resource Officer, have worked diligently this school year to ensure safety protocols and procedures are in place to keep our students safe. These drills allow us to practice and evaluate our emergency operations plan.

Our goal, while practicing important safety procedures, is to be sure all students feel safe. Please be sure to reach out to me if there are any questions or concerns. I can be reached at (865) 425-9201 or by email at njcorrigan@ortn.edu.

Thank you for the incredible support you offer our school, and I hope that you have a good day.

Nick Corrigan, Ed.S.

Principal

Please be sure to mark your calendars for the following TCAP Testing Dates! Students have worked hard this school year to learn and meet grade level expectations. Their attendance on these dates will be important to show what they have learned as well as our school's success! More detailed information about the 2023 testing schedule will come as we get closer to the testing window.

• Wednesday, April 17th - English Language Arts: Subpart #1
• Thursday, April 18th - English Language Arts: Subpart #2 and #3
• Friday, April 19th - English Language Arts: Subpart #4

• Wednesday, April 24th - Math Subpart #1
• Thursday, April 25th - Math Subpart #2 and #3

• Tuesday, April 30th - Science Subpart #1 and #2

• Wednesday, May 1st - Social Studies Subpart #1 and #2

We encourage families to make every effort to have students at school on time for the scheduled tests. In the event a makeup test is necessary, they will be scheduled throughout the testing window described above.

We will not be hosting a Spring Intersession this year to allow for the installation of new lockers. This is a needed and very exciting update for our school and will provide a better learning experience for our students.

While we are still a few weeks away, please encourage your students to begin bringing home any extra belongings (clothes, jackets, shoes, etc) that may have been collected in their lockers throughout the school year. If they bring a little bit home at a time, it will be helpful as we get closer to Spring Break!

Order your 2024 RAM Yearbook today! Visit www.yearbookordercenter.com and use our school code 17202 or enter the school name to begin. A service fee of $3.99 (or more if ordering multiple books) will apply to online orders. If you are unsure whether you have already purchased a 2024 yearbook, please contact the yearbook sponsor at jkinder@ortn.edu. Thank you!

Would you like to submit photos for the 2024 Ram Yearbook? Visit www.hjeshare.com and enter the school code “ramfam” to upload your images for consideration. For ease of upload, check the App Store to download and use the Herff Jones eShare app for your device. Please note that we cannot guarantee that all images will be used.

Attention Parents of ORHS Class of 2028

We invite parents of rising freshman to join the ORHS Class of 2028, Oak Ridge, TN Facebook page. Mrs. Foster and Mrs. Thompson will use this page to celebrate our kids and keep you informed. Only requests who have answered all of the questions will be accepted. For safety purposes, the page is a closed group. Welcome to the family!

(20+) ORHS Class of 2028, Oak Ridge, TN | Facebook

PTSA is excited to announce we have a Donor who is willing to match donations up to $5,000. As you can see above the impact of your donation is great for RMS Students. Without PTSA many of the above would not take place. If we receive $15 per student, we will hit our overall goal. PTSA also supports our amazing Educators with staff appreciation events as a Thank You for all they do in educating our students.

PTSA has already funded over $3,000 in requests this school year for Stem Lego kits, Soldering Kits, Bulletin Boards for Electives and Reflex Math Subscription to assist with students needing extra help in math.

How to donate? Return the Donation Envelope that went home with your student to school or Via Paypal at at paypal.me/rmsorptsa. Scan the QR Code above to take you to our direct PayPal link.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!!!

Need to See a Counselor - Student Request Form

If students need to see a counselor throughout the year for any reason, we ask that they complete the online “Request to See a Counselor” form located in Clever. Once students complete this form, the counselors will receive an email and will work to schedule students based on their availability. If the situation is an emergency, we ask that students please make note of this in the comments section. We ask that students please be patient and know that we will get them scheduled as soon as possible. If it will take more than a day, we will reach out to the student by email or through their teacher to let them know.

Parents are always welcome to reach out to us with any questions or concerns. Kristy Best works with 5th and 7th grades – kbest@ortn.edu. Tarah Sanford works with 6th and 8th grades – TASanford@ortn.edu.

About

The Robertsville Middle School Parent Teacher Association (RMS PTSA) is part of the RMS family. Our purpose is to support fun and educational programs, events, services, and opportunities to our children, to enrich their academic experience. We work closely with the school administration, faculty, and staff to help our students achieve all that they can.

Membership

The membership dues for the current year shall be set at $5.00. At the present time, the TN PTA portion is $2.00 and the National PTA portion is $2.25. RMS PTSA will keep $.75 to offset membership processing fees.

Volunteer

Research shows that students whose parents are involved in their school get better grades, do better on tests and have fewer disciplinary problems at school.

What is your talent? Community outreach, back to school activities, spirit gear, RAM Perks reward program, donation drive/fundraising, visiting author receptions, or providing items for events like our teacher/staff luncheons, intercessions, and State testing.

While you DO NOT need to be a member of PTSA to be a volunteer, we would like to invite all adults AND students with an interest in RMS to join and have a voice in how PTSA funds are used to support RMS. Volunteer forms are in the back-to-school packets or may be found on the Forms page of PTSA website.

We are happy to notify you that beginning Wednesday, January 3, Robertsville Middle School will be providing free breakfast and lunch to all students. This change stems from an adjustment in the U. S Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) threshold for participation in the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) that allows schools to offer free meals to all students.

This change will be in place for the remainder of the 2023-24 school year, however, it is not retroactive and does not erase any current meal balances. Current meal balances can be paid online, or in-person at your school cafeteria to avoid processing fees.

While the change from the USDA allows for increased eligibility, unfortunately, there will still be some schools in the district with a lower eligibility rate that will not be receiving free meals. The district will evaluate the eligibility data and associated costs of including more of our schools on an ongoing basis to determine if we can include any additional schools for next school year or beyond.

Additional Information about Food Services in Oak Ridge Schools can be found at:

Food Services - Oak Ridge Schools (ortn.edu)