Important Dates

Thoughts from the Rolling Desk

Happy 2025!  We all had fun this week working to stay warm and reestablish the school day routines after a wonderful time away from school.  We hope everyone has enjoyed the transition as well.    In celebration of the new year, our leadership classes have worked to identify “resolutions” for the RMS community for the start of 2025 (which we hope will survive recently named “quitters day,” which is today).  Some of these resolutions can be seen below - we invite you to join us.

2025 New Year Connections

• Let's all do more to know and value one another.
• SMILE: Sharing and showing joy is a connection tool that leads to growing happy, healthy communities.
• Greet people with eye contact. Say hello with your words and your eyes.  Looking at someone expresses interest.
• Laugh and have fun!  Look for and share in the small moments, especially the silly, unexpected, and fun ones.
• Learn the interests of others.  Showing enthusiasm for others' interests can create connections.

As the year starts, we wanted to pass along some important updates:

Transportation overcrowding - Recently we have witnessed a significant overcrowding on buses into town, especially on Wednesday afternoons.  Many students seem to be riding non-assigned buses into town on Wednesday afternoons.  Unfortunately, SAU 70 does not have open bus ridership. What this means is students signed up to ride a bus to and from home have priority, thus transportation to a peer's house or afterschool activity cannot be guaranteed.  The drivers will begin prioritizing students who are riding home.  Please let us know of any issues so that we can work to find solutions.

8th Grade Families: Request for Volunteers — Please sign up today! - There are three upcoming fundraising events in support of the 8th grade class trips for which we are seeking parent volunteers.  If you have time available for any of these events, please consider volunteering.  The organizers would be so grateful for your assistance. 

Click on the link for each event to learn more about the volunteer needs:

• Friday, Jan 17th Bake Sale during the school day
• Friday, Jan 17th Bonfire event, 5pm-7pm
• Raffle ticket sales at Theater Showcase on Thursday, Jan 23 & Friday, Jan 24

As a reminder, the 8th grade team has set a goal of raising at least $5000 to help lower the cost of the tuition for every student traveling to NYC or Montreal in the spring.

Fundraising, Food, and Fun next week:

BAKE SALE to raise money for the 8th grade trips to Montreal and NYC

WHEN:  Friday, January 17, during snack and lunch

WHERE:  RMS Lobby

WHAT DO WE NEED?

8th grade students: bring in individually wrapped baked goods to sell.  

All students:  Bring in money for baked goods.  All items will cost $2 each.  Correct change is appreciated!

All proceeds will go toward the cost of the trips to NYC and Montreal.

(further fundraising events below)

 

Support of the Class of ‘25:  Friday, Jan 17th,  5pm-7pm, RMS field - Bonfire

All are invited to bring a Christmas tree to a bonfire fundraiser to support the 8th grade year end cultural immersion trips. Trees will be carefully placed upon the fire in ones and twos. Families can purchase bake sale items and drink hot cocoa while watching their trees burn and offering a wish into the new year.  Suggested donation for each tree is $20, cash and checks appreciated.  Please note: This is a full-family event, please do NOT drop your student off without adult supervision.  This event has been given approval by the Hanover Fire Department.  Please contact Emma Cottage with any questions.

 

Hanover-Norwich Schools K-12 Student Art Show

Warm up, grab a new book, and check out our RMS Art at the Howe - January 6th - 30th, 2025.

Please have a wonderful weekend, full of fun, warmth, and sunshine.  As always, stay well (and warm), be safe, and take care of each other.  We geese have got it.  

Tim Boyle
Principal
https://www.instagram.com/rmsgeese/

Anissa Morrison
Associate Principal
 

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School News, Information, and Resources

RMS Cafe

Information about menus, mealtime, and application for RMS’ meal program are available here.

The RMS lunch program is run “in house” and does not follow a state or federal program.  If your family may benefit from assistance for meals, please contact Robin Morley-Ploof in the office for more information.  The program is confidential and runs the same way as the more traditional cafe meal funding program. 

RMS works hard to accommodate the dietary needs of our community, so if you have any questions, concerns, please contact Austin Jacobs. 

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Styrofoam and Holiday String Lights Collection

Saturday, Jan 25, 10 am to noon

Richmond School Parking Lot, 63 Lyme Road, Hanover

Co-sponsored by the Norwich Solid Waste Committee and Sustainable Hanover

We will accept:

• #6 Styrofoam (Expanded Polystyrene – see this flyer for examples). Foam must be clean and free of tape and stickers. 
• All types of holiday string lights. If you can easily remove the bulbs, please do so.
• Styrofoam will be taken to Gilford NH to be compressed into ingots for re-manufacturing into insulation and other new products. Lights will go to a Vermont metal recycler where the copper is extracted.

In case of extreme weather, the back-up date is Saturday, Feb 1 at the same time, same location. Any change will be posted on the event page at sustainablehanovernh.org

A team of enthusiastic volunteers make these collections possible. If you would like to  join the team, please email sustainablehanovernh@gmail.com.

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Volunteer Opportunities

We have a wide-range of volunteer opportunities available both during and outside of school hours throughout the district.  Please take a minute to fill out this brief questionnaire to let us know what activities you would be interested in learning more about for the 2024-25 school year.  Teal Parker, our Coordinator of Volunteers, will be in touch with more details as events/activities arise.  

In addition, if you are interested in volunteering but have not yet gone through the background check process, please fill out this form and we will be in touch to get the process started for you.

 

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Health Office Updates

Respiratory Illnesses

RMS is beginning to see an increase in respiratory illness (like every year). Several of the illnesses include walking pneumonia. Upper valley primary care providers are seeing some atypical/mycoplasma pneumonia in children which can be treated with antibiotics. However, viral infections continue to be the most common cause of pediatric cough and respiratory illness in our community. 

Information on Mycoplasma Pneumonia from the CDC: can be found here.

CDC Prevention Measures for Respiratory Illness can be found here.

If you have questions regarding health programs, or anything related to the health of your students please reach out to Nurse Abby.

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PTO Gaggle

So much learned at monthly PTO meetings

At last night’s PTO meeting, attendees gained some great kernels of information from Principal Boyle and Guidance Counselor Powers about the end of Q2, the nuts and bolts of arena scheduling, and the scaffolding set up for the transition to SY 25/26 (including visits from HHS counselors and 7th grade parent meetings). We also learned about some fun upcoming social events including the Ramunto’s PTO fundraiser, the Jan 17th Christmas Tree Bonfire Fundraiser, and the Putnams Vineyard PTO Social evening on Friday, Feb 7th. View Monthly PTO minutes.

Grab a meal from Ramunto’s and support the RMS PTO

For the next three Wednesdays, 25% of meal purchases at Ramunto’s (after 5pm), made by RMS families will go to support PTO initiatives. Please mention the RMS PTO when you place your order!!!

• Wednesday, January 15th (Focus: 6th grade families)
• Wednesday, January 22nd (Focus: 7th grade families)
• Wednesday, January 29th (Focus: 8th grade families)

The PTO extends a huge THANK YOU to Ramunto’s for their generous support of the community.

Support of the Class of ‘25:  Friday, Jan 17th,  5pm-7pm, RMS field - Bonfire

All are invited to bring a Christmas tree to a bonfire fundraiser to support the 8th grade year end cultural immersion trips. Trees will be carefully placed upon the fire in ones and twos. Families can purchase bake sale items and drink hot cocoa while watching their trees burn and offering a wish into the new year.  Suggested donation for each tree is $20, cash and checks appreciated.  Please note: This is a full-family event, please do NOT drop your student off without adult supervision.  This event has been given approval by the Hanover Fire Department.

RMS Yearbook needs YOUR photos!

The RMS yearbook team needs your help to make the 24/25 yearbook as inclusive as possible. Please submit photos of groups of RMS students being their true middle-school selves both on and off campus—sporting events, theatrical events, lego leagues, quiz bowl, community outreach events, and more! Let’s celebrate ALL that our geese are doing!  When uploading into Picaboo, please remember to label student’s names and post the picture into the appropriate section of the yearbook.  https://uploads.picabooyearbooks.com/9980200/  

Yearbook information here!