RPS Update
October 23, 2026
Dear RPS Community,
I wanted to share a few updates on the work happening across the District and the partnerships that continue to make a difference for our students.
At the Board of Education meeting on Monday, October 26, we will begin conversations that will help inform our FY28 budget development, including capital planning. Currently, we are closely monitoring our FY27 operating budget, as we are already seeing overages in certain cost centers. Our Business Office is carefully reviewing these trends and their potential impact as we move through the year.
As I see all the events happening across our schools, I want to thank our PTAs for their continued partnership. Their financial contributions, volunteer hours, and commitment to enriching student experiences make an enormous difference. From classroom support to enrichment opportunities and school events, we simply could not do all that we do without them. I encourage families and staff to join their school's PTA. Sometimes we forget that PTA stands for Parent Teacher Association! Our teachers are an important part of this partnership; if you haven’t joined, please consider doing so! Membership is a small financial commitment, but collectively it makes a difference. Equally important is the gift of time, whether volunteering, attending a meeting, or sharing an idea. I recognize that everyone has competing responsibilities, but every contribution, big or small, matters.
This week, we also held our District’s first technology committee meeting, beginning important conversations about how technology supports teaching and learning. I encourage you to visit our RPS Technology Committees website to learn more and follow this work.
I recently read a piece by Dan Rockwell, “Don't Lie About AI,” which reinforced the importance of being honest about what we know, what we don't know, and the questions we still need to explore. As we consider AI and emerging technologies, we need to think carefully about their implications for curriculum, instruction, and student learning. For me, the question is not simply what technology can do, but what we want students to know, understand, and be able to do—and how technology can support that learning.
Also, the RPS Strategic Planning Process is underway, with the Initial Design Team holding its final meeting today and the Steering Committee starting its work next week. We will ask families, staff, and students for input through a Climate Survey next month, and to participate in Focus Groups through the first few months of 2027. You can count on communication throughout the process!
As I reflect on these different areas of our work, I see a common thread: asking thoughtful questions, being transparent about challenges, and working together. We won't always have all the answers, but with good intentions and a willingness to listen, we can continue moving forward thoughtfully.
Thank you, as always, for your partnership with RPS!
Warmly,
Susie
Susie Da Silva, Ed.D
Check Your e-Backpack
Please help RPS go green by checking your students' e-Backpack weekly for important information. Community organizations and groups can submit flyers for inclusion by emailing Christine Melagrano.
October Calendar
Please check the your school calendar for important dates. The Board of Education committee meeting calendar is ongoing so please review the District calendar for additions.
November Calendar
Please check the your school calendar for important dates. The Board of Education committee meeting calendar is ongoing so please review the District calendar periodically for additions. RHS Robotics is still looking for volunteers for its annual competition; see more information about getting involved and attending the event in the flyer.
In the Schools
RHS Club Fair
A Showcase of the Many of Ways to Get Involved at RHS
Last Friday, the RHS Student Life Office hosted the annual Club Fair during the long block. Club presidents and members set up tables offering information—and sometimes candy—to prospective members eager to get involved. With dozens of organizations represented, there was truly something for everyone!
Some clubs have already started. The American Sign Language (ASL) Club hosted a silent disco for its first meeting, while the Heritage Club started the 2026-27 season with a salsa dancing lesson. Tiger Media has been broadcasting live all fall from Tiger Hollow—a great fit for students interested in sports, statistics, journalism, or media production.
Get involved with Unified Sports, Unified Theater, or both to be part of the inclusive 1RPS fun. Service-focused groups like Interact, RHS Gives, and Youth Against Cancer shared ways students could serve their community. The Environmental Club offers ways to serve the earth. Mental Health Wellness was a very active table, showing that RHS students know the importance of student wellness.
For those looking toward future careers—whether in medicine, teaching, finance, or statistics—RHS offers specialized academic and career clubs to help build skills and network. These clubs, along with Debate, Geography, Math, and Science Olympiad, provide students with opportunities to compete in local and national events. Among the Club Fair’s most popular stops was the Ridgefield Robotics Club arena, where students could test-drive robots in anticipation of an upcoming competition on November 7 (help wanted!).
The coed RHS Ultimate Frisbee team, Banana Assault, pitched an unbeatable offer: high fun for a low $20 fee. Girls Rugby took a humorous approach to recruitment, asking prospective players: "Do you hate running, but love knocking people down?" For a more recreational option, the Pickleball Club meets regularly during FLEX for low-stress play.
Visit the Student Life Office website to learn about more ways to get involved.
RHS Peer Mentors Visit Ninth Grade Advisories
On Monday, our new RHS peer mentors visited freshman advisories during FLEX to help build bridges. Our older peer mentors expressed solidarity and availability: "You don't have to figure it out alone; we've been there." They encouraged ninth graders to consider getting a mentor and gave helpful advice to make high school more manageable. Several students emphasized that attending FLEX intentionally matters because it’s a time when they are already in the building. They also recommended taking grades seriously even as a Freshman because it sets up your GPA later. One student explained that developing a system using a planner to track assignments and due dates really helped her stay organized and prioritize her time. Students who were new to the district as freshmen recommended the club fair and joining one or two extracurriculars to meet like-minded students! Read more about the Peer Mentor Program and the Thrive Together Initiative in past RPS Updates.
Growth in Projections: High Notes for RHS Concert Choir
In five years, the number of students enrolled in RHS Concert Choir has risen from 12 to 74 students—an exponential rebound. Participation numbers, however, tell only part of the story. "I went to the choir concert last year and was so impressed. I wanted to get involved," explained senior Wyatt Clifton—a devoted Jazz Band member, Pep Band drum major, and singer in the select choral group Madrigals—on his decision to add Concert Choir class to his busy schedule for the first time this year.
At the helm of this post-pandemic turnaround is Choir Director Lauren Verney-Fink, whom Wyatt describes as "brilliant." Over the past five years, Ms. Verney-Fink has tirelessly expanded performance opportunities for RPS students. Her creative initiatives span from a sing-off between fall athletic teams to the world debut of a student composition (read the story here). Her choir has performed everywhere from Main Street’s Festival of Lights to opening for the Rockettes at Radio City, singing John Rutter’s Magnificat under the composer's direction at Carnegie Hall, and singing with RPS fourth graders, middle school students, and the Ridgefield Chorale at the Ridgefield Playhouse. The select fifth-grade chorus and eighth-grade choruses sang with RHS for the past three years at the Choral Festival. She has even lent her vocal expertise to the varsity football team, helping captains during the FLEX period this fall learn to project better on the field.
That balance of high standards, high energy, and community connection resonates every day in the classroom. The ensemble bridges all skill levels—from ninth-grade novices to aspiring vocalists planning to pursue music after graduation—all united by the RHS Choir Promise: “We will achieve positive and productive rehearsals by putting forth our full physical and mental effort.”
Through an expertly orchestrated schedule of full ensemble rehearsals and targeted sectional work, Ms. Verney-Fink makes every minute count. Senior tenor Peter Jensen—a varsity football player and four-year chorus member—recalled how meaningful it felt performing at Homecoming this year, describing it as a true “full-circle moment.” Senior alto Grace Smith echoed that sentiment: “In just 40 minutes, we get so much done.”
With a trip to Los Angeles with RHS band and orchestra students on the horizon next month, the choir’s harmony shows no signs of missing a note. Mark your calendars for the Winter Concert on Wed. December 16 to hear this inspiring ensemble perform again!
East Ridge 7th Graders Explore Machine Learning
This week, East Ridge seventh graders took part in a hands-on, interactive digital citizenship lesson in the school library. After a brief discussion defining AI, librarian Devin Samaha acted as the programmer, instructing students to use LEGOs to model how programmers train AI models to execute operations. The LEGOs represent data; the students represent machines.
By acting out tasks, students gained a hands-on understanding of the three core methods of machine learning—supervised, unsupervised, and reinforcement learning. After the activities, class discussions connected these concepts to real-world technology students use every day.
To wrap up, students considered which machine learning method would best train a robot to put library books back on the shelf. It was an exciting and empowering way for students to build critical digital literacy skills for the future!
First Grade Welcomes Community Helpers
Last week, first graders at Scotland Elementary School had an exciting afternoon, reports teacher Liz Wronski: "As a culminating activity for our community unit, we had community helpers from Ridgefield visit to share how they help others. We had members from the Ridgefield Fire Department, Ridgefield Police Department, Paul Wronski Graphic Design, and The Ridgefield Library." We love our Ridgefield community!
Work Hard; Play Hard—Pre-K Is Well Underway
Last week’s RPS Update featured a story on lessons in the Barlow Mountain Elementary pre-K classroom. Read that story here. This week, we returned to Barlow Mountain for a lesson and visited the Veterans Park Pre-K to carve a monster pumpkin. There’s a whole lot of learning going on with these great teachers and hard-working (and adorable) students.
Veterans Park Carved the Great Pumpkin!
On Wednesday morning, Samantha Colmanetti’s Veterans Park students met on the rug to plan what expression they would carve into their monster pumpkin. They decided to carve two faces—a happy face on one side and a scary one on the other. They hypothesized what they would see inside and reviewed pumpkin vocabulary—pulp, seeds, skin. After Ms. Comanetti carved off the stem, paraeducator Andreia Nunes toured the pumpkin around the room for student observations: “It looks like a spider web,” “It smells like pumpkin pie.” Students took turns scooping out the pulp, choosing their preferred implement—scraper or spoon. They used their “helper hand” to hold the pumpkin. “I caught a seed,” said one of the students with delight.
As she cut out the pumpkin’s facial features, their teacher noted that it was hard work, and the students helped safely. Occupational therapist Gaby Pierandri also took a turn with the scalpel. When they finished carving both faces, they sang the holiday favorite, “Five Little Pumpkins Sitting on a Gate,” and at the end of the song, the lights mysteriously went out, much to their delight. In this simple lesson, students practiced patience, shapes, cooperation, resilience, vocabulary, counting, and so much more.
They will bury the pumpkin later this month for a spring hands-on lesson in the VPES garden about chemistry, decomposition, and worms. Will the giant pumpkin survive the winter? Stay tuned to RPS Update to find out.
Lessons in ABCs
On Wednesday afternoon, Natalie Skrokov’s pm group of three- and four-year-olds sat along the rug. Ms. Skrokov has laid out alphabet cards from Fundations, the RPS PK and elementary curricular resource. The cards are big and cheerful, and the kids know the alphabet and enjoy singing the alphabet song as their teacher uses a pointer to go through each letter. This is a phonics lesson, where students are introduced to the sounds letters make.
The young students point to their names, written on a white board, “kissing their brains,” in a fun gesture meant to reward this hard work. Soon, they switch to a lesson in phonological awareness from the resource Heggerty, which is aligned to the Science of Reading. They look at objects that start with the letters L (log, lion, etc.) and M and repeat the words. They work with rhyming words: “walk” “talk”, “beep” “jeep”, etc. They listen for words that start with the same sound. They also listen for the sound at the end of the word, like “chef” and “leaf.” The students also use their hands to simulate breaking words apart, like “walk-ing,” “see-ing.”
To connect the lessons in letter names and sounds, they hear a fun poem about pumpkins and then do a quick activity putting shapes on a pumpkin to make a jack-o’-lantern. Paraeducator Keeko Gythfeldt helps keep the students on task and the classroom tidy. Snack, story, and recess time!
In the Community
Does Their Idea Have Teeth?—RHS Seniors Compete in Shark Tank V
Three enterprising Ridgefield High School seniors are heading to the tank! This Tuesday, October 27, RHS students Evan Sherling, Simon DeMain, and Rhona Brosnan will take the Ridgefield Playhouse stage at Shark Tank V to pitch their innovative business ideas to a panel of expert judges.
For Evan Sherling and Simon DeMain, their entrepreneurial partnership began back in sixth grade at Scotts Ridge Middle School. Co-owners of a mobile car detailing company and active participants in the RHS Business Department, the Business Symposium, FBLA, and DECA, the duo launched their fashion brand, Maison Verne, at the end of last school year.
“We were seeing ads on TikTok for leather card holders and wallets,” says Evan. “And that was something we could do because it’s affordable, unique, and one size fits all.”
Starting with embossed leather card holders, Evan and Simon expanded their line to include shirts, men’s apparel, and fishhook bracelets—already netting over five figures in revenue. At Shark Tank V, they are looking for an infusion of capital to fund social media advertising and partner with TikTok creators to take Maison Verne to the next level.
Facing off against her fellow Tigers is senior Rhona Brosnan, whose venture DECA ClubHub addresses a problem she discovered firsthand after joining DECA as a freshman.
“Within my first couple weeks in DECA, I quickly realized that I was excited by business... but something I felt was missing was one place where all study resources were kept,” Rhona explains. “The most important part of DECA is being prepared to present on the spot in front of judges, but our club didn't have a good way to practice.”
Over the summer, Rhona built DECA ClubHub, a website designed to simulate roleplay presentations using an AI agent that generates prompts, provides instant feedback, and uses speech-to-text functionality for an authentic competition feel. To protect user privacy, students set personalized 4-digit PINs.
“It took me many iterations of talking with Claude to make sure it included every feature I envisioned,” says Rhona. “I am so excited to see how DECAClubHub will help my club members get the competitive edge at our State and National conferences this year—and I envision it expanding to other DECA chapters across the country!”
Sponsored by the Ridgefield Economic & Community Development Commission (ECDC), Ridgefield Shark Tank is a fun community event where local entrepreneurs compete for $5,000 in prize money. This year’s five-judge panel features heavy hitters including the President and Chair of IBM and a Senior Vice President of Fairfield County Bank.
RHS students have a strong track record at the event—last year, RHS student Max Nadorski wowed Shark Tank IV judges with his mission-driven apparel company, Lead the Change. Additionally, RHS business students will be working behind the scenes to help run the event. Come cheer on our Tigers as they swim with the sharks! Get free Shark Tank tickets and see the full list of judges on the ECDC website.
Coat & Boot Swap Warms Hearts and Feet!
Ridgefield PTA Joint Council VP of Programming Kelsey DePalo reports that Sunday's Coat & Boot Swap at the Ridgefield Recreation Center brought together families and volunteers from across Ridgefield for a wonderful afternoon of giving and community. She writes, "Families brought donations from every school, and Branchville volunteers even stood in the rain during arrival and dismissal to collect directly from the car lines. Our PTAs and school communities put so much care into making it happen. I was especially impressed by seventh graders Haddie Pambianchi and Ava Maucieri from Lion’s Heart, and National Honor Society volunteers Tess D’Andraia, Leighton O’Brien, Joseph Morales, and Bennett Stern. They set up tables, unpacked bags and bags of donations, and jumped in to help families shop or search for specific sizes—their initiative and willingness to help made such a difference. One of my favorite parts was seeing families watch someone leave happy and excited with the very coat or pair of boots they had donated. With hot cocoa, sweet treats, and conversations with familiar neighbors and new faces, it felt like a true community event. We also donated five boxes of coats to the Cub Scout coat drive, extending the community’s generosity even further."
Warms the heart and the feet! Thank you to Kelsey and our incredible RPS community!!!! 1RPS!
RHS Athletics
Soccer Tournament for Unified Team
RHS Unified superstars had their first soccer tournament of the year this week at Newtown! Great to see the team back together. 1RPS!
Tiger Media Just Doing It!
There’s teamwork happening at Tiger Hollow that has nothing to do with winning or losing. That team is the Tiger Media Club—the RHS athletics department's student-run live streaming organization. Co-led by junior co-presidents Josh Bearse and Nate Gershner, Tiger Media is a growing club where students handle all the camera work, live commentary, post-game interviewing, equipment setup, and directing for coverage of home varsity events. Find the Tiger Media RHS feed here and Instagram here.
Tiger Media members rotate through different responsibilities or specialize in a favorite role. Nate, who plays ice hockey and plans to pursue sports broadcasting after high school, manages the YouTube feed, switching cameras to show on-field action in real time, and directing most live streams. Josh has done every role in the club, covering 80 events, and almost as many sports as RHS offers. His post-game interviews with athletes are a staple of the club’s Instagram channel. Together, they have logged hundreds of hours covering Tiger teams.
Freshman Teagan Campbell learned about the club as an eighth grader through Nate’s outreach to the Scotts Ridge Morning Show. “I thought I wanted to be on camera,” Teagan says from the Media Box, overlooking Tiger Hollow with a backdrop of peak fall foliage. “But I’ve really liked the behind-the-scenes camera work, too. I know most people want to be playing on the field, but I love it up here.”
Josh and Nate kept the club going after a setback when the club advisor moved out of the district their freshman year, and the boys relaunched it as sophomores. Many of the club’s crew members balance Tiger Media alongside other extracurriculars. Ryan Ruggiero—whose twin sister, Reagan, is a junior captain on the girls' soccer team—serves as the regular girls' soccer commentator while playing baseball. Ray Koerner, a trumpeter in the pep band, is a frequent play-by-play commentator. Lucy Tucker also plays the euphonium (a smaller tuba relative). Nate says that music student Gavin Stone is working on an original composition for the club’s feed.
Because Club members are so involved in other RHS activities, Tiger Media is always on the lookout for new members. No experience with the equipment or apps is necessary; they will teach you. They are also hoping to raise funds to upgrade their cameras. Find more information on the Student Life webpage or contact Faculty Club Advisor Matthew Bearse.
HeARTS and Hallways
These bulletin boards from the sister elementary schools—Barlow Mountain and Scotland—made us smile and think! Can you unscramble the letters in the box bottom right to find the message?
More Photos From the Month—Good Sports!
Would you rather get a pie in the face or be taped to a wall? We might need to consult Veterans Park principal Dr. Sheri Prendergast and Farmingville Elementary principal Nancy Caron and PE teacher Steve Either to answer that question. All were good sports and showed a sense of school spirit and fun when they followed through on their vows to get pranked if targets for VPES Spirit Run and FES Raccoon Rally were met. What a way to celebrate National Principals Month! Thank you to our principals for all you do to go above and beyond for our schools.
Editor's reminder: We love sharing photos and stories from the RPS Community every week, so please continue to reach out! At times, we make errors, which we correct in the next newsletter; to avoid confusion and cluttering inboxes, we resend a corrected newsletter only when necessary. You can reach out to Alison Pratt to submit stories, corrections, and feedback.
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