R.J. Grey Junior High School

Good afternoon,

Happy Leap Day to you all! I hope your February vacation week was enjoyable. I was able to tackle some projects that I’ve put off for a bit, and I read a few novels, as well. I am particularly pleased that the light in the morning and later in the afternoon is stronger, leading me to know that Spring is definitely on its way.

Our second trimester of classes will end next Friday, March 8th. If your child has any remaining work to complete, or an assessment to take due to an absence, this is the final push before grades close in on-team classes next week. As is our typical process, you’ll receive report cards by email about 2 weeks later. This gives our teachers time to finalize grades, add comments for each of their students, and it gives us time to verify everything before distributing report cards. 

Aside from the light changing in our mornings and late afternoons, another indicator that Spring is coming is that we start to prepare for MCAS here at RJ Grey. We’ve actually been preparing for quite a while behind the scenes, but below, I’m sharing the dates that we’ll be administering the tests this year. 

At RJ Grey, students in both grades take MCAS tests in English Language Arts and Math. Our 8th graders take a Science/Technology Engineering assessment, too. This year, a cohort of our 8th graders will take a pilot test in Civics; I will be in touch with families of students selected for that test. I thank you in advance for helping to make sure your child is present on testing days. We will always do make-ups for students who miss tests, but they then end up missing other classes as a result. So if you’re forced to make orthodontic appointments or physicals during the school day, I’d ask you kindly to avoid these dates:

• Tues and Wed, March 26 and 27: 8th grade ELA

• Tues and Wed, April 2 and 3: 7th grade ELA

• Tues and Wed, April 30 and May 1: 8th grade Math

• Thurs and Mon, May 2 and 6: 7th grade Math

• Tues, May 7: 8th grade Science/Technology

• Tues and Wed, May 14 and 15: 8th grade Civics Pilot

Upcoming Dates

• Mon, March 4: Early Release at 1 pm

• Mon, March 4: Library closed to students after school

• Tues, March 5: Ski/Board Club #6

• Tues, March 5: Presidential Primary voting at RJ Grey

• Tues, March 5: School Council meeting at 7 pm

• Wed, March 6: iReady Reading assessment for all students

• Wed, March 6: 6th to 7th grade transition night for families of students on IEPs, 7 pm

• Fri, March 8: Trimester 2 Ends

• Fri, March 8: Sports Jersey Day

• Fri, March 8: March Madness Basketball Tournament, 3 - 4:30 pm

• Tues, March 12: iReady Math assessment for all students

Take care and have a great weekend!
Jim

Good afternoon,

We are one day away from our February vacation week. If you have plans to be out of town next week, I hope they bring you to a warm location. I was excited to see a stretch of warm (40 degrees) weather next week, with bright sun for several days. Though, as was the case with this week’s “storm,” we know the weather pattern can change quickly! On my to do list next week are a bunch of things that just don’t fit into the typical work week - making dentist appointments, getting my car inspected, and fixing a few loose door knobs that have been loose for the 12 years we’ve lived in our house. Sometimes enough is enough! I hope you and your families have a great week.

When school was cancelled on Tuesday, it interrupted our Ski/Board Club plans. We’ve worked with Wachusett to extend our season (again). The final two weeks of the season will be on Tuesday, Feb 27 and Tuesday, March 5. Since we’ve pushed out our season so long, group lessons will not take place on March 5, but students will still be able to use the mountain. 

We are getting closer to spring, which means spring sports will start up at the end of March. We offer Baseball, Softball, Girls Volleyball, and Spring Track. Our list of tryouts and practices is posted on our website. Please note that any student interested in trying out for a sport needs to have a recent physical on file in our Health Office, and families must complete Family ID information before tryouts. Separately, we are seeking a softball coach. If you are interested in applying or learning more, please be in touch with Jon Duclos ([email protected]), our JH Athletic Director. 

Tomorrow is our annual Blue and Gold Day celebration. If your child leaves the house in atypical attire, and they’re dressed in combinations of our two school colors, they’ll be in good company. Each grade level will have an assembly during the afternoon with performances by our band, chorus, and orchestra. Our cheerleaders will perform and we’ll have a student Musical Chairs competition. This assembly is one of the few times we gather as a whole grade, and it’s something I always look forward to. You’ll be able to check out some highlights on our Instagram account after the fact! 

For those keeping track, with two snow days, our last day of school is currently Tuesday, June 18, with an 11:10 early dismissal at RJ Grey.

Upcoming Dates

• Fri, Feb 16: Blue and Gold Day

• Mon, Feb 19 - Fri, Feb 23: Vacation Week - No School

• Tues, Feb 27: Ski Club Session #5

• Mon, March 4: Early Release at 1 pm

• Mon, March 4: Library closed to students after school

• Tues, March 5: Presidential Primary voting at RJ Grey

• Tues, March 5: School Council meeting at 7 pm

• Wed, March 6: 6th to 7th grade info night for families of students on IEPs, 7 pm

• Fri, March 8: Trimester 2 Ends

• Fri, March 8: Sports Jersey Day

• Fri, March 8: March Madness Basketball Tournament, 3 - 4:30 pm

Take care and have a great week!
Jim

Good afternoon,

I was able to watch the first half of our 7th grade girls’ basketball game yesterday afternoon. Our players did a great job against an older team from Sudbury. The final score wasn’t in our favor, but I saw a really confident group of RJ Grey players playing strong defense and making some great shots, too. Our final games for both 7th grade teams are this Friday. Our 8th grade teams have wrapped up their season. Our 8th grade girls’ team went undefeated this season. To end 10-0 is quite a feat and we are proud of our players. Our boys’ team finished 8-2 and had a really strong season, as well. Congrats to all of our players, coaches, and families who supported this season!

Our RJ Grey 7th grade boys’ team was the recipient of a very generous gift from an anonymous donor. The donor outfitted our team with a new set of uniforms to replace uniforms that were slightly younger than me (!). I am very appreciative of the donor that went out of their way to work with us and offer a gift that will be part of our program for many years. 

At school council this week, we talked a bit about school attendance. As you know, we are required to have 180 days of school per year. In a state with compulsory attendance, we are required to track the number of absences and report back to the state about our daily attendance. The state reports back to us how many of our students are deemed “Chronically absent,” which means they’ve been absent at least 10% of the year (18 days). When looking at the data, there is a marked difference in these numbers pre-Pandemic and post-Pandemic. Certainly there needs to be recognition that Covid quarantines and mandates about isolation are at play in our numbers. RJ Grey and the District will be spending more time looking at attendance and trying to get to the root cause of what is causing this dramatic change. In March, the School Committee will likely talk about attendance as part of our Student Opportunity Act Plan.

I wrote about attendance back in October, around the time that our first set attendance letters were sent home. I figured it would be good to write about it again. When students are absent two times per month, each month, they reach at least 18 absences for the year. It is actually quite easy to reach 18 absences without knowing it when you factor in the viruses and other ailments going around! We emphasize good attendance for students so that they are comfortable in their classes, have time learning directly from their teachers, and have time to be social and interact with peers their own age. If you think that your child has too many absences, or if you need some strategies to support better attendance, please be in touch with us as we would like to help.

Upcoming Dates

• Sat, Feb 10: Budget Saturday, 8:30 - 3:30, Admin Building and on Acton TV

• Mon, Feb 12: Early Release, 1 pm

• Tues, Feb 13: Ski Club Session #5

• Thurs, Feb 15: End of Round 3 for PE/Health classes

• Fri, Feb 16: Blue and Gold Day

• Mon, Feb 19 - Fri, Feb 23: Vacation Week - No School

• Tues, Feb 27: Ski Club Session #6

Take care and have a great weekend!
Jim

Good afternoon,

Happy February to you all! Each morning, I leave the house with my two youngest daughters. On the way out the door this morning, my 5-year-old  asked if we could go sledding soon. She’s right - we haven’t gone to any local hills to sled yet this year. I am hopeful the sun will return this weekend to be able to enjoy a bit of the snow before it’s gone. And I am hopeful that with one more year under her belt, she can walk back up the hill on her own to avoid me carrying her!

Our Ski and Board club is halfway through its season. With cold enough temperatures and some natural snow, they’ve had better conditions than recent years. If you drive your child to school, I am ever grateful for your patience on Tuesday mornings. I know our regular drop-off routine can get slowed down by all the gear that gets brought into school on those days. We have considered alternative drop-off strategies to keep things moving, but we worry those will actually make the impact worse and slow down traffic even more. If you do drop off, regardless of the day of the week, please pull as far forward as possible (up to the car in front of you, or as far forward as Mr. Zhang!) to allow additional cars to pull in behind you. If you stop right at the stairs or even earlier, we prevent at least 3 or 4 cars from pulling in. 

Next week is National School Counselor Week. We have four excellent counselors here at RJ Grey, plus three great school psychologists. They are all busy this week and next with teaching lessons on the Signs of Suicide in 7th grade classes. If you have had experience working with our counselors, next week, or really any time, is a good week to thank them!

As I noted, we started SOS this week. I taught the lesson to Ms. Kulkarni’s homeroom on Tuesday morning. It’s only on rare occasions nowadays that I get to teach full class periods. My class was great - they were all interested in the topic, asked great questions, and had thoughtful responses. The main focus of our SOS work is to have students remember a simple acronym, ACT: Acknowledge, Care, and Tell (a trusted adult). I find that the acronym is universal to lots of situations but is highly applicable to a situation when an adolescent is concerned about a friend who might be feeling depressed, upset, or in the worst case, suicidal. We talk with students about the differences between sadness and depression, we alert them to warning signs for depression, and we ask them to think about who a trusted adult is for them. While we hope all RJ Grey students have at least one trusted adult at school (89% report they currently do), we know that almost all of them are more likely to have someone they trust in their homes (93% report that they do). One of the vignettes presented in the SOS video is between two middle-school aged boys. And while one of the boys is resistant to talking to his own mother because she has so much going on, the friend offers up his own mom as someone who could help. Please know that many of you may be a trusted adult for kids who aren’t even in your own family! Kids certainly know who they can trust, so please be open if a student needs to talk to you about something important.

Next Wednesday, February 7th from 6 - 7:30 pm, Acton-Boxborough Regional High School is hosting their annual Transition to ABRHS Night for parents and caregivers of current 8th graders. The high school administrators, department leaders, and students will talk about life at the high school. Our 8th graders already met with reps from the high school in the fall, and we’ll take them for a tour later this spring. Please mark your calendars for this important event.

Upcoming Dates

• Mon, Feb 5: Library closed to students after school

• Tues, Feb 6: 7 Red SOS Lesson

• Tues, Feb 6: Ski Club Session #4

• Tues, Feb 6: School Council Meeting at  7 pm

• Tues, Feb 6: Cartwheel Care Seminar

• Wed, Feb 7: Transition to ABRHS Night for 8th grade families

• Thurs, Feb 8: 7 Green SOS Lesson

• Sat, Feb 10: Budget Saturday, 8:15 - 3:30

• Mon, Feb 12: Early Release, 1 pm

• Thurs, Feb 15: End of Round 3 for PE/Health classes

• Fri, Feb 16: Blue and Gold Day

Take care and have a great weekend!
Jim