Wednesday (PM), August 25, 2021
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| RPS Live! – We're hosting a very special RPS Live! TONIGHT to thank the many volunteers and partners who have gone above and beyond this past school year to support RPS students and families. Please join us at 7 pm on the RPS Facebook page to celebrate the extraordinary RPS village!
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| 4th Annual Ultimate Backpack Supply Drive – Enormous gratitude to everyone who worked to make the 4th Annual Ultimate Backpack Supply Drive a huge success today. Volunteers filled over 10,000 backpacks with school supplies for RPS students. Special thanks to The CoStar Group President/CEO Andy Florence, Timmy Nguyen and the VCU Alumni Association, Walmart, Communities in Schools of Richmond, and Virginia529!
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| Teacher Password Reset - All teachers' passwords will be reset at 11 pm TONIGHT. Teachers will need to log in at an RPS location tomorrow morning with a temporary password that will consist of the lowercase first initial of their first name, their employee ID, and two exclamation marks. For example, j456789!! would be my temporary password if my employee ID number were 456789.
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| With great appreciation,
Jason
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- I would like to shout out our assistant principal at Woodville Elementary, Dava Allen-Miller! She is truly a shining star and team player! She planned and executed a warm and enthusiastic welcome and culture and climate session for our new teachers. She was supported by our academic coordinator, Chantel Turner; office manager, Diette Banks; and other leadership team members. We are truly a team at Woodville. We cannot wait to see all of the great things our new team members accomplish this school year! We are doing it #thewoodvilleway!
- At Woodville Elementary, we are having D.R.E.A.M.S. in Color! Our awesome Academic Coordinator, Chantel Turner, is leading this effort. D in D.R.E.A.M.S is for Data to Drive Instruction. In early August during our leadership retreat, Ms. Turner led a very organized, engaging, and impactful Data Literacy PD which continued yesterday for our leadership team. She was supported by our ICC, Lakeisha Frazier-Jones, who led a session on exceptional education data collection for IEP goals. Thank you to Dava Allen-Miller, Laquea Carter and Saraisa Simpson, who led portions of our leadership retreat, and to our awesome leadership team members, who were highly engaged in our sessions. We are doing it #thewoodvilleway!
- Yesterday, Woodville and Fairfield partnered to sponsor a kindergarten and first grade activity to acclimate students to our schools, provide school supplies, and share back to school information. I would like to shout out Angela Wright for her continued partnership and motivation! Our CIS coordinators, Amy Malloy and Suzanne Blevins, did an awesome job leading this effort. Our partners at St. Paul's Episcopal Church provided food and drinks. The Fairfield team worked together to secure a petting farm! We also appreciate the support of Woodville and Fairfield staff, the East End Hub and Dr. Leslie Wiggins! Thank you so much for your continued support!
- A huge shout out to Rachel Mines who organized our student PPE “packing party” yesterday at Arthur Ashe – as well as all the nearly 100 volunteers and other RPS staff (especially Maria Hardwick and Jodi Granger!) who supported these efforts. We packed over 25,000 student PPE bags, which included a cloth mask, hand sanitizer, wipes, a wellness checker magnet, a thermometer, and a water bottle – all things to support a safe return to school. Thank you again, Rachel!!
- I need to shout out Ms. Thomas, our CIS representative at Lucille Brown Middle School. She went above and beyond today contacting dozens of families to help connect them to community health resources. Thank you, Ms. Thomas – you're my hero!
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| COVID-19 Vaccination Mandate – All employees should have received an email with instructions on how to upload proof of full vaccination by October 1. The subject line is COVID-19 Vaccination Documentation - Richmond City Public Schools. Please make sure to check your RPS account, not your personal one. A few notes:
- Please visit vaccinate.virginia.gov if you need a copy of your vaccination record or need to schedule an appointment to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.
- If you would like to apply for a medical or religious exemption, please contact the Talent Office at talentoffice@rvaschools.net. Anyone granted an exemption will need to provide proof of a negative COVID test on a weekly basis.
- To assist our employees, we're working with the Richmond City Health District to set up several mobile vaccination clinics just for RPS staff. We'll have dates and locations next week.
- If you have any other questions, please reach out to the Talent Office at the email above.
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| Waitlist for the RPS Virtual Academy (RVA) – A number of families have reached out recently asking if they can switch from in-person to virtual given the Delta variant. Unfortunately, we are at full capacity and there simply are not enough staff members to expand any further. That said, we have created a waitlist where you can register your interest if a spot becomes available. Click here to add your student's name to the list. Please note that we do not anticipate a significant number of openings. Thank you for your understanding.
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| Homeschooling Option – Given the Delta variant, if you're interested in homeschooling your student this fall, please complete this form and email Valenta Wade at vwade@rvaschools.net. Note that you may return to your RPS school at any time.
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| Enroll Before the First Day of School – If you're new to RPS and/or have a rising kindergartner, you must enroll your student online before they can attend school this year. You can do so on our website at www.attendrvaschools.com. For more information about the enrollment process, please visit www.rvaschools.net/enroll.
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| Important Links – Last updated on August 17, 2021.
RPS Links
COVID-19 Links
Crisis Support Links
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