Friday 10/28: 10:00-11:00am Fun Run! (Don’t forget your sneakers and pledges!)

Friday 10/28: The last day of Spirit Week

• Rainbow Day!

Sunday 10/30: 1:00pm RCO Halloween Hike

Wednesday 11/2: 6:30-7:30pm RCO School Social

Wednesday 11/9: No School 12:00-8:00pm Family Conferences

Thursday 11/10: No School 8:00-4:00pm Family Conferences

Friday 11/11: No School Veterans Day

We encourage you to regularly check the full calendar at www.ridgeline.org as some dates may change. Please note that Ridgeline’s calendar is slightly different from 4J elementary calendars.

Fall has come, bringing with it some much-needed rain and surprisingly cooler weather. Don’t forget to dress your student in layers and be prepared with rain gear, ready for anything our northwest weather sends our way.

Costumes and Candy - Please remind students that we do not wear costumes to school for Halloween and to please leave their candy at home.

The Ridgeline Fun Run is TOMORROW, Friday, October 28th, from 10:00-11:00 am on the Rexius trail in front of the school.

Middle Schoolers will begin at 10 am, followed by Upper El at 10:15, then Lower El will begin running at 10:30 and, finally, Kinder will start over at the South Field at 10:45! Students will walk, run and skip their way around the trail to raise money for the Ridgeline general fund!

Flyers with more information, along with pledge sheets, were sent home on Thursday, October 13th.

This is a kid-powered fundraiser and a fun way for students to show support for Ridgeline!

Check out the donation site here www.ridgeline.org/support/2022-fun-run .

Spirit Week has brightened our classrooms with patterns and costumes, colors and many interpretations of past decades, especially the nineties! Don’t forget though, it isn’t over yet! Tomorrow, is Rainbow Day and we would love to see those colors running along the path during the Fun Run and filling the classrooms and hallways with as many colors as the eye can see!

We recently learned that the City of Eugene has placed an herbicide application notice for the banks of the Amazon creek between Fox Hollow and Snell. There will be a licensed professional applicator crew spot-spraying Vastlan (triclopyr) on blackberry plants along the creek bank on October 27, 2022, in the afternoon. This herbicide must be applied when the plants are dry. Click here for more information.

The affected area should be well off the running path and students will be instructed to stay away from any blue-dyed plants. We do not anticipate this being an issue for the Fun Run.

Conferences are right around the corner on November 9th from 12-8 pm and the 10th from 8-4 and we look forward to meeting with you and your student. Sign up soon as spots will fill up fast. There will not be childcare for in-person meetings, and zoom is an option if families prefer a virtual conference.

Click on the link below and then click on your student’s classroom to choose a time that works best for you: Ridgeline Family Conferences.

This year's Book Fair will take place on Friday, November 18, 5:00-7:00. We are partnering with local bookstore Books With Pictures Eugene to create a fresh, fun event where we will purchase books for our classroom libraries. More details to come!

We need volunteers to help, including people who can set up and take down on the day of the event, people to make signs and decor ahead of time, and people to assist families in making purchases during the event. Please email co-organizer Jenny Noyce directly if you can help!: jennynoyce@gmail.com.

Thank you to all the new volunteers who have signed up to help at Ridgeline’s fundraising events! These events absolutely cannot happen without you.

We are so grateful for your enthusiasm and all of your hard work and can’t wait to watch our students express their gratitude for everything in their lives during Stone Soup. If you would like to volunteer to help in that event, head over to Track it Forward to sign up! More details below, and a link to sign up to help kids cut vegetables the day before!

Remember to fill out your background check forms and review the requirements on the Volunteer Page of our website! We can’t wait to see you at all the fun events we have coming up and joining us in school soon!

Take a look at the volunteer opportunities we have available and head over to Track it Forward and sign up! See below for more information on volunteering requirements (background checks are necessary!) and how to track your progress toward your 40 hour goal!

Fun Run

• Did you just discover that you can get the morning off and you want to help out while your child runs to raise money for their amazing and unique school? We especially need volunteers to help from 11:00-12:00 for clean up. Head over to Track it Forward and sign up to volunteer for the Fun Run tomorrow! Contact Becky Fay if you have any questions!

  
  

Stone Soup Cooks

• We are looking forward to the return of this beloved Ridgeline tradition. Stone Soup is a school-wide event the day before Fall Break (November 23). Students bring vegetables to school on Tuesday, November 22 and slice them in the classrooms with the support of volunteers. The following day, Wednesday, November 23, volunteers prepare soups that staff and students will enjoy as an afternoon snack before dismissal for the Fall Break.

  
  

The following volunteers are needed to make sure that pick-up and drop-off are smooth and safe for our students:

• Crossing Guards

Crossing guards needed to help guide Ridgeline students as they cross West Amazon to access the Amazon trail and the bridge across the creek. Volunteers needed daily at 8-8:30 am and 3-3:20 pm. Safety vests and stop signs provided. Crossing guards need to be fully vaccinated and have a background check within the last 5 years. Sign up for any number of mornings and/or afternoons on Track it Forward

For more volunteer options, Room Parents will email the class, Teachers will reach out to families in their classroom communications, and Becky Fay will include volunteer opportunities in the eNews. In addition to working at events, volunteers serve on committees, make materials at home, do grounds work, act as crossing guards, partner with other parents to take care of classroom duties and other projects.

See instructions at the bottom of the eNews for more information on how to sign up and track your hours with Track it Forward.

If you would like to volunteer, go to the Volunteer Page of our website and review what is required! Be sure to fill out the volunteer background check form if you have not done so within the last five years and submit it to Becky Fay in the school office. Please have patience with the background check process, as there is a delay in turnaround. Bring your ID and proof of COVID vaccination as well. School volunteers are required by state law to be vaccinated.

We had our first earthquake drill of the school year at 2:00 pm. Students had the opportunity to learn what to do in the event of an earthquake and to shelter in place no matter whether they were in their classrooms or outside for lunch and recess. We encourage you to take this opportunity to discuss earthquake preparedness at home with your kids.

Along with the return to our favorite traditions, we find that some of our not-so-favorite things have returned as well. We encourage you to make it a routine to periodically check your child’s head for nits and live bugs. Lice are tiny brown and gray parasites that can cause itching and scratching, especially in areas of the body that are covered with hair (typically behind the ears, near the scalp, and neck). You will be able to see the tiny lice eggs (called “nits”), which look like grains of sand attached to the hair shafts.

Home treatment: Ask your doctor to recommend shampoos, creams or lotions (available over the counter). Clothing and linens need to be washed in very hot water (128.3 degrees Fahrenheit, or 53.5 degrees Celsius). Personal items, toys, home and car must be cleaned or bagged. For more detailed information see the website www.kidshealth.org.

The Ridgeline office staff appreciates a courtesy phone call to alert us if your child has lice so that we may work with you to ensure progress is being made to eliminate lice from your life and help to reduce further spread. We ask that you treat your child and pick out all the nits before sending them back to school.

Emerald Valley, our wonderful assisted living facility to the South, invites Ridgeline families to a trick or treat and craft celebration to bring the young and old together again after these long years.

Please remember that masks are required.

Should your student develop COVID-19 symptoms while at school, Ridgeline has BinaxNOW rapid tests available. These tests will only be administered if you have completed the Oregon Health Authority waiver and returned it to the school.

Rapid PCR testing is available at two local sites through Curative. Check their website to sign up for a testing time. Results are generally available in approximately 2 hours. They also offer other testing and services.

Ridgeline will continue to utilize Track it Forward for volunteer sign-ups and to log your volunteer hours. If you are new to Ridgeline or have not yet created an account, please do so! Last year we had a lot of folks forget to log their hours. Volunteer hour reporting is important for us to show support for Ridgeline when applying for grants and for reporting to our sponsoring district.

• Track It Forward app can be added to your phone!

If you are a first-time Track It Forward user and have not set up an account you will need to create an account first. If you already have an account, skip to step two.

Step One:

Go to https://www.trackitforward.com/site/ridgeline-montessori

Select sign in

Create your account.

Step Two:

Go to the app store on your device and search for Track It Forward.

Download the app

Log In

You are all set!