Friday Focus
Welcome to the Friday Focus. Our weekly newsletter will be posted here. It will include the Administrator's message, important updates, and fun things happening around our school.
RMS Friday Focus, November 1, 2024
Important Dates
November 3 - Daylight Savings - “Fall back”
November 6 - PTO Social Evening & FUNdraiser @ Sawtooth in Hanover
November 11 - Veterans Day - NO SCHOOL
November 13 - 8 am Parent Coffee
November 13 - Combined Choral Concert HHS
November 14 - 7 pm PTO Meeting on Zoom
November 15 - 7 pm - Fall Talent Show
November 27 - December 1 - Thanksgiving Break - NO SCHOOL
(If your family plans to take an extended Thanksgiving break, please contact RMS Attendance soon to facilitate planning)
Weekly After School
Mon, Tue, Thur - Library open for after school study
Tuesday - 6th grade HW club.
Tuesday - Math help available in the Library.
Friday - Mathcounts at HHS
Thoughts from the Rolling Desk
Happy November even though it seems like May:
Well, we made it through the week. Weather changes, Halloween, and the end of Q1 combined to bring a certain amount of energy to the building. For the most part this energy was turned to creative and positive outcomes - witness the pumpkins from the homeroom contests.
In other creative news this week, our 8th graders have once embarked on a novel writing foray. Every fall for the past 3 years students take time during this week to begin writing a novel, carefully tracking their progress in terms of words written. At this point the current class is ahead of previous years, compiling 250,000 words collectively up to this point! The writing will continue outside of class until the Thanksgiving break and we hope to break last year’s record of 320,400 words. Ask your 8th grader about their novel and please encourage them to keep writing (one of the skills you get better at by doing).
In anticipation of the season, RMS will collect non-perishable food items for donation to the Upper Valley Haven before Thanksgiving break. The Student Council will organize collection locations and delivery of the goods, but we need your help! Please send non-perishable (but no glass) traditional Thanksgiving foods, such as canned vegetables, cranberries, boxed stuffing, mashed potatoes, etc. to RMS starting next week. Please be sure to check expiration dates, as we cannot donate expired food. Students should bring food as early as possible so we can keep the shelves stocked and help the food-insecure members of our community. All donations are needed by November 22nd. Thank you in advance for helping RMS take care of each other.
6th Grade Homework Club will be starting up on Tuesday, November 5th. Any 6th grade students are welcome to come when it works for their schedules. We will meet in the 6th grade science room (602) and have snacks. Please contact Liz Powers with questions.
As we remind ourselves to set the clocks back this weekend, look forward to an extra hour of the weekend, and anticipate breakfast in the daylight, we would be remiss if we did not acknowledge that next week may also bring significant anxiety and upheaval nationally. An increase in divisive rhetoric nationally reminds us to focus on taking care of each other within our smaller community of RMS. We will work even harder next week to center what we can control and find positive things to celebrate together. November is traditionally a month of gratitude and we plan to make this a central theme over the next few weeks, hoping to build community and our own health through thankfulness. In that vein, thank you for your support as we continue to strive to be well, stay safe, take care of each other, and remember that the geese have got it.
Tim Boyle
Principal
Anissa Morrison
Associate Principal
School News and Information
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.
Health Office Updates
Covid/Flu/Respiratory Virus and Return to School Guidelines
- No longer following the 5 day quarantine for Covid.
- With any illness, please stay home until feeling better and 24 hour fever free without acetaminophen or ibuprofen.
- If Covid positive or recent respiratory virus and returning to school please consider wearing a mask through day 5.
- For example: stayed home Monday and Tuesday with symptoms, returned to school Wednesday (day 3), consider wearing a mask day Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.
If you have questions regarding health programs, or anything related to the health of your students please reach out to Nurse Abby.
RMS Resources/Opportunities
Community News and Events Accessible here - Local After School Activities.
Dartmouth Alliance for Adolescents of Color (DAAC)! Is offering a mentorship program to teens.
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.
PTO Gaggle 11-1-24
Sawtooth FUNdraising Dinner Night on November 6th in Hanover After staying up late to watch the polls close the night before, consider having the chefs at Sawtooth Kitchen do the cooking for you. Join us on Wednesday, November 6th for the first RMS PTO fundraiser of the school year! Sawtooth is generously donating a percent of profits from in-restaurant AND take-out orders (between 5pm-9pm) on the evening of November 6th. Check out the Sawtooth menu here. (Note: Customers should mention the RMS PTO fundraiser when placing orders.) So bring your entire family, and definitely splurge for a dessert!
RMS PTO Halloween Warming…and Cooling…Tent a Success! In just under two hours parent volunteers handed out all the sweet treats and cooling lemonade on hand to many Darth Vaders, fairy princesses, mad scientists, axolotls and more. The drinks…both lemonade & cocoa…proved to be a popular item for trick or treaters who had built up a significant thirst. This PTO initiative has become a happy tradition, building connections between the middle school families and the broader community. If you’d like to support PTO initiatives such as this one, please consider making a donation to the RMS PTO.
The RMS Yearbook Committee Needs Your Photos!
A group of parent volunteers is working on the 2024-2025 RMS Yearbook, documenting this current school year. All grades are included, with a special nod to the graduating 8th grade class.
8th GRADE PARENTS: please upload ONE baby/toddler photo of your student! Upload link: uploads.picabooyearbooks.com
DO make sure the file name is your child's full name (otherwise we won't know who the baby picture belongs to!)
DO put your contact info in the notes, especially if you upload directly from your phone.
DO put file in the "8th Grade Babies" Section.
DO please upload baby pics by Friday, December 20th 2024.
ALL RMS PARENTS (6th, 7th & 8th) can upload candid pictures of RMS kids and their RMS friends! Upload link: uploads.picabooyearbooks.com
DO send recent photos, from this school year please.
DO send pictures of your kids enjoying non-school activities, school club pictures and sports (team pictures!).
DO make sure group photos include RMS students only (not friends from other schools, family members etc.)
DO send publication-quality photos, as we can't use blurry or low-resolution photos. Faces should be visible.
We ask that you please help us keep track of who is in what photo. File name = student's full name. Add your contact info to notes, especially if you're uploading from your phone, and the names of other students in group photos.
We will use the photo permissions currently on file. Unsure? Check with Nicole at the front office to make sure your kid(s) can be included in the yearbook this year.
Thank you,
The RMS 2024-25 Yearbook Committee
Questions? Ask Nikki Batra at nnagarwa@yahoo.com
Important Links
- District Transportation
- RMS Cafe
- Community Interest
- Dresden Board Meetings On Demand
- District Calendar
- BOARDDOCS: Remember to select “Dresden School Board” in upper right hand corner after you click “Public Access”
