.

Dear Rock View Families,

What a wonderful first week of school!

I want to begin with a sincere thank you. This was truly one of the smoothest first weeks of school I have experienced in my role, and I hope the start of the year felt just as positive for our students and families.

Thank you for joining us for New Student Transition Day and Meet the Teacher, for your patience with our arrival and dismissal procedures, and most importantly, for helping our Roadrunners start the year off right. Your partnership makes a difference.

As we move into the school year, we will continue to focus on providing every student with high-quality instruction in a safe, welcoming, and supportive environment. We know that our best work happens when school and families work together, and it is our goal to continue strengthening that partnership throughout the year.

In this week’s newsletter, you will also see a message from our Reading Specialist, Ms. Marks, introducing Rock View Writes. This will be a year-long schoolwide focus designed to strengthen our students’ ability to communicate their thinking clearly and effectively through writing. We are excited to share more about this work with you throughout the year.

You should also have received the first weekly message from your child’s teacher on Friday. Teachers will send these updates each Friday to share what students are learning, important classroom information, and ways you can stay connected to your child’s learning. We hope these weekly messages help maintain open and consistent communication between home and school.

Thank you again for such a positive beginning. We have a lot to look forward to, and I am excited about the learning, growth, relationships, and memories we will create together this year.

Because at Rock View, The View is Better from Here!

Warmly,

Kilsys Batista
Principal
Rock View Elementary School

Safety is always a top priority at Rock View! This week, our students and staff practiced our safety drills to help everyone understand what to do in an emergency. These practice opportunities help us build confidence, establish routines, and ensure that our school community is prepared to respond quickly and safely if ever needed.

We are so proud of how our students have participated with calmness, focus, and maturity! A few additional practice drills will take place early next week as we continue building these important safety routines.

We encourage families to continue talking with your child about the importance of safety drills, listening carefully to adults, and following directions. Thank you for partnering with us to keep our Rock View community safe! 💛

How We Can Partner Together

• Chat with your child: A quick, reassuring conversation at home goes a long way! Let them know that safety drills are just routine practice to keep everyone safe, much like practice for a sport or learning a fire drill.

• Explore MCPS guidelines: We encourage you to take a few minutes to look through the official MCPS Emergency Preparedness Guide so you are familiar with district protocols and how we communicate during emergencies.

We are so grateful for your trust and partnership as we welcome our students back for a wonderful school year!

~AP Helse

This week, we are giving a HUGE shoutout to our incredible Building Services Team: Maria Ayala, Robert Plummer, Maria Garcia, Reyna Cruz, and Melba Rodriguez!

Our Building Services Team worked tirelessly throughout the summer to make sure Rock View was clean, welcoming, and ready for our students and families. They did an amazing job while balancing construction, summer programming, and all of the many moving pieces happening throughout our building.

Their hard work helps create a school environment where our students can learn, grow, and feel at home each day. We are so grateful for the care and pride they put into Rock View!

Thank you, Building Services Team, for helping us start the school year on the right foot! 💛

This week, we are also celebrating Ms. Marks for the tremendous work she has done to help us begin the school year strong!

Ms. Marks has been working hard to ensure our teachers have the curriculum materials, resources, and guidance they need to support high-quality instruction. She has also partnered with administration and our ELD team to help bring Rock View Writes to life!

And if you've been in the building, you may have noticed the AMAZING Rock View Writes bulletin board! 👀✨ Ms. Marks brought the vision to life with a creative and engaging display that captures the excitement behind this new initiative.

Thank you, Ms. Marks, for your dedication to our teachers, your attention to detail, and your commitment to creating meaningful learning experiences for our students. We appreciate all that you do! 💛

This year, Rock View is putting a school-wide focus on helping every student grow as a confident, capable writer!

Through Rock View Writes, students in Kindergarten through Grade 5 will learn common strategies to help them plan their ideas, strengthen their writing, revise and edit their work, and celebrate their growth as writers.

Stacie Marks

Reading Specialist

Welcome back for another fantastic year at Rock View! Your RVES counselors, Ms. Davis and Ms. Velasquez, are so excited to be working with our Roadrunners this year. Our newsletter this month will help remind you about the work we do as counselors as well as inform you about our wonderful character education program. We are here to support your students however we can, and we look forward to working with you throughout this school year!

Partnering with you to support your child’s learning journey is essential to their success! To help your family plan ahead, our Rock View Assessment Calendar provides testing schedules for the full school year.

The calendar includes dates for both MCPS district assessments and Maryland state assessments (such as MSTAR). We encourage all parents to review the calendar so you can stay up-to-date on upcoming testing windows and help your student feel prepared, supported, and confident every step of the way!

Access the assessment calendar using the following link:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FMq4E1Hl0Hf2W6b6r0Q17RNne5ypPbL8/view?usp=sharing

The PTA welcomes all our families back to school! Our first meeting of the year is Tuesday, Sept. 1, at 7pm on Zoom. All are welcome to join us to hear about upcoming events and learn about how the PTA supports the school! Click here to join the meeting: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/86448036073

Also, it’s time to buy or renew your PTA membership! Join here: https://rockviewes.givebacks.com/shop Your membership money goes toward helping us hold fun, free community events (like the Roadrunner Returns party!), support our students by funding extra field trips and activities, and shower our RV staff with appreciation all year long! Rock View has an amazing family community, and we’re glad you’re a part of it.

Please visit our website at www.rvespta.org to find info and resources, including meeting dates, event calendar, links to our new WhatsApp groups and listserv, and lots more.

Parents, please set up or update your ParentVUE accounts. The information you provide is used for communications from RVES and MCPS, including in the case of an emergency.

If you need technical support please visit this link https://montgomeryschoolsmd.org/parents/tech-info-support/

Student bus stop information available now in ParentVue/StudentVue. Click on the image below for the Department of Transportation site.

Safety Starts Before Students Board the Bus
Getting students to and from school safely is a shared responsibility. MCPS operates more than 1,200 bus routes serving more than 100,000 students each day, and a few simple steps can help keep everyone safe.

• Know your route. Families should review their student’s bus route, stop and schedule before heading out each morning.

• Be safe at the stop and on the bus. Students should stay clear of the roadway, follow the driver’s directions, remain seated and avoid distractions while riding.

• Drivers: Stop for the bus. Slow down around school buses and stops, and always obey flashing red lights and stop arms as required by Maryland law.

• Especially early in the year, buses may run late because of traffic, congestion or student needs. Safety comes first.

Remember to Ride by the Rules!

• Be at your stop on time and wait safely away from the road.

• Wait for the bus to stop and the driver to signal before approaching or crossing.

• Board safely—no pushing, shoving or horseplay.

• Listen to the bus operator and follow directions just as you would from a teacher or school administrator.

• Stay seated, keep the aisle clear and keep hands, feet and belongings inside the bus.

• Be respectful of others—no bullying, harassment, fighting, inappropriate language or disruptive behavior.

• Respect neighborhoods and property around bus stops and help keep buses clean.

• Ride your assigned bus unless you have permission to do otherwise.

• Speak up about unsafe behavior and tell the bus operator or a trusted adult if there is a problem.

• Remember: Your choices matter. Safe, responsible behavior helps everyone get to and from school safely.

Ride by the Rules: Be Respectful. Be Responsible. Be Safe.

Wait, I Can’t Find My Bus Route

Looking for your student’s bus route? It’s right on your school’s homepage.
Morning and afternoon bus routes are automatically posted in the “School Information” box on every school website. Routes are available as PDFs, so you can:

• Download it and keep it on your phone.

• Print it and put it on the refrigerator.

• Save it so it’s easy to check throughout the school year.

You can also find all MCPS bus routes on the Division of Transportation Services website, including systemwide centralized routes serving magnet, immersion and other special programs.
Find your route, save it and have it ready for the school year.
Transportation questions? Contact your transportation manager with your student ID, route number and school.

All You Need to Know for Lunch
It is easier than ever to see your school’s breakfast and lunch menus, along with nutritional details, by visiting the MealViewer webpage.
Families can also learn how to add money to a child’s account through MySchoolBucks. This optional online service is for parents/guardians to make prepayments with a credit or debit card to a student's cafeteria account for breakfast, lunch and à-la-carte items. Learn more.

Explore Outdoor Ed: Family Open House Set for Sept. 8
MCPS Outdoor Environmental Education Programs is hosting an open house for middle school families from 6:30-8 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 8 at the Lathrop E. Smith Center. Staff will share an overview of the Smith Center’s programming, provide tours of the campus, and share information and experiences about the sixth grade Outdoor Education program. The Smith Center is located at 5110 Meadowside Lane in Rockville. Learn more.

RSVP.

Are Your Student’s Immunizations Up to Date?: Here are the latest requirements. The Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services is holding immunization clinics in August and September.

Stay Connected to MCPS

• VISIT the MCPS homepage.

• CALL 240-740-3000. Staff take calls from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, in English and Spanish (240-740-2845). Visit the AskMCPS website.

• READ news and information sent via email and text message and on the MCPS News page.

• FOLLOW the MCPS social media pages:
  x.com/mcps / facebook.com/mcpsmd / instagram.com/mcps_md facebook.com/mcpsespanol / x.com/MCPSEspanol / instagram.com/mcpsenespanol

• SIGN UP for emails and text alerts and make sure your ParentVue information is up to date.

• WATCH the MCPS cable channels Comcast 34 (1071 HD), Verizon 36 or RCN 89

More MCPS Resources

• School calendar

• Parent resource page

• News and Information page / Noticias en Español

• Latest photo galleries

• MCPS TV videos

• MCPS TV español

Phone: 240-740-0920

Address: 3901 Denfeld Ave, Kensington, MD 20850

Principal- Kilsys Batista, kilsys_c_batista@mcpsmd.org

Assistant Principal- Tyvae Helse, tyvae_helse@mcpsmd.org

Admin Secretary- Nancy Morin, nancy_L_morin@mcpsmd.org

Website: montgomeryschoolsmd.org/schools/rockviewes/