Good morning, RJ Grey Families:
You're receiving a morning edition of Eye on the Junior High this week as I sit in my quiet office and some snow is slowly falling outside my window. My wife's district, along with my kids' school district also decided to play it safe and close for today. Thus, it was in my best interest to come to school for a bit to get some work done! Good luck to anyone who needs to travel later this afternoon. In case your child asks, tomorrow (Friday) will be a Day 4 as laid out on our What Day Is It Calendar.
For those tracking the last day of school (me, and every teacher), today's snow day moves our final day of school to Friday, June 20th. Additional snow days will extend our final day into the following week. Fingers crossed for Mother Nature's cooperation. If you aren't aware, the School Committee recently approved the calendar for the 25-26 school year. In the spirit of continuously trying to improve our student attendance, please take note of the calendar as you plan any late-summer trips or vacations for next year. The first day of school for most students is Wednesday, August 27th. The first day for 8th graders and students in grades 10-12 is Thursday, August 28th.
Our RJ Grey students and families continue to step up when they're asked. You know that we held a recent food drive through our Advisory program. The Acton Food Pantry reports that we collected 860 pounds of food! Our Advisories competed to guess the correct number of items donated, and we are happy to report that Ms. Manto's Advisory won this month's challenge. They correctly guessed that we collected 817 individual items. They will keep the Advisory Competition Trophy until next month! A sincere thanks to everyone who helped us with this food drive.
We are nearing the end of National School Counselor Week. We have four excellent school counselors and three school psychologists at RJ Grey who do important work every day. I happen to be attending a conference tomorrow with one of our counselors, where we will lead a middle school breakout session about the important relationship between counselors and administrators. I rely on our counselors every day. They are often very knowledgeable about students, their families, and their needs in the classroom and beyond. We are wrapping up our annual administration of the SOS (Signs of Suicide) Program this week. The counseling team is instrumental in our annual teaching about depression and suicide. 7 Red's lesson was bumped from today and will now happen on Tuesday morning.
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 useful in 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 (94% report that they do). One of the vignettes presented in the SOS video is between two middle-school-aged boys. 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 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. Thank you for your ongoing support of all of our students.
Take care and I hope you have a nice weekend,
Jim
jmarcotte
Good afternoon, RJ Grey Families:
Happy New Year to all who celebrated this week! Happy Year of the Snake! Thank you to everyone who helped make our Summer Fun in Winter celebration happen last Friday! The students who attended enjoyed themselves and the snacks and drinks that were provided. Thank you to a long list of parent volunteers who helped organize and work at the event: Beth Chimento, Diana Patterson, Hilary Greven, Allison Hsaio, Viviane Reis, Deepti Sahasrabudhe, Jessica Haddad, Caitlyn Ryan, Mindy Fishman, and Dereka Young.
Trimester 2 Interim Reports were emailed on Monday. As a reminder, not every student receives an Interim. We reserve these reports for students whose averages fall below a C-, or for another reason that a teacher deems necessary. As both a principal and a parent, I don’t like surprises. We ask our teachers to err on the side of caution and send communication if homework, participation, or other areas need improvement. If you have any question about the Interim after speaking to your child, please be in touch with the classroom teacher. Trimester 2 ends on Thursday, March 13, so there is plenty of time to make any adjustments for the remainder of this term.
As a reminder to 8th grade families, the high school is hosting a Transition to ABRHS Night for parents and caregivers on Wednesday, February 12 from 6:00 - 7:30 in the high school auditorium. If you cannot attend, the event will be recorded and shared through email after February vacation.
At times, families will share important congratulations for events their children participate in outside of school. Four of our students recently competed at the Eastern Synchronized Skating Championships and won Gold! They will now go to the National Championships in February! Congratulations to Camilla, Ruby, Krushi, and Avery!
Finally, if you're looking for something to do as a family this Saturday morning, the Acton Memorial Library is hosting a performance called "The Ice River: A Monkey King Story." This lively puppet show comes from the Chinese folktale Journey to the West, a text our eighth graders are familiar with from their China unit in social studies earlier this year. Tickets are free, but you do need to register in advance. Please click here for more information.
Take care and I hope you have a nice weekend,
Jim
jmarcotte
Good afternoon, RJ Grey Families:
I hope you are doing well. We have a regular schedule of "Poetry Friday" here at RJ Grey. Every other
Friday, Mr. Malloy, our 8 Red English teacher, uses the morning announcements to share a poem with students. He shares the poems with the staff ahead of time so that teachers can project the poem to allow students to read along as they listen to the poem. Just a few minutes ago, he shared tomorrow's poem, "The Same Cold" by Stephen Dunn.

I think our students will certainly recognize that this poem is timely given the frigid temperatures we've had recently. Even today at morning drop-off, I felt a similar emotion as the author when he writes, "zero would feel warm." Today's 12 degrees felt balmy! I think many of our students will recognize a deeper meaning of the poem, too. At RJ Grey, we try to build students' capacity to empathize with others, speak up when something is wrong, or advocate to an adult if they see someone in need of help. We hope that we can establish a community where we are all "Just two people...in the same cold." I hope they will recognize the kindness and community that makes us all "good neighbors."
In support of our neighbors and the Acton Food Pantry, students are invited to bring in items for our Food Drive by next Friday. The Food Pantry has asked us to help collect these items:
- Baking needs: Flour, Sugar, Baking Mixes
- Mac and Cheese
- Pasta and Jarred Pasta Sauce
- Jelly
- Gluten-Free items: Pasta, Crackers, Baking Mixes
- Vegetable Oil
- Dried Fruits: Dates, Prunes, Raisins
- Nuts: Walnuts, Almonds, Trail Mix
- Non-Dairy Milk
- Canned Pasta Items: Chef Boyardee, for example
- Paper Goods: Toilet Paper, Tissues, etc.
The District is sponsoring a workshop for parents and guardians with Dr. Stuart Ablon on Monday evening at 7 pm. His session is titled, "From Compliance to Collaboration: Combining Neuroscience, Common Sense, and Compassion." In this presentation, Dr. Ablon will explore how traditional parenting models focus on compliance, while his groundbreaking approach shows that behavior is shaped by skill, not will.
Dr. Ablon will share insights from his book, Changeable, selected by leaders like Malcolm Gladwell, Adam Grant, Dan Pink, and Susan Cain for their Next Big Idea Club. His evidence-based method, Collaborative Problem Solving, offers practical strategies that reduce challenging behavior, build essential life skills, decrease stress, and foster stronger relationships with our children and others.
Date: Monday, January 27, 2025
Time: 7:00-8:30 p.m.
Location: Virtual Presentation -https://abschools.zoom.us/s/96975044232
I hope to see many of your students at our Summer Fun in Winter event tomorrow after school. Thank you to everyone who has donated snacks and drinks for the event. Even if your child tells you they don't know what time the event ends, please know that the event ends at 4:30. I appreciate you helping your child to make sure they know how they'll be getting home so that the adults can make our way home on time, too!
Take care and I hope you have a nice weekend,
Jim
jmarcotte
Good afternoon, RJ Grey Families:
I hope you are doing well. Before the December vacation, our students indulged us by taking the time to respond to two surveys about their experiences at RJ Grey. A few questions that always stand out as important to me are about our students' connections to others. I'll highlight just a few answers here:
- 89.2% of students answered positively when asked, "If I have a problem or concern and I need an adult's help, I have a trusted adult at school whom I feel comfortable going to for help;"
- 94.4% of students report that they have a trusted adult outside of school;
- 96.9% of students report that they have at least one friend/peer from school whom they can ask for help/support;
- 98.5% of students report that they have made a new friendship this year.
I continue to be proud of the work we do to make our students feel connected to others at RJ Grey. These numbers are very much in line with our student responses in December of 2023. I hope you agree with me that students will learn more when they are connected to and comfortable with the people around them. Thank you for continuing to support your own children, their friends, and classmates.
During this morning's announcements, I reminded students about the expectations for staying after school. I share them here again in case you have any questions about who we expect might stay after school on occasion:
Only students who stay for extra help with a teacher, or for a club or activity, are allowed to stay at school after 2:36. Any other student without a school obligation must leave school at dismissal. Any student whose extra help or club has ended will remain in the Library to be picked up. Additionally, students are not allowed to return to school after leaving to be picked up or take the late bus. With limited supervision after school, we need to be mindful of the number of students in the building at that time. Thank you for your help with this.
Starting Tuesday, students are invited to bring in items for our Food Drive (January 21 - 31) to benefit the Acton Food Pantry. Students will bring any Food Drive items to their Advisory groups. The Food Pantry has asked us to help collect these items:
- Baking needs: Flour, Sugar, Baking Mixes
- Mac and Cheese
- Pasta and Jarred Pasta Sauce
- Jelly
- Gluten-Free items: Pasta, Crackers, Baking Mixes
- Vegetable Oil
- Dried Fruits: Dates, Prunes, Raisins
- Nuts: Walnuts, Almonds, Trail Mix
- Non-Dairy Milk
- Canned Pasta Items: Chef Boyardee, for example
- Paper Goods: Toilet Paper, Tissues, etc.
If you are looking for something to watch on TV tonight, tune into the AB School Committee meeting at 7pm to see them recognize the cast and crew of Frozen, Jr. And if you're looking to get out of the house, please come to RJ Grey at 7pm tonight to see our Winter Band Concert!
Take care and I hope you have a nice long weekend,
Jim
jmarcotte
Good afternoon, RJ Grey Families:
I hope you are doing well and keeping warm with these recent cold temperatures and strong winds. On Monday morning, as I was doing my traffic duty post, I realized how unprepared I was for the temperature drop. For the first 10 minutes, the tips of my ears were stinging because they were so cold. And when that sensation went away, I knew it was not a good thing! My trip to the Maynard Outdoor Store that evening for a heavier coat with a hood proved successful and I've been much warmer since. On the opposite end of the spectrum and country, my thoughts are with those suffering from the fires and winds in the Los Angeles region. If you have family and friends in that area, I hope they are safe.
Turning the page to January is always a time to think about our ongoing work, and in some cases, set new goals. One of our school goals this year is to monitor our student attendance with a careful eye. We know that strong attendance allows students to gain confidence in their skills, the content they learn, and the relationships they create with peers and adults. For some families, it might feel typical for children to miss two days of school per month, which when added up, equals 18 days, the equivalent of missing 10% of the year.
I took a look at our attendance at the 75-day mark, which happened on December 20th. At that point, we had 76 students (9.2%) who had missed at least 7 days of school this year. I was able to see that last year at that same marker (75 days), 69 students (8.34%) had missed 7 days or more. It is very hard to draw a correlation at this point in the year about who may end up being considered "chronically absent" by year's end. We know that when combined, the flu or other virus, a bout with the common cold, a funeral, or a long weekend away may easily amount to 7 days of absences, but once past these acute issues, students may return to a more typical pattern of attendance. In your role as the parent or guardian, you will certainly know much more clearly why your child has been absent from school.
Our District practice of informing families about numbers of absences means that we reach out to families even when we know there is not a larger issue to resolve. Some families will hear from us in the form of letter, call, or email. We are sympathetic to the myriad reasons students may need to be absent from school, and we offer our support whenever we can if you need help creating a plan for more regular school attendance. Please be in touch with me, our assistant principals, or your child's counselor, if you have any questions.
Finally, we will be hosting a Food Drive for several weeks (January 21 - 31) to benefit the Acton Food Pantry. Students will bring any Food Drive items to their Advisory groups. If you plan to clean out your cupboards, or if you are doing a weekly grocery trip and wish to pick up a few things, below is the list of non-expired items that the Food Pantry would benefit from:
- Baking needs: Flour, Sugar, Baking Mixes
- Mac and Cheese
- Pasta and Jarred Pasta Sauce
- Jelly
- Gluten-Free items: Pasta, Crackers, Baking Mixes
- Vegetable Oil
- Dried Fruits: Dates, Prunes, Raisins
- Nuts: Walnuts, Almonds, Trail Mix
- Non-Dairy Milk
- Canned Pasta Items: Chef Boyardee, for example
- Paper Goods: Toilet Paper, Tissues, etc.
Take care, and thank you for your ongoing support,
Jim
jmarcotte
Good afternoon, RJ Grey Families:
Happy New Year! Whether you traveled far or stayed close to home, I hope you enjoyed some time with your families and friends over the past eleven days. My family enjoyed hanging out at home, reading some books, watching some movies, and sleeping through when our alarms typically sound in the mornings. While today certainly feels like a Monday, it has been a great reintroduction to the routine of school, and tomorrow is a Friday! However you spent time last week, I hope it was enjoyable and you are getting back into the swing of things.
Families of 8th graders should reserve Wednesday, February 12 at 7 pm for the chance to visit ABRHS and hear from administrators about life at the high school. This evening is reserved for parents and guardians. More info will be sent from the high school in the next week or so. Minuteman High School has asked us to remind you about their Virtual Family Night on January 15th from 6:30 - 8:00. And they also remind you that applications for the Class of 2029 are being accepted through Feburary 15. Please click on the links above for more information.
A short update for a short week! Happy New Year!
Take care,
Jim
jmarcotte
Good afternoon, RJ Grey Families:
As we head into our first extended vacation of the year, I want to thank you for your ongoing support of our students, our teachers, and our school. While no day is ever perfect, by and large, our students are responsible, caring, and kind young adults who come to school eager to learn. Our teachers and staff model on a daily basis what it means to work hard for a greater purpose, particularly, to meet the needs of our students. And to our family community, you support our work by sending happy, healthy kids to school every day. You respond when we need to talk about your child and when we have needs in the community - including through our recent coat drive and toy drive.
Last year at this time, I shared a poem that I had come across through some of my own professional learning. I think it still fits this year as a helpful image of what a school vacation means to many of us. As is the case with most poems, the reader can interpret parts of it how they wish. In light of the vacation and a hopeful respite on the horizon, the idea of creating space for our flames to grow stronger resonates with me. Personally, some time away from RJ Grey will help create the breathing space that will lead to a stronger fire in 2025.
FIRE
What makes a fire burn
is space between the logs,
a breathing space.
Too much of a good thing,
too many logs
packed in too tight
can douse the flames
almost as surely
as a pail of water would.
So building fires
requires attention
to the spaces in between,
as much as to the wood.
When we are able to build
open spaces
in the same way
we have learned
to pile on the logs,
then we can come to see how
it is fuel, and absence of the fuel
together, that make fire possible.
We only need to lay a log
lightly from time to time.
A fire
grows
simply because the space is there,
with openings
in which the flame
that knows just how it wants to burn
can find its way.
-Judy Brown
I hope you are able to relax with friends and family over the coming days. I look forward to the New Year and the new things that will come our way.
Take care,
Jim
jmarcotte
Good afternoon, RJ Grey Families:
I hope that some of you were able to enjoy Frozen, Jr. last weekend. I joined a packed house on Friday night and really enjoyed seeing our students perform in a wide variety of roles. The singing, dancing, acting, and work of the crew were all awesome! Congratulations to all of you who had children as part of the production. We know it's really a family commitment, so thank you!
Our Trimester 1 Report Cards were emailed on Tuesday. I hope you use the document as it is intended - a report on the work from the first trimester of the year. If you have questions about a grade or comment, I ask you to start by talking with your child and certainly follow up with the teacher if a question remains. We will issue report cards again in March and late June.
If you are interested in ordering a Yearbook for your child, now is the time! The yearbook includes all students - not just 8th graders. Purchase this limited edition time capsule of your child's year and help them remember it all! Click here (https://www.yearbookordercenter.com/index.cfm/job/13545) to order. If at any point you need to input a school code, please use "13545" (but clicking this link above renders that unnecessary!)
With the upcoming vacation and holiday season, I know some of you have considered or have already made plans for giving gifts to teachers. My own wife has planned all the small tokens of appreciation for my kids' teachers, dance teachers, bus drivers, etc. However, I want to be clear that no RJ Grey teacher expects gifts, and no family should ever feel obligated to provide one! I would recommend, if you have a few moments, that a kind email or word of thanks to a teacher goes quite a long way, whether around the holidays or at any time of the year! If you are committed to giving a gift, please know that there are state ethics laws that limit gifts that teachers, coaches, and staff are permitted to receive. School staff cannot accept gifts from a single family that amount to $50 or more in value for the entire school year.
We have a full week next week, with an early dismissal at 11:10 on Friday, December 20th. If your travel plans include heading out of town before next Friday at 11:10, and your child will miss school at some point, please be sure to be in touch with our Main Office. While your child may tell their teachers that they’ll be out, it is important to let the Main Office know too, so that we know who to expect each day. You can write to us at [email protected].
Take care, and have a great weekend,
Jim
jmarcotte
Good morning, RJ Grey Families:
I hope you are doing well and that you enjoyed a nice Thanksgiving weekend. We have returned to a busy schedule with two weeks until our December vacation.
We are in the process of collecting items to support our community. Our annual coat drive is open through next Friday - we are collecting coats, mittens, hats, and scarves in good condition to donate to the AB Resource Center. We also run a toy drive each December. New, unused, unwrapped toys may be dropped off in the front lobby through next Friday. Thank you for any support you offer in these two drives.
I look forward to seeing some of you at tonight's Frozen, Jr show. And if not tonight, please join us on Saturday or Sunday if you are able. Here is a brief glimpse into some behind-the-scenes of the show. This weekend's shows are tonight and tomorrow (Fri and Sat) at 7 pm, and Sunday at 2 pm. Tickets will be sold at the door for $15 (adults) and $10 (students). We accept cash or checks.
Next Wednesday, we'll be completing two student surveys during Advisory. One is a District-based survey about school climate. Over recent years, we've been using our own survey tool to ask specific questions about our ongoing work, so we'll have students provide us with some important feedback then. I'll be happy to share some highlights of the responses later this year.
The District is working on developing a Vision of a Graduate. Please click here to contribute your thoughts to the question: What skills and experiences prepare our students for success? Families are encouraged to give feedback on this survey several times before December 12. Thank you for your help with this important work.
If you'd like to dive deeper into this work, sign up for an opportunity to participate in a workshop that will help us finalize our Vision of an Acton Boxborough Regional School District Graduate!
On Wednesday, January 8, 2025 from 4:00-7:00 p.m., we will be hosting a Vision of a Graduate workshop where we will examine the results of the ThoughtExchange, and talk more about the opportunities that await our students after their time in ABRSD.
The result of this workshop will be the development of an ABRSD Vision of a Graduate that delineates the skills and knowledge that our community most values which will then be explicitly mapped onto our continuously evolving curricular experiences for our students. For the workshop, we are seeking participants in our community with many perspectives who represent:
-
8 current high school students
-
8 alumni who graduated between 2017 and 2023
-
12 family members or caregivers
-
15 educators
-
12 community members
-
12 people from businesses or trades
-
12 people from higher education
If you are interested in being a part of the workshop on January 8, please share your interest using this FORM. We are seeking a representative group of participants and will use a random selection process if there is more interest than we can support.
Take care, and have a great weekend,
Jim
jmarcotte
Good afternoon, RJ Grey Families:
I hope you are doing well. As I am writing, it is Thursday morning and I am sitting in an ELA class, covering for a teacher who needs to be somewhere else for a bit. The students are quietly working on their "quick write" assignment, where they must describe a tradition that they follow and its purpose. A few students were stuck on what to write, so we did a quick brainstorm where students talked about annual travel plans, who cooks what for Thanksgiving, and their favorite ways to watch a sports event. I know that these students all have important and memorable traditions that matter to them - getting them to write about these traditions is the work of the day. The tradition I mentioned during the brainstorming is that my family always gets our Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving. Given how late Thanksgiving is this year, we may break our tradition and get it this weekend! Our usual go-to spot for picking out a tree has permanently closed, so why not break two traditions this year?
A tradition at RJ Grey is that we host grade-level assemblies in the gym on the day before Thanksgiving. This student-only assembly features our band, chorus, and orchestra students as they each perform a piece or two. Along with a few student speakers, a turkey drawing contest, and an all-out relay race with a frozen turkey, pie, cans of cranberry sauce, and potatoes on spoons, the assembly is a great time! We ask students to wear colors representing their team (7 Red, 8 Blue, etc). We then dismiss at 11:10 before we head off to hopefully enjoy some time with family and friends over the long weekend.
Our annual school musical will be coming up right after Thanksgiving, with shows at 7 pm on December 5, 6, 7, and at 2 pm on Sunday, December 8. Frozen, Jr is sure to be a great show. I hope you can join us to see our student actors, singers, dancers, and crew. Tickets will be sold at the door or after school on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays from 2:45 - 3:30 pm. Tickets for adults cost $15 each and $10 for students. We accept cash or checks.
If your student takes part in any of our after-school clubs or activities, please remember that we are collecting a $50 activity fee for participation in an after-school program. If you've already paid this fee, thank you. If you haven't paid yet, you'll start hearing from us next week about the fee. You are welcome to send in cash or check with your student to their club advisor, or you can pay online. Thank you in advance for your help.
Finally, if your student is applying to a private school for next year, we want to make sure you are aware of the procedures for doing so. Please find the procedure for doing so HERE on the Counseling website. The first step is completing the counseling department's form at least 20 days before the school application is due. When completing the private school's application, be sure to list our Registrar's name and contact info (Kerry Lewis, [email protected]) for transcript requests.
Take care and have a Happy Thanksgiving,
Jim
jmarcotte
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