8:00am - 2:30pm (Monday-Thursday)
8:00am - 1:40pm (Friday)
617 879 4410
Hello Ruffin Ridley Families and Friends,
Yesterday, we had a day away from school to honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday. As a nation we have a long way to go to realize Dr. King’s vision and within our community we have much work to do to actualize our commitment to social justice and disrupting systemic racism. I hope that you were able to spend some time yesterday as a family or individuals working in acts of community service as well as found time to reflect on and recommit your actions to lifting up our corner of the world.
As we head into Inauguration Day tomorrow, our eyes and ears are open to a hopeful promise of healing, unity, justice, and strength in the days and months ahead. Regardless of our political beliefs and alignments, tomorrow will be a historic day as we witness the first woman, first Black woman, first woman of South Asian descent, and first daughter of immigrants be sworn in as the vice president of the United States. Representation, especially in positions of power, matters. In addition to Vice President-Elect Harris our government also is moving towards having a cabinet that better represents the diversity of the American people. I hope that everyone is able to make space in their day to watch the inauguration tomorrow with your children.
Below are some reminders and updates for this week including:
Ruffin Ridley Readers: Wednesday, January 20 7:30pm
Saeed Ola, our Grades 6-8 vice principal, will be the Special Guest Reader for this Wednesday's Storytime!
K-8 Family Forum DATE CHANGE: Thursday January 21st 8:00pm
This week’s K-8 Family Forum will be held on Thursday to accommodate the special Ruffin Ridley Readers with Mr. Ola and the follow up discussion groups.
Community Meetings Restart
We are excited to share that we are restarting our monthly grade level band community meetings. Our first meeting will take place on Wednesday February 3rd from 8:10 - 8:30am via Zoom. K-2, Grades 3-5, and Grades 6-8 will all have their own separate meetings and links that will be shared by classroom and homeroom teachers. The theme for the February meeting is COMMUNITY
School Picture Retakes
Picture Retakes - In Person Students
Picture retakes have been rescheduled and will now be held on February 1st and February 4th. Cohort A students as well as PreK and Kindergarten students will have the opportunity for retakes on Monday, February 1st. Cohort B students will participate in retakes on Thursday, February 4th. Your child may participate in retakes if they were absent or if you are unhappy with the photograph from the Fall. If your child was photographed in the Fall and you would like a retake, please plan to send in the photograph with your student on the day of their retake so that it may be returned to CoffeePond. If you received a digital copy of your child's photo, there is no need to return anything on the day of retakes.
Composite class pictures will be created this year for each classroom following the retake dates. Students should expect to receive class pictures in the Spring.
Picture Retakes - RLA
Remote Learning Academy students may use the Sign Up Genius link below to sign up for a 5 minute slot on February 4th. Please note, picture retakes will be held inside the building. Per our visitor policy, we will ask adults to wait outside while the student is photographed. Staff will be available on the afternoon of retakes to escort our younger students to and from the photo area as needed.
COVID-19 Weekly Update
As a reminder you can access the PSB COVID-19 dashboard on the main page of the Public Schools of Brookline website. There you will find the number of positive COVID-19 cases in the PSB school community by week and learning model. For the purpose of this dataset, weeks run Monday - Sunday.
For the week of January 11th - 17th at Ruffin Ridley we have had 4 confirmed positive cases in our community. Three of the positive cases were not in school during the infectious period and all 4 cases are unrelated.
Updated Flu Vaccine Information
The Massachusetts Department of Public Health is removing the requirement for flu vaccination for attendance in childcare/preschool, primary, secondary and postsecondary education. Preliminary data show that this has been a mild flu season to date, presumably as people have received their seasonal flu vaccine and have been
adhering to mask-wearing and social distancing due to COVID-19.
Given the intensive Commonwealth-wide efforts regarding COVID-19 vaccination, DPH wants to alleviate the burden to obtain flu vaccination and focus on continuing our COVID -19 vaccination efforts. DPH continues to strongly recommend that everyone age six months and older receive their seasonal flu vaccine each year.
We sincerely thank everyone for so diligently working with us. Your collective efforts to meet the previous requirement was part of an important public health endeavor to limit influenza and help our community combat Covid-19 more effectively.
Thank you all for your continued patience and compliance!
Please send any health documentation or questions to our amazing school nurses:
Lunch Volunteers Still Needed!
I want to first again thank Kim Uyen Dang for her incredible efforts in organizing and recruiting volunteers for our lunch coverage needs this year. I also want to extend my gratitude to everyone who has volunteered with us so far and provided the necessary supervision for a safe lunch experience for all our students.
Without adequate volunteers for lunch supervision our ability to safely monitor students, including keeping unmasked students separated and engaged in safe eating practices, diminishes greatly as the few volunteers we have are spread between classroom spaces. Remember, our goal is to emerge from this year as a whole community healthy and safe. It will take all of us working in partnership to achieve this goal.
Please consider donating a few hours of your time, even if it is one time slot a week or month.
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/20f0a48a4a72ca3fe3-frrlunch
Learning Model Switch
As you have read from the superintendent’s latest email, the window to move between learning models (Hybrid at Ruffin Ridley or Remote at the Remote Learning Academy) is now open.
Families wishing to enroll in or withdraw from the Remote Learning Academy can request such a change from today, Tuesday, January 19 through Friday, January 22 at noon. Students who elect to change learning models, and receive confirmation the change was granted, will begin their new school placement on Monday, February 22. Please note that you must receive confirmation before your child makes a switch.
If you would like to change the current learning model for your child (enroll in or withdraw from the Remote Learning Academy), please complete the linked form below by Friday, January 22 at noon. You must know your child’s local ID number (listed on the Aspen parent portal) in order to complete this process. Requests without an ID number will not be processed for review. Unfortunately, we will not be able to accommodate any late requests. You only need to complete this form if you would like to request a change for your child(ren). If you are satisfied with your child’s current placement, please do not complete the form. Click here to learn how to access your child’s local ID number or LASID.
Learning Model Open Enrollment Click Here to Request a Change
This is the final opportunity for families to adjust their students' learning model during the course of this academic year. If you make a change to your child’s learning model at this time, they will remain in this learning model until the end of the academic year.
Florida Ruffin Ridley Renaming Ceremony
On Friday, January 29th (Florida Ruffin Ridley’s birthday!) at 3:30pm we will be hosting a small physically distanced in person ceremony to celebrate our renaming. The entire program will be broadcast live by Brookline Interactive Group. Our public invitation includes more information and the link to the livestream.
To help keep our guests and presenters safe, please DO NOT gather at or attend the in person ceremony on Stedman Street. We ask that everyone watches safely from home. Hopefully later this summer or fall we will be able to have a full in person celebration when it is safe.
I hope to see many of you and your children tomorrow night for the very special Ruffin Ridley Readers and then again on Thursday evening for our K-8 Family Forum. Though the light at the end of what has been a very dark tunnel is getting brighter and brighter, we still have much work to do together and I am confident that if we work in collaboration, and with empathy, we will make it through safely, ready to build back a stronger and more just community.
Jen
345 Harvard Street
Brookline, MA 02446
Phone: (617) 879 - 4400
Fax: (617) 879 - 4981
