RMS Staff Wildcat Weekly
Staff Newsletter 8.24.20
Welcome to the 2020-2021 School Year!
I hope you have all had a wonderful summer and that you have been preparing yourselves for what will likely be the most interesting back-to-school of our lives! Our wonderful custodial staff has spent the summer cleaning and sanitizing our entire campus. Our counseling, admin, ILT, and office staff have been hard at work completing our safe reopening plan, developing a virtual student schedule, re-building our master schedule, organizing a "drive-up registration," ordering school supplies for our "Wildcat Pride Packs" that we intend to give to every Roosevelt student, and preparing our site professional development for our first week back. This will be my 25th year in education, and in many ways, I feel like it is my first. I know I am not alone in this sentiment. Now, more than ever, we all must have a flexible and open mindset in order to re-think so much of what we are used to doing in education! I am so grateful for the many, many committed RMS staff members that are dedicating their time and energy and collaborative spirit towards making this rocky and challenging journey into the unknown a bit easier to navigate. We truly have an amazing community here at Roosevelt!
One tradition I would love to continue is the sharing of our Summertime Fun and Experiences with each other! I have created a Google Drive folder Summertime Experiences 2020 for us to send our pictures to. PLEASE ADD PICTURES that you would like to share into the folder Summertime Experiences 2020 so that I can create a fun slideshow for us all to enjoy!
I look forward to "seeing" you all soon!
With gratitude,
Heather
Congratulations to Assistant Principal Mr. Sosa!
I am very proud to share that Mr. Sosa was honored by the the VUCPTA with the Outstanding Administrator Award at their Honorary Service Awards ceremony on August 14, 2020. This award recognizes an administrator for their outstanding service to children and youth in our community, and Mr. Sosa is most deserving of this honor! We are so grateful for all he has done, and all he continues to do, for Roosevelt Middle School!
Welcome to our new Assistant Principal Sochie Schmitz!
We are so pleased to have Mrs. Schmitz join our Wildcat Team! She brings a wonderful energy, commitment, and student centered mindset, and I know she will be a fabulous contributor to our continuing progress and great work at Roosevelt!
Message from Mrs. Schmitz:
I would like to take this opportunity to introduce myself as a new Roosevelt Wildcat Team Member! As your new Assistant Principal, I will work diligently to serve and support students, teachers, and staff to continue developing an outstanding learning community where families can be proud to send their children.
I am a California native, the youngest of 8 children, wife, and mother of two amazing children & two pups. Our son made us “Lala & Lolo” 5 years ago with our first grandchild, Chloe— we are obsessed! Keeping busy with family and friends is my favorite thing to do outside of school.
This is not my first experience working here at RMS; I started my career here as a classified staff member in 1994 while I completed my college education. I have taught middle school here at RMS, Madison Middle School, Rincon Middle School, & Guajome Park Academy. My experience includes working as a site ELD coordinator, ALL/Literacy Coach at Bobier, Elementary AP, and Elementary Principal.
Again, Looking forward to the day when we can all meet in person!
Important Dates!
Monday, August 31- Wednesday, September 2: Certificated Staff Professional Development: Time: 8:00am-3:30pm
Thursday, September 3: Certificated Prep Time: Time: 8:00am-3:30pm
Friday, September 4: Certificated Prep Time: Time: 8:00am-3:30pm (except for 90 minute staff meeting, time TBD)
Tuesday, September 8: First Day of School!
All professional development will be held virtually, and I will be sending links for these meetings soon!
Teachers Visiting Campus This Week
You will fill out the pre-screening form any day you come to campus and fill in the requested information on this form. Thank you!
Telecommuting Agreements- Certificated Staff
Please find attached the necessary documents to request telecommuting while teaching in a Vista Virtual assignment or while teaching in a Vista Classic assignment during a District wide distance learning environment. Staff should report to their worksite starting August 31, 2020 unless you have an approved telecommuting agreement. Once your telecommuting agreement is approved by the Human Relations Department, you can then work from your approved home workspace while the District is in a distance learning environment. Vista Virtual assignments will continue to be eligible for telecommuting while teaching in a distance learning assignment. The forms are in a fillable PDF format. Please complete the forms electronically (by downloading the PDF and saving them, filling them in and saving them again, and then email them to me. I will then forward your request to Human Relations. Feel free to reach out to the Human Relations Department if you need any assistance in completing the agreement and checklist. They are here to help you in any way during this time.
Roosevelt Middle School Virtual Schedule
Please review the Daily Student Schedule that all students will be following in distance learning. All students will start the year with distance learning for the first six weeks. When health orders allow us to return to in-person learning, Vista Classic students will return to campus and will have the same classes and teachers. Vista Virtual students will continue distance learning with the same classes and teachers.
Click here for the single page document: Roosevelt Middle School Daily Student Schedule
CANVAS Training!
Also, our dept chairs Jenn Waite, Kurdy Turner, Heather Birst, and Cindy Fowles and Kat Bartolome have been hard at work planning site specific training and collaboration that we will do during our professional development days next week. I am so grateful for the tremendous amount of work they are putting in!
All of you can start familiarizing yourself with out new Learning Management System- Canvas, and I strongly encourage you to start experiencing the platform as soon as you can. I see exciting potential with this LMS as we get more comfortable with it, but I know that it will be a heavy lift as we are first learning the intricacies of the platform. Here is the training memo that was shared by the district: Canvas Training Memo
Good luck with your explorations!
Counseling Corner!
Follow us on our new Instagram @rooseveltcounseling for updates!
REMINDER: To make an appointment with your counselor fill out our form at bit.ly/rmscheckin, DM us on Instagram, or send us an email. Use the PSST tool at THIS LINK to report something anonymously.