RES NEWS

Dear RES Community,

I hope you all enjoyed the Thanksgiving holiday and weekend. At RES, we have so much to be grateful for. As the school year progresses, we wanted to take a moment to express our sincere gratitude for your continued support and partnership. Your involvement in your child's education makes a significant difference in their learning and growth - thank you!

We hope that you found the information shared at our parent-teacher conferences helpful and meaningful. Our first trimester report cards/progress reports will be available on December 16, 2024. I will share directions about accessing the report cards through PowerSchool at that time.

We are so grateful for the generous PTA Gift - our students are thrilled with the new soccer nets. A huge thanks to our PTA for the fundraising efforts several years ago that made this possible.

The RES PTA has several executive board positions that are still open and we are looking to fill them. If you are interested in learning more about the commitment level with a position on our PTA executive board please reach out to our PTA president, Laura Holdgrafer @ LauraRoseHold@gmail.com

Another message of thanks to our PTA for providing a wonderful pizza lunch for staff on November 22, 2024 before our first day of parent teacher conferences.

As we head into Inclusive Schools Week, our classroom discussions will center around our classroom and school community with messages about inclusivity and understanding of each other. We will also launch our first No Place for Hate activity this week, which focuses on Our Identities.

In partnership,

Mary

Mary Scalise, Principal

Traci Mayette, Assistant Principal

Monday, December 2 - Friday, December 6, 2024: Inclusive Schools Week

Tuesday, December 3, 2024: PTA Invention Convention Informational Meeting @ 3:40 PM

Wednesday, December 4, 2024: PTA Enrichment Grade 2 Safety in the Community

Friday, December 6, 2024: Spirit Day - Wear Orange - Inclusive Schools Week Support

Tuesday, December 10, 2024: PTA Enrichment Grade 4 Never Stop Moving Yoga

Thursday, December 12, 2024: Early Dismissal 11:40 AM

Monday, December 16, 2024: Parent Portal Opens with Report Cards

Wednesday, December 18, 2024: RES Winter Concert 6:30 PM

Monday, December 23, 2024 - Wednesday, January 1, 2025: No School - Winter Recess

Thursday, January 2, 2025: School Resumes - Happy New Year!

Thursday, January 9, 2025: Early Dismissal 11:40 AM

Friday, January 10, 2025: PTA Enrichment Kindergarten Woodcock Nature Center Classroom Visits

Thursday, January 23, 2024: PTA Social Event - Family BINGO Night - 6:00 PM

Grades are posted on the Parent Portal in PowerSchool three times a year for grades K-5.

Students’ academic performance in grades K-5 is evaluated based on a 3-point scale as indicated by numbers ranging from 1 to 3 on report cards each trimester.

Kindergarten - Grade 3 Academic Key

3 - Meets grade level expectations

2 - Progressing to grade level expectations

1 - Needs more time and help

Grade 4-5 Academic Key

3 - Exceeds grade level expectations

2 - Meets grade level expectations

1 - Needs more time and help

In addition to the 3-point scale score, in fourth and fifth grade, students receive an overall letter grade in the core academic areas.

The numerical ranges for letter grades are listed below:

A+ = 95 - 100

A = 90 - 94

B+ = 85 - 89

B = 80 - 84

C+ = 75 - 79

C = 70 - 74

D = 65 - 69

F = 0 - 64

Progress reports will be available on PowerSchool on December 16, 2024.

Olivia Geluso was cast as the lead role of Clara in Dance Factory Ridgefield's Nutcracker. Check out the photo below which was featured in Ridgefield Lifestyle Magazine. Congratulations, Olivia!

Our grade 5 students were 'ALL IN' when our new soccer nets were set up for recess! We are so grateful for the fundraising efforts of our PTA and the generous donation made to enhance our playground and recess area!

The Ridgefield Public Schools have established guidelines that ensure we have a welcoming and safe school community.

Dropping off an item: If you have something to drop off for your child during the school day such as a forgotten lunch or instrument, please place the item on the table and label it with the child’s name and teacher. We will provide the item to the student.

Visitors are admitted by appointment only. At Ridgebury, we use a daily visitor log, where faculty and staff list expected RES visitors each morning. Typical visit reasons include: meeting/conference, mystery reader, parent volunteer, etc.

Please be sure to have your driver’s license ready to be scanned once you are admitted into the building. All visitors must wear a visitor sticker when in the building.

All visitors must enter the school through the main doors - never enter from another area of the school.

Thank you for your attention to this process.

Mrs. Paradiso will be reviewing the acceptable use policy in all library classes over the month of September. All families have access to and agree to the district technology policies when they sign the student handbook in PowerSchool at the beginning of the school year.

• School Dismissal Manager (SDM) is an easy-to-use mobile and desktop interface that allows you to make these changes in advance or for the current day. You can also report student absences, late arrivals, early dismissals and even schedule recurring dismissal instructions for after-school activities.

• We are utilizing SDM's Late Arrival feature so that you can let the school know when your child will be arriving late. Select the day on the calendar that your child will be arriving late, then select Add Late Arrival, fill out the reason and click Submit. When reporting a late arrival for the current day, please note that the cutoff time is 8:45 am. Upon arrival, your child must still check in with the security guard at RES.

• Requests for pickup must be made through the School Dismissal Manager (SDM) system. We assume every student rides their bus to school and home. This is the default setting in SDM. An alternative plan, what SDM terms as “exceptions” must be entered before 11:15 am.

• In the event that you have an emergency and need an alternative plan after 11:15, please contact the main office at 203-894-5875. Emergency contacts, which you identify in the PowerSchool Portal, should be people you feel comfortable can pick up your child from school if there is ever the need. We do not release students to adults, even if we know them, without written permission from you, or if they are an emergency contact.

Questions related to RPS Transportation? Please use this transportation email address:

RPSTransportation@RidgefieldPS.net. The district has several staff members monitoring this email account and will be looking to acknowledge emails from parents within a 24 hour time period and solve most issues within that time frame as well.

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!

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 students in grades 2-5, snacks and additional items will be available through MySchoolBucks system which allows students to purchase their lunch by entering a 5-digit code at the cash register. Questions in regard to MySchoolBucks can be directed to Andrea McCurry, RPS Food Service Director at 203-894-5550 x1127 or amccurry@ridgefieldps.net

Address: 112 Bennetts Farm Road

Website: https://res.ridgefield.org/
Phone: (203) 894-5875