Hello Florida Ruffin Ridley School Families and Friends,

With just two quick weeks until the winter break things are certainly buzzing busily here in our Hive!

As we head into this busy stretch we are practicing gratitude to help us keep stress levels low and holding to routines and predictability as much as possible to support our students in navigating what can be a tricky time.

There are many gatherings on the calendars these next two weeks as folks look to get together to celebrate the hard work of our students over the past few months. We are scheduling these events in larger spaces and encouraging masking for these gatherings to help keep everyone healthy and safe before the winter break.

Over the upcoming winter break we invite all our FRR bees (and their families) to participate in our #HiveReads challenge to encourage reading over the week we are away from school. Snap a photo of your child(ren) reading over the break and either share it with us on Twitter (tagging @TheHiveInCC and using #HiveReads) or send it to my email address (jennifer_buller@psbma.org). We will compile all the photos from the break and put them into a slideshow that will play on the main lobby and cafeteria display boards.

With wishes for a safe, healthy, and joyful winter break and New Year (with lots of reading),

Jen

• School starts promptly at 8:00a. The doors open at 7:55a and close at 8:05a. Students who arrive to their classrooms after 8:05a are marked late. It is disruptive to the class and difficult for students to start their day smoothly and supported if students are arriving late to school.
• There is NO DRIVING in the front loop from 7:45a - 8:15a. Families who need to drive to school should utilize the rolling drop off lane on the LEFT side of Stedman street in the morning. If you arrive after 8:05a you will need to enter in the main entrance off Harvard Street. Between 8:05 - 8:15a please do not drive in the front loop for late drop offs. Park on Harvard Street and either drop your student off or walk them to the entrance.
• School is dismissed at 2:30p Mondays - Thursdays and 1:40p on Fridays. The front loop is closed to traffic from 2:15p - 2:45p Mondays - Thursdays and from 1:25 - 1:55 on Fridays.
• All students must be dismissed to an adult if they are leaving early from school. Students who need to go home because of illness will have their families contacted by our nurses Brianna Cormos and Jana Young. Please do not text or call your children during the school day to make arrangements for early dismissals. You can reach the office at 617-879-4400 and we will be able to get a message to your child(ren).

Please find the below information (from our Family/Student Guidebook) regarding meals at FRR

Purchasing Meals

Breakfast and lunch is available to students at Florida Ruffin Ridley. For the 2022-2023

school year, one breakfast and one lunch will be provided free of charge; however, additional

breakfasts or lunches will be provided at cost ($4.25 per lunch).

Menus can be found on the Public Schools of Brookline website.

Families can prepay for their children's meals by writing a check in advance and sending it to the main office or directly to the cafeteria staff. All checks are to be made out to “Brookline Food Service.” Please make sure to put your checks or cash in a clearly marked envelope with your child's name on it. Payment can also be made online through the Titan Family portal.

As some of our families start to think about and apply to independent schools I want to share the procedure for requesting recommendations and records from the FRR staff. The Public Schools of Brookline has standard recommendation forms that each of our educators fill out that are based off the forms found in the Ravenna portal. These are the forms our educators will use and submit to the schools that families request and provide releases for.

All requests for independent school recommendations and records must be submitted by email no later than December 15th.

For academic recommendation requests please email the academic educator directly and/or your child(ren)'s guidance counselor. For records requests and to submit releases please email kyra_reardon@psbma.org and provide the name of the schools where transcripts need to be sent.

If you have any questions about this process, please reach out to Jen Buller at jennifer_buller@psbma.org.

As you are hopefully aware of from the district updates, the Public Schools of Brookline is partnering with New Solutions K12 to highlight and elevate effective components of our current middle school model, better understand areas of need and potential improvement at the middle school level, and clearly define the district’s approach to middle school schedules going forward and the types of experiences students and families can expect from grades 6-8.

To learn more about this work and progress towards achieving the above stated goals, please check out the Middle School Review website where you will find a timeline of the work and periodic updates as progress continues.