A Few Bits
Board of Education Budget
The Board of Education adopted its budget on Monday, February 22. The adopted budget was an amended version of the Superintendent's proposed budget, which now includes an additional 1.0 Art teacher at the elementary level. Since Monday, the Board of Education presented the adopted budget to the Board of Selectmen. The Board of Selectmen made a non-binding recommendation to the Board of Finance, of 3.0%. This represents a reduction of $454,556 to the Board of Education adopted budget of 3.45%.
Important Budget Dates:
Monday, March 3, 2021 - The Town will hold a Special Town Meeting to change the Annual Town Meeting date from May 1, 2021 to April 24, 2021.
Monday, March 15, 2021 - The Board of Finance will hold a BOF Public Hearing on the Town and Board of Education 2021-22 Budgets.
Thursday, March 18, 2021 - The Board of Education will present their budget to the BOF.
Saturday, April 24, 2021 - Anticipated Annual Town Meeting on the Town and Board of Education 2021-22 Budgets.
Tuesday, May 11, 2021 - Town Referendum on the Town and Board of Education Budgets.
Vaccinations
As communicated earlier in the week, school staff will be eligible for COVID-19 vaccinations beginning March 1. School staff will take advantage of appointments that may become available in and out of the District; this means that students may experience some adjustments to their daily schedule or experience to allow for staff to access their first and second doses. Thank you for your understanding and patience.
Asynchronous Learning Day
*March 15- change for elementary students only. Elementary students will engage in a full day of asynchronous learning rather than half day. The reason for this change is due to CSDE requiring teachers to be assessed in the Foundations of Reading assessment. Teachers will be taking this proctored assessment on March 15. As a reminder- due to COVID, we do not have allocated professional development time for teachers, thus it will be necessary to make this adjustment to the school day for students.
March 15 will remain as an asynchronous ‘afternoon only’ for all students in grades 6-12.
School Status
Elementary school students will continue in the full in-person learning model. SRMS and ERMS continue to remain in hybrid. RHS also remains hybrid; however, due to the number of families who are opting for Temporary Remote Cohort C, families choosing in-person cohort A/B are able to attend five days in person, so long as RHS attendance rates remain low and can accommodate this option. Families should contact their child's school counselor at RHS with any questions.
Health and Safety
CSDE
Professional Series for Families
Food Service
We are delighted with the wonderful weather and anticipate a normal food distribution week ahead of us. East Ridge Middle School will have pickup meals available between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday next week. In addition, our weekend meal program at SES and BMES will continue next week. We thank with gratitude the students and families that are supporting our program by choosing to take advantage of the wonderful lunches being offered in all our schools and in receiving meals through our weekend and afternoon meal distributions. Kindly see the food service social media post here.
RPS Highlights
Enjoy the RPS News here!
Ridgefield Tiger Talk: We have a very interesting “once in a 43-year” show today! If you haven’t heard a time capsule has been recovered from Ridgebury Elementary School that was buried in 1977. We talk with Jamie Palladino principal of Ridgebury Elementary School and Melinda Prills, an RES kindergarten teacher. They tell us the story of how the time capsule was recovered, what was in it, how the community reacted, and what the next time capsule will be. Thanks for listening!