Destination...Growth!

The beginning of the school year marks the start of grand beginnings! During the first few weeks of school, our staff spend time getting to know our students, both personally and academically. One of the tools we use to gain information about our students' academic progress is the iReady platform.

i-Ready is an online program that will help us determine your child’s strengths and areas for growth, personalize their learning, and monitor their progress throughout the school year. i-Ready allows us to meet your child where they are and provides us with data to inform instruction.

The i-Ready Inform (previously called iReady Diagnostic) is an adaptive assessment that adjusts its questions based on student responses. Each item a student receives is based on their answer to the previous question. For example, a series of correct answers will result in slightly harder questions, while a series of incorrect answers will yield slightly easier ones. The purpose of this is not to give your child a score or grade but to determine how to best support their learning.

What can I do to help?

To help prepare your child for the i-Ready Inform, encourage them to:

• Get a good night’s sleep and eat a full breakfast the day of the assessment.

• Try their best on each question and try not to rush.

• Try not to worry about questions to which they do not know the answers. Just try their best!

• Be respectful of other students who take longer to finish.

• Use paper and pencil to show work on math questions

What happens next?

The i-Ready Inform will provide results that help us identify your child’s strengths and determine next steps for instruction. We look forward to sharing these results with you throughout the year and providing a learning experience that will engage your child while teaching important skills and concepts. Additionally, students work on their individualized learning path each day to help them practice missing skills and gain mastery.

If you have any questions about i-Ready, please do not hesitate to reach out to your child’s teacher. You can also learn more about i-Ready by visiting i-ReadyCentral.com/FamilyCenter.

September:

August 31st - September 11th: Beginning of Year iReady testing for 1st and 2nd grade

7th: No School - Labor Day

8th: PTO meeting @ 6 p.m.

10th: Picture Day (ordering information below)

13th - 25th: Beginning of Year iReady testing for Kindergarten

21st: Early Out @ 1:40 p.m.

22nd: Fall Title Family Night @ 5-6:30 p.m. (details to follow)

23rd: RV PTO Culver's Night @ 5-8 p.m.

28th: No School - Teacher PD day

• Opt-out forms: This year, the district has a new procedure for photo opt-out as well as permission for walking field trips. If you DO NOT want your child photographed and/or photographs to be used on social media you will need to come in to the office and complete a form that is then uploaded into PowerSchool.
• School start time: As a district, we are continually evaluating our safety practices to ensure the highest level of care is taken for our students and staff. With safety in mind, we will be changing our start time to 8:10 a.m-8:30 a.m. daily. This will allow a shorter amount of time that doors are open throughout the building. If your child arrives after 8:30 a.m. they will need to be walked in to the front office to be checked in. Additionally, when students arrive in the morning they will either go eat breakfast or report directly to their classroom. Staff members will be available throughout the building to direct students to their classroom.

We are very fortunate to have the opportunity to provide both before and after school care for our students and families. Adventure Club is open from 6 a.m.-8 a.m. each morning and from 3:30 p.m.-6 p.m. each evening. The K-2nd grade program is housed at Ridge View Elementary.

Please visit Adventure Club website for information regarding cost, enrollment, and more.

https://wr6adventureclub.ce.eleyo.com/

Our Back Snack Program ensures that every student at Ridge View has access to nonperishable food items over the weekends. These food bags are sent home on Fridays weekly/biweekly until the end of the year. This program helps support our students and families by providing a little extra food for the days when school meals are not available. We are grateful for the support of our school community in helping make this program possible! If you would like to be a part of this program you can email our school social worker, Sarah Holtcamp at sholtcamp@warrensburgr6.org or call at 660-747-6013

BIST is also offering a FREE online parenting series that shares tips and tricks for supporting your child(ren) in their academic and behavior skill development. Check out the flyer below for details and to register!

Student meal prices:

Breakfast: $2.10

Lunch: $3.20

Reduced Breakfast: $0.30

Reduced Lunch: $0.40

Check out the district's food service page for information on:

• Meal Prices
• Paying for meals on line
• Completing free/reduced lunch forms
• and more!

https://www.warrensburgr6.org/page/food-services

Don't forget to complete a Free and Reduced Meal Application!

Parents/guardians are strongly encouraged to complete the free and reduced meals application online. The application is available at the following link: https://linqconnect.com/main. Only one application is needed per family!

Several years ago, I was given the opportunity to trial a daily scheduling tool which helps me focus my time on activities that support our staff and students. This may look like a variety of things such as working with students, observing classrooms, providing feedback and support to staff, holding collaborative meetings to improve our instructional practices, celebrating successes, supervising students, and yes, occasionally dealing with student discipline, among other things. The goal is to schedule more time doing instructional focused tasks than anything else each day. I have found this format works very well for me as I can ensure I focus on what is most important, our student's success!

However, there may also be times during the school year that you will need to meet with me. When this need arises, I simply ask that you call and schedule time with Ms. Tocci rather than showing up at the office. Sometimes, I am available to meet at that moment, but generally speaking, I have obligated time to another staff, student, or community member and don't want to cause frustration by making you wait or making you make two trips.

Here are a few tips to ensure your needs are met as quickly as possible:

1. If you need to make changes to your child's pick up routine, please contact the elementary office @ 660-747-6013.
2. If your child had a rough evening or start to their day, please reach out to their classroom teacher to let them know either by phone or via email. Please remember that once the school day starts, any phone calls received for a classroom teacher will be sent to their voicemail so as not to interrupt their instructional time, therefore, emailing your child's teacher may be the most effective means of communication initially.
3. If there is an immediate emergency that involves your child (i.e. death in the family, ER visits, etc.) please contact the elementary office and Ms. Tocci will notify me so we can make a plan to support your child and family.

I do not want to put off your needs, but want to be respectful of everyone's needs. I appreciate your help in supporting not only your child, but all of our students.

• Bus riders: Students who ride the bus to school are unloaded right at the front entrance. Please do not park and/or block this area as it will create traffic and potential safety issues.
• Car riders: All car riders should utilize the southern most entrance that leads to the back portion of our building (please see the map below). Additionally, during Meet the Teacher night, name placecards will be given out to utilize if your child will be a car rider. We ask that you place these in your car window or some other place that is visible to our staff working the car rider line to ensure we pair the right child with the correct vehicle/family.
• Walkers: Parents or guardians who choose to walk their child/children into the building will need to park in the parking lot and walk their child to the front entrance. We ask that all goodbyes be said outside the building. If a parent has a meeting, is volunteering, or a has a scheduled conference they will sign in with the secretary located at the entry of the building.

Classes begin at 8:30 a.m. and students are considered tardy after this time. If a student is tardy, they must be accompanied by their parent/guardian to the office to be checked in.

Dismissal Procedures:

• Bus riders: All bus riders are dismissed through the main entrance; again do not park/block the bus loading zone. Please know that if your child is in Kindergarten, we will not allow the child off the bus if we do not see an adult caregiver at the drop-off location.
• Car riders: All car riders should utilize the southern most entrance that leads to the back portion of our building (please see the map below).
• Walkers: Students who are walkers afterschool will be walked across Ridgeview Dr. at the cross walk. Parents or guardians who wish to pick their child up as a walker should meet their child there.

Other important transportation info: If your child has a change in their transportation, the office must have a dated note or phone call by 2:30 p.m. from a custodial parent or designated care person. Children will not be given permission by school personnel to go home other than the usual way, unless notified by the office. The last thirty minutes of the day are set aside for preparing for dismissal. This is an important organizational time for the students to gather materials that go home and receive final instructions from their teachers.

If you absolutely need to pick up your child before 3:40, we ask that you do so no later than 3:10. The student will be released from the classroom only after the teacher has received verification from the office that the child is being dismissed early. Plans for going home with a friend must be discussed with your child prior to his/her leaving for school in the morning. Transportation arrangements must be specified in a written note and given to the teacher upon arrival at school. If you must get a message to your child during school hours, please call the school office and give the message to the secretary. We will relay the message to your child.

Check out PTO's monthly newsletter as well as the flyer for our upcoming Culver's night! This month's PTO meeting will be on September 8th @ 6 p.m.

The Warrensburg School District has an App to keep our parents and community informed. The app will be used to provide information and notifications from your school principal and the Warrensburg School District. Please be sure to download the Warrensburg R-VI School App from the app store.

Download for Android https://bit.ly/3Jrla5Q

Download for Iphone https://apple.co/42hTIQE