We had a great first few days back with students last week and it was wonderful to see them fill our halls and classrooms again after the break. Students likely spent some time in their core academic classes last week reviewing their benchmark results and setting goals for Term 3. We have discussed with teachers the importance of making these goals as relevant as possible for students - ideally focusing on skills or areas that need improvement over the next 9 weeks. Your student should have come home with a summary of how they are doing at this point in the school year. In addition to their report card, it would be very helpful if you can spend a few minutes discussing the importance of growth to ensure they continue making progress toward the essential skills in their grade level. If you have any questions, please reach out to their teachers, counselors, or a member of our administrative team. We are more than happy to assist!

We will celebrate students' hard work on Wednesday in our Rams Way Assemblies. PTSA continues to be an incredible support in helping us reward students for their grades and progress. If you haven't already donated, please consider donating to this year's PTSA Drive. Information on the drive is in the newsletter below. We truly would not be able to provide students with so many fun lessons, field trips, and rewards without their support.

Finally, this week also brings Spirit Week with the Basketball City Championship against the JMS Eagles this Saturday. More information is below, but please ensure students are within dress code expectations. We will end the week with a Pep Rally on Friday. We hope to see you Saturday afternoon to help cheer the Rams to victory! As always, please remember the importance of good sportsmanship and represent our school well in the stands and bleachers.

As always, please reach out if there is anything we can do to better support your student or family.

Have a wonderful evening!

-Nick Corrigan, Principal, njcorrigan@ortn.edu

-Christy Free, Vice Principal, ccfree@ortn.edu

-Christopher Williams, Dean of Students, cewilliams@ortn.edu

Monday – Jan 8 (Jersey/Hat Day)

SECME Club 7:00-7:05am (Room 120)

French & Spanish Club 2:50-3:30pm (Room 209)

MATHCOUNTS 2:45-4:00pm (Room 233)

TSA Officer Meeting 3:00-3:30pm (Room 234)

Basketball Practice 3:00-6:30

BOE Meeting 5:00pm (SAB)

Tuesday – Jan 9 (Lumber Jack Day)

Principal’s Student Advisory Meeting 7:05-7:35am (Library)

Geography Club 2:45-3:45 (Room 228)

SECME Meeting 7:00-7:30am (Room 120)

TSA Meeting 2:45-5:00pm (STEM Lab)

PTSA Meeting 4:30pm (Library)

RMS Basketball vs Cleveland (A) GV 6:00pm, BV 7:00pm

Wednesday – Jan 10 (Dress for Success Day)

SECME Meeting 7:00-7:30am (Room 120)

Rams Way Assemblies

Café Catch Up 12:45-2:00pm (Cafeteria)

Ski Club to Ober Gatlinburg 1:00-9:00pm

Thursday – Jan 11 (Grade Level Colors Day)

SECME Meeting 7:00-7:30am (Room 120)

Superintendent’s PTO Council Meeting 9:00-11:00am (SAB)

RMS Basketball vs. Norris (H) BJV 5:00pm, GV 6:00pm, BV 7:00pm

Friday – Jan 12 (RAM Nation Day)

GIVE Club 7:00-7:30am (Room 224)

SECME Meeting 7:00-7:30am (Room 120)

Pep Rally - Go Rams! 2:00pm

TSA Regional Competition (RMS)

Saturday - Jan 13

RMS vs. JMS City Championship Game at ORHS Wildcat Arena

• Boys JV - 1:00pm
• Girls Varsity - 2:00pm
• Boys Varsity - 3:00pm

Reminder - No School on Monday, January 15th in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday

Congratulations to our Robertsville TSA members for being selected as Tennessee TSA Chapter of the Month!

The Technology Student Association (TSA) is a national organization of students engaged in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Open to students enrolled in or who have completed technology and engineering courses, TSA’s membership includes over 300,000 middle and high school students in approximately 2,400 schools spanning 46 states and territories. TSA is supported by educators, parents and business leaders who believe in the need for a technologically literate society. Members learn through exciting competitive events, leadership opportunities and much more. The diversity of activities makes TSA a positive experience for every student. From engineers to business managers, our alumni credit TSA with a positive influence on their lives.

A huge shout out to Dr. Burnette, Ms. Leftwich and the many parent and RMS alumni volunteers that help make our program so successful!

We are happy to notify you that beginning Wednesday, January 3, Robertsville Middle School will be providing free breakfast and lunch to all students. This change stems from an adjustment in the U. S Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) threshold for participation in the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) that allows schools to offer free meals to all students.

This change will be in place for the remainder of the 2023-24 school year, however, it is not retroactive and does not erase any current meal balances. Current meal balances can be paid online, or in-person at your school cafeteria to avoid processing fees.

While the change from the USDA allows for increased eligibility, unfortunately, there will still be some schools in the district with a lower eligibility rate that will not be receiving free meals. The district will evaluate the eligibility data and associated costs of including more of our schools on an ongoing basis to determine if we can include any additional schools for next school year or beyond.

The Ram Fam took some time last Wednesday afternoon to celebrate and thank Mr. Scot Smith for his 22+ years of service to our school community. His devotion to our students and love for reading has made such a tremendous impact on our youth for so many years and he will be dearly missed! Mr. Smith has ensured that reading has been a priority for students and has kept our library exciting and relevant through numerous author visits, book fairs, and book clubs. He has most recently accepted a professorship at the University of Tennessee’s School of Information Sciences where he will mentor and lead the next generation of school librarians in their path toward certification. Mr. Smith and his beloved puppet friend, Flluffy, will be missed! Stay tuned next week for an introduction to the next RMS School Librarian who will be joining our school community in the very near future.

Term 2 Report Cards were sent home on Friday, January 5th. Please be sure to keep an eye out for this important update on your child's progress this year. You can also access their report card grades in Skyward and monitor their progress on assignments in Canvas. Students access these applications regularly on their devices. Reviewing progress with students weekly is a great way to establish positive expectations and regular communication.

8th Graders also received their Pre-Act Results from the assessment given November 15-16.

Finally, teachers have received Term 2 Winter Mastery View Predictive Assessment (MVP) Benchmark results and will be discussing them with students over the next 1-2 weeks. Students will come home with Individual Reports for each of the Core Subject Areas (ELA, Math, Science, Social Studies).

Please reach out to your student's teachers or school counselors with any questions or concerns about their progress.

Order your 2024 RAM Yearbook today. The deadline to order special options such as name stamping on the cover is rapidly approaching: January 19, 2024. The cost is $20.

Visit www.yearbookordercenter.com and use our school code 17202 or enter the school name to begin. A service fee of $3.99 (or more if ordering multiple books) will apply to online orders.

Would you like to submit photos for the 2024 Ram Yearbook? Visit www.hjeshare.com and enter the school code “ramfam” to upload your images for consideration. For ease of upload, check the App Store to download and use the Herff Jones eShare app for your device. Please note that we cannot guarantee that all images will be used.

Students in 5th, 6th and 8th grades will participate in the Oak Ridge Board of Education approved Family Life curriculum during their Physical Education class on January 29-February 2. The programming will be age appropriate and address topics covered in the 5th, 6th, and 8th grade Health Education standards.

5th Grade Family Life Information

Lessons presented will be age- appropriate information on the emotional, social, and physical aspects of growing up. Boys and girls will be separated for this presentation but will watch the same video. The link for the video is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bw1N06PKhu4

6th and 8th Grade Family Life Information

Lessons presented will be age-appropriate information on the emotional, social and physical aspects of growing up. Information on sexually transmitted diseases, refusal skills, abstinence, HIV/AIDS is also included. Students will remain in the same classroom, unlike when boys and girls were separated in the 5th grade program. This information will be presented by the non-profit, Let’s Talk 101.

Per School Board Policy 4.213:

A parent/guardian has the right to opt their child out of participating in this programming. If you want to opt your child out of programming, please complete the following form using the QR code/link below: https://forms.office.com/r/bxUdZaN1JU

If you would like additional information about the program, or if you have further questions, please feel free to contact Lauren Hawkins, Dean Williams, or Jamie Petrie at 425-9201 or by email at lmhawkins@ortn.edu, dwilliams@ortn.edu or jpetrie@ortn.edu

PTSA is excited to announce we have a Donor who is willing to match donations up to $5,000. As you can see above the impact of your donation is great for RMS Students. Without PTSA many of the above would not take place. If we receive $15 per student, we will hit our overall goal. PTSA also supports our amazing Educators with staff appreciation events as a Thank You for all they do in educating our students.

PTSA has already funded over $3,000 in requests this school year for Stem Lego kits, Soldering Kits, Bulletin Boards for Electives and Reflex Math Subscription to assist with students needing extra help in math.

How to donate? Return the Donation Envelope that went home with your student to school or Via Paypal at at paypal.me/rmsorptsa. Scan the QR Code above to take you to our direct PayPal link.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!!!

Need to See a Counselor - Student Request Form

If students need to see a counselor throughout the year for any reason, we ask that they complete the online “Request to See a Counselor” form located in Clever. Once students complete this form, the counselors will receive an email and will work to schedule students based on their availability. If the situation is an emergency, we ask that students please make note of this in the comments section. We ask that students please be patient and know that we will get them scheduled as soon as possible. If it will take more than a day, we will reach out to the student by email or through their teacher to let them know.

Parents are always welcome to reach out to us with any questions or concerns. Kristy Best works with 5th and 7th grades – kbest@ortn.edu. Tarah Sanford works with 6th and 8th grades – TASanford@ortn.edu.

About

The Robertsville Middle School Parent Teacher Association (RMS PTSA) is part of the RMS family. Our purpose is to support fun and educational programs, events, services, and opportunities to our children, to enrich their academic experience. We work closely with the school administration, faculty, and staff to help our students achieve all that they can.

Membership

The membership dues for the current year shall be set at $5.00. At the present time, the TN PTA portion is $2.00 and the National PTA portion is $2.25. RMS PTSA will keep $.75 to offset membership processing fees.

Volunteer

Research shows that students whose parents are involved in their school get better grades, do better on tests and have fewer disciplinary problems at school.

What is your talent? Community outreach, back to school activities, spirit gear, RAM Perks reward program, donation drive/fundraising, visiting author receptions, or providing items for events like our teacher/staff luncheons, intercessions, and State testing.

While you DO NOT need to be a member of PTSA to be a volunteer, we would like to invite all adults AND students with an interest in RMS to join and have a voice in how PTSA funds are used to support RMS. Volunteer forms are in the back-to-school packets or may be found on the Forms page of PTSA website.

The PDFs of the bus routes have been posted online and are available to families on the transportation website. They are also linked from the back-to-school website.

Additionally, families can log on to the Tyler Versatrans website and check their route information there. The directions for that are below.

Tyler Versatran Log In

Username: (use student’s name) firstname.lastname

This is case sensitive–example: john.smith

Password: (use student birth date) in this format 03122007 for March 12, 2007

Transportation Dept Information & Points of Contact can be found at:

https://www.ortn.edu/district/bus-routes/