Good afternoon, RJ Grey Families:
I hope you're doing well. If you haven't already heard, ask your child about how their Advisory group did with Name That Tune yesterday! Mr. Zhang chose ten songs and played clips over the loudspeaker. Many advisories knew the song and artist, but calling the Main Office as the 5th or 7th caller ended up being the real obstacle to winning. My own advisory knew lots of the answers, but my fingers on the phone keypad weren't quick enough for our call to be answered. My students thought we were at a disadvantage since my office was so close to the neighboring office/DJ studio. Regardless of not winning any points, we had a good time. Our Advisory competitions will continue through the end of March with more opportunities to engage, compete, and focus on our community!
Tomorrow begins the final trimester of the year. For students, this is a chance to start fresh with new grades, assignments, and projects. If your child needs a pep talk about recommitting to homework and studying, now is the time! Please reach out to your child's teachers or counselor if you need us to reinforce a particular message.
Finally, this is a last call for placing an ad in our yearbook. Please see below for additional information:
Would you like to include a tribute to your graduating student in this year's yearbook? If so, here are the necessary details:
1. For $40, you will receive a 1/8th-page space in our yearbook, which is room for 1-2 photos and a message of pride and congratulations to your child.
2. You will design, pay, and submit everything online. We have to submit these pages for printing as they are completed, so please be sure to proof your file very carefully. Unfortunately, changes aren't possible after it is submitted.
3. When you're ready, go to this link to begin, and scroll down to find the button that says "Start Your Ad":
The DEADLINE is MONDAY, March 24, but the portal will close once we reach our maximum number of tributes.
If you have any questions, please contact our yearbook coordinator, Marc Lewis, at MLewis@abschools.org.
Take care and I hope you have a nice weekend,
Jim
jmarcotte
Good afternoon, RJ Grey Families:
I hope you're doing well and enjoying the recent warming temperatures. On the way out of our house this morning, my middle daughter Caroline said, "It smells like spring." She's right! There is a distinct smell in the air as we emerge from the dark and cold winter. The angle and intensity of the sun feel different. I have heard birds in the morning. At this morning's drop-off, I took a picture of our long-lost parking barrier that got pushed aside by the plows a few weeks ago. Its broken legs weren't visible yesterday - snow is melting, and spring is coming!
With spring comes spring athletics tryouts. If your child is interested in trying out for baseball, softball, volleyball, or joining our spring track team, please check out the information we provide on our website.
With spring also comes MCAS testing! You may remember a state ballot question in November regarding the MCAS. The outcome of that vote eliminated the requirement to pass the 10th grade MCAS in order to graduate from high school. It did not, however, remove the requirement that we administer the MCAS in 7th and 8th grades (and other years, too). No matter how you voted in November, the MCAS remains an assessment of the state frameworks. I find value in seeing how students perform because it tells me how well we've taught our content and grade-level skills! Our teaching gets better when we are able to see our students' responses to the MCAS. Below are this spring's dates for the MCAS administration at RJ Grey:
- April 8 and 9: 7th and 8th grade English Language Arts
- May 14 and 15: 7th and 8th grade Math
- May 19: 8th grade Science/Technology Engineering
- May 28 and 29: 8th grade Civics
The second trimester (on-team classes) will wrap up next Thursday, March 13th. If your child has any lingering work for trimester 2, now is the time to turn it in or follow up with a teacher. There are no class changes as a result of entering trimester 3. Trimester 2 report cards will be emailed home around March 24.
If you haven't already done so, please take a few minutes to complete the Chronic Absenteeism survey that was sent by the District (link here). Our students took a similar survey in Advisory on Tuesday. You know that we're regularly trying to improve our student attendance, and this data collection will help the Chronic Absenteeism Task Force understand the issues at play with student attendance.
I try to remain aware of our student attendance over time. My brain sometimes needs a visual, so I have been regularly updating a calendar with the percentage of students present in school on any given day. The varying shades of pink and red on the calendar below are a quick visual for me - any day below 95% gets marked with a color. We know that some early travel and some widespread illness kept more students out of school the week before February vacation. If you have any questions or concerns about attendance for your child, please be in touch!
Finally, tomorrow is Sports Jersey Day and our March Madness basketball tournament after school. We expect that lots of our students will stay to watch their classmates compete in a tournament of back-to-back games. A few things make this an ideal middle school event: it’s immediately after school, it’s wrapped up before dinner time, and it doesn’t have the social pressure of a dance or an evening event. If your child is joining us, I know they will have a great time! I also remind you to pick them up at 4:30. The pick-up can get pretty busy, so my advice is to park in our lot and let your child know where you are, rather than trying to drive through the front circle looking for them. Major thanks to everyone who has volunteered to donate snacks and drinks for the tournament!
Take care and I hope you have a nice weekend,
Jim
jmarcotte
Good afternoon, RJ Grey Families:
I hope you were able to enjoy your February vacation last week. As we settle back in after a short break, our gaze starts to turn to next year! Below, I lay out a few items that are on the horizon for all of us.
Behind the scenes, our admin team is planning for what school will look like in the 25-26 school year. If you've paid attention to the budget highlights from the Superintendent and School Committee, there are planned staffing reductions across the District next year to meet our proposed budget. Specifically, at RJ Grey, we are planning to reduce three classroom teachers. As a result, we will move from having 8 teams to 7 teams next year. Our teams will be larger than recent years (approximately 120 students per team), and our class sizes will be larger too (approximately 24 students in each class). This class size average is within the school committee guidelines, so we'll be in line with other schools in the District.
It is always a tricky balance when reducing teaching positions from a middle school since teachers come in groupings (teams) and teaming is such an integral part of how we keep a large school feeling as small as possible. The reduction of a single team next year means that we'll have 3 full-size teams in 7th grade and 3 full-size teams in 8th grade. The seventh team will be a full-size team, made up of both 7th and 8th graders. We anticipate having about 50 7th graders on this team, plus about 70 8th graders. The students will attend classes with classmates from their own grade but will share a set of teachers that teach in both grades. Your incoming 7th or 8th grader will likely not notice much of a difference in their classroom experience. As for the personal aspect of our work, we are sad to be losing several staff members whose work and friendship we deeply value.
In thinking about next year, around March 19th, 7th grade parents will hear from me about course registration for 8th grade. At that time, I'll share with you the website and Parent Portal link to choose Grey Block classes and to see the recommended math class for grade 8. For current 8th grade families, the Parent Portal will be open from March 14 - 24 for you and your child to view recommended courses and choose electives for ninth grade. Teachers will talk more about high school courses in the coming weeks. Our Central Office publishes a document each year, Understanding Course Selection. This is by no means a "required read," but it is available for anyone interested in knowing more about our courses.
In other news, several staff members talked to me this week about parent drop-off in the mornings. Some of you know that one or more RJ Grey administrators are outside in the car drop-off area each morning from 7:35 - 7:55. My task at that time is to make sure students and staff safely exit their cars, cross over traffic, and enter the building. My secondary task is to keep the cars moving in a way that allows you all to drop off your passengers and get to the next parts of your day as quickly as possible. I have heard that parent drop-off has been happening in other RJ Grey parking lots and on the roadway in front of the gym. If we had more staff available at that time to monitor safety, we would deploy them to those locations. Since that is not available, I really ask that each parent uses the main parking lot (at the bottom of the stairs) to drop off in the morning. Pulling into another parking lot interrupts the arrival of staff and creates a potentially unsafe and supervised situation. I appreciate your cooperation and ask that you drop off only in the lower parking lot in the morning.
Thank you to everyone who contributed to our Library Squad's recent book drive. We donated over 1190 books to More Than Words! I am always so grateful for you - when we ask, you give! Thank you very much!
Take care and I hope you have a nice weekend,
Jim
jmarcotte
Good afternoon, RJ Grey Families:
I hope you are doing well on this dreary day. In stark contrast to the dark conditions outside, our cafeteria was transformed overnight into a sunny, positive representation of our school community! In Advisory on Tuesday, each student added the name of someone in a buddy advisory to an individual paper heart. In some cases, a message or other note was added to the heart. Thanks to several of our teachers and some student volunteers, more than 800 paper hearts were hung up in the cafe yesterday afternoon. Today at breakfast and lunch, many students took the time to try and find the heart with their name on it. I haven't found my own heart yet, but I'll keep looking!
At RJ Grey, we work every day to support our students and our staff. We are proud of our work to recognize and appreciate all of our students. Every student, from every community, from every religion, from every gender, and from every background is welcome here and we are a better place for it! It's nice to close out our week with a positive reminder about the importance of community.
Tomorrow is Blue and Gold Day! This tradition is another great opportunity for us to experience our community. We'll hold grade-level student assemblies that will feature our performing arts ensembles (band, chorus, orchestra) and will be led by our student council. A rousing game of musical chairs will be a highlight, I'm sure. If your child has some blue and gold gear to wear to school tomorrow, they will fit right in!
Now that our winter sports season has wrapped up, we can expect more predictable routines after school hours. As a reminder, students who stay for extra help or a club or activity are welcome to stay after school. Otherwise, students should be heading home after school. After vacation, we'll reiterate our expectations to students and remind them about our limited supervision after school hours.
I hope that you are able to enjoy some time with your families over the coming vacation week! My family will be staying close to home. We hope to remain healthy and avoid the viruses that have been affecting many of your families! I hope you have a healthy week, too!
Take care and I hope you have a nice week,
Jim
jmarcotte
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
- March 13, 2025
- March 6, 2025
- February 27, 2025
- February 13, 2025
- February 6, 2025
- January 30, 2025
- January 23, 2025
- January 16, 2025
- January 9, 2025
- January 2, 2025
|