Good afternoon, Rocket families!
This is Erika Bower, Superintendent of Ridgedale Local Schools, where our mission is to empower students to reach their full potential while focusing on learning, safety, partnerships with our community, and fiscal responsibility. We are making the final preparations to welcome our students back this year! We cannot wait for our students to walk through our doors!
I want to remind you of some important and wonderful changes for this school year! As I mentioned last week and in our newsletter, one of these changes is the drop off/pick up transportation flow. Families will now drop off/pick up their students in the front (east side) of the buildings by entering in the middle drive. Buses will unload/load at the back of the building (west side). Student drivers will enter and exit at the north end of the jr/sr high building only. There should be no traffic other than buses at the west side of the buildings. Please look at the updated MAP linked here. We know this transition will require some patience, especially the first week of school, but it is critical for the safety of our students and staff. In addition, we are asking families to wait until 2:30pm to start lining up for pick up, so that those who need to get in and out of the school before the end of the day are able to do so.
Take a look at our new playground equipment! We are thankful for the generosity of Grand Prairie Township as they donated the equipment! We are also grateful for our staff and community members who assisted throughout the entire project! What a blessing for our students!
Open House is scheduled for Monday, August 21st, from 4-6pm. When you are in the buildings, be sure to check out the former computer labs and cafeterias in each building. We were able to utilize 21st Century Grant money to transform these areas for use by Power Hours as well as school day activities!
Students in grades 1-12 will start school on Tuesday, August 22nd at the normal time with doors opening at 7:43am. The late bell continues to be 8am. Kindergarten has a special start to their school year to allow us to learn more about our kindergarteners and create balanced class lists. On Tuesday, August 22nd, all kindergarteners will participate in activity stations from 9am-2pm. Families will drop off students at 9am and pick them up at 2pm. On Wednesday, August 23rd, and Thursday, August 24th, students and a family member will attend their child’s scheduled KRA testing session. Students will only be at school for their scheduled time. On Friday, August 25th, due to stagger start, students with last names beginning with A-M will attend regular school hours. On Monday, August 28th, stagger start will continue as students with last names beginning with N-Z will attend regular school hours. All kindergarten students will attend on Tuesday, August 29th as our stagger start concludes. Thank you for your patience as we transition our kindergarten students!
Preschool students will start on August 28th. The full calendars for the district and PK can be found on our website.
We have events kicking off this week! Junior High, JV, and Varsity volleyball will play Delaware Christian at home on Tuesday starting at 5pm. JV and Varsity volleyball will play at Delaware Christian on Wednesday starting at 5:30pm and our golfers will be at Ridgemont. JV and Varsity volleyball will play Upper Sandusky on Thursday starting at 5:30pm while Junior High football plays at Elgin starting at 5:30pm. Varsity football will play Elgin at home on Friday starting at 7pm as we celebrate military night. We are asking that students do not bring footballs to the football game as they can be distracting and cause issues. Thank you for your assistance with this. Check out all events by going to our website and clicking on “Menu,” then “School Calendar.”
Thank you for all you do for our students, our staff, and our community! Make it a great week and year, and Go, Rockets!