It is hard to believe we've already been in school for nearly a month! This week we welcome October and embrace the theme of this month's Action for Happiness Calendar: Optimistic October. Each day provides a thought or activity to live with optimism. You can still find the Self Care September calendar in this newsletter.

Check out highlights from this week at Richland, as well as ways you can support Richland through donations to our community and our PTO. Have you seen our 7 habits tickets? Students have been receiving them all week whenever staff recognize their leadership. We're looking forward to celebrating the first ten in a row on our Leaderboard! We invite you to participate in bringing the 7 habits home to you. Keep reading to find out how.

Friday is Picture Day! Please read below for more information.

Together we THRIVE!

Have a wonderful week!

Nicole Zuerblis

Richland Principal

This is also where you can order your pictures after they are taken on Friday.

There will be a make-up picture day later this fall.

Please also make sure you are not sitting in the middle of the road waiting to turn left into the parking lot when you are picking up or dropping off. We appreciate your cooperation with this so no one is blocking traffic.

The live school day begins at 9:10 and ends at 3:40.

Doors open at 8:55 for drop off.

Please note: a bell will ring at 9:07, indicating school is about to start, followed by the starting bell at 9:10. We appreciate your cooperation in ensuring your child is in their classroom ready to start school at 9:10. If your child needs breakfast, please drop them off by 9:00.

All buses will drop off and pick up at the back of the school, from Chestnut Street off 313.

Thank you for your support in making this year's drop off and pick up run so smoothly!

Little things can make a big difference. You can help support the Ronald McDonald House and others affected by childhood cancer or anyone else who needs the help from the Ronald McDonald House by collecting the little tabs you pull to open soda, soup or any other aluminum cans. The funds generated from recycling these aluminum tabs help offset The Ronald McDonald House expenses. Send in your tabs to Richland.

We are donating our tabs in honor of Rhiley who is a cancer survivor.

He is a 4th grader at Richland.

Ready to volunteer? Complete this form!

UPCOMING PTO MEETINGS

OCTOBER 27 @ 6:30 PM

NOVEMBER 17 @ 8:00 AM

WHAT ARE HABIT TICKETS?

Each day, adults in the school building have tickets to give to any student they see exhibiting one of the 7 habits. Once a student receives a Leader Ticket, he or she will go to the office to sign our school Leader Book, pick a number at random for the placement of their ticket on the Leaderboard, and will bring home a postcard to show you so that you may share in their good news! Once the student has a ticket on the board, he or she is eligible to receive the "mystery motivator". When ten tickets in a row are up on the board, those students will spin a wheel to receive a mystery motivator prize. Examples of motivators are extra recess, lunch with Mrs. Zuerblis, and many more.

HOW CAN I HELP AT HOME?

We encourage you to discuss the program with your child at home. The characteristics of the 7 habits encourage responsibility and ownership of one's actions, as well as other leadership qualities. Ask your child to use the ideas shared at school when at home and in the neighborhood, and routinely check in with your child on how he or she is demonstrating these characteristics in different settings.

WHAT IS LEADER IN ME?

Leader in Me is a philosophy used at our school to promote leadership qualities in our students! Students learn about and practice our 7 habits daily. Those habits are as follows:

1. Be proactive

2. Begin with the end in mind

3. Put first things first

4. Think win-win

5. Seek first to understand, then to be understood

6. Synergize

7. Sharpen the Saw

WHAT WILL MY CHILD GAIN FROM LEADER IN ME?

Each day at Richland, students are encouraged to show the 7 habits. Students receive lessons focused on showing these habits in all areas of our school. Lessons include teaching students what these ideas look like in each area and practicing what those behaviors look like. Students will continue to receive these types of lessons throughout the year.

Richland is a proud Leader in Me school! For more information on the 7 habits, how we live them at school, and how you can live them at home, please visit our website here!

Below are this week's questions. We'd love you to participate!

MONDAY: How would you describe yourself in five words or less?

TUESDAY: What words would you use to describe our school?

WEDNESDAY: What is something you wonder about?

THURSDAY: Would you rather be the boss or the employee?

FRIDAY: If you could give every person in the world a gift, what would it be?

As you know, many families were affected in one way or another by the recent storm. Our Richland Elementary community would like to help out and give back! We will be collecting cleaning supplies, paper towels, and trash bags for the Quakertown Outreach program until October 1st.

Thank you in advance for your contributions!

TOGETHER WE THRIVE!

At Richland Elementary, the most important part to the start of our school day is
ensuring that all of our students arrive safely at school.

In looking for a way to increase our efficiency in this process, we are implementing a new student attendance system called SafeArrival. We believe this new system will make it easy for families to report their child’s absence, reduce the time it takes to verify student attendance each day, and enhance the tracking of unverified student absences.

It is important to understand that SafeArrival works in tandem with the School Messenger system. The school-wide emails you receive from our school come to you through the School Messenger system. Both of these systems operate under PowerSchool. Long story short - this attendance process is fully integrated into our school and district-wide systems and will be easy and efficient for you. This app will allow you to report absences AND see and receive all the messages the school sends out through School Messenger. (You will still receive the emails too.)

With SafeArrival, families can report their child’s absence using any of these 3
convenient methods:

1.Using a mobile device; download and install the free SchoolMessenger app from the
Apple App Store or the Google Play Store (or from the links at https://go.schoolmessenger.com). Please note that the first time you use the app,
you will need to select Sign Up to create your account. To enter an absence, select Attendance, then Report an Absence.

• In addition to attendance information, in the app you will also see all of the School Messenger messages the school has sent throughout the year. This is helpful, and eliminates the need to search through your emails for messages previously sent.

2. Use the SafeArrival website; https://go.schoolmessenger.com. The first time you use
the website, you will need to select Sign Up to create your account. Then, select Attendance and finally, Report an Absence.

3. Call the toll-free number; 1-833-834-4911 and report an absence using the automated phone system. To use this system, you must use or enter the phone number you
provided as your district contact number. Using or entering that phone number will link you to your child(ren).

These options are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Future absences can be reported at any time. We recommend using the app. This is the easiest way to report your child’s absence. We also suggest that you save the toll-free number (1-833-834-4911) as a “SafeArrival” contact in your phone. Doing this serves two purposes - First, you will have the toll free number on hand for you to easily report an absence if you are not using the app. Second, it is helpful to see “SafeArrival” as a contact if the school is calling you to verify an unreported absence. Please answer that call, or you will continue to receive additional calls.

If you do not report your child’s absence, we will use the SchoolMessenger automated notification system (formerly called Connect Ed) to contact parents/guardians whose
child is absent but the absence was not reported in advance. Previously, you received
an attendance phone call from the Richland office. Now, the automated notification
system will contact parents by both phone call and email until a reason is submitted
for the absence. If our system is unable to reach the designated contacts, someone in the Richland office will follow up with an additional phone call.

If you report your child’s absence in advance using the SafeArrival mobile app,
website, or toll-free number, you will NOT receive multiple phone calls from the SchoolMessenger notifications.

SafeArrival is up and running for Richland Elementary. Parents/guardians can use
this program immediately.

Currently, our district is providing ALL families with children up to the age of 18 with FREE breakfast and lunch for the remainder of the school year through funds from the US Department of Agriculture. There are no conditions to qualify. However, if you do not have a current application on file for the 2021-2022 school year, you could miss benefits from the State, should it decide to provide the Pandemic EBT Benefits again.

Please click here for the Free & Reduced Meal Program applications.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Stacy Reiss, Free & Reduced Lunch Program, at sreiss@qcsd.org or 215-529-2022.