The Richardson Review
September 11th, 2022
Dear Richardson Students & Families,
What a great first week we had at Richardson!
It was such an amazing feeling to walk the hallways and see students back in the building learning together and playing together. Their smiles, laughter, energy and enthusiasm are truly contagious!
Our teachers spent the majority of the week integrating activities that allowed students to learn routines and build relationships with their teachers and classmates. These intentional activities will support us as we strive to have all our students feel welcome and connected to our school community, while developing a LOVE of learning. We are looking forward to working with all our students and families throughout this school year, so each week can be as successful as the first.
Some of the trickiest routines to set in place at the beginning of the school year are the routines for end of day dismissal - as these involve students, families, school staff and our transportation department all working together. Even the early dismissal schools in our district were working hard to support late start schools, such as Richardson, by striving to get their buses on their way as quickly as possible (so they can arrive on time for us). While there is still room for improvement, we were pleased that by the end of the week our buses were much closer to dismissing on time than they were the first few days. We acknowledge how hard that was for students/families who had to wait a long time for their bus to get to their stop at the beginning of the week. We appreciate your patience and understanding.
This week we would like to continue to improve our dismissal pick-up routine. If you are a family that picks up your child/children at the end of the day, please see below for some reminders to support us in shortening the time it takes for families to pick up their children.
We hope everyone has a great 2nd week of school, please feel free to contact the main office, or me, at any time with questions, concerns, and/or suggestions. My contact information is mhoude@isd622.org or 651-748-6910.
(Below you will see some photos of kindergarten students excited to be show off their work, 2nd graders on their first day and a few staff photos from Open House).
Together,
Mrs. Houde (pronounced "hood")
Dismissal - Pick-up Notes/Reminders
We would like to set a goal to cut the time it is currently taking to pick up our students in half by the end of this week. To do this, it will truly take a team effort that requires the support of our students, families and staff. Below is what each group can do to support us in reaching our goal.
Richardson Staff
* Now that our buses are running more on time, we will move an additional staff member from bus supervision to support the traffic flow of cars at the pick up area.
* We will continue to reflect on our systems each day to find any areas we improve upon. One thing we implemented at the end of this week was providing our kindergarten students with large signs with their names/numbers on them, so we can more easily support them when it is their turn.
* We are still hoping to hire a few more support staff this year, once those positions are filled we will be able to have some additional staff supporting pick-up. (If you, or anyone you know, is looking for a job, please see the district website for employment opportunities).
Students
* We will continue to work with students to make sure they are looking and listening for their names/numbers to be called each day so they are ready when it is their turn.
* We will use some older students as helpers to support our younger students.
Families
*If you are a family that does have a bus route assigned to you, now that the buses are starting to get students home quicker, we encourage you to have your students take the bus home. If you decide to make this switch, please make sure to contact our main office to avoid any end of day confusion.
* When picking up your child/children, please have your pick up number ready to show our staff. Let us know if you need a new sign or you do not know your assigned number.
* While it may be tempting to walk up to the gate to pick up your child/children, this brings with it safety issues and it ultimately slows down our process. Therefore, we are asking ALL families to stay in their vehicles to pick up their students.
If you still want/need to walk up to get your child from the gate, please know that you will need to wait until we have finished getting all the families in the car line their children before we will be able to support you with getting your child/children. Please wait until the line has cleared before walking up to the gate. This will ensure we can avoid people walking in between and/or in front of vehicles who are trying to enter/exit the pick up line.
We understand for those of you who have grown accustomed to walking up to the gate, this may be frustrating at first, but we are asking everyone to work as a community to support us in speeding up the process for everyone. Richardson's enrollment is up over 100 students from last year, which makes it more important than ever for us all to work together to have pick-up run smoothly.
We appreciate your cooperation to ensure our pick up line goes quickly and safely each day.
Reminder: ANNUAL UPDATE
We want to make sure we have the most up-to-date family contact information as we begin the school year. It’s time to do an annual update of your contact information, complete the tech device user agreement, and more!
If you need assistance, please email parentportal@isd622.org
ONLINE APPLICATION FOR EDUCATIONAL BENEFITS
The free meal program ended on June 30, 2022. The federal program that allowed District 622 to offer free breakfast and lunch to all students expired on June 30, 2022. As a result, District 622 will revert back to free and reduced-price meals based on income eligibility guidelines set by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
During the 22-23 school year, families who do not qualify for free or reduced-priced meals will have to pay for breakfast and lunch. All 622 families are asked to complete an application to see if they qualify. Completing the application also helps the district to receive extra funding to support student programs. Visit www.isd622.org/titanschoolsolutions for more information.
If you do qualify, you can get discounted rates on athletics and activities fees, swimming lessons, driver training, and community education courses, among other discounts. There are also many community discounts available for qualifying families. For information about these discounts, visit www.isd622.org/educationalbenefitsapp.
Health Office
If you have questions about if your child is well and can attend school, please call your health office at (651)-748-6915.
Arrival and Dismissal Procedures
Attendance Information
Please leave a voice message with the date, your child's first and last name, the spelling of the first and last name, their grade, their teacher's name, and the reason for the absence.
Richardson Elementary
Email: mhoude@isd622.org
Website: isd622.org/richardson
Location: 2400 17th Ave E, North Saint Paul, MN, USA
Phone: (651)748-6910