Board of Education Meeting
Monday, March 22 @ 7:00 p.m. Hope you can tune in.
Important Board of Education Budget Dates
Saturday, April 24- Annual Town Meeting on the Town and Board of Education 2021-22 Budgets.
Tuesday, May 11- Town Referendum on the Town and Board of Education Budgets.
School Status
Our team met this past week regarding next steps with our secondary schools. We will present our plan to the Board of Education on March 22. You can expect communication from your school after that date to allow all students, faculty, and families to prepare and decide which learning model is appropriate for their family for the remainder of the year.
Remote Learning Criteria
Our goal is to provide the best learning experience for all students with the least disruption as possible, as a result, please note the following important reminders:
Remote learning is available to students:
- have elected this option as their learning model
- who are experiencing COVID-19 symptoms, but are well enough to attend school
- who are awaiting COVID-19 test results
- who are in quarantine
Remote learning is not available to students:
- who are on vacation
- who are located at a second home and are not sleeping in Ridgefield
- who occasionally prefer to remote learn
- who are running late to physical school
- who are not well enough to engage as a learner
- who have an appointment, and may otherwise be “late”
Students who do not meet the criteria for remote learning will be considered absent.
Health And Safety
Travel Advisory: Today, Friday, March 19, the Connecticut Travel Advisory changes from being a requirement to being a recommendation. The state of CT will no longer require a 10-day quarantine or a negative COVID-19 test when returning from out-of-state travel. RPS will continue to recommend and ask for a negative COVID test after out-of-state travel however we will not be requiring it. Please find the Governor’s press release here.
The Town of Ridgefield and RPS have seen an increase in the number of COVID-19 cases in the last two weeks. COVID-19 is spread primarily via droplets from person to person when individuals are not wearing a mask and are less than 6 feet apart. Please continue to practice social distancing and the wearing of masks when meeting with individuals outside of your home. It is important that we remain vigilant with the mitigating measures.
Radon Testing
Radon testing will be completed across all of our schools today. Results will be posted on the District website when available.
Food Service
Food service is on a normal schedule for next week with afternoon pick up of meals at our East Ridge Middle School location on Monday, Wednesday and Friday between the hours of 3:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m.
Unfortunately, we will not be able to offer weekend meals at Barlow Mountain Elementary or Scotland Elementary next week due to a staffing shortage. We will start the program back up beginning with an April 2 distribution.
Curriculum Updates
Math Placement: A collaborative K-12 team has been working on revisions to the math placement process into middle school and from grade to grade in middle school. Specifically, this committee is studying the impact of COVID-19 on traditionally used data points and processes. Families can expect a comprehensive communication from the elementary and middle schools the week of April 19th, with a breakdown of all of the components. The week of April 26th will include two presentations on the process. The elementary presentation will be on April 27th at 10:15am and the middle school presentation will be April 28th at 10:15am. Links to the presentations and a form for submitting questions will be shared next week.
Parent Workshop: Click here to view the presentation from March 18th on standardized testing by K-12 administrators. The purpose of the presentation was to inform parents about the assessments that students in grades 3-8 and 11 will take this spring.
RPS Highlights
Enjoy the RPS News here!
Ridgefield Tiger Talk: On today's show we have Emily Shiller and Janine Johnson from Scotts Ridge Middle School’s Library Learning Commons (or LLC for short). We talk about all the cool things students can do in a middle school LLC; how the LLC has evolved from the traditional library; how they have adapted to COVID; and what they’re looking forward to when we can have kids back in the building. Thanks for listening!