PRM School Rocker

Greetings PRM Families,

The signs of spring are beginning to appear, and with them comes an exciting and important time in our school year. Our teachers and staff continue working hard each day to support every child’s academic and social growth. Your partnership, encouraging strong work habits, reading together, and reinforcing perseverance, makes a tremendous difference. When families and schools work together, students thrive.

📅 Important Dates

• March 13, 2026 – End of 3rd Quarter

• March 16, 2026 – 4th Quarter Begins

• March 20, 2026 – Report Cards Go Home & Grades Available in Focus

• March 23–27, 2026 – Spring Break (No School)

📚 Instructional Focus: Tier I & WIN Block

At PRM, our goal is for every student to demonstrate strong academic growth.

Students receive:

• High-quality Tier I classroom instruction aligned to learning standards

• Additional targeted support during our WIN (What I Need) Block, where students receive intervention or enrichment based on their individual needs

Together, these supports help ensure every learner grows and builds confidence.

📝 Spring Assessment Season

Our Spring Assessment Cycle runs from March 30 – May 15, 2026.

During this time:

• Grades 3–6 will take the Ohio State Tests (OST) in English Language Arts and Mathematics.

• Grades K–2 will complete the Spring i-Ready Diagnostic and the Acadience end-of-year literacy assessment.

These assessments allow students to demonstrate the knowledge and skills they have gained throughout the year. Teachers are helping students prepare through classroom practice and test-taking strategies.

⏰ Attendance Matters

Daily attendance and on-time arrival by 7:40 a.m. are especially important during the final quarter and testing season.

Please help by:

• Ensuring students arrive on time each day

• Avoiding appointments or vacations during the testing window

If your family needs support, our school social worker Ms. Allie Quinter is available to connect families with helpful resources.

As we move into the final quarter of the school year, we are excited to see our students continue to grow, learn, and shine. Thank you for your continued partnership and support of every PRM learner.

We look forward to celebrating the many accomplishments that spring will bring!

With gratitude,

Principal Simpson

Email: simpsoa@cpsboe.k12.oh.us

Event updates throughout the month are available on www.prmrocks.org/calendar

*You can subscribe to this calendar on your personal device by finding the green “subscribe” button on the top right side of the calendar page and following the directions.

Monday, March 9-Sunday, March 15 – Annual PRM Read-A-Thon www.prmrocks.org/readathon

Monday, March 9 – Restaurant of the Month - Café Alma from 7:00am-3:00pm (dine-in and carryout)

Wednesday, March 11– LSDMC Meeting @ 3:00pm at PRM (Library)

Wednesday, March 11 – PTO Meeting @ 6:00pm at PRM (Library)

Wednesday, March 11 – Foundation Meeting @ 7:15pm at PRM (Library)

Friday, March 13 – End of Third Quarter

Friday, March 13 & Saturday, March 14 – PRM Musical, Disney’s Moana Jr. @ 6:00pm at PRM

Monday, March 16 – ILT Meeting @ 2:45 at PRM

Thursday, March 19 – Spring Picture Day (students MUST be in uniform for class pictures)

Monday, March 23-Friday, March 27 – No School; Spring Break

Monday, March 30 – School Resumes

Monday, April 6 – ILT Meeting @ 2:45 at PRM

Wednesday, April 8– LSDMC Meeting @ 3:00pm at PRM (Library)

Wednesday, April 8 – PTO Meeting @ 6:00pm at PRM (Library)

Wednesday, April 8 – Foundation Meeting @ 7:15pm at PRM (Library)

Kindergarteners enjoyed our field trip to the Cincinnati Museum Center on Friday, February 27. Many thanks to our chaperones for your help and flexibility. Students had fun and learned a lot.

We will participate with the rest of the school in Read Across America, Get Cozy, and Read on Friday, March 6. We are also excited for PRM's annual Read-A-Thon, March 9-15.

Our outdoor education time will resume the week of March 3 for kindergarten students. Special thanks to our partners at Imago for this wonderful program.

In Language, we will continue isolating beginning, ending, and medial sounds, and blending and segmenting 3 phonemes. In Writing, we will continue writing short sentences with an uppercase first letter, spacing between words, and punctuation at the end. We will be reading books and focusing on identifying characters, setting, and major events. In Math, we will continue working on addition and subtraction. We will introduce simple measurements such as length and weight, and compare between items.

As always, contact your child's teacher with any questions or concerns.

March is Reading Month! PRM students will participate in the Read-A-Thon and our Book Bracket this month. Please contact your Community Classroom if you have questions about our March Reading Events.

The 6-9 Students will be able to watch the PRM Moana Performance during the school day on Friday, March 13. We are so lucky that Ms. Wahl has organized this for our learners and staff members. Outdoor Education is beginning this month, and I know our students are eager to get back outside into our garden. We also have Spring Picture Day on March 19. Our month will end with Spring Break from March 23-27.

End-of-year testing will begin in April, so our classrooms will continue direct instruction to build the knowledge of each and every learner.

On Friday, we welcomed back our 6th-grade students from Camp Kern! We have thoroughly enjoyed hearing the stories of their time together. These memories will no doubt stay with them long after their time at PRM is done. Soon, our 6th Graders will receive their class t-shirts to wear in solidarity as they finish their last few months as students of PRM.

This week, we will celebrate Read Across America. On Friday, March 6, students may come to school in pajamas for "Get Cozy and Read" Day. Please encourage your student to bring a book to read during this event. Teachers will have extra options on hand for students who forget.

The end of the 3rd Quarter and Spring Break are approaching quickly. Please make sure you check Focus weekly so you can have important conversations with your student about missing work and academic progress. It is easy for our students to lose steam this time of year. It is critical that we encourage them to finish the school year strong! We are working hard to review grade-level content so we can do our best on the OSTs in April. We want their test results to reflect all of the hard work and gains our students have made this year!

As always, your partnership means the world to the 9-12 team. Thank you for all you do at home to support your student's success! Please don't hesitate to reach out to your student's teacher should you have any questions or concerns.

In Art, the 9-12 students are creating ecosystem watercolor collages, combining their knowledge of science with the art of landscape painting. Students are practicing different watercolor techniques and showing space in their work using a horizon line. You can expect to see themed tic-tac-toe boards and enamel works coming home over the next few weeks.

6-9 students just finished their foreground, middle ground, background tri-fold using watercolor pencils. Students considered how the size and location of an object can create the illusion of space in a work of art. Students are beginning their clay projects and learning basic hand-building techniques, including creating a pinch pot, making a coil, using tools to create textures, and attaching pieces of clay.

Kindergarten students recently created surreal masks by combining familiar ideas to create something imaginary. Kindergarteners are beginning to create paper looms inspired by an animal and will practice creating a pattern by weaving strips of paper onto their looms.

I am so grateful to all of those who have been signing up to volunteer in the art classroom. It has been a great way to get to know families and support students. Families are welcome to volunteer any day and any time listed on the sign-up form. If you volunteer, you can expect to work with students, help with hallway displays, or prepare art materials for classes. No art experience necessary! If you are interested in volunteering, SIGN UP HERE

Coming Soon...

Kindergarten - we continue to reinforce the phonics lessons being learned in their home rooms based on UFLI – University of Florida Literacy Institute.

6-9 - with a focus on non-fiction reading skills, the students have finished learning about animal group names and are moving on to animal baby names.

9-12 - as we move forward on our trips around the world, we are exploring world religions and how it may or may not impact us as travelers; from the way we dress, to the way we behave.

Kindergarten: We are continuing mouse & keyboard skills. In March, we will introduce student usernames & passwords to prepare them for computer use in 6-9 classes.

6-9: Spending a few more weeks on our black history month digital project :)

9-12: Finishing coding our own video game using Kodable!

Coming Soon...

Imago is back with our weekly Outdoor Education Special! Our first units are diving deep into all things plants. Students will learn about photosynthesis, plant anatomy, and their role as producers in the ecosystem. We look forward to getting our hands dirty in the garden beds, tending to our seedlings, and doing hands-on learning activities.

The Outdoor Explorers Club also starts this week. We are kicking off the season by building bird feeders, creating bug terrariums, and playing group games.

For any questions regarding Imago's programming, please feel free to reach out to Program Director, Zoe Vanasse at zvanasse@imagoearth.org

In our enrichment pullout groups, we continue to strengthen our quantitative reasoning skills through activities such as the SET game, Math Dice, and the 24 Game. Activities that strengthen our verbal reasoning skills include Hink Pinks, Trhyme, Crypt-O-Words, and Directive Detectives.

PRM continues to have very high numbers of identified gifted students. I have updated the chart below to include our Winter Testing results.

Next month, after spring break, 3rd-6th graders will begin state testing. Through the W.I.N. intervention model, our teachers have been intentionally preparing students through strong instruction, writing practice, and opportunities to apply their learning in meaningful ways. If you are interested in learning more about what the Ohio State Test (OST) will entail, or taking at-home steps to help ensure your child feels confident, capable, and supported, please consider taking some time to watch the presentation or read through the resources found here to address:

• What the Ohio State Test is and who participates

• Third Grade Reading Guarantee

• OST Resources and practice tests

• Frequently answered questions

• Strategies students learned at PRM

PTO would like to extend a huge thank you to the Foundation for hosting a fantastic PRoM and organizing the wonderful Candy Grams. Both events brought so much joy, and we are grateful for the time, energy, and creativity that went into making them such a success. We also truly enjoyed celebrating our staff at the staff appreciation lunch from Piada before conferences - it was a delicious and thoughtful way to show our gratitude.

We are looking forward to Staff Appreciation Week in May and the opportunity to celebrate our incredible PRM staff even more. Be on the lookout for emails and additional details coming soon. Also, please watch for information about the PRM Spring Fling in a separate email!

Please plan to join us at our next PTO Meeting on Wednesday, March 11, at 6:00pm in the library.

Thank you to everyone who helped make our inaugural PRoM Sneakerball a tremendous success! With your support, the event raised over $25,000 for our Outdoor Initiative—and we had a lot of fun along the way. We are grateful to everyone who attended and to those who generously donated raffle items, food, and drink for the event.

Thanks to PRoM proceeds and continued individual and family gifts, we have now raised almost 75% of our Phase 1 goal of $175,000. CPS has approved our project proposal, and we are hopeful that work to relocate and enhance the garden will begin in the coming months. If you haven’t had a chance to give yet, donations are still welcome at prmrocks.org/prmoutdoors or by check. To learn more about the project and the impact of your gift, please visit the website or reach out to Beth Freeze (bethfreeze@gmail.com) or Andy Freeze (atfreeze@gmail.com). We need your help to reach our goal!

February also brought another successful Candy Gram fundraiser, raising over $2,000 to support our annual fund, which helps cover Imago programming and community events.

We are excited to kick off three more fundraisers in March:

• Spring Plant & Flower Sale: March 5–19

• Restaurant of the Month at Café Alma: Monday, March 9 (9% of all sales benefit PRM)

• Read-A-Thon: March 9–13

All three fundraisers support our annual fund, making the programs, resources, and activities our community relies on possible each year.

Finally, the next PRM Foundation meeting will be held on Wednesday, March 11, from 7:15–8:15 PM in the school library. We hope to see you there! Please reach out to prsfpres@gmail.com with any questions.

ILT meetings take place on most first and third Mondays of each month at 2:45pm at PRM and are open to anyone wishing to attend. Our next meeting is Monday, March 16.

Our next LSDMC meeting will be in the PRM Library on Wednesday, March 11, from 3:00-4:30pm. The PRM community is always invited and welcomed to attend.

And that’s a wrap on our winter sports - congratulations to our 13 basketball teams, which include 125 athletes and 28 coaches! A huge thank you goes out to all of our coaches, parents and caregivers, custodians, and administrators, as well as Coach Cash, for being a necessary part of the needed support system that helped make this season possible and successful for all our athletes.

Spring sports are just around the corner – volleyball, track, soccer, and baseball will start soon. Practices will begin by mid-March for most teams, with games and meets starting in early April. Lots of work is happening behind the scenes to make sure that all of our sports have successful seasons ahead.

The PRM Brain Bowl team is preparing for their district tournament on Saturday, March 14, at the CPS Central Offices. Thanks to coaches Jackie Bonfield and David Woerner for supporting the team – good luck at districts!

Please keep the electronic link to the Code of Conduct handy for your records. There will not be paper copies printed this school year.

All parents/guardians are asked to submit this form to acknowledge receipt and review of the Code of Conduct.

We must be consistent in acknowledging and enforcing our school uniform policy. Our uniform policy is liberal enough to include several options for families. All PRM Spirit Wear is considered part of the school uniform.

While we don't like to take time away from instruction to deal with uniforms. We must all be consistent to ensure this doesn't become a major issue during the school year.

Please see the policy below and in the PRM Student Handbook.

Cincinnati Public Schools:

513-363-0123

Cincinnati Children's Hospital PIRC intake line:

513-636-4124

Suspected Child Abuse or Neglect:

513-241-KIDS

Suicide Prevention Hotline:

1-800-273-TALK (8255)

Crisis Textline:

Text 4HOPE to 741741

Disaster Distress Helpline:

1-800-985-5990

Domestic Violence Hotline via Women Helping Women:

513-381-5610

Our Character Program centers around:

Respect, Ownership, Compassion, Kindness and Safety, Safety, Safety!

Below are the three school-wide expectations that we expect students to follow throughout all parts of our learning community. Please support us by reinforcing these at home.

• Be Respectful
• Be Responsible
• Be a Problem Solver

Email: simpsoa@cpsboe.k12.oh.us
Website: www.prmrocks.org
Location: 5945 Montgomery Road
Phone: 513-363-4400