RPS Update

I joined parents this past Wednesday evening at the Branchville Elementary PTA meeting with three Board of Education members, Tina Malhotra, Amy Casey and Divya Dorairajan. Together we were able to discuss the budget process, budget priorities, and looking forward. BES parents also shared some of the topics they are thinking about- world language, composting, after-school programs, playgrounds, and the need to grow volunteers in our schools. Thank you for inviting us!

On the topic of volunteers, during the dress rehearsal of BMES’ Seussical, it was so exciting to see over a third of the student body participating in the musical, nearly 95 students! These events are staffed primarily by parent helpers- we need you! As I spend time with parent groups across our schools, I am learning the challenges of maintaining and increasing parent volunteers. We recognize the demands of work and home can be challenging (myself included)….that said, it sounds like any time you can give to your child’s school would be appreciated.

Next week is busy! Please join us at ERMS for a Board of Finance Public Hearing on Monday evening at 7:00 p.m. All three Town Boards will share brief presentations and the public can provide feedback. The Strategic Planning Committee of the Board of Education will meet on Tuesday at 12:00 p.m. (virtually), the Policy Committee will meet on Tuesday at 6:00 p.m. (in person), followed by a regular meeting of the Board of Education at 7:00 p.m. (in person). The Board of Education will meet with the Board of Finance on Wednesday (possibly Thursday as well). I imagine there will be many pit stops for coffee along the way.

The next few weeks are big ones for our seniors and college admission decisions- if you know a senior, remind them how hard they have worked, and it will land where it absolutely needs to land!

Have a great weekend,

Susie

Susie Da Silva, Ed.D.

Please note that the last BOE meeting in March will take place on Tuesday, March 28 because the Board of Finance Public Hearing is on Monday, March 27. Thank you!

Last week's newsletter had the March calendar in the slot for April. Thank you to those who pointed out the mistake. Our apologies for any inconvenience.

The tentative last day of school for students is Monday, June 19.

It is an early dismissal day for students.

The tentative End-of-Year PD Day for Teachers is Tuesday, June 20.

The full district calendar can be found here.

Each year the Associated Teachers of Mathematics in Connecticut (ATOMIC) present a small number of awards to math educators in the state at their annual conference. This past Monday, two of the four awards went to Ridgefield educators!

Dr. Merryl Polak (photo above on left), seventh-grade math teacher at Scotts Ridge Middle School, received the Charlene Tate Nichols Award. This award is given annually to a K-8 math educator in the state who exhibits outstanding commitment and successful service to students and the education community. Dr. Polak's continued work on implementing highly effective math teaching strategies, the student passion for math she creates in her classroom, and her continued collaboration with her colleagues were a few of the reasons she deserved this award.

Jeff Corbishley (photo above on right), 6-12 Math and Science Supervisor, earned the Robert A. Rosenbaum Award. This award is given annually to a math educator who has shown outstanding commitment and successful service to the entire mathematics community in Connecticut. Jeff was recognized for his work on the ATOMIC Board co-chairing conferences and presenting at various events throughout the state. Jeff has been on the steering committee for the Connecticut High School Math Reform Committee and one of the authors of a state position statement on Equity in Mathematics Education.

In addition, three RPS Math Teachers presented at this year’s ATOMIC Conference. Dr. Polak presented a session on her implementation of the instructional practices from the book Building Thinking Classrooms by Peter Liljedahl. RHS teacher Mary Anne Goldstein and ERMS teacher Sara Dalton presented a session together on using dot paper to explore geometric concepts. Both sessions were extremely well attended! We are proud of our educators who are sharing their expertise with other math educators in the state.

In December, RPS revised its policy on the distribution of paper flyers for outside groups. Organizations that meet the RPS policy may submit their request for inclusion in the digital backpack. Please help us in our effort to go green by checking students' e-Backpacks in our newsletter. Organizations that meet the RPS policy may submit their request for inclusion to cmelagrano@ridgefieldps.net. Thank you!

Last week's RPS Update erroneously reported that an anonymous donor stepped in to pay the outstanding lunch balances for all students. In fact, the gift of $7400 will only cover those identified as receiving free and reduced lunch. More information about the Free and Reduced Lunch Program with registration information can be found here. Our apologies for any confusion.

Grade 6 orientations are coming up. Branchville, Farmingville, and Veterans Park elementary students and parents should plan on attending East Ridge's orientation on March 29 at 6:30 p.m. Barlow Mountain, Ridgebury, and Scotland sixth graders and their parents should plan on attending Scotts Ridge Orientation on April 3 at 6:30 p.m.

The Boys and Girls Club of Ridgefield celebrated many RPS students at its annual Youth Leadership Dinner last Friday. Superintendent Dr. Susie Da Silva represented the district as a judge of the Youth of the Year. RHS sophomore Sophia Murray won Junior Youth of the Year. In the photo above, Farmingville students Kenzie Polo and Georgia Ross show off their hardware. It was a big weekend for Georgia who also won Ms. US President election (story below). Congratulations to all our RPS leaders!

New RHS teacher Katie Blake moves fast. At 10:40 am, she is in the RHS A Wing giving RPS Update a tour of the future Tiger TV studio. By 10:49, she’s up in the G Wing, teaching her baking class how to make cinnamon rolls.

This is Ms. Blake’s first year in the district, and already she is having an impact. With RPS Technology Director Wes DeSantis and others, she has introduced a new RHS class, Media Production, for the Fall of 2023. She is working towards a partnership with Fairfield’s Ludlowe High School, where RHS students could earn Quinnipiac credit, starting as early as Spring 2024. “You should see Quinnipiac’s beautiful facility,” says Blake. “We hope to start with a weekly morning show,” she says, showing the design of the new anchor desk.

“What excites me about Tiger TV,” writes sophomore Max Salamon about the RHS Club, “and what pushed me to join in the first place, is knowing what's going on in my community. Last year, I felt I never knew much about what was happening but, ever since I joined Tiger TV, I've gotten to learn about things I never would've found out about without the club. I've gotten to see behind the scenes of recordings for our football games, got to learn about the backstage production of some of our plays, and much more. Yes, Tiger TV doesn't just cover sports games, we cover a wide range of clubs and events inside and even outside the school. Mrs. Blake is always super supportive of everything I do. I recommend anyone who has any interest in media production to give Tiger TV a try.”

For the Tiger TV studio, Blake has partnered with students and other RHS teachers. Students in Martha DeSantis’ Interior Design 2 class, for example, are submitting designs for the new Tiger Talk studio. Michael Murphy’s Product Design class will build components of the set. George Beratis’s music students are composing music for the show’s introduction and conclusion.

Back in the Family and Consumer Science kitchen, Blake shows a tidy schedule with rotating job charts—Head Chef/Tables, Second Chef/Gatherer, Operator/Dishes, and Dish dryer/Floors—that she created and the other culinary classes use. “In high school,” Blake explains, “I was always put into groups where I did the heavy lifting. I wanted to make sure that the responsibility was shared equally.” Students have clear responsibilities and checklists to make sure that they complete the tasks correctly and leave the spaces clean and tidy. “By this point in the semester,” Blake explains, “I just introduce the lesson and then move from group to group. They know what they need to do.”

This is only Blake’s second year teaching. “I decided I wanted to go back to school to be a Family and Consumer Science teacher later in life during the pandemic, and my neighbor knew [RHS Teacher of the Year] Lori Peck. That’s like the icon of Family and Consumer Science. I came and met Peck and knew this is what I wanted to do.”

How does Blake move this fast and achieve this calm? It’s probably the thoughtful systems that she has created but she might have eyes in the back of her head. “If you have time to lean, you have time to clean,” she says to a student perched on a table, sneaking a look at his phone. He immediately puts the phone away and gets back to cleaning a table to roll out the dough. The smell of cooking cinnamon rolls is its own reward but the skills learned in this classroom go well beyond the end result. Students are collaborating, leading and following, measuring, cleaning, and much more.

Stay tuned for more on Tiger TV and Katie Blake. More photos from RHS culinary classes in Photos from the Week.

Every day, RPS teachers try something new, challenging themselves and their students in different directions. Branchville Elementary Library and Media Specialist Christine Schenzer is one of those many district innovators. The photos above show a STEM project that her first graders and kindergarteners worked on. Schenzer challenged students to create a rainbow bridge that was strong enough to support square blocks. They worked through the engineering and design process by following these steps.

1. ASK what is the problem

2. IMAGINE different solutions

3. PLAN by drawing a diagram

4. CREATE by following your plan and creating something

5. IMPROVE on your plan

On a different day, kindergarten, first and second-grade students learned about coding using iPads and Dash robots. Dash is a robot that will respond to your voice, navigate objects, sing and dance. Schenzers' students coded Dash through an obstacle course and completed coding challenges on the iPads. The photos below are from a second-grade class.

Shout out to Planet Pizza! The Main Street pizzeria is one of the job sites for the Ridgefield Transition Program and Ridgefield High School. Planet Pizza Store Manager Mike Drogalis offered a private pizza-making lesson to student workers Kyle and Dylan after their shifts. RPS special education teacher Jessica DiValentino, who runs the programs for RPS, writes, "It was an amazing experience that Mike offered and led. He was fantastic with both students leading them through the pizza-making process and completely covering the cost of the pizzas they made." The RPS Transition Program is always looking for volunteer employment opportunities for students. To learn more, please contact Jessica DiValentino.

Sixth graders at Scotts Ridge Middle School observed a belated Pi Day on March 15 this year because of the snow day on 3.14. SRMS math teacher Drew Hall reports that students engaged in a variety of activities during the day. An interactive Pi-Quest had students searching different pi based websites for information to complete various tasks. Students used toasted oats to calculate a circle's circumference and diameter to find pi, wrote and shared original Pi-kus (haiku about Pi), but it was the Pi tasting that took the "cake!"

To tie in with Read Across America, East Ridge seventh and eighth-grade French grade students took part in a project to read across the RPS district, lecture à travers RPS! ERMS students created children's stories in French, using digital storybooks, with their French teacher, Rosemarie Earle. Then, with the help of Technology Integration Teacher Kim Moran, they read the stories that they had created via Google Meet to Veterans Park, Branchville, and Farmingville elementary students. Mme Earle reports it was a fun and mutually beneficial experience of sharing and learning!

RHS celebrated Music in Our Schools Month last week with performances from talented students and teachers. The chamber orchestra, funk band, and students "busking" spread joy throughout the schools.

A huge round of applause to the East Ridge and Scotts Ridge music students who had the honor of participating in the Western Region Middle School Music Festival last weekend! They spent all of Friday evening and most of Saturday rehearsing and performing among the best band, choir, and

orchestra students of Fairfield County.

These outstanding musicians are:

Katie Bancks, Ayla Goldstein, Claire Kim, Will Knispel, Janie Kim, Gia Kim, Preston Penn, Nidhi Bharadwaj, Jaden Deland, Kelly Fitzpatrick, Delaney Hill, Ethan Dawson, Jiayu Su, Ellen Gressak, Maxim Curt, Sofia Fazzioli, Supriti Saravana, Samantha Sauer, Richard Zhuang, Leyton Ungaro, Ian Choi, Hancheng Peng, and Claire Yang

It's showtime for the Middle School Musicals!

East Ridge plans to put on Disney's The Lion King, JR.

Friday March 31, 2023 at 6:00

Saturday April 1, 2023 at 2:00

Tickets are $10.00 for adults and $5.00 for students/children (under age 13). They are also offering a donation option where a portion of ticket sales can go to the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust in Kenya.

To purchase tickets beforehand, please click the link. Tickets available at the door.

Over 80 Scotts Ridge students are involved in the production of High School Musical, JR, also opening on March 31. Tickets available by scanning the QR code above.

Break a leg, Barlow Mountain! Over 95 students are involved in the production of Seussical! opening this weekend.

Congratulations to Abigail Freeman who received second place for Wearable Art and Isabella Pereira who received third place for Digital Media in the "Artists on the Rise" student show at the Brookfield Craft Center. The exhibition closes on March 26. More information on the show is available here.

Last week, eleven RHS students attended the annual Human Rights Institute for High School Student Leaders at Iona University. This institute is presented by the Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center. Juniors and Seniors prepare presentations and conduct workshops for sophomore attendees from all around our area. Three juniors Alexa Kemmer, Casey O'Brien, and Emily Yee presented a workshop:

Thank you to Boys Swim Captain Matthew Weiner (above right with Shaun Li, Max Wolfenden, and Jack Clancy) for compiling the accomplishments of the Boys Swim Team this season. Congratulations to him and the team for their record-breaking success outlined below.

FCIACs:

• Ridgefield finished 2nd Overall

• Jack Clancy won his second consecutive title in the 500 freestyle touching with a time of 4:32.10

• Matthew Weiner placed second in the 100 butterfly with a best time of 50.84

• The 400 freestyle relay (Shaun Li, Max Wolfenden, Matthew Weiner, Jack Clancy) won, defending last years title in the event

• ALL FCIAC SWIMMERS: Matthew Weiner, Jack Clancy, and Shaun Li

LLs:

• Ridgefield finished 2nd Overall

• The 200 Medley Relay (Derek Yin, Shaun Li, Max Wolfenden, Marko Katra) finished 3rd place

• Jack Clancy won his second consecutive state title in both the 200 (1:39.35) and 500 (4:30.00) freestyles, in doing so he qualified for All American

• Matthew Weiner placed third to Jack Clancy in the 200 freestyle (1:41.43)

• Marko Katra finished 9th in the 100 freestyle with a lifetime best time of 48.90

• Max Wolfenden finished 3rd in the 100 breaststroke with a time of 58.61

• The 400 freestyle relay placed 2nd (Shaun Li, Max Wolfenden, Matthew Weiner, Jack Clancy)

• ALL STATE SWIMMERS: Matthew Weiner, Jack Clancy, Max Wolfenden, Shaun Li

STATE OPENs:

• Ridgefield placed 2nd Overall

• Jack Clancy won his second consecutive state open titles in both the 200 (1:39.68) and 500 (4:31.13) freestyles

• Matthew Weiner finished 3rd in the 200 freestyle behind Jack with a lifetime best time of 1:41.23

• Max Wolfenden and Shaun Li both improved their seed times in the 200 Individual Medley (Max finished 6th and Shaun finished 9th)

• William Trotman moved up 6 places in the 500 freestyle with a time of 4:44.56

• The 200 freestyle relay (Jack Clancy, William Trotman, Marko Katra, Matthew Weiner) moved up to 3rd

• The 400 freestyle relay placed 2nd (Shaun Li, Max Wolfenden, Matthew Weiner, Jack Clancy) with a time of 3:05.49 which automatically qualifies them for ALL AMERICAN and they also broke the previous school record by over 2 seconds

OTHER FACTS:

• Regular season record: 10-1

• The 400 freestyle relay broke the school record 3 times throughout the championship season this year

• The 2nd place finish at the State Open was the teams best overall finish at that meet since 2015

Hooray for East Ridge Middle school for another amazing spirit week. Competition was fun-filled and on full display in the spirit wear, doorway decorating, basketball games and the truly wonderful collections.

The Danbury Animal welfare society was given a large collection of items and $335 in donations.

The Center for Education and Empowerment, a safe place for people suffering from abuse, received wonderful donated items and $201. The regional Homeless Shelter received a tremendous amount of wish list items as well as $185 to be spent on additional needed items.

Thank you to the morning show crew for enduring the chaos and joining in the fun! Thanks to the student council members for sponsoring and promoting the activities.

And thank you to all who participated and brought extra spirit to East Ridge!

AND THE WINNER IS.......

in 3rd place with 72 points -Grade 7

in 2nd place with 86 points- Grade 8

and our winner is Grade 6 with 94 points.

Veterans Park Elementary announced its One School One Book Initiative at a very busy all-school meeting last Friday. VPES Principal Dr. Sheri Prendergast read the first chapter of Wishtree by Katherine Applegate and Elementary Supervisor Christopher Olson read chapter two. Students also celebrated Pi Day, the VPES March Madness reading challenge, and dressed in green for St. Patty's Day.

Barlow Mountain kindergartener, Jack Rowe is a Make-A-Wish alumnus and is now supporting the organization to help the local community of kids fighting critical illnesses. "Make-A-Wish grants life- changing wishes for children with critical illnesses," writes his mother, Katie Rowe. "When a wish comes true, it creates strength, hope, and transformation in a child—and a community. Research shows a wish can give kids the strength to fight against and even overcome a critical illness." In the month of March, Jack is helping the local Jersey Mike's Subs raise money for Make-A-Wish of Connecticut, during the store's "Month of Giving." In fact, on March 29, every single dollar that comes in (not just proceeds)-—whether in-store, online or through the Jersey Mike’s app—will go to Make-A-Wish of Connecticut. Way to go, Jack!

The local chapter of Ms. US President recently held its election. Farmingville Elementary swept the ticket with fifth-graders Georgia Ross winning the presidency and Charlotte Turco securing the vice-presidency! Leading up to the election, members visited Hartford to learn about the election process. Please see photos from their trip below.

The Ridgefield Lions (RAHA) Squirt AA team won the New England Regional Championship this weekend! They went 5 and 0 in their regional tournament, besting teams from Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and then beating the CT Jr. Whalers decisively 6-2 in a rematch of the CT State Final. They outscored their opponents 28 - 8 and brought home their third banner this season to hang at the Winter Garden. The team is comprised of three Veterans Park Elementary students, three Branchville students, two Scotland students, one Farmingville student, and one Barlow Mountain Elementary student. They represented Ridgefield at the highest level on the ice and most importantly showed true sportsmanship and teamwork. Congratulations!

From eggs Florentine to gnocchi to hot pretzels to cinnamon rolls, RHS culinary students have been cooking this week. These classes go beyond delicious recipes to teach cooperation, leadership, following directions, life skills, math, cleaning, and more.

Magic is in the air! VPA Chair Michael McNamara and band leader George Beratis spotted at Magic Kingdom. Learn more in next week's RPS Update or on the RidgefieldHS Music Instagram.

Farmingville Elementary families sent these fun photos from a recent trip to Hartford with the Ms. US President organization.

We would love to hear from you! Families and staff can submit stories, comments, or corrections to RPS Communications. Please follow us on Social Media with links below.