RIDGELINE CALENDAR OF EVENTS:

Friday 11/18: 5:00-7:00 pm Book Fair!

Monday 11/21: Turkey Dinner Distribution

Tuesday 11/22: Bring veggies to be sliced at school

Wednesday 11/23: Stone Soup (This year is a student-only meal, but we still need volunteers! See below for more information!)

Wednesday 11/23: Send a bowl & spoon (Allergic to soup? Please send an alternative for your child.)

Thursday 11/24-Sunday 11/27: NO SCHOOL - Fall Break

Monday 11/28: Return to school refreshed and ready!

Monday 11/28: Site Council Meeting 6-7:30pm

Tuesday 11/29: UO Test Kit Return

Tuesday 11/29: Giving Tuesday

We encourage you to regularly check the full calendar at www.ridgeline.org as some dates may change. Please note that Ridgeline’s calendar is slightly different from 4J elementary calendars.

Read all the way through the eNews for important messages about the Book Fair, Stone Soup, turkey dinners, planned absence requests for the holidays, a message from the Oregon Health Department and much more!

This year's Book Fair is tomorrow, November 18, from 5:00-7:00! We are partnering with local bookstore Books With Pictures Eugene to create a fresh, fun event where we will purchase books for our classrooms, home libraries, and as gifts for friends.

Enjoy student performances, buy some pizza from Whirled Pies, and connect with other Ridgeline families!

Here is the program for tomorrow’s class performances:

5:30 pm Kindergarten, Sarah

5:40 pm Room 3, Rachel

5:50 pm Room 4, Emily

6:00 pm Room 5, Emmanuel

6:10 pm Room 8, Adrienne

6:20 pm Room 9, Meridy

6:30 pm Room 10, Ray

6:40 pm Middle School, Ukes

Next week we have Stone Soup! Please send your students to school on Tuesday with a vegetable to slice and Wednesday with a bowl and spoon for this afternoon snack. If your child is potentially allergic to soup ingredients, please send an alternative. Keep in mind that this is an afternoon snack, so be sure to send your child to school with lunch as well!

This year will be a little different than past years as it will be a student-only event. We look forward to a time when we will again be able to invite parents to join their students in sharing the meal.

We welcome and need volunteers to help, and are especially looking for a couple of flexible, all-day volunteers to help in various parts of the event, and a clean up crew to make sure we end the day with everything put back where it belongs! See below for information on how to volunteer.

Stone Soup is a fable that illustrates the importance of sharing and cooperation. Ridgeline students share these values when they bring vegetables, prepare the vegetables, and eat the collective soup. Vegetable preparation will take place on Tuesday November 22, and students will enjoy their soup the following day on Wednesday November 23. Please see your child’s teacher update for specifics on what they should bring.

Get cozy and watch this video of Ridgeline staff and students celebrating past year’s Stone Soup!

Have you started working toward your 40 hours of volunteering goal? Here is a great chance to begin!

Send in your Background Check Form to Becky Fay today so that you will be cleared and ready to volunteer whenever the opportunity arises!

Stone Soup Veggie Slicers and Clean up Crew!

• Tuesday veggie slicing helpers needed! We need a few more veggie slicers to help students in classrooms cut the collection of vegetables that the students provide. Check out Track it Forward and sign up!

• Stone Soup Clean up Crew! Let’s work together to make sure that the school returns to its beautiful, clean state after the Stone Soup meal! Please head over to Track it Forward and sign up to come a little early and be part of the clean up crew before you pick up your student!

• Stone Soup general helpers: We are looking for general helpers to assist with tasks that come up during the event. Come join the whole team in making this event happen! Go to Track it Forward to sign up and make sure your background check is complete!

If you are interested, send your Background Check Form to Becky Fay today, and if you are already cleared to volunteer in the classroom, please consider signing up for this wonderful opportunity!

Turkey Dinners

• We need a volunteer to pick up turkeys on Monday, November 21st in the afternoon and a few volunteers to help distribute the Turkey Dinners at pick up afterschool on Monday.

Please head to Track it Forward to sign up!

The following volunteers are needed to make sure that pick-up and drop-off are smooth and safe for our students:

Crossing Guards and Traffic Guides for Drop-off/Pick-up Loop

• Crossing guards are needed to help guide Ridgeline students as they cross West Amazon to access the Amazon trail and the bridge across the creek. Volunteers are needed daily at 8-8:30 am and 3-3:20 pm.

Safety vests and stop signs provided. Crossing guards need to be fully vaccinated and have a background check within the last 5 years. Sign-up for any number of mornings and/or afternoons on Track it Forward

• Traffic Guides for the Drop off/Pick up Loop! Please sign-up to come help families as they make their way to pick-up and drop-off their children

  
  

There are many ways to use your talents and skill sets to contribute to the Ridgeline community! Keep an eye out for emails from your Room Parent and read the eNews to learn about new volunteer opportunities!

See instructions at the bottom of the eNews for more information on how to sign up and track your hours with Track it Forward.

If you would like to volunteer, go to the Volunteer Page of our website and review what is required.

Fill out a background check form if you have not done so in the last five years.

• Provide a copy of your driver's license

• Provide proof of vaccination.

  
  

Background checks are taking a longer time than usual to process so please turn in your forms right away!

Thanks to an annual program organized by A3 Public High School and an extremely generous donation from Once Famous Grill, Quakers & Keith Lewis we are able to offer a free uncooked turkey dinner with all the trimmings to our Ridgeline families who find themselves in need.

Becky Fay needs your help picking up the turkeys and bringing them to the school to distribute, head to Track it Forward to sign up!

If you are interested in receiving a Turkey Dinner, please Sign up here. A limited number of turkey dinners will be available to each school in the program and we will let you know in advance if you are selected to receive a turkey dinner.

Please be aware of any allergies your family may have. These meals contain meat, dairy, wheat, and gluten. No substitutions are possible.

GivingTuesday is a global movement unleashing the power of radical generosity. GivingTuesday was created in 2012 as a simple idea: a day that encourages people to do good. Since then, it has grown into a year-round global movement that inspires hundreds of millions of people to give, collaborate, and celebrate generosity. Links to give to Ridgeline will be available on our Facebook page and our fundraising page on our website for individuals who would like to support Ridgeline through this movement on November 29, 2022. Please feel free to share the link and spread the word.

The week before winter break, Ridgeline families are invited to give monetary donations that will be used to purchase grocery store gift cards for Ridgeline families who need a little extra over the break.

If your family would benefit from receiving one of these gift cards, please contact the office to be put on the receiving list.

Ridgeline students spend time outdoors, rain or shine, but that means we sometimes need to lend them clean clothes when theirs get soiled!! We are in need of versatile pants (especially leggings and athletic pants in gender neutral colors) in all sizes, youth size 5 through adult small/medium. When your student arrives home in borrowed school clothes, we appreciate it if they are laundered and returned as soon as possible. Please bring clean clothing donations to the office!

Ridgeline’s famous talent show is on the calendar for Friday, February 3rd, 2023!

This is talent show coordinator Kate Downing’s last year as a Ridgeline parent. She is looking for a willing party to take over coordinating for 2024 and would love it if they could join her in all the tasks that lead up to the talent show this year so they can learn the ropes and be ready to take on the show next year!

If you love music and stage, consider volunteering! It would be great if we can find someone who has knowledge of microphones and sound and lighting systems, or someone willing to recruit help to fill these roles!

The biggest part of the job is planning, so it’s most important that you have time to do all the coordinating beforehand! Ridgeline’s annual Talent Show is a pretty magical thing—let’s keep it going! Email wobblykate@hotmail.com with questions.

Oregon is experiencing rapidly increasing RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) activity.

On Monday, November 14th, Governor Kate Brown issued an emergency declaration (Executive Order) in response to a surge of pediatric cases and hospitalizations of respiratory viruses, including RSV. The declaration will give hospitals more flexibility to staff beds for children, draw on a pool of medical volunteer nurses and doctors, and take other steps to provide care to pediatric patients.

RSV is a common virus that causes cold-like symptoms including runny nose, cough, fever, trouble breathing and loss of appetite.

RSV can cause severe illness, especially in children under 2 years old (especially infants under 6 months) and older adults.

With flu and COVID-19 cases also expected to rise this winter, we encourage everyone to take steps to prevent and reduce the spread of respiratory viruses, including RSV. Ridgeline’s Communicable Disease and Management Plans are available on the website. The school continues to implement preventative measures to reduce the risk of illness and monitor attendance closely.

Effective preventative measures that you can take are:

• Washing hands thoroughly and frequently

• Keeping high-touch surface areas clean and regularly disinfected

• Keeping children out of school when they are sick

• Wearing a mask indoors in public places throughout the RSV season

Please use this link to ask to join: https://www.facebook.com/groups/604057500592213. Please take a minute to answer the questions and read over the rules of the group and we’ll get you in as soon as possible. This is a peer run community group for the parents and guardians of Ridgeline Montessori. This group's purpose is to provide connections, share information, ask questions and facilitate conversations. This group is not managed by Ridgeline staff nor does it include members of Ridgeline staff. (Exception would be if a staff member is also a parent).

Do you purchase products from Amazon? If so, please consider purchasing through AmazonSmile, which will donate 0.5% of eligible purchases to Ridgeline Montessori. Be sure to use the link below to ensure your purchase benefits Ridgeline. AmazonSmile is the same Amazon you know—same products, same prices, same service. Support Ridgeline by starting your shopping at smile.amazon.com. http://smile.amazon.com/ch/93-1296441

With the holidays fast approaching, we are receiving emails about planned trips. If your students will be absent for a planned trip, please fill out the Planned Absence Request Form.

Please note that trips of more than five missed school days will result in unexcused absences, and trips longer than 10 missed school days will not be approved, and result in your student being unenrolled due to the 10-day drop requirement. If your student is unenrolled, you will need to reapply for the lottery.

In the case of inclement weather that would make roads, school parking lots, driveways or sidewalks unsafe for travel, please watch for notification on http://www.ridgeline.org.

Ridgeline may be in session on a day when 4J district schools happens to be out of session. In this case, Ridgeline will make the announcement on our website.

Ridgeline will follow the 4j district’s decisions regarding school closures and two-hour delays on days when the Ridgeline calendar aligns with the 4j school district calendar.

4j school district communicates any decision to change school schedules as quickly as possible in several ways, all well before 6:30 a.m.

• Check the district website homepage: www.4j.lane.edu

• Follow district social media channels:

• Facebook: facebook.com/4Jschools

• Tune in to local news media

  
  

NO NEWS = N0 CHANGE. If schools are on their regular schedule there will NOT be an announcement.

School Closure = No school for students. Decisions about afternoon/evening activities will be made by noon.

Two-Hour Delay: School starts two hours late and ends at the usual school dismissal time. If a delay occurs on an early release Friday, school will still be dismissed at the early release time.

Ridgeline Montessori Public Charter School values safety. Neither 4J nor Ridgeline can make a decision based on conditions near individual families. Families are encouraged to consider road and sidewalk conditions in their areas and make decisions based on safety.

Ridgeline honors families’ decisions about school attendance in these conditions.

Please share your valuable input regarding Ridgeline's Student Investment Account (SIA) funding priorities and goals. Your input will be utilized as we update the SIA plan for the future. Please view the 2022 Student Investment Act Presentation and then complete the short survey at the end.

Ridgeline, we are one in community, and we need your help. Pick-Up and Drop-off times are a challenging sequence of events for the school day. We need all adults to work together to create an experience that is as smooth as possible and models Ridgeline’s Core Values. Please pull all the way forward, regardless of where your students attend class. Direct your vehicle with intention and care to model safety. Lastly, if your student requires your help to exit or enter the car, please park your vehicle on the street to help facilitate the smooth car line we all appreciate.

Should your student develop COVID-19 symptoms while at school, Ridgeline has BinaxNOW rapid tests available. These tests will only be administered if you have completed the Oregon Health Authority waiver and returned it to the school.

Rapid PCR testing is available at two local sites through Curative. Check their website to sign up for a testing time. Results are generally available in approximately 2 hours. They also offer other testing and services.

Ridgeline will continue to utilize Track it Forward for volunteer sign-ups and to log your volunteer hours. If you are new to Ridgeline or have not yet created an account, please do so! Last year we had a lot of folks forget to log their hours. Volunteer hour reporting is important for us to show support for Ridgeline when applying for grants and for reporting to our sponsoring district.

• Track It Forward app can be added to your phone!

If you are a first-time Track It Forward user and have not set up an account you will need to create an account first. If you already have an account, skip to step two.

Step One:

Go to https://www.trackitforward.com/site/ridgeline-montessori

Select sign in

Create your account.

Step Two:

Go to the app store on your device and search for Track It Forward.

Download the app

Log In

You are all set!