Lucille Brown MS Parent Newsletter
Week of September 26, 2021
Hello, Panther families! I was so happy to meet with students this past Friday for our first school wide Den meeting. Our Panthers were enthusiastic and attentive as we met to discuss schoolwide expectations and welcome them back officially to the 2021-22 school year. Parents, a huge thanks goes out to you for helping us start off this year on the right foot. We look forward to a continued partnership and welcome any and all feedback. Please continue reading for this week's new announcements and updates.
Car Rider Dismissal: Parents who pick their children up by car each day will no longer be able to wait for students along Blakmore Road. In an effort to keep our students safe and away from traffic, parents are asked to enter the parking lot from Jahnke Road and follow the line to the front of the school. Please refrain from calling your children across the parking lot or across the street. Our staff will redirect students to the front of the school to wait for you. Your full cooperation is appreciated.
National Voter Registration Day: This Tuesday, September 28, is National Voter Registration Day. Please help spread the word to ensure everyone who's eligible is registered to vote! If you've recently moved, turned 18, or changed your name, you may need to update your registration. Learn more at nationalvoterregistrationday.org.
Mask Reminders: Parents and caregivers, please be sure students have their masks on when approaching and boarding the school bus. This helps ensure a safe and speedy boarding process. Please also make sure to send your students with a mask that fits their face. Adult size masks are not appropriate for small children, as they do not fit tightly. If you need pediatric masks, your school can provide them.
Cell Phones: We have begun implementing our cell phone policy. If students are caught with their phones, it will be confiscated and students will be able to get it after school. After two confiscations, a parent or guardian will have to pick the phone up from the school. Please have discussions with your children about the cell phone policy, as well as the consequences for violating it.
RPS Lunch Monitors: RPS is hiring lunch monitors who can offer support to our schools while students return to in-person learning for the 2021-22 school year. If you're interested, please click here to read the information flyer.
NextUp Registration: Calling all middle schoolers! If math class can be online then why not dance, art, cooking or coding? LIVE, online enrichment classes led by area program providers are now available to RPS middle school students through NextUp RVA’s online portal. Through this online portal, students can participate in live and interactive enrichment classes led by local, quality program providers. Classes are offered at no-cost to RPS families. Please visit our online portal to get your kids started.
What is NextUp? NextUp is a local nonprofit organization that manages a coordinated system of high-quality enrichment providers. NextUp is responsible for ensuring all RPS middle schoolers have access to quality learning enrichments that expand students’ learning beyond the school day. Simply put, NextUp breaks down barriers, ensures quality, achieves results, and leverages what works, because kids who participate in enrichment programming learn better, feel better, and do better.
Registration for the upcoming Fall session is still open. For more information about NextUp, visit www.nextuprva.org.
COVID-19 Vaccinations: Please plan to take your child to get vaccinated as soon as possible. The more students in our school who are vaccinated, the safer school is for every child here.
Weekly COVID-19–associated hospitalization rates among children and adolescents rose nearly five-fold during late June–mid-August 2021, coinciding with increased circulation of the highly transmissible SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant. The proportions of hospitalized children and adolescents with severe disease were similar before and during the period of Delta predominance. Hospitalization rates were 10 times higher among unvaccinated than among fully vaccinated adolescents.
Chromebook Support: For Chromebook support, including login assistance, please visit https://www.rpstech.org/parents.html or email helpdesk@rvaschools.net
Updated Bus Routes: Updated school bus routes are now available on the RPS website at www.rvaschools.net/busstops. Please visit the website to check if your bus route as been affected. As always, please call 804-674-1234 for any transportation related questions.
Dress Code: We ask that all students adhere to our dress code policy and refrain from wearing hats, hoods, head scarves, sunglasses, see-through items, crop tops that expose a bare midriff, bedroom attire, and open-toe shoes/sandals.
Symptom Checking: Please use this symptom checker before you head out the door each day. If you have any symptoms, stay home and get tested. Do this for yourself and for the RPS family.
This concludes my new announcements for this week. You can always find this and more information on our school’s website. As always, students...if no one told you today that they love you, know that I do and always will.
Dr. Gaines
Principal