R.J. Grey Junior High School

Good afternoon,

Last Friday afternoon, we hosted our Summer Fun in Winter event in our gyms. Several hundred students attended, played in volleyball games, cheered on their friends, had drinks and snacks, and appeared to have a great time! During the hybrid year, we canceled this event. And while we tried to have it last year, our Covid numbers were pretty high in January, so we put it off. It was great to see a large group of Junior High students having fun, being active, and enjoying being together this year. We’ll host a similar event, this time with short basketball games, in March. We owe a special thanks to Debbie Ahl, our student council advisor, and to our PTSO for help with recruiting some parent volunteers. Additionally, thanks to all families who dropped off food and drinks to keep our kids nourished! Your contributions were greatly appreciated!

Second trimester Interim Reports were emailed home today. If you didn’t receive an email from us, your child has not received an interim at this point. Interim Reports tend to point out areas where a student could benefit from some more focus, studying, or homework completion. Please take a close look at the Interims and have a conversation with your child about the comments. If there is anything that could be clarified by the teacher, please feel free to reach out. We have over a month (March 13) before the end of trimester 2 when we’ll again issue Report Cards. Students have plenty of time to bring up a grade or improve a habit before then.

This morning, I emailed our 8th graders about an opportunity to express interest in serving as student board members of ABSAF.  The Acton-Boxborough Student Activities Fund does fundraising to benefit RJ Grey and ABRHS student activities. If you think your child might be interested in applying to be part of the board, please encourage them to check their email and follow the instructions there.

Finally, we made a few announcements this week, asking students to remember to bring their fully-charged Chromebooks to school every day. We’ve recently had a challenge with running out of loaner devices before noon each day. When I was in middle school, I had to remember to bring my lunch, backpack, homework, and other items. I appreciate that making sure to charge a device is an issue that students only in this current generation face. Yet, their day is significantly impacted by not having a device ready to use throughout their day. If you think your child might be one who would benefit from some reminders to charge their device each night, I appreciate your help! With a limited number of loaners to give, we do expect students will start to face the natural consequence of not having a device to use in class. This won’t be the end of the world by any means, but I appreciate your support as much as possible.

Our Superintendent’s Office has approved the distribution of this flyer, which promotes a Robotics and Coding opportunity for girls in grades 4 - 7. Please check it out if interested!

Here are some dates to be aware of:

• Monday, 1/30/23: Early Release at 1 pm

• Tuesday, 1/31/23: 7 Red SOS Lesson

• Thursday, 2/2/23: 7 Green SOS Lesson

• Monday, 2/6/23: School Council Meeting at 7 pm on Zoom

• Tuesday, 2/7/23: 7 Gold SOS Lesson

• Thursday, 2/9/23: 7 Blue SOS Lesson

• Thursday, 2/9/23: 9th grade curriculum night at ABRHS, 7 pm

Take care and have a great weekend,
Jim

Good afternoon,

If you’re my age or older, and you grew up around here, I bet you share the sentiment that there was no better feeling than a snow day! Waking up and finding out there was no school by listening to the radio, and in later years seeing it on TV was a thrill. It was only surpassed once or twice in my school career by a “no school” call the night before! I make no projection about how tomorrow’s weather could impact our school day. That role gets reserved for Mr. Light. But on the eve of some inclement weather, I hope you’re prepared with your shovel and other gear.

We are anticipating hosting our students for Summer Fun in Winter tomorrow afternoon.  I have my Hawaiian shirt ready to go, having last worn it just about one year ago for last year’s Hawaiian Shirt Day. Representatives from ABSAF will be attending the event, ready to sell some of their AB gear. If your child would be interested in purchasing an AB bucket hat, please see this flyer for more details about the cost and how to pay.

You may have heard that Acton-Boxborough Regional Schools have partnered this year with Cartwheel Care to provide outside-of-school mental health support to our students. The new partnership with us and Cartwheel has been really great. As part of our relationship, Cartwheel is sponsoring 5 webinars for caregivers this year. The first will take place on Wednesday, January 25 at 7pm. The topic, Youth Mental Health in a Digital World is relevant and important to all of our students. I encourage you to join the webinar next Wednesday. Please click here to see more details and the link to register.

Finally, I am previewing for all 8th grade families that you’ll be hearing from Acton-Boxborough Regional High School soon about their 9th grade Transition Night. Please mark Thursday,  February 9th in your calendar for an in-person evening event at ABRHS.  Keep your eyes open for an email message to your inbox with more details.

Here are some dates to be aware of:

• Friday, 1/20/23: Hawaiian Shirt Day and Summer Fun in Winter activity after school

• Tuesday, 1/24/23: Last Day of Semester 1, Exploratory classes change on 1/25/23

• Wednesday, 1/25/23: Winter Orchestra and Chorus Concert, 7 pm

• Wednesday, 1/25/23: Youth Mental Health in a Digital World Webinar

• Monday, 1/30/23: Early Release at 1 pm

• Tuesday, 1/31/23: 7 Red SOS Lesson

• Thursday, 2/2/23: 7 Green SOS Lesson

Take care and have a great weekend,
Jim

Good evening,

Happy New Year! I hope you had a safe and healthy holiday season and New Year. My three kids received a family Christmas gift this year: a Nintendo Switch. They’re becoming familiar with the ins and outs of Mario Kart. My wife and I congratulate them when they don’t finish in last place! Meanwhile, she and I regularly battle to come in first…evoking our own Mario Kart experiences from when we were young! I hope you, too, had some quality time with your children over the vacation!

I have treated the January re-start as a way to focus on a few areas: organization and timeliness, as my own work-related examples. With only three school days into this year, I think I’m doing pretty well! I’d encourage you to ask your RJ Grey student if there are areas where they might focus some attention. For some students, I’d want to direct some focus on on-time arrival to school. We know that traffic around campus is not easy…but that’s something we can predict will be challenging every day between 7:45 and 8:00. Our assistant principals spend a lot of time monitoring students who are frequently tardy or absent from school. If you find yourself struggling with getting your child to school on time, or at all, please reach out to us. We’re happy to talk with families about creating evening and morning routines that yield smoother mornings and on-time arrivals. Please know that this commentary applies to only a small percentage of our families, so most of you can disregard this plea, and you can focus on a different new year intention! 

I want to thank our PTSO, and subsequently, all of you, for sponsoring a lunch for the RJ Grey staff in December. We all enjoyed burritos, salad, and chips from Oscar’s the week before vacation. We have a great relationship with our PTSO. They have financially supported us this year with our student plan books, Revolution t-shirts, and student council events. If you haven’t yet financially supported the PTSO this year, feel free to do so on their website. They’re a great partner and we appreciate their support!

The Superintendent’s Office has asked us to share two community flyers with you all. Please check them out if you’re interested:

• Basketball clinic for students in grades 3 - 9

• Boxborough Emergency Assistance Program

Here are some dates to be aware of:

• Monday, 1/9/23: Early Release at 1 pm

• Monday, 1/9/23: School Council meeting at 7 pm on Zoom

• Tuesday, 1/10/23: iReady ELA Diagnostic for all students

• Monday, 1/16/23: No School for MLK, Jr. Day

• Wednesday, 1/18/23: Winter Band Concert

• Thursday, 1/19/23: iReady Math Diagnostic for all students

• Friday, 1/20/23: Hawaiian Shirt Day and Summer Fun in Winter activity after school

Take care and have a great weekend,
Jim