Timber Talks

Thank you to all the families who have already taken the time to complete our Parent/Caregiver Survey! Your feedback is incredibly valuable in helping us understand what we’re doing well and where we can improve. If you haven’t had a chance to complete the survey yet, today is the last day! Please click the link below to share your thoughts—we appreciate your input!

Our Harvest Festival is next week on Thursday, October 23rd from 5:00-7:00! Get ready for a fun-filled evening with carnival games. If you'd rather skip cooking dinner, we’ll have a variety of food trucks on site with delicious options available for purchase. We look forward to seeing you there!

If you would like to volunteer to help with the event, PLEASE SIGN UP HERE.

(All volunteers will need to complete our appication and background forms, which you can get online or from our office). If you'd like to donate candy or prized, please click here.

Thank you for your continued support,

Lindsey Fullenwider, Principal

Trevor Syring, Vice Principal

RMEOfiice@estacada.k12.or.us

In order to help you all know what the week looks like, we will list it out clearly for you each week. REID days are for invited students and will change each month. Students are invited to REID days for a variety of reasons. Sometimes it's to extend or challenge a student, and other times it might be to provide extra help on a particular skill. On those days, our doors open at 7:50 and dismissal is at 10:00am. If you have questions about this week's schedule, please let us know!

This Week:

• Oct. 20th: Regular School Day
• Oct. 21st Regular School Day
• Oct. 22nd: Regular School Day
• Oct. 23rd: Regular School Day - Harvest Festival (see flyer below)
• Oct. 24th: No School for Students (Staff Professional Development Day)

Upcoming Events:

• Oct. 27th - Oct. 30th: Red Ribbon Week
• Nov. 11th: No School - Holiday

At River Mill, we are committed to providing a positive and enriching experience for all our families. Your feedback is invaluable in helping us understand what we are doing well and where we can improve. By sharing your thoughts, you will help us enhance the school experience for your child. As part of our commitment to continuous improvement, we are conducting a survey in partnership with Studer Education to monitor our progress in creating a positive school experience for you and your child(ren). Your feedback is crucial in helping us identify areas for recognition and improvement.

The survey will ask you to select the school your child(ren) attends. Once you complete the survey for one school, you will have the option to provide feedback on another school, if you have a child at another school in the district. Providing feedback to each school should take approximately 10 minutes to complete. We encourage you to complete it in one sitting, as your responses will be saved once you click submit.

Note: On some mobile phones, the survey may display better if you switch to "desktop site" mode in your browser.

The Parent/Caregiver Experience Survey can be accessed here:

• Estacada School District - Parent/Caregiver Experience Survey

The survey is scheduled to open from Friday, October 3rd, to Friday, October 17th.

To maintain confidentiality of the Parent/Caregiver Survey, our partners at Studer Education will be administering the survey, managing the data collection, and aggregating the data to provide results reports to leaders.

Thank you for your partnership!

On Wednesday, our River Mill Kindergarteners visited the Estacada High School stadium for a special, memorable experience! They got to walk on the turf field and meet the Estacada High School seniors, who handed out t-shirts to each Kindergartner. The seniors shared words of encouragement, inspiring our youngest learners to dream big and embrace the joy of learning. It was a wonderful example of our community coming together, and our Kinders were thrilled to participate in this unique event. A big thank you to the Estacada High School seniors for taking the time to support and motivate our students!

Wreath fundraiser order forms went home with studens last week on October 9th. If you need an extra order form, please reach out to your classroom teacher or our front office! Thank you for your support!

A Huge Thank You to Bayou Bros Cajun Boils, Timber Town Grub, and Harvest Market!

We are so grateful for the incredible generosity of Bayou Bros Cajun Boils and Timber Town, who not only donated delicious snacks for our students but also provided funds for River Mill and Clackamas River Elementary to purchase even more!

A special thank you as well to Harvest Market for donating Gatorade water bottles for our students — they were such a hit!

Your kindness and support help us keep our students fueled, focused, and ready to learn each day. We are lucky to be part of such a caring and connected community—thank you for making a difference for our River Mill students!

Our lost and found is overflowing! With the cooler mornings and warmer afternoons, many students are leaving behind their outerwear as the day warms up. We encourage you to stop by and check for any missing items your child may have lost. Thank you for helping us reunite these items with their owners!

On Fridays, we have REID Days! During this time (8:00–10:00 am), teachers invite students for small group intervention and extension instruction.

This is a unique opportunity for students to:

• Receive extra support in a small group if they are not yet meeting proficiency.
• Be challenged with enrichment activities if they are already working above proficiency.

These two hours of focused, small-group instruction make a big difference in helping students grow and reach grade-level standards.

Please help support your child’s learning by ensuring they attend when invited. It’s an important advantage that truly benefits their success!!!

We have already noticed a drop in student attendance, and we want to take a moment to stress how important it is for students to be at school—on time—every day. Consistent attendance builds strong learning habits, helps students keep up with important instruction, and supports both their academic and social growth. Thank you for partnering with us to make sure your child is present and ready to learn each day!

Research shows that when students miss just one day of school each month, it can add up to weeks of lost learning over the course of a year, which makes a significant impact. Regular attendance is one of the strongest predictors of student achievement, as it ensures children don’t miss key lessons, group activities, and opportunities to practice new skills with their peers.

We know mornings can be busy, and sometimes life throws curveballs, but your efforts to get your child to school on time each day make a big difference. Thank you for partnering with us to build strong routines and support your child’s success—we are here to help every step of the way!

All Smiles Community Oral Health will be providing free dental screenings, sealants, and fluoride at your child’s school the Week of October 13, 2025. Healthy teeth are important to your child’s overall health. A dental screening is a quick look inside your child’s mouth to check the overall health of their teeth. Dental sealants are protective coatings put on the back teeth to prevent cavities and fluoride is a vitamin that is brushed on the teeth to make teeth stronger and prevent cavities. Click this link to sign the permission form for your child online. Forms are to be turned in by October 8th.

To ensure the safety of all our students, we ask that all families use the PickUp Patrol app to inform us of their child's daily transportation plans. Please make sure you have set up your child's plans for the first day of school and for the rest of the school year. This is an essential step for the first day of school. You can update these plans at any time! Registration emails were sent earlier this week.

If you need any help or support, please don't hesitate to reach out to us. We're here and happy to assist!

At River Mill Elementary, we are committed to ensuring every child has the opportunity to succeed. Through our Title I program, we work together with teachers, parents, and students to provide the support and resources needed to help every student thrive in reading and beyond. We recognize the importance of forming a strong partnership with families and community members in order to positively impact the students in our school. We value input from parents, guardians, and community members in decision making. Please review the attached document to view our process for engaging families as partners in the educational process.

Great news! This year, ALL students will receive free breakfast and lunch — and that includes meals on REID days too!

Link to the Nutrition Services Webpage

Since 2000, Todos Juntos has been a leading non-profit in Clackamas County, bringing the capacity and expertise needed to improve outcomes for rural communities. They have developed after-school programs that provide leadership development and pro-social opportunities for historically underserved populations, and have expanded their reach to offer community-based, comprehensive, and integrated programs in four Clackamas County communities.

Todos Juntos is proud to make a positive difference in the lives of many families — and we are proud to partner with them here at River Mill!

Please take a moment to check out their Early Learning Newsletter — it’s filled with helpful information and great resources for families! Just click the green link below to view it.

Cell phones and personal electronic devices need to be put in student’s backpack bell to bell. A personal electronic device—commonly referred to as a ‘cell phone’—is any device capable of making and receiving calls, sending text messages, or accessing the internet independently from the school’s network. This includes, but is not limited to, smartphones, flip phones, tablets, e-readers, smartwatches, smart glasses, and other web-capable devices, as well as the headphones or earbuds connected to them. In alignment with Executive Order 25-09 from the Oregon Governor’s Office (and ESD policy JFCEB), we will be following the guidance that electronic devices not be used during the school day. Students who disobey this rule or are in noncompliance with this rule, will have a conversation with the staff member to be reminded of the expectations on their first offense. For a second offense, the cell phone will be taken to the office until the end of the day. Parents will be notified and a meeting with school administration will be set up. If there is a third offense, the device will again be temporarily held, parents will be informed, and another meeting will be set up. Beyond a third instance of noncompliance, the school will determine appropriate consequences, always prioritizing keeping students in class and engaged in learning. The Elementary Schools will not be responsible for loss or damage to students’ cell phones or personal electronic devices brought to school.