RMA

Mission

Empowering students to graduate, prepared to exceed all expectations.

Vision

Every student will be empowered to make CHOICES for lifelong success.

Dear RMA Colleagues,

November is the month of giving thanks, and I am genuinely thankful for the incredible dedication and passion you bring to RMA daily. This time of year is about family and gratitude, and I would like to extend my appreciation to our students, our RMA family, and the families of those we serve.

This season, as we gather with our own families and friends, let us remember the sense of unity and family that exists within our school. It's a time when we not only give thanks for the abundance in our lives but also for the connections we've forged and the lives we've touched through our work at RMA.

After enduring over 90 days of relentless 100-degree heat, I hope you are enjoying the cooler weather, taking a moment to savor the change, and perhaps indulging in some well-deserved personal time.

These moments of respite are essential for rejuvenation, allowing us to return to our roles with renewed energy and enthusiasm.

As we transition into the testing season within our school district, I emphasize the importance of ensuring our students are well-prepared for success. Let's continue to provide them with the support and resources they need to excel, reminding them that their hard work and dedication is the key. Your commitment to their education is the foundation upon which their future achievements are built.

Thank you for your continued dedication to our mission. Your work is invaluable, and it is deeply appreciated. I wish you a fulfilling month of November.

With sincere gratitude,

Dr. Armard Anderson

Superintendent of Schools

🦃 November 20th - 24th - Thanksgiving Break 🦃

Gratitude is a mental act, or a habit of mind. Once a habit is formed, it is simple to continue the behavior. There are some easy tasks that you can do daily that build the habit of gratitude.

When you exercise your gratitude habits daily, you are making deposits into a "thank" account. You are building a base of positive affirmations and affiliations that you can draw upon later when you need to remember what is good in your life. If you have an accumulation of positive memories and thoughts, it may help you regulate your emotions on days when you feel blue.

Here are seven gratitude practices to try yourself and with your students.

https://www.mindfulteachers.org/blog/gratitude-practices-for-teachers-and-students

We hope this message finds you well. At RMA Public Schools, fostering a positive culture and climate is at the heart of our mission. To ensure we continue to create an environment where every member of our team thrives, we are embarking on an important initiative to gather valuable insights from the true experts – you, our dedicated faculty, and staff.

This endeavor is of great significance to Dr. Anderson, our esteemed leader. Recognizing that your input is invaluable, Dr. Anderson is using various methods to gather information this year, one of which is the anonymous survey we are sharing with all staff members.

Why Your Participation Matters:

Your experiences, perspectives, and suggestions are crucial in shaping the future of RMA Public Schools. By participating in this survey, you contribute directly to the ongoing improvement of our school district. We want to hear from you about what is working well and where we can make positive changes.

What to Expect:

The survey is designed to be quick and easy to complete.

Your responses will remain completely anonymous, ensuring that you can express your thoughts openly and honestly.

Your input will be treated with the utmost confidentiality.

Take Action:

We kindly request a few moments of your time to complete this survey. Your feedback is a vital part of our continuous efforts to provide the best possible environment for our students and our team.

RMA STAFF SURVEY - FALL 2023

Please know that every single member of our organization is of great value at RMA Public Schools. Your voice matters, and your perspective is essential in shaping the future of our institution.

We sincerely appreciate your participation and dedication to our school district. Together, we will continue to build a positive and thriving community at RMA Public Schools.

Thank you for your time and commitment to our shared mission.

By exercising the “gratitude muscle” with a journal, students can harness positive thinking to increase their grades, goals, and quality of life.

By Owen M. Griffith

Would you like to improve the culture in your classroom and your life? Try gratitude. Based on my 10 years of teaching experience, this is the most powerful tool that I know.

Gratitude has empowered me to teach more effectively, appreciate my individual students, grow in my profession, and enjoy life. Utilizing gratitude, I am able to model one of the most important lessons in life, having a positive attitude, especially about the aspects of life that challenge me.

Gratitude Journal

To get started in your classroom with gratitude, I recommend actually writing your own gratitude list for a few weeks and feeling its power. Then you can share your example and start the activity with your students. You might start your gratitude journal with being thankful for being alive, for having food to eat and clothes to wear. If you can think about something related to teaching that you're grateful for, that's even more powerful.

My students use a composition book and start every day by writing five gratitudes. If you have computers or iPads, you might have the students start a file to save their daily gratitude journal. By the end of the year, we each have almost 1,000 gratitudes. I show the students an example or let them see this form:

1. Thanks for ___________________________.
2. Thanks for ___________________________.
3. Thanks for ___________________________.

Once a week, we go around the class and share our favorite gratitude. I am always encouraged and pleasantly surprised by what my students share. I get to learn about things going on in their lives that I might not hear about otherwise. This helps build a positive culture in our classroom.

continue reading here :

https://www.edutopia.org/blog/gratitude-powerful-tool-for-classroom-owen-griffith

As we approach the end of the calendar year, please check your pay stub to verify your home address. If you need to update any information, please complete the appropriate document in Talent Ed.

Talent Ed Log In: https://rmaschools.tedk12.com/sso/Account/Login?pid=9

ALL employees that claim EXEMPT from federal withholding must fill out a new W-4 each year, per IRS.

If someone wants to make any kind of change on their W-4 to be effective on the Jan 15, 2024 payroll, they will need to fill out the Talent Ed form by Dec 15th.

To adjust your W-4 filing status for 2024, please complete a new form in Talent Ed and submit before December 15, 2023.

Finance SharePoint

https://rmatx.sharepoint.com/sites/RMAFinance

2023-2024 Payroll Calendar is uploaded to the Finance Sharepoint

2023-2024 Payroll Calendar.pdf

Ascender Employee Portal

https://portals20.ascendertx.com/EmployeePortal/login?distid=014801

Location for W-2 Forms and Check Stubs

Did you know, each RMA campus has a McKinney-Vento Liaison who can assist homeless students? Reach out to your campus Student & Community Liaison for more information and resources.

In the 2020-2021 school year, more than 93,000 Texas students were identified as homeless, and nearly 15% of those are without a parent or guardian. Housing instability can have significant effects on the lives of young people and compromise their ability to make a transition to a successful adulthood. Homelessness doesn’t just affect youth who find themselves without homes, it also has broader implications for the communities in which they live because of the impact on the criminal justice systems, education, and other key institutions.

https://tnoys.org/youth-homelessness-resources/#resources-for-youth-and-young-adults-experiencing-homelessness

Over the last twenty years, RMA has always prided itself on the relationships our students and staff have built with their local communities. We recognize our community partners in the in the form of our Friends of RMA program.

Email: info@rma-tx.org
Website: www.rmaschools.org
Location: 401 E. Sonterra Boulevard, Suite 375, San Antonio, TX 78258
Phone: 830.557.6181
Facebook: facebook.com/RMAschools
Twitter: @rmaschools