September 3, 2009

 

Dear Parents,

It is with great pleasure that I welcome new and returning parents to the 2009-2010 academic school year.  Over the past several years, our entire school community (students, teachers, parents, school staff, and community partners) has been committed to transforming our school into the best middle school in our district by developing an academic program that addresses the needs of the whole child.  Renowned New York University professor and education historian, Diane Ravitch, recently commented on her disappointment with the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act due to its narrow focus on English and Mathematics and the lack of focus on other skills relevant to the development of the whole child.  Ravitch noted, “Certainly high test scores are better than low test scores, but that is not all that matters in education. What about science, the arts, history, literature, foreign languages?” As an accredited International Baccalaureate Middle Years Program (IBMYP), Roosevelt has embarked on a path that includes the ever-important Mathematics and English skills but also arts, music, world languages, technology, science, history, etc. Permeating through our program is a strong sense of community that embraces our diversity and provides a wide variety of opportunities for our students to connect to our school. Our diversified educational formula is reaping many rewards. The recently released STAR tests reveal our current students showed robust growth in their proficiency levels in English and Math; but what it cannot reveal, is the richness of the program that we all strive to provide for our students, and the learning processes that are taking place with the interaction of these various domains of study.

We are proud of our school and of its potential. At a recent staff meeting, teachers promised to never give up on our students and to do ‘whatever it takes’ to make them successful. This is our pledge to you—to do everything in our power to ensure your child experiences a wonderful middle school career! We need your help though—we ask that you become a full fledged partner as we embark on this together; as a collaborative team of parents, students, and teachers (school staff included). Please read, sign, and return the Roughrider Contract to be included in the first week packet. In it, your signature as well as that of your child’s, are a symbol of your commitment to our school and of its rules. You will also find the ‘Take Charge RMS’ policy; become familiar with it, read it with your child, and explain to him/her that you are fully committed to its content.

There is a positive buzz encircling our campus with the most recent change initiatives: (a) we have unveiled a new, more refined uniform look; (b) our 6^th grade classrooms will be fully equipped with the latest technology designed for the 21^st century; our 7^th and 8^th grade classrooms will be equipped over the next two years; (c) we have a new counseling team ready to support your child’s needs; (d) a new 6 period day was carefully designed to meet our students’ academic needs by providing daily academic reinforcement of the core subjects; (e) a new 15 hour parent involvement pledge; and (f) the IBMYP theme is entitled “Sharing Our Humanity: Peace and Conflict.”

As you can imagine, we have been busy preparing our school year to be supportive for our students. We believe in the value and potential of our students. I look forward to working with you.

Sincerely,
Dr. Carmen García