The Oak Ridge community commits to every student's academic achievement, personal development, and social responsibility.

-Oak Ridge Elementary

Dear Parents,

Thank you for helping to build a supportive and nurturing community. In order to do this we need to constantly collaborate and work together to ensure the safety and security of our students. I ask that you please stop and take time to monitor the content that is viewed online and on phones. For parents/guardians of older students, please take time to review text messages and group chats. By doing this, you may find the opportunity to provide a teachable moment and prevent a future problem. I hope you all have a great weekend.

Sincerely,

Dr. Jason Parrott

Each week we are going to focus on a High Five Behavior of the Week. This week's behavior is:

Be Cooperative in the Media Center: Follow directions and keep your space neat. If you would like to view our High Five PBIS Matrix please look below...

We are committed to fostering a positive and respectful learning environment for all students. I am writing to address a serious matter: the use of threatening language. Over the course of this school year, I have noticed students making threatening statements towards other students. This tends to happen when students get angry about a situation that has occurred. I want you to know that when a threatening statement is made, we complete a thorough investigation in order to make sure all of our students are safe.

I am asking for your support with this matter:

• Please have conversations with your children about the importance of using respectful communication and the consequences of using threatening language.

• Please reinforce the message that using threatening language is unacceptable and can have serious consequences.

• If you have any concerns about your child's behavior or the behavior of other students, please do not hesitate to contact the school administration.

Working together, we can create a safe and supportive learning environment for all students.

We know that electronic devices are a growing part of all of our lives. We ask your assistance in reminding students the expectations around bringing them to school. We ask that any device that is brought to school remain in students lockers during school hours. This includes smartwatches and smartphones. Our goal is to maintain a safe and engaging environment for all students. Please reach out if you have any questions or concerns.

We are beginning our book fair next week! We still need volunteers to help run the Fair during AND after school. Sign up today and secure your spot!

https://m.signupgenius.com/#!/showSignUp/4090E4BA5AA2DA0FE3-54710538-volunteer

Fun Picture Day will be on March 21. Please turn any Fun Picture slips into your teacher.

The Lost and Found will be making a donation of all unclaimed items on March 28th (right before Spring Break). They can claim items during the Book Fair late hours.

Royal Oak Parent Advocacy Committee Meeting - 3/18 @ 6:30 PM on Zoom

The Royal Oak Parent Advocacy Committee (ROPAC) is our school district's Parent Advisory Committee - a group made up of parents/caregivers of students with IEPs or 504 Plans, those that want to learn more, and those that think their student may benefit from special education services. ROPAC sincerely welcomes any parent or caregiver with a student(s) in Royal Oak schools to join us in our mission to make this district a destination for students receiving special education services. Learn more about the ROPAC here: ROPAC Info Flyer

The PAC's March meeting will be held Tuesday, 3/18 @ 6:30 PM on Zoom (https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83507795904?pwd=NJz0Ud4O1pEN3tiyaTjqpbFsPvUWig.1).We will be joined by Lynne Porter from Total Education Solutions. Get some new ideas to take back to your family and your team. To join our mailing list for meeting reminders and other updates, complete this quick form: ROPAC Email List

Please take notice that the Sexual Education Advisory Board of the Royal Oak Schools, will hold a public hearing on Tuesday, March 11, 2025, from 5:00-6:00 PM and Wednesday, March 19, 2025, from 6:00-7:00 PM to allow community members to review and comment on the proposed changes to the 4th and 5th grade sexual health curriculum. The meetings will take place at the Royal Oak Schools District Administration Offices, 800 DeVillen, Royal Oak, MI.

According to BeSMARTforKids.org:

• Firearms are the leading cause of death for American children and teens.

• Every year, nearly 360 children in the US under the age of 18 gain access to a firearm and unintentionally shoot themselves or someone else.

• More than 700 children living in America die by gun suicide every year, and secure storage can play a crucial role in preventing those deaths.

• 3/4 of school shooters acquired their firearm from the home of a parent or close relative.

Michigan State Police has provided Royal Oak Schools free gun locks to distribute to families or staff members. If you have unsecured weapons in your home, please help to keep our children safe by stopping by the main office at your child's school or the District Administrative Offices at 800 DeVillen, Royal Oak, to pick up a free gun lock.

Are your children safe while online? Michigan families, especially minors, are becoming inundated with advertisements from alcohol, tobacco, pornography,illegal drugs and gambling marketers through different internet and cell phone inboxes. Thankfully, the State of Michigan offers a free program to stop adult advertisements from reaching e-mails, text messages, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube, Discord, TikTok, Twitch and Twitter. The Michigan Child Protection Registry, is a free do-not-contact service for Michigan’s families and can be located at www.ProtectMIChild.com.

Protecting your children online is extremely important. You can sign your entire family up for the Registry and inform your friends and colleagues about how they can protect children and families from unwanted adult advertising. To sign up, it only takes a few seconds. Just go to www.ProtectMIChild.com and keep your family safe.

National PTA Advocacy

National PTA is the oldest and largest child advocacy association in America. For 125 years, PTA has worked with school communities and decision makers to solve the toughest problems in our nation’s history. PTA is a nonprofit association that prides itself on being a powerful voice for all children, a relevant resource for families and communities, and a strong advocate for public education.

National PTA Position Statements outline the opinion, will or intent of National PTA to address national problems, situations or concerns that affect children and youth. National PTA Resolutions serve to formalize and focus the positions of the organization and are an important part of the association's advocacy work.

National PTA Advocacy

National PTA Positions and Resolutions

• What is Developmental Kindergarten?
  The program allows students additional time to physically and emotionally develop in a safe and secure environment before attending kindergarten. Students experience similar opportunities as other kindergarten students, but are taught at a pace and intensity dependent on individual readiness. Developmental Kindergarten students will be taught by a certified teacher endorsed in early childhood, and they will participate in many activities around language & literacy, math, science, social studies, technology & computers, social experiences, and dramatic play. Students also attend traditional specials classes, including physical education, Spanish, art, and music.
  
  
• How do I know if it is right for my child?
  There is no single definition or assessment to determine placement. Most students will attend traditional kindergarten. Parents who are already considering another option before kindergarten are most likely to consider Developmental Kindergarten. Any parent who indicates that they are interested in Developmental Kindergarten at the time of enrollment will be contacted by the principal of the school in their attendance area.
  
  
• What is the typical class size in Developmental Kindergarten?
  The exact size and number of classes will be determined after enrollment, taking into consideration school space availability.
  
  
• Where and when is this program?
  Developmental Kindergarten is being offered at all the elementary schools. Students will attend a full day, beginning at 8:25 a.m. and ending at 3:30 p.m.
  
  
• In what grade will my child be enrolled after he/she completes Developmental Kindergarten?
  Students who complete Developmental Kindergarten are expected to attend kindergarten the following year.

Schools of Choice applications for the 25/26 school year will be accepted March 10th-April 8th, 2025.

The application link will be available on the district webpage starting on March 10th at 9am.

Click this link for a flowchart to see if Schools of Choice applies to your family

Good Morning Oak Ridge is an award winning news broadcast presented by our fifth grade students. Each week they bring us news and events from Oak Ridge and the surrounding community. I am pleased to announce we are continuing our broadcast. A special thank you to our Mr. L and Mr. Todd and our student broadcasters for the professionalism and effort they have put into continuing this broadcast. I could not be more proud of them. I hope you enjoy this week's edition of Oak Ridge Live:

Good Morning Oak Ridge 3/14/25

Good Morning Oak Ridge 3/7/25

Good Morning Oak Ridge 1/31/25

Good Morning Oak Ridge 1/17/25

Good Morning Oak Ridge 1/10/25

Good Morning Oak Ridge 12/6/24

Good Morning Oak Ridge 11/22/24

Good Morning Oak Ridge 11/8/24

Archived Oak Ridge Live Episodes

Are you a PTA member? We need you to JOIN today. https://oakridge.givebacks.com/store?limit=21&live=true

It's recently come to our attention that Oak Ridge PTA membership is at an all-time low while we're doing as much as ever. We have chosen to not incentivize membership with access to the PTA facebook page because we want it to be a valuable crowd-sourcing informative tool for everyone, but this has hurt our membership numbers greatly!

As a reminder, here is what you get from being a member ($10/annual fee that is not automatically renewed):

1. Weekly emails and reminders for school and PTA events.

2. Voting how our annual funds are used! We voted on two spending issues at last night's meeting. Curious? Attend in December to see how we are trying to improve our community using fundraising dollars.

3. Access to volunteer opportunities and having a direct hand in how our community comes together. Want active involvement in your child's school? Join today.

4. Have access to the PTA online directory which includes email addresses for people at Oak Ridge (who wish to have their emails shown--if you requested privacy, this info of course will not be shared). This is great for setting up playdates and growing your social circle.

5. Donation to our school and the National PTA. The National PTA is first and foremost and advocacy group that works hard to ensure that children have equal opportunities. You'll gain access to the national PTA's resources, which are plentiful and address issues such as diversity and inclusion, as well as literacy.

6. Support of our dozen plus community events. Can you imagine an Oak Ridge without amazing events like our recent Trunk or Treat or Breakfast with a Buddy? Without our members and volunteering, we're unable to continue to provide these. We are lucky enough to have hit our financial goals. NOW we need to see our membership/volunteer goals come through to continue our programming.

Membership is only $10 a year, AND if you're unable to pay the dues, please contact Dr. Parrott for financial support. We want to have your back--especially if you're struggling. PTA is meant to be a resource for the most vulnerable in our community--not for the privileged.

Please check out the January edition of the English Language Development (ELD) newsletter. The ELD department serves the multilingual student population in Royal Oak. Inside you will find updates from ELD staff, information about upcoming events, and a recap of ELD students' accomplishments and activities in the month of December.

ELD Newsletter

Lunch Buddies is an opportunity to see your child in the wild! We are combining Green Team composting sign-ups with a sign-up for a newly identified need of parent and adult caregiver lunch volunteers.

Lunch Buddies includes opportunities assisting with our lunch composting, assisting younger children with their lunches, refereeing lunch recess sports (any adults miss those lunchtime football games?), and more! Put in half an hour for one shift or sign up for two shifts the same day and see your child both a lunch AND recess! Link to our sign-up genius below.

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C084BADAC2DA5FBC61-53714989-december

Hello Families!

The Green School Committee at Oak Ridge is in need of some help!

At lunch, the volunteers and lunch monitors have been overwhelmed with the amount of recycling that is being thrown away each day. They need some assistance helping students find the correct receptacles and cleaning/organizing recyclable items.

Last year, we added food composting to Oak Ridge, and are in need of some more helpful hands as students become acclimated to this new change and are reminded of the composting process!

If you are interested in volunteering, please reach out to Mrs. Mangum (molly.mangum@royaloakschools.org) or click on the link here. Please don't feel obligated to help everyday...any time is extremely helpful! Volunteers are needed from approximately 11:30 am-12:30 pm each day.

Thank you in advance!

Oak Ridge has adopted a whole school behavior management system. We are still using our High Five Rules but we will be using Class Dojo to to keep track of High Five Behaviors instead of High Five tickets. All teachers will have access to Class Dojo and you will be able to keep track of Dojo points from home!!

Please follow up with your child should you notice any "needs work" marks as well as praise them for any positive behavior choices!

Students will be able to trade in their points for different rewards!! Stay tuned for a list of rewards and how many Dojo points they will cost. Stay tuned for more!

We have taken positive steps toward improving the traffic flow at Oak Ridge Elementary. Please help support us by following these guidelines:

● Front Circle Drive is for drivers of students in Room 103, 105, 107, 109, and 111 only.

● Drivers of students in rooms 104, 106, and 108 drop off in front of classrooms in the back parking lot.

● Drivers of third graders are to drop off in the back lot at the pick-up/drop-off zone (blue line in front of east doors).

● Drivers of fourth-graders are to drop off on Bloomfield (street just south of parking lot) and students enter the building at the east doors (outside of Media Center)

● Drivers of fifth-graders drop off on Alexander (street east of upper-grade playground)

● In our back lot, follow in single file to the pick-up/drop-off zone. As you pull up to the BLUE LINE, stop and drop off/pick up your child. Do NOT create a second line. All students should exit/enter the car door on the curbside ONLY.

● STAY IN SINGLE FILE IN THE BACK LOT.

● Do NOT park along the curb next to the building.

● Give yourself extra time and adhere to traffic safety.

Suggested Options

● Consider coming a few minutes early for drop off/pick up.

● Consider walking to school with your students and neighbors.

● Consider riding your bikes as a family to school.

● Carpooling reduces congestion and helps the environment.

If everyone helps support our efforts, it will be a safe place for students and families! Thank you in advance for your help!

If your child needs to take medication throughout the school day, please fill out the following form and return it to the main office. Thank you!

Please be aware that Board Policy 5330 (below) requires a doctor's prescription as well as parental authorization before we can dispense non prescribed (over the counter) medicine as well as prescribed medications.

For purposes of this policy, "medication" shall include all medicines including those prescribed by a physician and any nonprescribed (over-the-counter) drugs, preparations, and/or remedies. "Treatment" refers both to the manner in which a medication is administered and to health-care procedures which require special training, such as catheterization.

Before any medication or treatment may be administered to any student during school hours, the Board shall require the written prescription from the child's physician accompanied by the written authorization of the parent. This document shall be kept on file in the administrative offices. No student is allowed to provide or sell any type of over-the-counter medication to another student. Violations of this rule will be considered violations of Policy 5530 - Drug Prevention and of the Student Discipline Code/Code of Conduct.

Although it would seem logical that parental authorization to administer an over the counter medicine would be enough, we are required to also have authorization from a physician. For any instances where non-prescribed medicine is being administered without a physician's prescription, please ask those parents to have their pediatrician sign and return the parental consent form.

Request for Dispensing Medication

Stay in touch with Royal Oak Schools by downloading our new mobile app!

Download on your mobile device today and select 'yes' to receive push notifications with the latest news and updates from the District. Use this link for more download information:

https://www.royaloakschools.org/quick_links/royal_oak_schools_app

Please view the Spanish newsletter by clicking here.

Please take time to view the September PE Newsletter.

https://secure.smore.com/n/cfbj6

Please click here for Royal Oak Schools Performing Arts newsletter.

We are limiting visitors to the building especially before and after school. Please drop your students at their designated exterior door. We want to limit traffic and provide the safest environment possible. Thank you for cooperating with us in this matter!

Please make sure to view or Student/Parent Handbook by clicking here.

Please make sure you turn in all of your information for background checks two weeks prior to your event. This will allow us plenty of time to process your request. We often use parent drivers for many of our fieldtrips. Unfortunately we can not allow parents/guardians to drive their own child and drop them off. Volunteers and drivers are not permitted to bring a younger sibling along with them on the event. We want to make sure all students are accounted for and safety is a priority. If you are interested in volunteering please fill out our volunteer background form.

Please remember to join the PTA - we are working hard to keep our community strong! The PTA welcomes every student & their family from Oak Ridge. We want to make sure we are inclusive of all families and everyone has the opportunity to be a member. If there are financial limitations preventing you from joining the PTA please contact us so we can remove that barrier. It takes all of us working together to make our children reach their true potential.

Join online at: https://oakridge.memberhub.store/

Individual memberships are $10/year.

Thanks to the Michigan School Meals Program, a state-funded program that allows all students to receive meals at no cost for the 2023-2024 school year, breakfast and lunch will be free to all students. Second meals are not free and will be considered ala carte. Elementary school second lunches will be charged $2.60.

Although all students can receive meals at no cost, it is still vital that eligible families fill out a free/reduced meal application: A school’s eligibility for federal Child Nutrition Programs such as Summer Food Service Program and others is based on free and reduced-price eligibility. Students and families may qualify for other program fee reductions based on their eligibility for free or reduced-price meals. Federal and state education finding uses free and reduced-price eligibility.

Please complete the 2023-2024 online application on our website under Free and Reduced Meals Information. Paper applications will be sent out this month and available at the district office and in all schools in August.

“Blessings in a Backpack” is a program designed to provide students on the free and reduced lunch program with enough food for three meals a day during the weekends. This program, administered by the Community Foundation of Greater Rochester, is active in Royal Oak Schools. If you agree to take part in this program during the school year, your child will receive a bag filled with food for the weekend. A bag of food will be put in your child's locker for take home on Fridays. The simple meals may include food like macaroni and cheese, beef ravioli, canned fruit, granola bars, soups, juice and other items. Students will receive a bag every week.

If you would like to have your child participate in this program, fill out the form below.. Please be sure to indicate on the form if you child has any food allergies. If your child has a food allergy, you as the parent are responsible for checking all food labels when the food arrives home. Royal Oak Schools, as well as Blessings in a Backpack, will not be held responsible for any accidental food allergen exposure.

Blessings in a Backpack Form

If you have students currently enrolled in the program you will be contacted directly by the Young Oaks Coordinator.

Any families interested in the program can use the link below for information about the program.

Young Oaks Latchkey

Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!

For updates on events or a better insight on you child's school day. Please follow us on Facebook and Twitter: Facebook @ParrottJason

SOCIAL MEDIA POSTS

At Oak Ridge we take pride in making sure we have a kind, caring, environment. Our parents play a large role in helping us to achieve this goal. Before posting to social media or any other venue, please consider the feelings of all our community members . Before you post, remember to T.H.I.N.K...

MIssion: We commit to every students academic achievement, personal development and social responsibility.

Email: parrottj@royaloakschools.org
Website: http://www.royaloakschools.org/elementary/oakridge/
Location: 506 E 13 Mile Rd, Royal Oak, MI, United States
Phone: (248) 588-8353
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OakRidgeElementarySchool
Twitter: @ParrottJason