Ram Report - Parent Newsletter

We hope that you have had a wonderful Summer Break and are feeling rejuvenated and ready to kickstart the new school year at RMS! We are eagerly awaiting for students to return to school on Monday morning!

As our classrooms and hallways come alive with the presence of our students once again, we want to assure you that their well-being and growth are at the heart of everything we do. We are passionate about instilling a love for learning in our students and empowering them with the knowledge and skills they need to succeed both academically and personally.

We believe in the power of a strong partnership between home and school. Your involvement and support play a vital role in your child’s educational journey. Together, we can create a thriving community where every student feels valued, encouraged, and inspired to reach their full potential.

Our doors are always open, and we welcome your active participation in school life. Whether it’s through parent-teacher conferences, school events, or volunteering opportunities, your contributions are invaluable to the success of our students and the school as a whole.

As we embark on this exciting academic year, we look forward to building a strong and meaningful connection with each of you. Together, let’s make this year one of growth, discovery, and unforgettable experiences for our students.\

Thank you for entrusting us with your child’s education. We can’t wait to see the smiling faces of our students brighten our school once again!

Our weekly newsletter will include announcements & updates throughout the school year about the many things going on at RMS. Understandably, this first newsletter is packed with information!

New Information & Updates This Week

• First Day of School Schedule
• Oak Ridge Schools Calendars
• 5th Grade Weekly News Link
• ORS Back to School 23-24 Link
• Bus Riders Information
• Arrival & Dismissal Information & RMS Traffic Pattern
• Welcome to RMS New Teachers & Staff
• 5th Grade Orientation Presentation
• Back to School Bash Presentation
• TSA Students Compete in Nationals this Summer!
• Attendance Initiative
• 2023-2024 Student Handbook
• Welcome Back from RMS Counselors
• Updates from the School Nurse
• Coffee & Conversation with Mr. Corrigan
• RMS School Resource Officer - Christina Askren
• Athletics & Clubs Update
• Grading, Canvas, & Skyward Information
• Cafeteria Information
• Well Child Updates

Have a great week, and please don't hesitate to reach out if there is anything we can do to better support your student or family!

-Nick Corrigan, Principal, njcorrigan@ortn.edu

-Christy Free, Vice Principal, ccfree@ortn.edu

-Christopher Williams, Dean of Students, cewilliams@ortn.edu

Monday – July 24

Students Report – Early Dismissal at 12:45pm

Football Practice 4:00-6:00pm

Tuesday – July 25

Regular Full Day Schedule - Dismissal at 2:45pm

Volleyball Practice 3:00-5:00pm

Girls Basketball Practice 6:00-7:30pm

Football Practice 3:30-6:00pm

Wednesday – July 26

Regular Wednesday Schedule - Dismissal at 12:45pm

Volleyball Practice 1:00-3:00pm

Football Practice 4:00-6:00pm

Thursday – July 27

Regular Schedule

Volleyball Practice 3:00-5:00pm

Girls Basketball Practice 6:00-7:30pm

Football Practice 3:30-6:00pm

Friday – July 28

Regular Schedule

Football Practice 3:30-6:00pm

Saturday - July 29

Football Scrimmage vs. Ocoee Middle at 10:00am

• At Lee University, 330 23rd St NE, Cleveland, TN 37311
• Bus will leave RMS at 8:15am

Volleyball Atomic Play Day Tournament at ORHS

Online Student Transportation Registration – As shared in our newsletters earlier this summer, families were asked to register their child for transportation services next school year. Any family wanting transportation services at the opening of the 2023- 2024 school year had until July 10, 2023, to register for guaranteed services the first week of school. All students requiring transportation should register for transportation services regardless of past rider-ship history. The online transportation registration (found in the Skyward Family Access Portal.) will remain open for the remainder of the school year and we ask that if families still need to register for bus transportation to complete as soon as possible!

7/21/2023 UPDATE:

The PDFs of the bus routes have been posted online and are available to families on the transportation website. They are also linked from the back-to-school website.

Additionally, families can log on to the Tyler Versatrans website and check their route information there. The directions for that are below.

Tyler Versatran Log In

Username: (use student’s name) firstname.lastname

This is case sensitive–example: john.smith

Password: (use student birth date) in this format 03122007 for March 12, 2007

Transportation Dept Information & Points of Contact can be found at:

https://www.ortn.edu/district/bus-routes/

Student Drop-Off and Pick-Up at Robertsville

Arrival

Gym Car Rider Loop Student Drop-Off begins at 7:00 a.m. (car rider loop beside gym)

• Students are to be dropped off at the curb behind the gym past the bus loop. Please pull forward to make room for the cars behind you.
• Students exiting vehicles should walk in front of the car they are exiting
• Any students walking to school must use the crosswalk areas
• The back door will be locked at 7:40 a.m. each day, so please do not drop-off in the back area after that time. All drop-offs after 7:40 a.m. should be at the front entrance only (Robertsville Rd. side)
• Parents will not be permitted to enter the building from the Gym Loop. All parents must check-in at the Front Office.

Front Bus/Car Loop (Robertsville Rd.) drop-off begins at 7:10 a.m.

• Please make sure the bus loop is clear of buses before dropping off at the front.
• Students should be dropped off in the right lane only. The left lane will be used for passing traffic.
• Students should never be dropped off in the left lane to avoid crossing in front of the right lane traffic
• In the morning prior to 7:40, parents should not park in the right lane to come into the building. There are designated areas for parking in the front loop.
• Parents should pull all the way forward before unloading
• Bicycles should be locked up on the bike rack beside cafeteria. All bicycle riders must wear a bicycle helmet.
• Front doors will be unlocked and used for students to enter before school.
• After 7:40, students should enter through the Front Office if the front doors are locked.
• All guests/visitors should check-in at the Front Office.

Dismissal

Bus Riders: Dismissed Front Bus/Car Loop (Robertsville Rd.) beginning at 2:45 PM.

Car Riders: Dismissed to gym for pickup in the car rider loop beside gym after buses are dismissed.

• Students will be called out to load their vehicles in the order in which their parents arrive.
• Please follow the traffic flow arrows on the pavement when driving through the lower lot and complete the entire loop through the lower parking lot, waiting to turn right up the hill at the gym will cause traffic delays
• Until all buses have been dismissed, all cars will be required to turn right out of the loop and exit via Ivanhoe Rd.
• Parents should pull all the way forward before unloading
• Do not park or wait in your car in the no parking zones or in any teacher parking lot
• Do not park and leave your car unattended while waiting

Walker/Bicycle: Dismissed to leave RMS campus by foot, exiting the front door of the building after bus and car riders have been dismissed, typically around 2:50pm. This includes those being picked at either adjacent church parking lot.

Our focus during these times is to ensure that all students arrive to school safely. We hope to accomplish this in a manner that is efficient to ensure that your time is also respected. Please be sure to reach out to a member of our administrative team if there are ever any concerns or feedback that you would like to pass along.

Ms. Maupin has 20 years of teaching experience, the majority of which have been in 8th grade math. She has most recently served as a Master Teacher and comes highly recommended from Vine Middle School. She is passionate about Math and the work that can be done in a PLC to impact student learning!

Ms. Lyttle has 16 years of teaching experience and has served in a variety of roles in education. She has ample experience as an 8th Grade Science teacher and shared that one of her standing ideologies in her teaching philosophy is that all students can learn and it is our responsibility to figure out what they need for success in the classroom.

Mr. Leavitt has 5 years teaching experience and comes to us highly recommended from St. Mary’s School in Oak Ridge where he has taught Pre-K through 5th grade Science. He believes in building relationships with students and giving them the opportunity to experience Science hands on.

Ms. Isolino will be our new ELL teacher. She is passionate about student learning and comes to us with 16 years of experience teaching multilingual learners in Pennsylvania and previously Lenoir City Schools. We are excited to welcome her to RMS and even more excited about the support a full-time ELL position will bring to our students at RMS. Ms. Isolino has recently returned from Maryland where she participated in a conference on Social Emotional Learning and how to support her ELL students beyond their language learning needs.

Ms. Strange is a veteran school psychologist and comes to RMS with 27 years’ experience between Loudon County Schools and Maryville. She is passionate about supporting students' needs in the classroom and spent the last few days with our Special Education Team learning about our students to prepare for next week.

We absolutely LOVED welcoming our new 5th graders and their families during this year's orientation. We hope that it helped answer some questions but most importantly reassured our new 5th grade students that they will have an awesome start to their middle school experience on Monday. Please don't hesitate to reach out if there are any questions. Friday's presentation is included below for your convenience.

It was so fun getting time to spend with this year's Ram Fam. We had a packed house last Thursday evening and appreciated everyone coming out in spite of the rainy weather!

Shout out to Sharon Gleason with ORS Family Resource Center, Dr. Henderson with ORS Pupil Services, CJ's Tacos, and Southern Sips for your wonderful support!

Mr. Corrigan's Message from the Principal slides are included below for anyone that didn't have the chance to attend. We truly appreciate the students, staff, and parents that participated in last Spring's surveys. They were tremendously helpful in planning our goals for this school year on how to better serve you. Please reach out to njcorrigan@ortn.edu with any questions!

Our RMS Technology Student Association students competed at the 2023 TSA National Competition in Louisville, Kentucky, June 28-July 2, and they represented RMS and ORS very well. At the TSA competition there are 48 states (+ Turkey and Germany) for a total of 3,500 members competing in STEM events. We had 15 students competing in 18 events. Seven events made it into semifinals, five events made the top 10, and one event received 2nd place for digital photography.

For those who are not familiar with TSA, making it into semifinals is an exceptional accomplishment, and to even make it to the national level, is no small challenge in itself. The picture below includes all of our events and names of the students who competed. We want to congratulate all of our students who competed as well as placed in events because all of our students showed professionalism, sportsmanship, and definitely grit! We have some amazing kiddos, and we cannot wait to see what they do next year!

Dr. Sandra Burnette

Ms. Bryson Leftwich

TSA Club Sponsors

The link below provides a copy of the 2023-2024 Student & Family Handbook. A few friendly reminders to keep things running smoothly!

Cell Phone Policy

Students are required to turn off phones and place in lockers when they arrive to school. Students are not permitted to have phones throughout the building. In the event of an emergency, parents can contact the RMS main phone line (865-425-9201) and students may use the main phone line to contact home.

Dress Code Expectations

The Board of Education believes that appropriate dress and grooming contribute to a productive learning environment. The Board expects students to give proper attention to personal cleanliness and to wear suitable clothing. Students are asked to wear simple, comfortable clothing that is clean and neat. Shoes should always be worn. Students are not to wear clothing which compromises safety or modesty; nor clothing which is disruptive to the educational process.

A few reminders about dress code:

1. Students are not permitted to wear pants or shorts with holes above the knee. This includes wearing any type of shorts or leggings underneath ripped attire.
2. Clothing or accessories which contain or suggest offensive or obscene symbols, signs, slogans or words degrading any gender, cultural, religious or ethnic values.
3. Clothing or accessories which contain or suggest language or symbols oriented toward violence, vandalism, sex, drugs, alcohol or tobacco.
4. Clothing that resembles sleepwear such as lounging pants, or other lounging items. This also includes house shoes.
5. The following types of apparel:

• skirts and dresses that are inappropriate for bending, sitting, standing and reaching.
• attire that is disruptive to the instructional process which may be inclusive of, but not limited to: bare midriffs; halter tops; short shorts; tight, see through, or revealing clothing; or clothing which allows underwear to be exposed, (examples include, but are not limited to: sagging pants, tank tops, spaghetti strap tops, muscle shirts, etc.
• A belt is mandatory if pants or shorts will not stay at the waist without one.
• Mid-thigh is the appropriate length for shorts, skirts, and dresses.
• Mid-thigh length top is appropriate for covering leggings.

6. Hats, head coverings, athletic headbands not worn during athletic event, bandanas and sunglasses are not to be worn inside the school building.

7. All students must wear shoes. It is strongly suggested that students wear shoes which either enclose the foot or are secured with heel straps.

10. Coats, jackets and blankets must be removed upon arrival at school, be placed in lockers until the student leaves the building.

Hello from your counselors – Mrs. Best and Mrs. Sanford! We’re so excited to welcome back our RMS students and to welcome and get to know our newest students! We hope you had a wonderful summer!

Schedule changes are only available for elective classes, and we do not make changes within the first week of school. There will be a form available in the counseling center to request an elective change beginning July 31st. Changes can only be made up to August 18th. Students can also request a schedule change form from their elective teacher, as they will also have them available. Forms must be turned in to the counseling center with appropriate signatures by August 18th.

Our fifth grade students will have an opportunity to sample all the elective options within the first two weeks of schools and will be asked to choose an elective on Wednesday, August 9th. They will begin in their elective class on Thursday, August 10th.

Need to See a Counselor - Student Request Form

If students need to see a counselor throughout the year for any reason, we ask that they complete the online “Request to See a Counselor” form located in Clever. Once students complete this form, the counselors will receive an email and will work to schedule students based on their availability. If the situation is an emergency, we ask that students please make note of this in the comments section. We ask that students please be patient and know that we will get them scheduled as soon as possible. If it will take more than a day, we will reach out to the student by email or through their teacher to let them know.

Parents are always welcome to reach out to us with any questions or concerns. Kristy Best works with 5th and 7th grades – kbest@ortn.edu. Tarah Sanford works with 6th and 8th grades – TASanford@ortn.edu.

ADFAC - Backpack & School Supplies

For students picking up a backpack and school supplies, those will be available for pickup on the first day of school starting at 7 am. You should have received a call and email if you are on the list to receive these supplies. 5th and 6th grade students will pick up their backpack in the Restorative Learning Center located beside the Counseling Center. 7th and 8th grade students will pick up their backpack in the chorus room. We generally have most school supplies available in the counseling center if a need arises throughout the year.

We can’t wait to see all of our students back on July 24th!

7th Grade TDAP Booster - Required Immunization!

• All 7th graders Must have a record of their 7th grade Tdap vaccination on file at RMS to begin their school year. Please ensure this is completed ASAP. Contact our school nurse, Meg Evans with any questions or concerns at 865-425-9201.

Additional Medication Information

• The medication administration policy of the Oak Ridge School System states: every effort should be made to avoid the necessity of children being given medication at school. If under exceptional circumstances a student is required to take medication during school hours, only the school nurse or the principal’s designee may assist the student. It is the parent/guardian’s responsibility to bring this medication to school and remove any unused medication when treatment is completed. The medication form can be found here: Authorization_for_Medication_Administration.

About

The Robertsville Middle School Parent Teacher Association (RMS PTSA) is part of the RMS family. Our purpose is to support fun and educational programs, events, services, and opportunities to our children, to enrich their academic experience. We work closely with the school administration, faculty, and staff to help our students achieve all that they can.

Membership

The membership dues for the current year shall be set at $5.00. At the present time, the TN PTA portion is $2.00 and the National PTA portion is $2.25. RMS PTSA will keep $.75 to offset membership processing fees.

Volunteer

Research shows that students whose parents are involved in their school get better grades, do better on tests and have fewer disciplinary problems at school.

What is your talent? Community outreach, back to school activities, spirit gear, RAM Perks reward program, donation drive/fundraising, visiting author receptions, or providing items for events like our teacher/staff luncheons, intercessions, and State testing.

While you DO NOT need to be a member of PTSA to be a volunteer, we would like to invite all adults AND students with an interest in RMS to join and have a voice in how PTSA funds are used to support RMS. Volunteer forms are in the back-to-school packets or may be found on the Forms page of PTSA website.

Families asked for more engagement on our survey last Spring with specific requests for updates on the school's plans and progress, homework support, etc. In response, Mr. Corrigan will be hosting monthly Coffee & Conversation every First Friday at RMS. We hope that you will find it convenient to drop off your children at school and stay for an extra few minutes on these mornings before work to discuss some of these important topics together!

We also encourage you to attend our PTSA meetings which include an update from Mr. Corrigan, a grade level teacher update, as well as the many events that PTSA organizes throughout the year.

We are fortunate to have a dedicated School Resource Officer at Robertsville! Officer Askren loves coming to work each day to support our students.

"I’ve been with the City of Oak Ridge for 4 years and I am passionate about my service to the community. I have a Bachelor’s of Science in Criminal Justice with a minor in Psychology from Heidelberg University. This will be my second official school year with Robertsville Middle School. I look forward so much to the new memories and new friends that will come with this year. Without a uniform on you can find me enjoying good eats around town, playing with dogs, and participating in several sports or outdoor activities." -Officer Askren

Athletics

Football, Volleyball, Cross Country and Cheer teams have already been hard at work to prepare for this year's seasons! Check out the schedules below for the upcoming games and tournaments. This week, the football team has their first scrimmage against Ocoee Middle School on Saturday, July 29th at 10:00am at Lee University, 330 23rd St NE, Cleveland, TN 37311. The bus will leave RMS at 8:15am.

The Lady Rams Volleyball team competes in the Atomic Play Day Tournament at ORHS this Saturday, July 29th.

Clubs

RMS has several school sponsored clubs! These clubs are sponsored by an RMS staff member and provide an excellent opportunity to interact with peers outside of the classroom. Check out the list below for more information.

For most assignments, grades are updated in Canvas throughout the week. Canvas is a great place for students and parents to see live updates for assignments. Teachers are asked to update Skyward on a weekly basis. Skyward is the official holding place for grades of record. Parents are encouraged to check Skyward and Canvas on a weekly basis and remember to check Skyward for midterms and final term grades. We will send reminders in our newsletters every 4.5 weeks!

Canvas is our learning management system. We utilize Canvas in order to communicate with students and parents including announcements, information that is important to the class, links to resources to help support in class learning and also digital assignments.

Our teachers do a great job providing updates on their Canvas pages. We encourage parents to spend at least 10 minutes each week with their child logged on to Canvas and read the details for each teacher's page, announcements, and assignments.

In Canvas our teachers work to provide:

• Announcements - A weekly look at what will be taught throughout the week
• Modules - Organized in each class on a weekly basis with links to assignments. Some assignments will be digital and completed through Canvas and some will be analog and completed on paper. The goal for teachers here is to update with information to help explain the assignment and the due date.
• Calendar - A student calendar that shows all of the student's class and helps to color code each. The calendar allows for parents to see due dates for assignments, quiz and test dates.

Oak Ridge Schools Board of Education has approved the decision to transition to Southwest Foodservice Excellence (SFE) beginning with the 23-24 school year. At this time, it is our understanding that the prices for meals will not change. The prices are listed below. As more information becomes available this summer, we will ensure to provide an update in a future newsletter closer to the start of the school year. Additionally, SFE offers an online application to see the school menu! While the menu hasn't been posted yet, the information is below for you to save and reference closer to the start of the school year.

Food Service Accounts can be paid and managed online through the Skyward App. See the attachment below for more information on how this works.

A few things to keep in mind:

• Meals are not provided free to all students. Students may receive meals at no cost if they are enrolled in Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) or Provision 2 schools, if they are Directly Certified, or qualify through a household income application.
• To be eligible for free or reduced-price meals, parents must submit a household income application. The application for the 2023-2024 school year will be sent home the first week of school. We will also include a digital copy in a future newsletter.