Rolling Acres Roundup

Welcome Back, Rolling Acres Cougars!

We hope everyone had a wonderful and relaxing fall break! We are excited to welcome our students and families back to Rolling Acres Middle School on Monday as we begin Quarter 2. A new quarter is a fresh opportunity to set goals, make positive choices, and finish the school year strong!

BAG Checks: Be Your Best!

Our students will continue participating in weekly BAG Checks to reflect on their Behavior, Attendance, and Grades. BAG Checks give students an opportunity to look at their progress, identify areas for improvement, set goals, and work toward becoming 1% better each week.

We encourage families to talk with their students about their BAG Check goals and celebrate the progress they are making!

Students will begin working on IAR preparation during Advisory as we get ready for upcoming assessments. We want our students to feel confident, prepared, and ready to show what they know!

We will also continue our 7 Mindsets lessons on Mondays, helping students build positive mindsets and develop the skills they need to be successful both in and out of school.

Attendance Matters!

We are so proud of the great attendance we had during Quarter 1! Thank you to our students and families for making school attendance a priority.

Let's keep it going! Every day at school matters. Being present gives students the opportunity to learn, build relationships, participate in activities, and make memories with their classmates.

Trunk or Treat — October 28

Get ready for some Halloween fun! Our Trunk or Treat will be held on October 28th.

Want to host a trunk? Sign up using the link below! We would love to have families and community members join us to make this event a fun experience for our students.

Halloween Dance — October 30

Our Halloween Dance is Friday, October 30th! Students are invited to attend as long as they are not chronically absent. Students who have missed more than 5 days of school will not be eligible to attend. This is another way we are encouraging students to make attendance a priority and be present each day.

Weavers Fundraiser — Monday

Don't forget to stop by Weavers on Monday! A percentage of all sales throughout the entire day will benefit Rolling Acres Middle School.

Bring the family, grab a meal, and support our Cougars!

Let's Make Quarter 2 Great!

As we head into the second quarter of the school year, we are challenging our students to finish strong. Continue making good choices, showing up every day, giving your best effort, and supporting one another.

We are excited for all that Quarter 2 has in store and look forward to making it our best quarter yet!

Welcome back, Rolling Acres Cougars! Let's finish strong!

We look forward to welcoming everyone back on Monday, October 19th to

Rolling Acres Middle School — Where it's always a great day to be a Cougar!

Have a wonderful Fall Break!

Go Cougars!

Mrs. Katie Welch

SchooLinks is a modern, college and career readiness platform to prepare students for what comes after

graduation. For middle school students, SchooLinks helps them begin to discover their interests and strengths,

and begin to explore colleges and careers that match those interests and strengths. SchooLinks at Peoria Public

Schools 150 is accessible in 6th - 12th grades by students and their parents.

All of the SchooLinks features are designed with students in mind to help them become career, college, and life

ready. SchooLinks features are incredibly user-friendly and content can be easily comprehended by middle

school students.

Using SchooLinks, middle school students and their parents can:

• Access career interest, strength and mindset surveys

• Explore 2-year and 4-year colleges

• Take virtual reality college campus tours

• Explore traditional, fast-growing, and military career fields

• Start creating digital portfolios / resumes

• Communicate with counselors

Using SchooLinks, 8th grade students will be able to really dive into post-secondary education and

exploration by:

• Creating course plans based on career pathways

• Creating digital portfolios / resumes

• Learning about financial aid

• Searching for scholarships

We will have a fundraiser at Weavers Restaurant on October 19th. A percentage of all sales will benefit your Rolling Acres Students. Please join us for dinner while supporting Rolling Acres.

Parents and 8th grade students!

Richwoods High School is accepting applications to the IB program for 8th grade students. Anyone who is interested can visit the IB website at richwoodsib.org for more detailed information regarding the application process and the IB program itself. Acceptance criteria are based on NWEA scores (80th percentile or higher), grades, and teacher recommendations. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact the IB Coordinator anytime at thomas.hayes@psd150.org. A couple of important dates to remember:

• September 30, 2026: Parent informational meeting, 6pm, RHS Auditorium

• November 2, 2026: Deadline for completed applications, 4pm

• November 18 & 19, 2026: IB interviews, 4-8pm, RHS Library

• December 1, 2026: Acceptance letters sent to parents

Throughout the next few weeks, we would like to show case staff members that are new to the Rolling Acres family this year. This week we are talking about Mrs. McCreedy.

Mrs. McCreedy said: "I went to Florida Gulf Coast University and moved to Illinois in 2023. I have a beautiful daughter, Mavis, and my lovely husband Kevin to keep me company along with a billion animals (6 cats and 2 dogs). My favorite things to do in my free time are drawing and painting. If I am not doing that, I am usually building Legos with my daughter or working on some elaborate lesson plan."

A student said, "I like how Mrs. McCreedy teaches science, like when we made ice cream in an experiment, the way she teaches makes it fun."

A staff member said: "“Mrs. McCreedy sparks creativity, artistic minds, and engagement in her classroom.

Welcome to Rolling Acres Mrs. McCreedy- We are so happy to have you as part of the RA Family!

Here at Rolling Acres, we put a focus on behavior, attendance and grades. We value students being here at school, in class, and learning alongside their classmates. In order to fund school activities through $1 Friday Buy Outs and still encourage and reward students for displaying our Rolling Acres values everyday, we will switch our House Days to Wednesdays. All students wearing their house shirt on Wednesdays, will earn points for their house. Lets keep showing up and displaying our house pride alongside our Rolling Acres Values. We are Cougars... Everyday!

While we anticipate that many students bring cell phones to school, we do maintain our "off and out of site" policy. All phones and smart watches brought onto school grounds must be kept in the student's locker and/or Yondr pouch until school is over. Any cell phone seen during the school day will be given to the office and the parent/guardian must pick it up. Please help us keep Rolling Acres focused on learning and student achievement.

While it may seem far away, Parent Teacher Conferences will be on Monday, November 2nd from 12:00pm - 6:00 pm. Please pencil this in on your schedule as we look forward to catching up with you and partnering with you to help your child grow.

October 5 - 16 Fall Break

October 19th- Rolling Acres Night at Weavers Restaurant

October 19th- Chess Club

Octobe 28th- Parent University Trunk of Treat 6-7 pm

October 29th: 8th Grade Trip to Career Sparks (9:30 am - 11 am)

October 30th - Halloween School Dance

November 2nd: No School, Parent Teacher Conferences 12-6 pm

November 3rd: Election Day- No School

We had 96% attendance the week before Fall Break- Way to Go!

It is our desire at Rolling Acres to provide every student and family with a meaningful and personalized education that allows all students to reach their full potential. In the past few years, we have seen an increase in the number of our chronically absent students. Students are chronically absent when they miss 10% of the school year. Within any given school year, there are 180 school days. If students miss 18 or more days of school, they are categorized as chronically absent.

This year, we are continuing our practice that addresses these concerns in a way that encourages attendance and engagement in the classroom. Any student who is absent for more than 10% of the current school days (excused or unexcused) will not be permitted to participate in or observe any extracurricular activities, clubs, or participate in 8th grade promotion ceremony until they are no longer considered chronically absent. Students’ rate of absenteeism and their ability to participate will be reassessed every two weeks.

More information regarding our attendance policy will be available at Back to School Night.