Dear RGMS Community,
First and foremost, I want to extend a big “congratulations” to our Grackson Middle School 7th and 8th grade girls basketball team - PIL champions! We know that students who participate in sports build lifelong skills, report feeling more confident, and generally perform better in school. Winning it all? Icing on the cake. Great work!!
I also want to acknowledge that our colocation at Jackson Middle School continues to present significant challenges - many that were brought forward in last week’s community meeting. Principal Newlyn met with the RGMS Student Council today to hear from students about their challenges and to brainstorm possible solutions for issues that are coming up.
One of the concerns that came forward during last week’s meeting was a disproportionate inconvenience on 8th grade students related to our lunch period. 8th Grade student’s have also presented this problem to teachers and administrators - not having access to every lunch option by the end of lunch and feeling stressed for time to eat. Hearing from students and families, we will make a shift going forward - alternating which grade level gets to go through the lunch line first on a weekly basis. Our hope is that this addresses some student concerns immediately while we explore more permanent solutions to the variety of concerns coming forward.
We are also exploring more permanent scheduling solutions to address disrupted learning time in our pod classroom spaces and other common areas - like the Library and Cafeteria.
Continuous improvement is ingrained in our school culture - enshrined in the Vision Statement our families, students and staff developed during the 2021-2022 school year:
Robert Gray Middle School believes every student is an essential stakeholder and collaborator in their academic and social-emotional growth and that together we can build a better world in which we can all succeed.
This is more simply defined by one of our school’s core values: GROWTH.
As we wade through this together, that’s where my focus is. We will continue to assess our circumstances, listen to the feedback of our school community, and take steps together to refine our practices, grow toward the ideal, and improve teaching and learning for all of our students.
In the service of students and families,
Jeff Waters
Assistant Principal
