Principal's Newsletter
August 17th, 2018
WOWs
WOW to all our custodians!!! Been at The Ridge going on 7 years now and this year has been the Best I’ve seen our building look! You guys and gal are amazing! Thank you for all your hard work! --Tessa
Thanks to my Office Squad! I couldn’t and wouldn’t want to do this job without you! --Tessa
Thanks to Kristen Schrameyer! You go above and beyond for the little Kindergarteners and your team during the summer to make sure they have their needs met. You do it with grace and without complaint. Way to be a great leader!!! --Tessa
WOW to Kerri! You have jumped right in and started learning the Ropes of The Ridge! So excited to have you here!!-Tessa
WOW to Dr. DeWeese and Dr. OH! You gals have really made a huge impact in our building this summer! From cleaning out the clutter, painting and decorating it so our students/staff know they are important, loved and welcome at The Ridge! I’m so excited for this year! Love the #principalsquad! -Tessa
WOW and many thanks to Tessa and Jennifer for helping me when I was in a bind! You guys are life savers!--Shelly Gotsch
WOW to Kristen Schremeyer for all of the time and energy that she puts into screening and managing new enrolling kindergarteners and our team. We are lucky to have her!--Shelly Gotsch
WOW to everyone who have made our school looks so amazing. The halls, classrooms, and bulletin boards shows the love everyone has for the kids!!--Shelly Gotsch
Huge thanks to Kristen Schraymeyer for giving me some white board material and huge thanks to Angeline and her hubby for making arrangements to hang it for me. I'd like to shout out Mr. Vest for helping me hang some things in my office as well. _Tracy Lloyd
WOW to Julie M., Carrie, and Tony for running the sales of the extra BE KIND shirts. -Megan Brown
WOW to Julie Myers for filling the "lost" orders and running those to classrooms during Open House. -Megan Brown
WOW to Brandy, Stephanie, Carrie, Jamie McCoy, Linda Carr for your help after the bash to count BE KIND shirt orders. -Megan Brown
WOW to Linda Carr and Kim for your help running the BE KIND shirt booth at the BASH! -Megan Brown
WOW to Julie Myers for being my work wife! I am so thankful for the friendship we have! Megan Brown
WOW to Carrie for doing so much for our kiddos and me! I would be lost without you! Megan Brown
WOW to everyone who took shirts and delivered them to the classrooms for Open House. -Megan Brown
WOW to all my paras for filling me in and helping me figure out the kiddos! -Megan Brown
WOW to Lisa McCauley for taking action quickly during the quick storm last Friday and getting her students into the bathroom.--Dr. DeWeese
Thanks Drew and Chris for helping me decorate the gym for our PD day!--Dr. O-H
Thanks to Todd, Tony, and Rob for helping me paint the hallway!--Dr. O-H
Thanks to our custodial staff for working hard all summer to get the school ready for the new year! Thanks for your help and patience with me during painting and decorating.- Dr. O-H
Thanks to the office ladies! You ladies work so hard to help us get ready for the new school year. We so appreciate all you do!!!!- Dr. O-H
Thanks to Christina for helping me with all the science work for this year!--Dr. O-H
Thanks to Mack for working with me to lead out our math data team and math book study.--Dr. O-H
Thanks Kerri and Natalie for all the hard work to have successful back to school PD and an awesome first day!- Dr. O-H
Thanks to everyone who showed up and helped out with the Kindergarten Balloon Drop and our Back to School Bash!- Dr. O-H
Thanks to all our new staff who worked really hard to learn about all of our imitatives and sought further help when they had questions or needed help!- Dr. O-H
Thanks to everyone for a successful Open House! All of your rooms and bulletin boards looked great and we had lots of positive parent comments about what a good experience it was!- Dr. O-H
WOW to our New 2nd grade team for a great Open House! We are excited to be working together this year. Katelyn and Megan have jumped right in and have already made a positive impact! Looking forward to a GREAT year!--Brandy Leffeler
WOW to our administration team for integrating “tropical fun” and a yummy breakfast into our first back to school meetings!--Angie Regan
WOW to Stephanie McCoy for checking in and helping me with K. dismissal.--Shelly Gotsch
WOW to Kim Whitworth for providing delicious, dark chocolate brownies for our PLC meeting. You are appreciated! --Jodi
WOW to Lindsey Crawford for being so excited during a read aloud and getting the students excited to be authors this year. I could feel the genuine excitement as soon as I walked in your room. Way to start the year strong!! --Jodi
WOW to Christina Rosenow for comforting a Henderson student that accidentally got on the wrong bus. I'm sure the student felt much better having a trusted adult by her side as she made the journey from HR to Henderson. --Jodi
WOW to Angeline for all of your Mastery Connect support and spreading some of that knowledge my way. --Jodi
WOW to Angeline and Christina Pliske for all of your support with 2nd grade math. We are off to a great start thanks to your help and support, much appreciated! --Jodi
WOW to our Vacation Station Staff… Pete, Barb, Stephanie, Taylor, Dawn, Sarah, Clark, Gabby, Rachel, Jessica, Chloe, Pat, and (me) for keeping 40-80 of our students engaged every day this summer, while building new relationships and social skills.--Kelly Edwards
WOW to everyone who put in their time this summer to get this place up and running…. The office ladies were here dawn to dusk. Our admin team was here getting everything ready for us. Custodians and maintenance were here dusk to dawn. Kindergarten team assessed the new kids on the block. Takes the whole village!!--Kelly Edwards
WOW to Cassie for working so hard to learn everything needed when you are new in the district-she rocks!--Sherry Reagan
A special WOW of thank you to everyone at the Ridge for being so caring. I have been overwhelmed by the kind and thoughtful questions of concern for my health and people checking in on me since I have been back. I am doing great and I really appreciate my family at the Ridge!--Cheryl Gerloff
Jodi thank you so much for the GREAT idea you came up with for me to try with one of my students. I appreciate your time and ideas! Kimberley
WOW to our amazing reading team. Thanks for all that you are doing to get your assessments done while learning a new tool for future implementation. -Dr. DeWeese
Safety Plans
Exit Survey
As promised here is our exit survey from our beginning of the year professional development. The team would love your feedback to use as we plan future staff meetings and professional development.
Big thanks again for your involvement in meaningful conversations and the ideas you shared during the meeting. I appreciate your focus as we moved closer to having students. It is appreciated and the feedback you gave around the School Improvement Plan was extremely helpful.
Keeping it Clean
Please make sure that at the end of the day you have your students clear everything from the tops of tables and desks. That way they can spray the entire top and wipe the entire desk or table without having to remove all of the materials that are left. They would also like students to please stack chairs at the end of pods or next to tables so that they do not have to move every single chair in order to sweep under tables and desks. Students should be responsible for picking up trash from the floors at the end of the day.
Thanks for helping out our custodial team. The building looks amazing and they are working hard to keep it that way!
Classroom Library Article
As most of you know I have a very deep routed passion for literacy and especially for making sure students have access to a lot of books. Below is an article a former teacher that I worked with sent me. I think the author hits the nail of the head with his thoughts on building classroom libraries. Enjoy!
Support Calls
Raz Kids
Dr. Garland will be meeting with the administrators from the Title schools soon to prioritize our request for spending funds. I'll keep you posted as to what is decided.
Dismissal
As you check bus tickets please make sure the correct students are boarding the correct bus. We have already had one student who was slotted for a bus and was allowed to get on a different bus. The person on bus duty took the ticket for the wrong bus. The purpose of the bus tickets is to make sure we have accountability for students getting on the right bus and knowing which students are on the bus. Please follow the system to ensure we have put students on the correct bus.
Intervention Update
https://drive.google.com/open?id=15XpMXaLDULDswzwrHw7jLiOozzuqS212PP_Bjss7hfw
Care Team Meetings
Meetings are going to be about 30 minutes if it is an initial meeting. Follow up or check in meetings once a student has a plan will be about 15 minutes. Please come to the meeting ready to describe any behaviors that need to be supported and the time of day those behaviors are occurring. So far we are off to a great start with our meetings.
The administrative team and the counseling team will attend the meetings of students that they over see. If there are any other particular people you would like at a meeting like a reading teacher, sped teacher, or special area please let Angeline know when she is scheduling the meeting.
During the meetings there will be people designated to carry out action steps for the plan. Most importantly the communication for a students plan will be determined during each meeting. The team will work together to communicate a student's plan. There are also notes taken on each student that will be housed in google.
Thanks for your patience as we work out any kinks to this system. So far the team has worked hard to make sure we are meeting the needs of students and teachers.
Curriculum Night
Committee Work
The focus of our faculty meetings this year will be school improvement. All of our meetings will center how our school improvement goals and our actions steps. There will be times that we will work in our committee groups around the school improvement work.
If you have any questions about committee work this year please let me know.