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!

We are excited for the opening of our new playground on Monday! We are looking forward to welcoming families during their child's grade-level time slot. We can't wait to celebrate with you!!

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We have recently discovered that cell phone carriers (e.g., AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile) occasionally label our calls as spam. Consequently, when we leave a message, it is not transmitted to you, and you are not notified of a missed call. To hopefully address this issue, we kindly request that you add our school phone number (1-203-894-5825) and our bus company's number (1-203-431-2924) to your contact list to prevent it from being mislabeled as spam. Thank you so much!

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It is hard to believe, but Halloween is going to be here soon! We are getting very excited for this festive day. We will celebrate at Scotland on Thursday, October 31st. All students in grades K-5 are invited to wear Halloween costumes to school. If your child would prefer not to wear their costume to school, they are welcome to participate in a Scotty Spirit day instead.

Each teacher will engage students in curriculum throughout the day. Our classroom based Halloween parties will take place toward the end of the day, at the teacher's discretion to ensure that students are engaged and learning throughout the day at school. We would like to ask the following to ensure safety of all students and staff:

• If students choose to dress up, please have them come dressed to school in their costume, as there will not be a space for them to change once here.
• Costumes must allow easy bathroom use so students can independently use the restroom.
• To ensure safety, costumes may not include props or masks, and please limit makeup to the eyes only.
• Kindly refrain from sending your child in an inflatable or any other distracting costume.
• Please encourage your child to choose a costume with a non-violent theme. Costumes should be “kindergarten friendly” (not scary or gory). Gentle storybook characters or heroes often lend themselves to fantastic costumes as they encourage reading for pleasure!

Our kindergarten students will parade outside of Scotland in the front parking lot on October 31st, beginning at 2:30pm. Kindergarten families are invited to come watch. We hope to see you then!

Kind regards,

Jill

Above is the language that we are using to set the expectations with students for behavior on the new playground, opening on Monday. We all reinforce these expected behaviors in the school as well as on the playground. Our teachers will be teaching CARES lessons before students play on the new playground and reinforcing these expectations throughout the remainder of the year.

Monday, October 21st: A Day

• Playground Opening!!

Tuesday, October 22nd: B Day

Wednesday, October 23rd: C Day

Thursday, October 24th: D Day

Friday, October 25th: E Day

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

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Monday, October 28th: F

Tuesday, October 29th: A Day

• Picture Retake Day

Wednesday, October 30th: B Day

Thursday, October 31st: C Day

• Wear your Halloween Costume or Scotty Colors!
• K Parade at 2:30PM!

Friday, November 1st: D Day

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

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Upcoming Events:

Tuesday, November 5th:

• Election Day (School Closed)/Teacher PD Day

Monday, November 11th:

• Veterans Day (School Closed)

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!

Please join us for our 5th grade fundraiser to help support 5th grade student activities during "Fall in Love with Ridgefield," this Saturday, 10/19 from 10am-2pm in front of Houlihan Lawrence on Main Street. We will have apple cider and donuts for sale!

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

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

• 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