R.J. Grey Junior High School

Good afternoon,

I hope you are all doing well. Today was a fun day at RJ Grey - we hope most days feel somewhat fun! Today was our second Team Community Building Day for three of the four 8th grade teams. 8 Red chose to postpone until next week based on some outdoor activities they had planned. Our teachers planned fun and different activities that allowed students to work together in groups, laugh, engage, and enjoy some community and joy - both of which are central to our work this year. I saw many fun activities: build the tallest structure possible with 30 toothpicks and small marshmallows; play a full-class trivia game with wagers for particular categories; get pairs of marbles from one end of a room to another by transporting them only through PVC pipes! We also had lower key activities that included coloring, board games, and creating paper sunflowers. I have huge appreciation for our teachers who planned these activities with the goal of some community building and some joy. The 7th graders have their Team Community Building Days tomorrow. I’m equally excited to check out what’s on tap for them.

We are deep into planning for next year, both here and at the high school. Seventh grade families heard from me by email today regarding course registration for next year. Our deadline for completion is Friday, April 1. The 8th grade families heard from me earlier this week, and your deadline for course registration is this coming Monday, March 28. Our counseling staff is a great resource for any questions related to course registration. Please feel free to reach out.

And finally, we begin our MCAS testing next week. The full schedule for ELA testing is listed below. While we hope it’s always the case, a good night’s sleep before MCAS, along with breakfast at home (or in our cafe) are a good way to start the day. While we are not a school that overuses the results of our MCAS assessments, we recognize that the test is supposed to test the standards and skills we are teaching, and we’d like to see our students perform well on it. We always find ways to learn something about our instruction and where we can improve based on the assessments. And my biggest request - please make sure your child charges their Chromebook the night before each test. You’ll help save us all a bit of panic!

Here are some upcoming dates to be aware of:

-Friday, March 25: 7th grade team community building day

-Monday, March 28: 8th grade ELA MCAS

-Tuesday, March 29: 8th grade ELA MCAS

-Thursday, March 31: 7th grade ELA MCAS

-Thursday, March 31: Student trivia event after school

-Friday, April 1: 7th grade ELA MCAS

Take care,

Jim Marcotte

Good afternoon,

Happy St. Patrick’s Day to anyone who wants to be Irish today! With a French-Canadian last name, my family's understanding was always that we were a good 25% French-Canadian.  A few years ago, my wife got me one of those at-home DNA test kits. Surprisingly, my results came back as 95% Irish and 5% Scottish. This led to a bit of intrigue as we couldn’t figure out where “Marcotte” entered the family tree! One would assume it might have been a mistake on my lab results, but we also found out my uncle had a similar revelation - no French Canadian at all! Long story short…whether you are actually Irish, or still wonder about your status (like me), Happy St. Patrick’s Day to us all!

We had a great event for students last Friday afternoon. It was our first in-person Student Council event since January 2020. Our March Madness tournament was a great time and everyone who attended had lots of fun - players and spectators alike. Not only was it a 5-on-5 tournament with games 5 minutes long, the ball we used was smaller than normal and pumped FULL of air. So even our strongest players had a hard time getting into a shooting and scoring rhythm. The highest point total I was able to see before stepping out of the gym was six! It was great to see lots of students come together to do something fun. There was cheering, laughing, and of course, disappointment for the teams as they got knocked out of the competition. As we work on building a joyful, inclusive community, this is a good example of an activity for kids that I hope they will remember fondly.

We couldn’t pull off events like this without adult support. Our student council advisor is Ms. Ahl and she worked closely with her student council members to organize and advertise. We benefited greatly from a group of parents who volunteered to work in the snack area: Shweta Arora, Megan Connor, Hajeera Janibasha, Durga Nirgudkar, Lisa Palaia, and Kelly Sturniolo. We are also super grateful to the families who donated food and drink for the event. We really appreciate your support!

Our Student Council has also been busy setting up a fundraiser for the Sunflower of Peace organization. We are collecting money to donate to this charity which provides medical and humanitarian aid that will be used by the paramedics and doctors in the areas that are affected by the violence in Ukraine. Thank you for your support of this student-led effort.

Finally, for today, a request! We provide each of our students with a school-owned Chromebook for use in and out of school. We have arrived at the point of the year when some students come to school with their Chromebooks not fully charged. We have to turn away students who ask for a loaner for the day due to not having battery power. We have a limited supply of loaners and we give those to students whose devices are broken or malfunctioning. Going forward, if it’s not already a well-established routine for your child, could you please help them make sure their device gets charged every night? Before we enter MCAS next week, I’ll send a more specific email about this to all of our families. We appreciate your help with this request.

Here are some upcoming dates to be aware of:

-Monday, March 21: Parent Portal opens for current 8th grade families re: ABRHS courses

-Monday, March 21: Early Release, 1 pm

-Thursday, March 24: 8th grade team community building day

-Thursday, March 24: Parent Portal opens for current 7th grade families re: RJG courses

-Thursday, March 24: Trimester 2 Report Cards emailed

-Friday, March 25: 7th grade team community building day

-Monday, March 28: 8th grade ELA MCAS

-Tuesday, March 29: 8th grade ELA MCAS

-Thursday, March 31: 7th grade ELA MCAS

-Thursday, March 31: Student trivia event after school

-Friday, April 1: 7th grade ELA MCAS

Take care,

Jim Marcotte

Good afternoon,

This morning at traffic duty, I was paying particular attention to the cars who were arriving without any snow on them! I was a bit jealous that you must not have a garage packed full of trash barrels, Barbie Jeeps, and 17 bicycles, Big Wheels, and fake lawn mowers! That quick-hitter of snow caught me by surprise this morning. But now my office window is open and it feels like March, again, for which I am grateful.

Tomorrow marks the end of Trimester 2 at RJ Grey. Report cards will be emailed after we process all of our grades and comments, likely delivered around March 24th. Entering the final trimester always means that the end of year is in sight. It also means that we have a lot happening throughout the spring and is a good check for us: are we ready? We will be!

I want to highlight that we have spring athletics starting up soon (baseball, softball, spring track, and volleyball). Here is a doc with information about upcoming tryouts and practices. We’ll likely update this doc over the next few days to account for the Town of Acton Election on Tuesday, 3/29. That will limit our ability to have indoor tryouts on Monday and Tuesday of that week. If you have specific questions about any of our spring sports, the doc linked above has contact info for our coaches and athletic director. This doc also reminds everyone about the requirement for current physical exams, and the Family ID sign-ups.

As we enter the spring, we also focus a lot of our time on planning for MCAS testing at the Junior High. In the seventh grade, students are tested in ELA and Math. In the eighth grade, students are tested in ELA, Math, and Science. We start our ELA testing on March 28. Here are our planned MCAS dates this spring, for your convenience.

Tomorrow is Sports Jersey Day at RJ Grey. I have never been one to own a Brady or Gronk jersey - I probably could find a few Red Sox t-shirts in my drawers if I look hard enough. So if your child wants to wear sports-related garb tomorrow, please encourage it. Earlier this year, a pair of teachers approached me in the lobby one morning with a gift bag. We moved into my office where I unveiled the gift. They had bought me a Richmond AFC jersey with my name on the back. I’ve never played soccer in my life; I watch my daughters try to play soccer by chasing the ball around the field. But if you’re a reader of this weekly message, you know that I appreciate all things Ted Lasso. I thanked these teachers for this really thoughtful gift…completely loving the sentiment and thoughtfulness, while knowing that soccer jerseys haven’t fit my aesthetic in the past! But, I’m bringing it home tonight and if it fits comfortably in the morning, I’ll wear it to support my club!

Here are some upcoming dates to be aware of:

-Friday, March 11: End of Trimester 2

-Friday, March 11: Sports Jersey Day

-Friday, March 11: Student Council Basketball Tournament after school

-Monday, March 14: RJ Grey School Council, 7 pm on Zoom

-Monday, March 21: Portal opens for ninth grade course registration
-Monday, March 21: Early Release, 1 pm

-Thursday, March 24: 8th grade team community building day

-Friday, March 25: 7th grade team community building day

Take care,

Jim Marcotte

Good afternoon,

It has been a good week of reconnecting and settling in at RJ Grey after last week’s vacation. I know you’re all aware that we’ve adjusted our Covid practices and we are now a mask-optional school district. As always, our students have come through and do exactly what we have asked. On Monday when we returned, I noticed about 80% of our students wearing masks (my estimate, only!). Over the last four days, that number has shifted a bit and there are now fewer students wearing masks throughout the day, but we’re still hovering around the 50-60% mark. We made clear that we would respect all student and staff decisions to wear masks or not. We haven’t had any issues with students questioning each other’s mask-wearing. We have great kids who are really respectful of this process. Thanks for letting us work with your children!

We returned on Monday with several important world events to unpack. Our social studies classes were front and center with helping students grapple with the situation in Ukraine. I visited all eight social studies rooms on Monday to see how teachers were helping the students process what they might have watched on the news over the prior week, and in many cases they connected the current events with topics they’ve already studied this year. These same teachers also got the chance to talk about the nomination of a supreme court justice, topped off by a State of the Union address. It’s been quite a week! I am always so appreciative when this particular department comes together to help our students unpack important events that happen in our world.

If you’re the parent of an 8th grader, you may start to hear your child talk about courses for next year at ABRHS. This week, our 8th grade counselors began talking to some students about the process for next year’s course registration; other teams will hear this talk next week. The counselors answer general questions about the high school, including course loads, and logistics (how long is lunch!). Our counselors leave specific conversations about content-area courses and recommendations to our team teachers. Those conversations will be coming up in the next few weeks, where a teacher will make a recommendation for your child’s continued study in that discipline. Starting on March 21, you’ll go into the Parent Portal to see the recommended courses. There will be instructions shared prior to then, but I include it as context for what your kids might be starting to excitedly talk about. The high school has developed a specific site where you can gather information about this upcoming transition.

My final point today is to talk about social media. Every year, we try to help students navigate the complications of living in a world with social media. I am continually thankful that there was no such thing during my own middle school years! The computer we had at home was in the living room and the only reason you’d use it was to maybe use the word processing features. And when I was home and didn’t want to talk to any of my classmates, I had the luxury to choose to just be, without the constant feeling of keeping up with what’s happening online. Our kids don’t have that luxury now.

I encourage you to have a conversation with your children this week to ask about their social media habits. We’ve seen accounts this year that pop up with the goal of embarrassing or exposing pictures or facts about peers. When we find out about these, we try to help locate the responsible party and have the account taken down. Just this week, I talked to several students who I could see were following and liking posts on certain accounts that were posting concerning images. In each case, students didn’t know who had created the account, nor did they know who was adding content. Yet, they continued to like the posts, and in some cases, comment. I think our kids face a dilemma with social media: view it, like it, comment on it, or be left out of the loop. I understand the conundrum. In my conversations this week, I tried to have students understand that if none of them liked inappropriate posts, and if no one commented, the account would likely become obsolete and unimportant. I’d encourage you to ask your kids about how they approach this. If they have any insights into how we can all do better, please feel free to share those thoughts with me!

Here are some upcoming dates to be aware of:

-Monday, March 7: Early Release at 1 pm

-Monday, March 7: Youth Risk Behavior Survey for 8th graders

-Friday, March 11: End of Trimester 2

-Friday, March 11: Sports Jersey Day

-Friday, March 11: Student Council Basketball Tournament after school

-Monday, March 14: RJ Grey School Council, 7 pm on Zoom

Take care,

Jim Marcotte

Good afternoon,

We are just a half day away from February vacation. If you have travel plans as a family, I hope they allow you to end up somewhere warm. And if your family is sticking close to home this coming week, like mine, I hope we have a few more days that felt as great as today.

I want to make sure and thank some people that have helped us out in significant ways recently. Firstly, we wrapped up our Ski and Board Club this week. Over the last 7 weeks (we canceled one week), about 100 students boarded buses to Wachusett Mountain to ski and board with their friends and classmates. This club was historically organized and chaperoned by RJG staff members. For lots of reasons, we started over this year with a lot of new adults, including our Advisor Ernie Camposano. As this was his first time taking on the club, our main office did a lot of organizing and leg work ahead of time, which we are pretty good at…that was the easy part. The hard part then came when we had real kids with real equipment on real buses! Ernie did a great job of leading and making sure kids were safe and had a great time. I want to thank our staff chaperones: Kat Contini, Karen Dudziak, Anastasia Koulopoulos, Katie Mammola, Lisa Piandes, and Gina Saxena. And we benefited from a committed group of parent chaperones: Amy and Matt Arnett, Josh Bregman, Melissa Clayton, Cydney Cotter, Mike Plate, Jennine Redmond, and Dan Stouch. I am grateful that these parents gave up their Tuesday afternoons and evenings to make an enjoyable experience for many of our kids!

We’ve also been doing a good amount of collecting and donating here at school. If you see our daily announcements email, you’ll know that students and staff on 7 Blue have been collecting Pennies for Pets for donation t

o the Lowell Humane Society. They’ve made great progress - they have collected over $700! And our Student Council has been hard at work with collecting canned goods for the Acton Food Pantry. The picture to the right was taken yesterday…after I moved several bags and boxes out of the main hallway. The table area was literally overflowing with generosity. If your pantry cabinets contributed to our collection, we thank you! These two drives are just one way that students get to experience the joy of giving and contributing to their community. We’re proud of the student initiative these past few weeks.

If you joined me last night at the Chorus Concert, I hope you were also pleased with the performances. It was a short show, but Mr. Charig mentioned that it’s a lot of work to sing in masks! I was very proud of our students for committing to singing through the Pandemic. Last night was our first evening Chorus Concert in quite a while. It felt good to be a part of!

Here are some upcoming dates to be aware of:

-Friday, Feb 18: Blue and Gold Day!

-Friday, Feb 18: RJ Grey Early Release, 11:10 am

-Monday, Feb 21 - Friday, Feb 25: School Closed for February Vacation

-Monday, Feb 28: School Reopens

-Monday, March 7: Early Release at 1 pm

-Monday, March 7: Youth Risk Behavior Survey for 8th graders

-Friday, March 11: Sports Jersey Day

-Friday, March 11: End of Trimester 2

Take care, and happy vacation!

Jim Marcotte

Good evening,

I’m not sure what has been different about the sun over the past few days - but maybe the fact that it has been present is a good start…and it feels brighter! I’m sure any 7th grader could give me a lesson or two on this topic based on their science studies this year, but it just feels different this week. Maybe we’re emerging from our winter dark period. Whatever we call it, it works for me!

We are heading into the last week before February vacation! On Friday, February 18th, we’ll have Blue and Gold Day at RJ Grey. This is a fun day where students dress in their blue and gold to show their school spirit. In a more typical year, we would have an assembly featuring several student groups. We made the call about a month ago to skip the assembly this year. At the time, bringing together two full grades, or even one, seemed to go against the Covid norms we were enforcing. We seem to be coming down from those high case counts, which is great for all of us. So while we’ll skip the assembly on Friday, we’ll still ask students and staff to dress in their blue and gold. And as we’ve shared before, RJ Grey will also have an early release (11:10 am) on Friday, February 18th. 

You might have seen the news out of DESE on Wednesday where the Commissioner announced he is not going to renew the mask mandate in schools, effective February 28th. We’ll share more info next week about what that looks like, but it is important to us to find a way to make sure that anyone who wants to continue wearing a mask feels comfortable doing so. I’ve thought about my own mask-wearing post February vacation. I think I’ll likely still wear one while supervising lunch, but maybe not when I’m visiting a class? The point is, this will be a personal and family decision and we’ll support students with those decisions. More will come out next week on this most recent change.

On Tuesday, our students watched a brief video that we prepared, highlighting our new Incident Reporting Form. This can be an anonymous way for students or families to report to us something important. The video we made for them highlights that they can use this form if they’ve already considered how to handle this with one of their trusted adults at home or at school. Our ideal situation is when a student comes directly to a staff member to talk about an issue. This lets us respond immediately, offer support, and make sure the student is feeling okay. Receiving an electronic report makes it less personal, but it may make students feel a bit more safe, so we welcome it. While the form does allow for anonymous submissions, we do encourage students to share their own names so that we can follow-up, ask additional questions, and when possible, provide resolutions. If you have a child struggling with something, and they’re not ready to approach someone at school, please remind them of this option, which also resides on our school homepage.

Here are some upcoming dates to be aware of:

-Tuesday, Feb 15: ABRHS Curriculum Night, 6 pm, on Zoom

-Wednesday, Feb 16: RJ Grey Chorus Concert, 7 pm

-Friday, Feb 18: Blue and Gold Day!

-Friday, Feb 18: RJ Grey Early Release, 11:10 am

That’s it for now. Take care,

Jim Marcotte

Good afternoon,

I hope you’re doing well. Happy Lunar New Year to those who celebrate. During Tuesday’s morning announcements, I wished this over the PA to our students. Immediately after that, as I stood in the hall for passing time, a student approached me and asked why we didn’t recognize Black History Month that morning. The student was right that we hadn’t mentioned it that morning. I thanked her for calling us out and I explained that we wanted to highlight the New Year and that we’d be following up to recognize Black History Month. Over the past two days, we’ve shared quotes about black history month and we’ll continue to recognize it each day this month. Just this afternoon I received an email from a student asking if she could share with me a list of important people in black history, and could I share those one morning next week? I responded with a Yes - of course!

As our communities continue to wrestle with topics of race, bias, and discrimination, we continue to think about how to create opportunities to talk with your children. We have some staff leaders who are working to get a few student affinity groups up and running. We are also working on a parent group who will be able to offer feedback and experiences from their perspectives. We are excited to take next steps in this important work and we’re hopeful that being open and direct about some of these topics, we’ll create a space where students can be as comfortable as they can be, at all times. We all have a lot to work on and we’re excited to learn more.

There is one operational topic that I wanted to write about briefly. Actually, maybe two! The first involves the afternoons at RJ Grey. We are very pleased to be able to offer a lot more after school activities than we could last year. Last year, after school was a breeze because we didn’t have any in-person clubs, activities, athletics, or even in-person extra help! Supervision was easy - but it wasn't ideal for kids! Because we have that variety of items back in place this year, we regularly work with students to understand the expectations for being in the building after 2:36 pm. The basics include: Students who stay after for a club, sport, extra help, etc. can do so! We staff our library until 4:30 every day and we have a staff member present in the building until 5 pm. We expect students to be in the library quietly working while waiting for a ride or the late bus. What we’ve been experiencing recently is students leaving school, heading to Starbucks, CVS, or Sorrento's, and heading back to school to hang out and socialize. While we love that they enjoy being in school, we’re not built to be a hangout location. I ask for your help in reinforcing that message. Being at RJ Grey after school is a privilege and we do have some expectations that all students need to uphold if they need to stay. Thanks for your help with this.

The other operational item is that we’ve noticed the number of tardies to school is growing recently. School starts at 8:00 every day. Seventh graders start with a 3-minute homeroom, and eighth graders have a 6-minute homeroom. Both of those short periods are opportunities for students to get themselves ready, hear the announcements, and breathe for a minute before the first period starts. Each day we have students entering after 8:00. Those kids need to sign-in at the main office (since they missed attendance in homeroom), and I know for many, it sets their day off on the wrong foot. So my request is that if you drive your child to school, and I know traffic near the school campus  can be a challenge, potentially leaving a bit earlier is something that needs to become part of the routine. I know this is a challenge. Just this morning, my own 8 year old realized she forgot her snow gear when I dropped her off at her before-school daycare. Of course, I drove home to get it, making me 20 minutes later to school than I normally am. I was still ready and executed my 7:30 traffic duty on time! But it started me off on the wrong foot. If getting out of the house is a challenge early enough to be here prior to 8:00, please reach out to us and we can help you and your child brainstorm some solutions. 

Here are some upcoming dates to be aware of:

-Monday, Feb 7: Early Release (1pm)

-Monday, Feb 7: RJG School Council, 7pm

-Thursday, Feb 10: NAEP assessment for selected 8th graders

-Tuesday, Feb 15: ABRHS Curriculum Night, 6 pm, on Zoom: (new date and time)

-Wednesday, Feb 16: RJ Grey Chorus Concert, 7 pm

-Friday, Feb 18: Blue and Gold Day!

-Friday, Feb 18: RJ Grey Early Release, 11:10 am (new)

That’s it for now. I hope we all fare well with tomorrow’s ice and snow. Take care,

Jim Marcotte

Good afternoon,

I hope you’re doing well. As we enter a weekend with a snowstorm looming in front of us, I hope you have a plan for snow removal, which frankly, should involve your 7th or 8th grader! Growing up, my sisters and I, along with my dad, were responsible for shoveling a pretty long driveway. Though it was always the heaviest part of the driveway, I always took on clearing the area in front of the mailbox. Being precise and digging out a clean edge along the street always made me pretty proud and confident that the mailman would have easy access. I did become a letter carrier one summer during college, so maybe it was a bit of foreshadowing into that role. No one on our street had a snowblower back then and getting a plow was considered unnecessary. Physical labor was the name of the game in Lowell in the 80s and 90s! So as I start up my expensive snowblower on Saturday, I’ll think of my childhood days of shoveling… as I clear the snow completely by myself!

We have several community-type updates to share today, so please read along:

Mascot Re-Naming Survey Reminder

We are sending this reminder to the community about the current opportunity to submit a suggestion for a new mascot for our district.  Thank you to the many individuals who have already offered one or more suggestions.  Below is the original invitation sent to the community earlier in January.  Please note that the deadline for suggestions is February 4, 2022. All entries should be submitted through the online survey - here is the address:  https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ABMascot

Vaccine Booster Opportunity at AB

At this time, we are planning one booster clinic at R.J. Grey Junior High School on Saturday, February 12th from 9:00-3:00 for 12-18 year olds.  The Acton Health Department has ordered 300 initial vaccine doses, and sign up is first-come, first served. If there is an overwhelming response from our families, we may be able to add additional slots. Please check your email for additional information from last week, and the link to sign up!

Knowing we have limited vaccine availability, we encourage you to visit the MassVax site at https://vaxfinder.mass.gov/, where you can filter vaccines by the Pfizer booster and find available appointments.

ABSAF Recruitment

The purpose of ABSAF (Acton-Boxborough Student Activity Fund)  is to raise money each year through ABSAF pass sales, donations, and fundraising events, which will, in turn, be gifted to the Jr. High and High School to subsidize student activities like music, drama, athletics, and other club activities. ABSAF is currently recruiting interested 8th graders to be part of this group. This message and more information will be sent to 8th grade students soon, but I thought it would be valuable to share with our parent community. ABSAF has always been generous to us and any support you give to this organization benefits all of us.

Here are some upcoming dates to be aware of:

-Friday, Jan 28: Hawaiian Shirt Day

-Monday, Jan 31: SOS Lesson for 7 Green

-Wednesday, Feb 2: SOS Lesson for 7 Blue

-Monday, Feb 7: RJG School Council, 7pm

-Thursday, Feb 10: NAEP assessment for selected 8th graders

Take care, and lift with your knees, not your back as you shovel this weekend!

Jim Marcotte

Good afternoon,

I hope you are all doing well. Where this past Monday was Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, my Instagram and Twitter were flooded with important and relevant quotes from Dr. King. One quote that stuck out to me was, “The time is always right to do what is right.” This quote will likely fill the bulletin board in our main lobby when I have a few minutes to break out my artsy side soon. I really like that quote and I think it fits with the work we’re doing at RJ Grey. As many times as possible, we work with your kids to make good decisions: we advise them, we coach them, we model for them. And sometimes they make a mistake, and then our focus switches to trying to help them understand the impact and effect of their actions. And while we don’t necessarily use Dr. King’s words above, we should. As we build a joyful, inclusive community of engaged learners, we’ll have some hiccups and we’ll all make some mistakes, but the overall sentiment is that as a community, doing the right thing is the right thing. Thank you for your support as we deliver messages along these lines to our students.

You likely received an email late last week that directed you to a survey about choosing a new mascot for Acton-Boxborough. I’ve mentioned in this column before that five RJ Grey students are part of the student group whose task is to select the next mascot of AB. The student group has put together a survey, asking for ideas for a new mascot. I would encourage you to share any awesome ideas you have, and please share the survey with anyone interested in AB. The survey will close on February 4. I hope some of our creative community members take a few minutes to share their thoughts with our student committee. Please feel free to share this link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ABMascot

Today is day 86 of our school year, meaning we’re just about at the halfway point. I’ve always found the second half of the year to go even faster than the first, so buckle up! Teachers will be submitting Trimester 2 Interim Reports early next week, to be emailed mid-week to families. Interim reports are designed to alert families to situations where something could be better. Low assessment grades, lack of homework completion, or classroom behavior all might be reasons for a teacher to issue an interim. Trimester 2 won’t end until March 11, so there is a good amount of time to make adjustments. If, after receiving an Interim Report where questions remain, please reach out directly to your child’s teachers and if necessary, help to make a plan with your child for the next steps for improvement. We’re happy to help with that if you need it, so please let us know.

Here are some upcoming dates to be aware of:

-Monday, Jan 24: Early Release (1pm) for Professional Learning

-Monday, Jan 24: Signs of Suicide Lesson (SOS) for 7 Gold

-Wednesday, Jan 26: SOS Lesson for 7 Red

-Friday, Jan 28: Hawaiian Shirt Day

-Monday, Jan 31: SOS Lesson for 7 Green

-Wednesday, Feb 2: SOS Lesson for 7 Blue

-Monday, Feb 7: RJG School Council, 7pm

-Wednesday, Feb 9: ABRHS Curriculum Night for 8th grade families, 7pm on Zoom

-Thursday, Feb 10: NAEP assessment for selected 8th graders

Take care,
Jim

Good afternoon,

I don’t know that I wished anyone a Happy New Year in last week’s message. If you watch Curb Your Enthusiasm, you might recognize the interaction where Larry David declares that you cannot wish anyone a Happy New Year after January 7th. While I’m breaking his rule in this message, I think it’s worth acknowledging that we’re in a New Year!

And while I can never hold fast to a resolution, I do always start the year with some energy and renewed focus on something. While it should be riding my exercise bike in the cold basement, or spending less time scrolling on my phone, neither of those have come to fruition yet. This week, I have found myself with a fresh energy around the prospects of our continued work this year at RJ Grey.

I spent just a bit of time at a few basketball games this week. And I see the musical tryouts taking shape in the auditorium. And it’s just a little lighter outside right now than it was last week! As administrators, we are starting to plan on how to roll out things like parent night for 6th grade families, and even getting deeper into our plans for having an Advisory program at RJ Grey next year. While my wife and I were just this morning bemoaning the boringness of mid-January (“what do you want for dinner tonight? I don’t know, what do you want?”), there is excitement for the prospect of how this year will continue to unravel, making way for the planning for a new year! 

For parents of 8th graders, you saw an email from me today about an upcoming Info Session (January 19th at 7 pm) with the high school about a change in the science curriculum. Please see the email I sent today for the Zoom link. Also be aware that the high school will be holding a Curriculum Night on Wednesday, February 9th. We’ll share more info as we get closer, as well as the Zoom link. Here at RJ Grey, we’re gearing up for our annual SOS (Signs of Suicide) lessons in the 7th grade. See my email from this week for more info on that. So while your students are plodding their way through this year, completing their iReady assessments and other tasks, know that we continue to be excited to plan out the rest of this year and beyond. 

In closing, Happy New Year! If you’ve found a way to keep your exercise bike a regular part of your life, I welcome some inspiration! And I’ll likely finish this message and text my wife, “What do you want me to pick up for take-out on the way home?” 

Here are some upcoming dates to be aware of:

-Monday, Jan 17: No School for Martin Luther King Day

-Wednesday, Jan 19: ABRHS Info Session on Science Curriculum (for 8th grade families and students)

-Monday, Jan 24: Early Release (1pm) for Professional Learning

-Friday, Jan 28: Hawaiian Shirt Day

-Monday, Feb 7: RJG School Council, 7pm

-Wednesday, Feb 9: ABRHS Curriculum Night, 7pm

-Thursday, Feb 10: NAEP assessment for selected 8th graders

Take care,
Jim Marcotte