Today's Topics:
From the A Team
- Social Emotional Learning
- Week 7 Announcers
- Library News
- Social Emotional Learning
- Caring for Ourselves, Caring for Each Other, Caring for Our Place
- Epic A.J.
- October 17-21 Lunch Menu
Important Dates:
- October 28- Early Release @ 12:30 for Staff Learning
- November 8- No School, Voting Day and Staff In-service
- November 21 & 22- No School, Conferences
- November 23-25- No School, Thanksgiving Recess
- We made a beet cucumber salad!
School Nurse Notes
- Academic & Social Success
PTO News
- RMCS Family Directory
- Order your Yearbook!
Community Events & Opportunities
Employment Opportunities
- We are still hiring!
It's Homecoming Weekend!
Dear Parents, Caregivers, Families, and Friends,
This week we are celebrating South Burlington’s Homecoming, as well as 50 years of Title IX, the civil rights law passed in 1972 that prohibits sex-based discrimination in any school or athletic program. Please join in the celebration! On Friday, every RMCS student received a complimentary SB bracelet, which gets all SB students into the games below for FREE! We hope to see you there. Go Wolves!
Friday, 10/14
Varsity Girls Volleyball vs Randolph at 4:30pm
Varsity Football vs Middlebury at 7pm
Saturday, 10/15
JV Field Hockey vs Rice at 5:30
Varsity Field Hockey vs Rice at 7pm
Sunday, 10/16
October 16, SBHS George Cannon Annual 5k, 9:30 am
Thank you to the SBHS Boosters and SBHS Athletic Department for including RMCS students and families in the Homecoming celebration!
Dan French, Vermont Secretary of Education, spent time in SBSD on Thursday and visited RMCS! Secretary French visits districts and schools to tour facilities, see learning in action, and to learn more about the current happenings in specific schools and districts. Our assistant principal, Stephanie Sumner, worked with Secretary French when he was the superintendent of schools in the Bennington-Rutland Supervisory Union. Stephanie extended an invitation to Secretary French during this summer’s VPA conference. RMCS students welcomed the Secretary, talked about what they were learning in class, and asked awesome questions. Stephanie and Lissa had a great time showing off the fabulous learning environment at RMCS and sharing our successes, hopes and dreams with Secretary French.
Best,
Stephanie & Lissa
Social Emotional Learning at RMCS
Research tells us many things about the importance of social-emotional learning (SEL) for students. In particular, we know that strong social-emotional learning opportunities and learning experiences can have a positive impact on student learning.
This year at RMCS, we will be implementing Second Step - a social-emotional learning curriculum - in our classrooms. This schoolwide social-emotional learning program is designed to teach kids social-emotional skills to help them get along with peers, manage emotions, and succeed in school and throughout their lives. In Kindergarten through Grade 3, the program also includes activities targeted at developing executive-function skills—such as focusing, listening, and paying attention—which can help them do better in the classroom and later on the job. Kids with better social and executive-function skills may have fewer disciplinary problems, too, giving teachers more freedom to do what they love—teach.
This month is our first month of using Second Step and the theme is our school as a welcoming place where every student feels like he or she belongs. In our morning announcements and school assembly, we’ll be reminding students to welcome others and act and speak in safe, respectful, and responsible ways. In addition we’ll be reminding students of our school rules. We’ll also begin teaching the Second Step program, which includes lessons that support these behaviors. Support your child at home in welcoming others and acting and speaking in safe, respectful, and responsible ways. Please tell your child’s teacher if you have questions about specific ways you can help your child with these behaviors at home.
As part of our common assessment plan, our district will continue using SAEBERS this year. SAEBRS (Social, Academic, and Emotional Behavior Risk Screener) is a short, norm-referenced tool for screening all students and can help to identify students who are at risk for demonstrating behaviors associated with social-emotional competencies. Our behavior team, school counselors, and teaching teams will use this tool to develop universal classroom support and plan for additional social-emotional learning skills groups and related opportunities for students.
PLEASE ADD YOUR CONTACT INFO TO THE PTO FAMILY DIRECTORY
The RMCS PTO publishes a family directory each year - free of charge. The directory is used for families to contact other parents, make play date plans, send birthday party invites, etc. If you would like your student(s) to be included, please fill out our online form or the paper copy today. (The online form is preferred, please!) Information is due as soon as possible! Thank you!
Officer Bri Williamson, our School Resource Officer, visited kindergarten classrooms with boxes of books she gave to students to take home. All year, she collects gently used books to share with her kindergarten friends. Thank you, Officer Bri, for caring about the importance of literacy and sharing your love of books and reading with students!
Nourish to Flourish
Hello Parents!
My name is Kayli O’Donnell, I am the Farm to School Director for Common Roots. This week at RMCS we learned about how plants are adapting to the seasonal shift, highlighting a crop that will keep coming off of our farm until the very end of the growing season… Beets!
Your child learned that the beetroot stores sweet sun-sugars produced in the leaves, as well as vitamins and minerals drawn up from the soil by the lower roots.
Students practiced our safe knife-skills while cutting cucumber, parsley, and scallions for our salad. We also made a simple dressing with balsamic vinegar, maple syrup, olive oil, apple cider vinegar, and salt, and emulsified it by shaking it up! Children loved the color and sweetness of this fresh and unique salad.
October 2022 - Farm to School Lesson: Beets
Recipe: Beet Cucumber Salad Makes 5 cups or 30+ tastes
Ingredients:
3 cups roasted diced beets (1 red, 1 golden, and 1 chioggia variety)
1 intact whole beet for discussion demo
2 cups (peeled if waxed) diced cucumber
1 cup pepitas
¼ cup chopped scallions
1/4 balsamic vinegar
2 tsp minced parsley
1 T maple syrup
1 T olive oil
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 tsp sea salt
If you have any questions about Farm to School, please send me an email at kayli.odonnell@gmail.com.
Happy October!
Kayli O’Donnell, RDN; Common Roots, Inc
CHECK OUT OUR JACK - O - LANTERN JAMBOREE ON OCTOBER 27TH.
HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE!
Order School Photos!
School portrait order forms have now been distributed to students. There are two ways to order your child’s school portraits from AMV Photography:
1) Complete and return your envelope order form to school by Friday, Oct 21st.
2) Order online at https://hosting.myproimages.com/amv-photography-2120/
Enter the unique password printed on your child’s order form to view their images. This code is different from your child’s student ID so please see their envelope for the code.
We are offering 25% off all online orders only until Oct 21st using the code RMCS25.
The prices on the order envelopes are the lowest that we offer because we place these orders in bulk and deliver them back to the school. This allows us to take advantage of a bulk ordering discount, so we can offer lower prices on these orders. The online prices are higher, but we offer additional products online and these orders are shipped directly to your home. For this reason, we also have the 25% off discount code for the first two weeks.
Picture Make Up Day will be Tuesday, Oct 25th. If you missed your original picture day or would like retakes, please let your child’s teacher know.
Please direct any questions to cs@amvphotography.com. Thank you and enjoy your images!
Can You Help With Transportation?
The Transportation Department has developed a voluntary form which will serve the purpose of gathering information from parents/guardians regarding their potential ability to transport their student(s) both to and from school. Please note, this is not a request to transport children, but serves the purpose of information-gathering as it may be a potential way to alleviate some transportation challenges. This information will help inform our next steps in resolving our limited bussing capacity as expeditiously as possible. Our teams will continue to look at all options and I will provide updates as they become available.
The South Burlington School Board invites community members (including children!) to join them for several upcoming listening sessions! Board members would like to hear from students, staff, and the community about what they think is going well in the District, where there is room for growth, and what qualities they think would help ensure the success of a long-term Superintendent. Please consider joining one of the in-person meetings or the Zoom session. If you have questions, please contact the school board at schoolboard@sbschools.net or leave a voicemail message at (802) 652-7476.
The first session will take place in person only, Tuesday, October 11, 2022, at 10:00 am at 577 Dorset Street in the first floor conference room with board members Laura Williams and board Chair Dr. Travia Childs.
Additional sessions will take place:
Monday October 17 at 6 pm at the District Central Office
Saturday, October 29 at 10 am at the South Burlington Public Library
Thursday, November 3 at 6 pm via Zoom
ACADEMIC & SOCIAL SUCCESS
The change of seasons is a good time to go back to basics~
Adequate Sleep
Nutritious meals
Physical activity
This week's focus: Nutritious Meals
VEGETABLES AND FRUIT: ½ of your plate.
WHOLE GRAINS: ¼ of your plate.
PROTEIN POWER: ¼ of your plate.
HEALTHY PLANT OILS: In moderation.
DRINK WATER & STAY ACTIVE!
Consider DIET QUALITY: for example, the type of carbohydrate is more important than the amount of carbohydrate (some carbohydrates—like vegetables [other than potatoes], fruits, whole grains, and beans—are healthier than others.)
Copyright © 2011, Harvard University. For more information about The Healthy Eating Plate, please see The Nutrition Source, Department of Nutrition, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, www.thenutritionsource.org, and Harvard Health Publications, www.health.harvard.edu.
ILLNESS GUIDANCE~
SBSD school nurses are still managing cases of COVID-19, although state guidelines have changed our approach, compared to the previous two years. We are once again using our clinical judgement and assessment skills, along with communication with families, to determine whether a student needs to be home due to illness or whether the student can remain at school with mild or improving symptoms. Please view our illness guidance HERE.
We also continue to promote the lessons we know so well:
STAY HOME WHEN SICK,
RESPIRATORY HYGIENE/COUGH ETIQUETTE (covering, turning away from others, using tissues) and FREQUENT HAND HYGIENE!
Be Kind, Stay Well!
Opportunities at Rick Marcotte Central School
RMCS is still hiring. Please contact us about joining our team if you qualify for these openings. Training will be provided for all new hires.
- Special Educator
- Interventionists - working 1:1 with students who have Individualized Education Plans
- Recess Monitor
Stephanie Sumner, Assistant Principal & Lissa McDonald, Interim Principal
Email: ssumner@sbschools.net; lmcdonald@sbschools.net
Website: https://www.sbschools.net/Domain/11
Location: Rick Marcotte Central School, 200 Market Street, South Burlington, VT, USA
Phone: 802-652-7200
Twitter: @lmcdvt