Happy Friday Ridgeview families! Here are your weekly updates.

We are working diligently to make sure our main office, as well as our building, is a safe space for students and staff during the school day. We are in the process of making some changes to how we do things. Soon the following changes will be implemented as part of our office procedures. Some items have not been changed, but there are some specific changes we’d like to begin sharing with families now. See below:

• When you press the doorbell, you must identify yourself and say why you are wanting to come into the building. If you don’t respond, you will not be permitted to enter.

• If you arrive at the building prior to 7:15 am, please see one of our administrators (Mr. Lee by the bus lot or Mr. Smith by Door B near the cafe’) to get permission to go into the building. They will radio the main office to alert them of your arrival. NO ONE should just be walking into the building with students.

• No one will be permitted into the main office unless they have a meeting with office personnel and/or an appointment in another area of the building. All visitors will remain in the vestibule.

• If you are dropping off anything to a student, you will now need to leave the item(s) in the vestibule. There will be an area for you to label the item(s) with your students name and a place to place them. The office staff will pick up the items.

• If you are picking up your student early, be reminded it must be done prior to 1:45 pm, only the guardian listed in Infinite Campus may pick up a student (unless you’ve alerted the office staff ahead of time), and you must show your state ID every single time. Early student dismissal will not be done after 1:45 pm for any reason.

Once all the above officially goes into effect, we’ll be sure to notify families. In the meantime, if you have any questions/concerns/comments about any of the above, please touch base with an administrator.

Families, please consider contributing to our annual Staff Thanksgiving Day Luncheon. We're looking for either monetary donations or food/drink items to feed our awesome staff for the Thanksgiving holiday. A sign up genius is down in the PTO section of the newsletter. If you have any questions, please contact our PTO president, Kelly Martin.

Our next Lunch With A Loved One event will be taking place on Thur Dec 5th. Click here to sign up to attend. This event is open to all family members and will take place during all lunch periods. If you have questions about this event, please contact any grade level administrator.

I’d like to remind everyone to purchase your school pictures. Information about how to purchase is further down in the newsletter. If you do have additional questions after reading the information, you’re welcome to reach out to Josten’s or our building secretary Ms. Tiffany in the main office.

Students have been notified all week about the many items in our lost and found. They had until the end of school today to claim anything they may have lost. All items will be donated to the Good Will by the end of the day today. We will do this again during Winter break as well.

Lastly, please continue to speak to your students about the proper use of technology, whether it’s on a personal or school device. We’ve also had an uptick of students demanding others to do their work for them on their device. This is cheating, as well as inappropriate use of technology - which is a double whammy. Students who are unable to use technology appropriately could potentially lose their right to use it at school, and/or be applied discipline for their actions.

Take care and we’ll see everyone soon! GO TIGERS!

Important Dates:

Week of Nov 18: Q2 Interims available to view in IC

Nov 27-29: Thanksgiving Break - No School

Sheila A. Evans, Principal

Ridgeview Junior High School

Once again we will be helping families for the holidays. If you are able, please donate in one of the ways listed below for a donation to the district collection. Ridgeview also accepts gift card donations in the office. Many of the donations that are received by the district are toys for younger kids. At RJHS, we collect gift cards that are appropriate for Teens ages 12-18 so we can provide more of what they like. We use them for the families that we help and donate the rest to the other schools with older kiddos.

District Policy states that only guardians listed on Infinite Campus are permitted to pick up their student. If your student needs to be picked up early by someone who is NOT their guardian, a guardian must call the office to let us know who will be picking up their child. The other adult must present a valid ID to office staff for the student to be released to them.

Dress Code:

• All students should have shoes that cover their toes and that are appropriate for school (no slides, sandals, or slippers). Crocs are appropriate but must have the strap for the heel.

• Clothes should be appropriate length and cover all parts of the body (ex: no crop tops, spaghetti straps). If writing or pictures are on the clothing, it should be appropriate to wear at school. PJ’s are not appropriate clothing to wear to school.

• Students are permitted to wear hooded sweatshirts to school, but cannot have the hood (or any hat) on their head during the school day.

Personal Communication Devices:

• For this school year, when students enter the building, all devices (phones, wireless headphones or pods, iPads) are to be turned off and put out of sight for the entire school day. Smart watches may be used as a watch only. If it’s used for anything else, it will be confiscated.

• If a student is seen with a device OR uses their smart watch for anything other than a watch, the device will be confiscated and locked up in the main office. The first time it’s taken, the student may pick it up at the end of the school day. After the first time, a parent will have to pick up the device - it will not be returned to the student moving forward.

• Pick-up times for Personal Communication Devices will be Mon - Fri in the main office from 8:00 am - 1:45 pm and again from 2:30 pm - 3:00 pm as long as school is in session. The main office closes at 3:00 pm daily.

• The purpose of this is to have our students more engaged in classes. Devices are becoming more of a distraction every single day. We want to set our Ridgeview students up for success in every class. We believe this will be a better start to doing just that!

• We’re collecting more devices daily. If your student has a device confiscated and it doesn’t belong to them, the person that it belongs to AS WELL AS the student who had it taken from will be added to our spreadsheet for a confiscated device. Please make a note of this.

Our Care Closet currently needs boys socks and girls pants (leggings, jeans, sweats). If you are able to help, please drop off your donations to the main office.

THANK YOU!

We’re excited to start compiling this year’s yearbook and need your help! If you have any photos of art projects, tennis matches, or other school and sports events, we would love to include them.

Please send your pictures to aaron_christley@plsd.us or allison_garwood@plsd.us.

Your contributions will help make this yearbook truly special!

Click on the camera to order!

Event Code: FE61024

Questions?

Customer Care

M - F 8am - 5pm:

1-877-515-1447, Option 1

Click on the pictures below to apply!

**If you're paying with Venmo, there will be a fee - $1 for $20 and $1.75 for $40 or more. Please add the extra in your payment.**

Payments of cash and/or check will be accepted in the office with Ms Tiffany.

Email: tiffany_dalton@plsd.us with any questions!

IMMUNIZATION REMINDER: In order to start school, all immunizations must be up to date.

Click HERE for complete guidelines.

School-Based Health Clinic

Pediatric Associates has an office located at Tussing Elementary that is available to all PLSD students and the community of Pickerington. The clinic offers the following services: helping with sore throat, headaches, earache, bad cough, strep test, immunizations, blood work, physicals, well check-ups, sports physicals, medication, asthma, etc.

The clinic is open on Monday and Wednesday from 9:00 - 3:00 and closed from 1:00 - 2:00 for lunch. Walk-ins are welcome or to schedule an appointment call 614-864-3222.

Emergency Resources

Crisis Text Line: text "HOME" to 741741

Nationwide Children's Youth Hotline: 1-614-722-1800

Teen Hotline: 1-614-294-3300

Sexual Assault Hotline: 1-800-656-4673

Safe Schools Tip Line: Call or text 1-844-723-3764

Suicide Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255 or 1-614-221-5445

Sheriff Department: 1-740-652-7900

8th Grade Career Center Field Trip Dec. 3rd

8th graders will be going on a field trip to Eastland OR Fairfield Career Centers on Dec. 3rd. Students are divided by Pawtimes to accommodate the max numbers at each school. They will be learning about the programs the career centers offer and touring the facility. They will depart between 10:15 am (Eastland) & 10:30 am (Fairfield) and will return around 1:30.

NO PERMISSION SLIP IS NEEDED. Everything is in your annual Online Registration (OLR) through your Infinite Campus Parent Portal including, Emergency Medical and Field Trip permissions completed at the beginning of the school year. If you have not completed your student’s OLRInfinite Campus please do so in the parent portal by Dec. 1st at midnight. (Note: Your annual Online Registration (OLR) is complete if you haven’t heard from us. We have been working on getting the update completed for several months now. (There are only 33 students currently incomplete.) We will contact ONLY students and their families who are missing the update (students will receive a paper letter and parents will be sent a talking points). If we do not have the form completed by Dec.1, your child will not be permitted to attend.

Your child can either pack a lunch or they will be offered the option of ordering a sack lunch to pick up before they leave. Students will eat the packed lunch at the Career Center. The cafeteria sack lunch will include a Pizza Anytizer, Chips, Carrots w/ranch cup, Fruit cup, and Fruit juice.

For your information, the following pawtimes will be assigned as follows (Note there were a few minor changes)

Hi families. I am reaching out to ask for help in supporting our Girls group at Ridgeview. The ROX Program equips girls with tools to succeed in relationships, academics and life with evidence-based curriculum. This program will also help girls cope with stress/anxiety and address perfectionism while coaching families how to best support their child. Here at Ridgeview, we like to run a 7th grade group first semester and an 8th grade group second semester.

Your tax-deductible gift will help create generations of confident and successful girls who can control their own decisions, relationships, experiences and futures. For all the ways that you are able to give, we are honored to have your support in this work.

A gift of $100 provides a scholarship for 1 girl to participate in 20-weeks of the ROX Program. However, we appreciate any donation you are able to make. If you or your business want to sponsor a girl or make a donation please use the QR code below.

Tiger Athletics Website

Athletic Handbook

Winter Sports Registration is now OPEN!

Please be sure that your student is registered on Final Forms.

YOUR STUDENT MUST HAVE AN UPDATED PHYSICAL ON FILE IN ORDER TO PARTICIPATE IN TRY OUTS OF ANY SPORT

Be sure to register your student in Final Forms so that you get all of the up to date information regarding games and practices.

https://pickerington-oh.finalforms.com/

Students: $5 Adults: $7

Cash/Card is accepted at the gate. If you pay online, there will be additional fees.

Click here to purchase tickets: https://www.pickerington.k12.oh.us/Page/126

You may purchase a Tiger Club Pass ($50/student) or a Central Club Pass ($100/adult) that is good for all regular home games for every sport.

To purchase Club Passes, use the same link as above and select Central. Once there, you will select Purchase Yearly Passes.

**Students are now required to show their student ID card to attend athletic events. If your student does not have an ID card yet, you can show the attendant your Infinite Campus information from your phone until your ID arrives**

Happy Friday!

We hope you all had a fantastic week and ready for the weekend - we sure are! We have a lot to share for the upcoming weeks - please see below:

We are hosting our yearly Thanksgiving-Friendsgiving lunch/dinner on November 25th from 9:30a to 1:25p (3rd to 7th period lunches) for the entire staff at Ridgeview. We have provided a Sign-Up Genius to allow our PTO Members and Parents to donate a dish or donation to celebrate our wonderful staff before they break for the holiday. If you are able to please consider signing up for a side, dessert, drinks or donation for this wonderful event - We Appreciate All Support for this wonderful event!

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0C4CA5A62EA2FA7-53072741-staff

Our "Thankful & Grateful Candy, Cookie & Cupcake sale is next week! Pre-sales begin today 11/15 and you have until 11/21 to send your student (loved one) something sweet. We do want to share that we are targeting the parents more for pre-sales due to the students no longer being able to use their cashless options during school (Cash App and or Venmo) due to the new law in place. We will offer cash options for the students to make purchases, but we know a lot of our students have moved to using their apps and cards which we absolutely love, however due to the limitations we now have to ask for the payments to be sent from the parents. When sending your payments using Cash App or Venmo be sure to include their full name, lunch period and PAW Time to be safe, we want to make sure that your child receives their special treats. We will also send out the Talking Point notification to ensure you all are aware, but can't stress enough to be sure you are checking out our Facebook page for all the details too.

We have had a few fundraisers over the past couple of weeks (with Sweetest Day, Boo Suckers, etc.) and really appreciate the support you all have given us as we continue to raise money for the PTO, ROX, Web Leaders and Student Council. PTO is hosting the "Thankful & Grateful" candy, cookie and cupcake before we go out on break, then when we return, we will be partnering with our school counselors with their "Candy Cane" fundraiser to raise money for our Ridgeview Adopt a Family event. Thank you all in advance for all your support.

One final thing, the Pickerington Education Foundation tree auction was a HUGE SUCCESS. Ridgeview's Grinchmas Christmas tree sold for $375 (hooray!). We appreciate your donations and help with supporting this awesome event. Between all of PLSD PTO's we were able to raise just over $5000 in the tree auction alone - with that being said THANK YOU!!

If you have any questions at all we are always here to support you - Kelly Martin - kelly.martin_rvjhpto@hotmail.com and Qiana Ellis - qsmith6@hotmail.com.

Have a fabulous weekend!

Kelly Martin & Qiana Ellis

kelly.martin_rvjhpto@hotmail.com

qsmith6@hotmail.com

• PLSD 2024-2025 District Calendar - click here

• Districtwide Activities Calendar

  Upcoming events and important dates are listed in the Districtwide Google Events Calendar, which is synced with individual building, program and athletic team calendars. Once inside the district wide calendar, to display the events of a particular building, team, program or activity, you will need to check the specific corresponding color-coded box(es) from the list on the left-hand side.

  Pickerington Schools partners with the City of Pickerington and Yodel to bring you the Pickerington Community Calendar!
  

  Visit this link to view all Pickerington Schools activities included on the calendar and don’t forget to “favorite” our Pickerington Schools schedule! Once favorited, Pickerington Schools' events will be front and center on your calendar, enabling you to see what’s coming up.

The Ohio Department of Education and the Ohio Department of Public Safety have launched the SaferOH tip line that will accept both calls and texts 24 hours a day.

This tip line allows students and adults to anonymously share information with school officials and law enforcement about threats to student safety—whether that involves a threatened mass incident or harm to a single student.

Every tip can remain anonymous. School safety analysts may ask for additional information, but the caller can remain secret or leave his or her contact information for later follow-up.

Calls or texts to 844-SaferOH (844-723-3764) are answered by analysts in the Ohio Homeland Security’s Threat Assessment and Prevention (TAP) Unit. When action is needed, the TAP Unit immediately forwards information to Pickerington Schools, local law enforcement agencies, and others, if necessary.

Here at Ridgeview Junior High we value being Timely, Innovative, showing GRIT, being Engaged in our learning, and Respect! Notice the letters spell out TIGER! Click on our behavior expectations, and please take a moment to look over and review with your student(s).

Principal: Sheila Evans

Assistant Principal 7th Grade: Henry Lee

Assistant Principal 8th Grade: Kevin Smith

Dean of Students: Sydney Dillard

Building Secretary/Athletics: Tiffany Dalton

Building Secretary/Registrar: Lisa Holley

Attendance: Pat Petrini

Office Assistant: Madelyn Gomez

Counselors: Kris Owen: A-Ga, Erica Reynolds: Ge-N, Meghan Wade: O-Z

Nurse: Rachel Ross/Mindy Stillwell

Safety/Security: Jon (JT) Haynes

School Resource Officer (SRO): Mathew Swaney, Jeremy Collier

Email: Sheila_Evans@plsd.us
Website: pickerington.k12.oh.us
Location: 130 Hill Road South, Pickerington, OH, USA
Phone: 614-548-1700
Twitter: @RidgeviewPLSD