Rocket Wrap Up

May Newsletter

The Last Month!

Dear Families,

Whew! I'm not sure where the Spring went! We are now in May and these last few weeks will fly by! As I sit here, while our last Ohio State Tests take place, I marvel at the amazing work that our students, staff, and families have put in this year. We have made great strides this year and I could not be more proud and excited to celebrate the work you have all done during this last month of school.

Our staff is continuing to focus on the four pillars of learning, safety, partnerships, and fiscal responsibility. A few of the ways we continue to do this are:

Learning--Our special education staff, including some of our staff that will be joining us next year, were able to attend a personalized training session with Sonya Kunkel. She is a leader within the special education world and will continue to work with our staff to fine tune our co-teaching practices and share new strategies in the coming year.
Safety--Our security camera installation project is nearly complete! With the additional safety grant money that we have been awarded, we will continue to look at better access controls on the exterior of the building, safety supports inside the building, and streamlined processes throughout to ensure for the safety of our students and staff.
Community Partnerships--This month, at our End of Year Awards assemblies, we will be awarding our first GoBuck$! We announced this program at the beginning of the year, but are excited to be able to hand out those first certificates to students. As a reminder, GoBuck$ can be earned for achieving Honor Roll in Grades 3 - 5 and for missing less than 2.5 days in Grades K - 5. These may be redeemed for tuition at OSUM!
Fiscal Responsibility--We are continuing to tap into our grant funding to provide for updated materials and resources for our students and staff. By utilizing the grant funds awarded to us first, this allows for our general fund dollars (received through property and income tax) to stretch even further. Some of the items being purchased with grant funds include decodable books for grades 2 and 3, reading manipulatives for grades K - 5, updated furniture for the old computer lab (now called The Zone), and much more coming our way!

As always, please feel free to reach out to me, or your child's teacher, if you have any questions or concerns. We appreciate having the opportunity to educate your student, as well as to work with you to help ensure this is a safe and secure place for them to be each day.

Yours in Education,

Jess Parthemore, Ed.S.

Principal

Ridgedale Elementary

Field Days

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We are excited to welcome visitors during our upcoming Field Days. As you can imagine, safety and security for all students during these events can be challenging. Please bear with us as we work to ensure for the safety of our students, while also welcoming families in to be able to watch their child/ren participate in this tradition.

With this in mind, please help by observing the following protocols:

All visitors must sign in and sign out at the front office.
Please limit restroom usage for all adult/outside visitors/guests to the stadium restrooms. This limits contact with our students in other grade levels that are not participating in field day and are inside the building.
Visitors may come in to the building only to view the obstacle course. Visitors will not be permitted in classrooms or the cafeteria during recess/lunch time.
We ask that parents and visitors please stay in the stadium seating, unless your child's event is not able to be viewed from the stadium seating. This assists our teachers with monitoring and supervising their classes, while also allowing your student to enjoy the day with their classmates.

Field Day Schedule

The schedule for Field Days is as follows:

May 11th (Grades 3 - 5)

May 12th (Grades K - 2)

Relay Races - 9:30 - 10:30 AM

Lunch - 10:30 - 11:15 AM

Field Day Events - 11:30 - 2:45 PM

Transition Days

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We are excited to try something new this year with hosting a Transition Day for all of our students.

On May 8th, our 5th grade students will join their future 6th grade teachers for a building tour and some time to engage in activities to welcome them and get a little taste of junior high before leaving for the summer.

On May 22nd, our students in grade K - 4 will "level up" to spend the day with their next grade level team. Each grade will get to experience a Day in the Life of what to expect when they return in the fall. Our 5th grade students will be able to spend the day with their former Kindergarten teachers to help perform community service around our campus.

We are hopeful that these Transition Day activities help to alleviate some of the anxiety (for students, staff, and parents!) when we welcome them back into the building in the fall.

End of Year Awards

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Our End of Year Awards Programs will be held May 24th throughout the day. Families are welcome to attend during their child/ren's awards assembly. All visitors must sign in through the front office and report to the gym.

Assembly times are as follows:

8:10 AM - 3rd Grade

9:00 AM - 4th Grade

10:00 AM - 2nd Grade

11:00 AM - 5th Grade

12:15 PM - 1st Grade

1:30 PM - Kindergarten

Summer Learning Programs

Are you looking for ways to keep your child on track throughout the summer months? This may be what you are looking for!

We are pleased to be able to continue to offer multiple opportunities to extend your child's learning this summer with in person and online Summer Learning Programs. In person programs are available for students in Grades K - 5. Your child can also log in to iReady and work on their reading and/or math content that is at his/her level. Students will have weekly goals for the minutes that they log in to iReady. If your child meets those minutes then he/she can earn tickets in to drawings for prizes that will be chosen at the end of June and July.

If you would like your child to participate in these summer learning opportunity, please complete this form no later than Friday, May 19th. Please indicate if you will need access to a chromebook to be able to use throughout the summer.

We look forward to seeing all that your student/s can do this summer!

Sincerely,

Jessica Parthemore

Summer Learning Interest Form

Second Step

Second Step has been fully implemented in all of our grade levels, K - 5. The conversations between teachers and students on these important topics has been wonderful.

Classrooms have moved in to Unit 3 which focuses on Problem Solving. More information about what this looks like at each grade is below.

Preschool Registration for 2023/2024

Preschool registration is open for the 2023/2024 school year! Please help spread the news!

PTO News

Reminder that Flower Sale pick up will be May 16th from 4:00 - 6:00. There will be a PTO meeting at 6:30 PM on May 16th in Mrs. Harbolt's room.

Counselor Corner

We have made it to May and are on the home stretch to the end of the year! As a reminder, I am continuing to share tips for parents to help teach responsibility for their child's learning and behavior. We have to teach our children what it means to be responsible and how to go about doing this. Being responsible is not something they can learn on their own. As adults, we need to model the behaviors we want our children to learn. Let's do this!

May focuses on several key areas:

Teaching children how to be good listeners and follow directions

a. Practice "Active listening" by taking turns speaking; focusing on the speaker

b. Summarizing what the speaker just said

Teach children how to be empathetic and get along well with others

a. Teach your child the three-step process to resolving personal conflicts by asking:

"Why did you do that?" or "What happened?"

"When you did that, I felt...."

"I would feel better if....."

2023/2024 & 2024/2025 School Calendars

At the February 27th Board of Education meeting, the Board approved the school calendars for the next two academic years. Please use these as a reference and planning for your families.

2023/2024 Academic Calendar

2024/2025 Academic Calendar

Afternoon Dismissal

Please send a note to the office or call the office whenever there is a change from your child's regular dimissal schedule. Our staff will follow your selected dismissal path unless we hear otherwise.

Buses are released at around 3:10 each day (after the Tri Rivers shuttle returns), so it is often too late to get someone off the bus or put them on the bus if we do not know about it before dismissal begins (and not that we don't trust your child, but sometimes they want to go home the opposite way that they are supposed to and will try to make that choice for us :-)).

Thank you for your help with this!

Stay Safe Speak Up Safer Schools

Ridgedale Schools has partnered with PublicSchoolWorks to offer the Safer Schools site to help with student safety reporting.

You can now use this to report any concerns that you may have. PublicSchoolWorks monitors these reports 24/7. If there is anything that is especially concerning, administration is immediately called to begin to address the concern. If it is not considered an immediate need, administration will receive an email notification to address the situation the following day at school. Please see below for screenshots (they are also hyperlinked to be able to direct you directly to the site).

You may always access the site from the Ridgedale website and app.

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Attendance Information

What do I do if my child is absent?

Daily, consistent attendance is crucial for your student's development and academic growth. The State of Ohio has establish attendance law that requires us to track student attendance, notify you when your student is not present at school, and notify you if your student meets certain attendance thresholds. Please see the document here for more information about attendance law.

Sick

If you child is sick, please call the office or send an email to Mrs. Shumaker (cshumaker@ridgedaleschools.org). If you take your child to the doctor or urgent care, please send the school excuse in to school (paper form or email).

This will be an excused absence.

Medical Appointment

If your student has a medical appointment (doctor, dentist, counseling, etc.), please send the school excuse (paper form or email) in to the school.

This will be an excused absence.

Vacation/Planned Absence

If your family has a planned absence, please send a note/email in to the school before the absence. This allows our staff the opportunity to provide work or materials for your student and allows for the absence to be an excused absence.

Any vacations or planned absences that are not notified before the absence occurs will be not be excused absences.

Volunteers

If you are wishing to volunteer at any point during the school year (field trips, special events, field day, etc.) a current BCI background check is required. Please call the office for more information.

Ohio Governor's Imagination Library

Do you have a child under 5 at home? Do you know a family that has children under 5?

The Imagination Library, offered through the Ohio Governor's Office, Marion Public Library, and Dolly Parton's Imagination Library provides a FREE book for any child under 5 that is signed up, each month!

If you are interested in signing up, please use the QR code below or download the sign up form. This program is free for all who participate!

"The single most important factor influencing a child's early educational success is an introduction to books and being read to at home prior to beginning school."