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!

Today, we had our Winter Boutique, which was a huge success! A tremendous thank you to all of our parent volunteers who spend countless hours shopping, prepping, and setting up for this highly anticipated event! Our kiddos were so very excited shopping today, and every student left with items! If your child was absent, there will be an opportunity for them to shop next week. Our PTA has thought of everything and set up an additional experience for them to come down and have an additional shopping experience. Thank you to all of our families who shopped, donated time, volunteered yesterday to set up, volunteered to help students today. We appreciate you!

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The parent portal will be open for viewing Trimester 1 report cards on Monday morning at 10:30am.

Please remember report Cards are not printed and sent home, and grades are only available electronically on the Parent Portal.

Trimester Grades:

To access your child’s grades on the Parent Portal please follow the steps listed below:

Go to the Ridgefield Public Schools website – https://www.ridgefield.org/

Click on the Parents and Students tab

Click on PowerSchool Portal Login to access the Parent Portal and enter your login credentials.

PLEASE NOTE: The academic key differs for grades kindergarten - 3rd grade and 4-5.

Academic Key:

Kindergarten - Grade 3

3 - Meets Grade Level Expectations

2- Progressing To Grade Level Expectations

1 - Needs More Time and Help

Grades 4 and 5

3- Exceeds Grade Level Expectations

2- Meets Grade Level Expectations

1- Needs More Time and Help

The Aimsweb and NWEA Score Reports

We conduct universal screener assessments for all students in grades K-5 three times a year. These assessments take place in the fall, winter, and spring. The fall assessment results are available for you to view in PowerSchool in December. The winter results are typically available in late March The spring assessments are staggered.

Below you will find how to access your child’s score report as well as a link to presentations about the elementary universal screeners.

Archived Report Cards (if available on the portal):

• Click on ‘Document Archive’ from the navigation panel on the left.
• Then click on the year you wish to view/print (not available on the mobile app). You will have the option to view/print the past two year’s report cards.

As a reminder, current year report cards are viewed by clicking on the ‘Report Cards’ link

Parent Portal Accounts:

If you have already created a PowerSchool parent account, simply log in with the same username and password that you entered when you set up your account. If your login isn’t working, click on the link Having trouble signing in? to request a password/username reminder.

If you do NOT have a parent portal account please do the following:

If you DO have your Access ID Letter: Follow the steps above to get to the portal login screen, then click on the “Create Account” button and follow the directions to establish your account and link to your students.

If you do NOT have your Access ID letter: please send an email to: psadmin@ridgefieldps.net requesting a parent portal account. Be sure to include your name, student name(s) and preferred email address.

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This is our last newsletter of this year. Wishing you all a wonderful holiday season, and a very happy New Year! Thank you for all of your support of Scotland, our teachers, staff, and students!

Kind regards,

Jill

Monday, December 16th: A Day

• Report Cards available for parents in the Portal

Tuesday, December 17th: B Day

Wednesday, December 18th: C Day

Thursday, December 19th: D Day

Friday, December 20th: E Day

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Thursday, January 2nd: F Day

Friday, January 2nd: A Day

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Monday, December 23-Wednesday, January 1st:

• No school - winter recess

Thursday, January 2nd: F Day

• Welcome back!

Friday, January 3rd: A Day

• Scotty Spirit Day - wear your spirit wear or red and black!

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Save these Dates!!

Wednesday, January 22nd:

• SES Winter Concert

Tuesday, January 28th:

• Choral Festival at RHS

Monday, February 3rd:

• All District Orchestra Festival

• All District Band Festival

• SES 5th Grade Musical

• SES K-5 Art Show

• SES Spring Concert

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 your continued support! We appreciate your participation in our Thanksgiving and Holiday Fundraisers.

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