Riverbend Round Up

Check out what's happening at Riverbend!

Parent-Teacher Conference Information

Riverbend teachers are working to contact parents and guardians to schedule conferences for the week of 10/4-10/7. This is a great opportunity to meet with your child's teachers to discuss their progress so far this school year. Conferences can be in person or over the phone based on your preference. Administrators will be available to meet with parents from 3-7 PM on Thursday, October 7th. If you would like to schedule a conference with an administrator, counselor, or teacher, please feel free to contact Riverbend to set up an appointment. We look forward to partnering with you to help our Riverbend students achieve their goals!

Important Upcoming Dates

Picture Retake Day: Wednesday, Oct. 6th (Library)

* Please bring old pictures in if you are getting retakes. Students who have not yet had pictures taken should do so on this date as well.

Parent-Teacher Conferences: Oct. 4th - Oct. 7th (Classrooms)

* Please contact teachers to set up conference times if you would like to meet and you have not yet been contacted. Contact the Main Office if you wish schedule an appointment with a counselor or administrator.

Homecoming Parade: Saturday, Oct. 9th at 10 AM.
Columbus Day: Monday, Oct. 11th (No School)
COVID-19 Vaccination Clinic: Oct. 22nd * 1st dose & Nov. 12th * 2nd dose (Riverbend)

* A signup link will be sent out to families from MVR-3 Health Coordinator, Barb Heger.

Online Safety Presentation

On October 6th and 7th, Special Agent William Shinkle from the U.S. Secret Service will be doing a presentation about online safety with our 7th grade JAG classes and our 8th grade Success classes. His presentation is courtesy of the National Center For Missing and Exploited Children and is geared towards middle school students. If you would like more information on this presentation, please feel free to contact Mr. Covert (7th grade JAG) or Mrs. Borgsmiller (8th grade Success).

MVR-3 Pillars Of Success

Each month of school we will highlight one of our 8 Pillars of Success for our students. As we continue to prepare our Riverbend students for a successful transition to high school, we feel it is important to emphasize these character education components in a variety of ways. For September, we had a "Citizenship Spirit Day" where students were encouraged to wear red, white, and blue. We talked about the different ways students can demonstrate good school citizenship by being an active participant in class, respecting the differences of others, and taking pride in keeping our campus clean.

Social Media Use

We are beginning to see an increase in discipline issues surrounding social media use. Teachers may allow students to use their phones with their permission, but as a general rule, students should not be using their personal electronic devices during the school day. In particular, we are seeing a rising number of incidents from Tik Tok called the Devious Licks Challenge. Students are vandalizing and stealing items like soap dispensers and toilet seats from our restrooms and posting the videos to social media. If a student is caught defacing school property, the minimum punishment as stated by our student handbook is 3 days of ISS and restitution for any damaged items. Please help us support our students by encouraging them to respect our school and the tireless work done by our custodial staff. This article provides some helpful tips for talking to your student about good social media use.

Halloween

Many students have asked about dressing up for Halloween this year. Since Halloween falls on a Sunday, students may dress up on Friday, October 29th. If your student chooses to dress up, they must follow these costume guidelines:

No masks, full face paint, fake blood, or weapons of any kind
All other dress code guidelines outlined in our student handbook must be followed
As a general rule: A costume should not affect the learning process in classrooms or disrupt the school environment

If you have any questions regarding your student's costume, please contact an administrator.

Parent Action Committee Update

Do you have some exciting ideas for Riverbend? Would you like to help with upcoming events and fundraisers? If so, PAC is for you! We had our first PAC meeting earlier this month and we would love to have some more parents get involved. Our next meeting is Wednesday, October 20th at 5 PM in the Riverbend library. We hope to see you there!

Difference Makers

In the MVR-3 school district, we love to recognize the individuals who go the extra mile to make Riverbend such a special place. This month, we recognized our school nurse, Mrs. Lindsy Hendricks and our Office Assistant, Mrs. Kelli Owens. Mrs. Hendricks administers medications, treats ill and injured students, and leads all of our contact tracing efforts for COVID-19 cases. She does all of this with a smile and genuine care for our students' well-being. Mrs. Owens is often the first voice you hear on the phone, or the first face you see when you enter our office. She is one of the amazing people who represents Riverbend with enthusiasm and excitement for our school community. They were each recipients of 2 Cardinals tickets courtesy of Character Plus.

If you have a faculty or staff member you would like to recognize as Difference Maker, please contact Mr. Dempsey or Dr. Johler and share your story!