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Good afternoon, RJ Grey Families:
Thank you to everyone who helped support last week's Summer Fun in Winter event. Your donated drinks, snacks, and, in some cases, presence, made for a great event! Little did we know that our summer attire and festivities were going to usher in over twenty inches of snow! I hope you all handled the digging out fairly well. Up until Saturday afternoon, my snowblower was not working. With some help from my dad and some guessing about where the carbureator might be clogged, we figured it out and got it up and running. I share my huge thanks to all of the AB facilities team who helped clear our roadways, sidewalks, stairs, and other pavement so that we could be ready for school. Fingers crossed that this next storm stays to our south!
Last week, you all received a message from the district with your child's current absence and tardy count. This is an automated message that goes to all families. Separately, our assistant principals will be reaching out next week, at the start of February, with their monthly check-ins for students whose absences may be escalating. Today is Day #92 of the school year. We are officially in the second half of the year. If your child's absences hover at 8 or 9 or higher, they have missed about 10% of the current academic year. The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education deems students "chronically absent" when they miss 10% of the year. We know that having kids in school most days helps them learn content, practice skills, and foster relationships with peers and adults. If your child is currently at 8 or 9 days or more, and you would like to check in with us for some support, I invite you to reach out to your child's counselor or assistant principal to start a conversation.
We issued our Trimester 2 Interim Reports this week. My apologies to anyone who received that email multiple times. We've had a few glitches with our program that sends out these messages. Regardless, Interims tend to give a heads-up about something that could be better in a particular class. With plenty of time left in Trimester 2, there is time to make a change in a positive direction. This term ends around March 12. Please be in touch with your child's teacher(s) with any questions about their current performance.
We're in the middle of delivering our SOS lessons to 7th graders. 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 it 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. One of the vignettes 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.
For those keeping track, with two snow days this week, our last day of school is currently Tuesday, June 23rd. On the topic of planning ahead, the School Committee has voted on the calendar for next year. The first day of school for students in grades K - 7 and 9 will be Monday, August 31. The first day for students in grades 8, 10, 11, and 12 will be Tuesday, September 1.
Take care,
Jim
Monday, Feb 2: 7 Gold SOS Lesson
Monday, Feb 2: Library closed to students after school
Tuesday, Feb 3: School Council, 7 pm
Wednesday, Feb 4: 7 Green SOS Lesson
Thursday, Feb 5: 7 Red SOS Lesson (make-up from snow day)
Monday, Feb 9: Early Release at 1 pm
Tuesday, Feb 10: Orchestra Concert, 7 pm
Wednesday, Feb 11: 8th to 9th grade Transition to ABRHS Night, 6 - 7:30 pm
Friday, Feb 13: Blue and Gold Day at RJ Grey
Monday, Feb 16 - Friday, Feb 20: School Closed for February Vacation |
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