Scotty Updates

Scotty Updates has been created to provide families and staff with information regarding upcoming events, happenings, and programs at Scotland Elementary School. Our newsletter will be sent several times monthly to share news and happenings at Scotland!

Good afternoon, Scotland families!

Each year, we conduct a series of exercises from the School Security and Safety plan, including fire and emergency response drills. These exercises provide students and staff with the opportunity to practice in the event of an emergency.

This week, we conducted a successful, routine fire drill. Our students and staff exited the building efficiently and safely. I want to recognize everyone for a job well done!

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Since regular school attendance increases students’ academic and social achievement, we ask that all parents and guardians join with us to ensure that all students are in attendance and ready to perform to the best of their ability every school day. To help monitor your child’s achievement and success, please visit our PowerSchool Parent Portal. The State Board of Education has defined two levels of criteria for an absence to be considered an excused absence.

“Level 1” includes the first nine absences and these days are considered excused absences for any reason that the student’s parent or guardian approves. The parent or guardian must submit either written or oral documentation within ten school days of the student’s return to school.

Excused “Level 2” absences are the days beginning at the tenth absence and meet one or more of the State’s acceptable reasons. For more information regarding the acceptable reasons, please visit the Connecticut State Department of Education Guidelines for Absences.

If your child reaches the thresholds below, you will receive a notification. The notifications will lag the actual absences. For example, your child may reach their 6th absence on a Wednesday and you may not be notified until the following Monday.

Typical attendance notification thresholds.

• At 6 absences a notification is emailed.

• At 9 absences a notification is emailed.

• At 9 absences and 6 unexcused, a notification is emailed.

• At 9 excused absences and 10 unexcused absences, a truancy notification is emailed.

Parents/guardians must provide a medical professional’s note for every excused absence after meeting the threshold of nine days. Please submit documentation to the nurse’s office upon the student’s return to school.

We urge parents to schedule family vacations during the regular school year vacation time. If your family decides to take a vacation during the school year, you will need to communicate it with your child's classroom teacher, the school nurse, and the principal. It is difficult to replicate the instruction elementary students miss. If necessary for elected extended absences, we encourage students to complete independent reading, work on their math facts, and/or keep a writing travel journal as our educators do not provide work for these occasions. We are grateful for your partnership!

Kind regards,

Jill

Please listen to the Ridgefield Tiger Talk podcast and Superintendent's Report (approximately 36 min mark) to learn more about this project in advance of the October 9 town vote on the lease.

Above is the language that teachers are using to set the expectations with students for behavior in the cafeteria. They reinforce these expected behaviors in our cafeteria, as students are enjoying their lunch.

SES is looking for student volunteers to participate in a small social/emotional skill development group where they can act as peer models for similarly aged peers. The groups occur once weekly for approximately thirty minutes. Groups will generally take place during lunch or direct instruction block and are facilitated by a school psychologist.

Any student wishing to participate in a group needs parent/guardian consent. Signing consent does not guarantee participation as the opportunity to participate and the frequency of participation will depend on the number of student volunteers. Consent can be revoked at any time by contacting Melissa Gaitho, school psychologist.

The purpose of participation is to model and practice appropriate social and emotional and/or behavioral skills. Groups can include but are not limited to activities such as playing games, role playing, and reading children’s books pertaining to various social/emotional topics. If you think your child would be interested in joining these sessions and you would like for them to have the option to participate, please complete the information below. If you do not want your child to participate in the social skills groups, no response is necessary. If you have any questions, feel free to contact a school psychologist: mgaitho@ridgefieldps.net.

Thank you!

Peer model consent form

Monday, October 7th: D Day

Tuesday, October 8th: E Day

• K-12 Art Show @ ERMS Art Gallery 5:30-7pm
  

Wednesday, October 9th: F Day

Thursday, October 10th: A Day

Friday, October 11th: B Day

• Early Dismissal
• 11:40am dismissal for students, professional development for staff
• Scotty Spirit Day! Wear your Scotty spirit wear to show your school pride!

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Monday, October 14th:

• No school - Columbus Day/Indigenous Peoples' Day

Tuesday, October 15th: C Day

Wednesday, October 16th: D Day

• Book Fair Classroom Visits

Thursday, October 17th: E Day

• Book Fair Classroom Visits
• Book Fair Family Night/Pumpkin Blaze - 5:30-7PM

Friday, October 18th: F Day

• Scotty Spirit Day! Wear your Scotty spirit wear to show your school pride

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Upcoming Events:

Friday, October 11th:

• Early Dismissal
• 11:40am dismissal for students, professional development for staff

Monday, October 14th:

• No school - Columbus Day/Indigenous Peoples' Day

Tuesday, October 29th:

• Picture Retake Day

Head Lice Information

Head lice: They’re the words no parent wants to hear. Head lice can be acquired by anyone, but it is most common in kids ages 5-12. According to the CDC every year as many as 6-12 million children are affected by head lice. Our own community has just experienced our first reported case of lice. The good news is that head lice are not harmful and can be treated. To detect, treat and prevent head lice, it helps to know more about them.

Below I have included a link to an article titled Head Lice: What Parents Needs to Know (Healthychildren.org/AAP). Please take a few minutes to read the article. It provides parents with a good source of information about head lice detection, management, and treatment.

Lice information

Hearing and Vision Screenings

The health office will be doing CT State mandated hearing and vision screenings for grades 1,3,4 and 5 students over the next several months (late November thru early April). If there are any concerns observed during the screenings, parents/guardians will be notified by a referral letter. Please reach out if you have questions. If a family chooses to opt their child out of these screenings, they must submit a written notification to the school nurse annually.

The Scotland PTA is an amazing support to our school community - students, staff, and families! Joining the PTA helps you stay connected with the school community. You will receive information about family events, before & after school programs, school events, parties and much more! Get to know teachers & staff better with informational sessions throughout the year!

Stay up to date on all of the PTA happenings on the PTA website!

Thank you for sprinting your spirit!

It takes at least a week for lap counts to return to us and be tabulated for all those excited to hear!

Fundraising remains open. Donate here!

Please take a look at the Scholastic website for details or browse the flyer!

The best way to pay is through e-wallet using this link. Students can shop without cash.

WE NEED VOLUNTEERS...During classes, family night and breakdown. Please use the sign up link below. Teachers are listed in the sign up if you want to volunteer when your child's class is shopping. Click here to volunteer!

As always, don’t forget to fill out the visitor form for all volunteers coming during the school day.

Thank you!

Your Book Fair Committee

Picture retakes will take place on Tuesday, 10/29.

Please email our PTA chair, Ryan Meyerhoff (ryanmeyerhoff@gmail.com), if you aren not completely satisfied with your child's portrait and you want them to be included on Retake Day.

Any other questions, please contact Coffee Pond's Customer Service Dept directly at the below:

PHONE: 1-800-632-2323 ext "0"

EMAIL: Lifeguards@coffeepond.com

• Each class will have one 45 minute essential per day (Art, Library, Music, or P.E.)
• We will continue to follow the six day A-F day schedule
• Please find the essentials rotation below

School lunch will be available from the first day of school. Aramark is the District-wide food service provider. The school lunch menu is available online on the RPS website; click Departments and click on Food Service. For all students, utilize MySchoolBucks for families to fund student lunches.

MySchoolBucks is available via the PowerSchool Parent Portal, and communication was sent to families in early August regarding adding funds for lunch. Any balances have been rolled over from LunchTime to MySchoolBucks. Additionally, the district sent a communication in early August regarding Reduced Lunch for eligible students.

Snacks for Purchase in the Cafeteria:

Students in grades 2-5 are permitted to purchase snacks during lunch (last 10 minutes). Please be sure you have set up MySchoolBucks if you would like your student to be able to purchase a snack.

• In short, students eligible for reduced lunch will be provided free lunches in grades K-8 for the 2024-25 school year.
• Should you have any questions or concerns regarding the Free School Meals for Children grant, please do not hesitate to contact us or the District Business Office.
• Questions in regard to school MySchoolBucks can be directed to Andrea McCurry, RPS Food Service Director at 203-894-5550 x2143 or amccurry@ridgefieldps.net

Website to set up an account.

MySchoolBucks

Some Support Links for Troubleshooting:

Updating Your Payment Method | MySchoolBucks

Setting up Automatic Payments | MySchoolBucks

Adding a New Student | MySchoolBucks

Setting Up Low Balance Alerts | MySchoolBucks

Reset Your Password Using Your Mobile Phone Number

Reset Your Password Using Your Email Address/Username

We will follow a similar drop off / pick up procedure that we did last year.

Arrival

• Drop off begins at 8:30am. Please do not drop off your child prior to 8:30am as there will be no supervision at this time.
• After 8:45am, you will need to walk your child into school, as they are late. You will need to sign them in with security. Please do not drop your child off without adult supervision.

Dismissal

• Pick up will begin at 3:15pm.
• Each day, please have your child(ren)’s first and last name displayed on your passenger visor, and have it remain visible until your child is in the car. This needs to be bold and large enough to be visible at a distance. This is a very important step to ensure we have your child ready when you arrive.

• For the safety of both students and staff, proceed carefully and slowly through the lot.
• Please have your child exit/enter the vehicle when your gear is in the park position and is one of the cars at the front of the line designated for drop off.
• Students must exit the vehicle on the passenger side (building side) of the vehicle. Multiple children must exit on the passenger side. It is dangerous to exit/enter on the driver's side of the vehicle!

• Students need to have all of their items ready in hand and will then exit the car immediately.
• Parents, please stay in your vehicle at all times so that the process will prevent backups on Barlow Mountain Road.
• If you miss the drop off time (after 8:45 a.m.), please park in the front lot and walk your child across the designated crosswalk to the main entrance of the building. If you arrive after the drop off window and must park in the parking lot, we kindly ask that you use the crosswalk.

We will continue to use School Dismissal Manager this year at Scotland. Please click below for information regarding this system. This system will be available to families in late August. A welcome letter will be emailed to families when the system is available. If you have any additional questions, please don't hesitate to reach out to us!

• For information on this year's Chromebook distribution and policies click here to watch a short video
• If you have further questions or concerns email: helpdesk@ridgefieldps.net

Playdates and Riding the Bus:

We know how fun it is for our students to get together after school and enjoy time together! Due to safety and limited space on the buses, we are asking that students have no more than 2 guest riders with them at a time. Anytime there is a need for more than 2 additional students to ride, families will need to make arrangements for parent pick up that day. Thank you for understanding!

Hats & Hoodies:

Over the last several years there was no standard hat/hood procedure in the elementary schools, likely related to Covid, when classroom windows were kept open for air circulation and there was the potential for it to be cold in classrooms.

As we have started the 24-25 school year with a typical school opening, we will return to only permitting hats to be worn outside the school building. Students may choose to wear a hat, but will be reminded to remove it upon entering the school building. Students will be permitted to wear hats for outdoor recess. Teachers have discussed this with students and I will remind our school community during the morning announcements on Tuesday.

On special occasions/spirit days, hats may be permitted and this will be communicated to students and families.

RPS distribution flyers for outside groups via a Digital Backpack.

Organizations that meet the RPS policy may submit their request for inclusion in the digital backpack. Please help us in our effort to go green by checking students' Digital Backpacks Organizations that meet the RPS policy may submit their request for inclusion to cmelagrano@ridgefieldps.net. Thank you!

Email: jkatkocin@ridgefieldps.net
Website: https://ses.ridgefield.org/
Location: 111 Barlow Mountain Road, Ridgefield, CT, USA
Phone: 203-894-5825