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Dear Meadow Ridge Families

Welcome back for the 2022-23 school year! We hope you had a wonderful summer! We can’t wait for our students and families to return to the building. Remember that school begins Thursday, August 25^th for grades 1-6 and Tuesday, August 30^st for kindergarteners.

Supply lists are on our school website. Also, as a reminder Meadow Ridge is a mandatory uniform school. Please see the attached uniform flier for more information. If you need any support with supplies or uniforms, please contact our social worker Kathy Walker at kathy.walker@kent.k12.wa.us or 253-373-3054.

Last year, our school goal was to increase our students’ reading achievement through phonics instruction. I am pleased to share that our students made significant growth in their reading. By the end of the year, we had 26% more students at grade level in phonics as measured by iReady. In kindergarten, that number grew 49%, and in first-grade students grew 45%. This year we plan on making continued reading growth by focusing on students’ vocabulary. In math, we will concentrate our attention on developing students’ number sense through classroom discussions. I am proud of our students and staff for their hard work; I know that they will make amazing progress at Meadow Ridge.

Our Assistant Principal Dinah Ladd is the Covid Supervisor for Meadow Ridge. She wanted to communicate the following information about our Covid-19 protocols this year. We will continue to practice mitigation strategies for Covid-19. However, there are some changes at the school level and the district level. At the building, aligning with the newest Department of Health strategies, we no longer must trace close contacts, but we will still need to keep our mitigation efforts in place in case there is an outbreak. We will continue to have the following strategies practiced at Meadow Ridge:

• Students line up outside their classrooms.
• We notify families if there is a Covid-19 case in your child’s classroom.
• Students will be assigned numbers for assigned seating during lunches and for specialists.
• We will have an Isolation Room for students with Covid symptoms.

The following district practices will also take place:

• Volunteers will need to be vaccinated.
• Multiple assemblies will take place to keep the number of students smaller.

Arrival and dismissal are the busiest times during our school day. Please be aware of the following procedures to keep everyone safe and to get students to and from school in an efficient manner:

ARRIVAL

• For car drop-off, please follow the signs to the student drop-off area near the basketball court. Students get out and proceed south on the sidewalk to enter classrooms from their outside classroom doors. Students must be in their classrooms by 8:30 to avoid being tardy.
• Our parking lot was repainted this summer and there is no longer an area to drop students off in the parking lot. Due to this change, families will no longer be able to drop students off in the parking lot for safety reasons.
• Bus riders will exit the bus and walk to their outside classroom doors.
• Students wait outside their classrooms until the day begins.
• If students are eating breakfast from 8:05-8:25, instead of first going to the classrooms, they will need to enter the front main doors of the school and turn left and walk directly to the main lunchroom doors. When finished, they will exit the lunchroom doors closest the playground and walk to their outside classroom door. There will be adults supervising outside.
• Students may not arrive on campus before 8:05.

DISMISSAL

• Teachers will exit their outside doors and walk students first to the buses and then to the car pick-up area. Bus riders will get directly onto buses to return home.
• Car pick-up line:  Parents will display name card on passenger side window and follow the car line to the student pick up area near the basketball court. Staff members will call students as their cars arrive and students will board only on the passenger side for safety. Please remain in your vehicle during this process and follow staff direction. See the dismissal map for more information.
• Walkers will be met at the corner between the bus area and the parking lot. Students and families will cross at the front of the line of buses. (I will be working with the district to get a crosswalk painted in this area.)
• The parking lot will be closed during dismissal for student safety (except for those on school business). Families may not walk students through the parking lot during dismissal to keep students safe.
• Meadow Ridge staff will be strictly following our procedures and appreciate everyone’s cooperation.

We have had a few staffing changes over the summer. Our new teachers are Ms. Mccraney (kindergarten), Ms. Newcomb (second grade), Ms. Bermudes (sixth grade), Ms. Randhawa (preschool), and Ms. Noel (math specialist). Also, Ms. Pander will be moving from her ELL Para position to teach third grade, and Ms. Weigand will be moving from first grade to kindergarten. Additionally, we have hired the following paraeducators: Ms. Fashaw and Ms. Walia (preschool) and Ms. Murphy (intermediate Support Center). Also, we have a new evening custodian (Ms. Pashchuk).

We still have a few open positions to hire: Primary Support Center Teacher and Para, PE Teacher, and Food Service Manager. We hope to have most of these positions filled by the first day of school. If you are interested in our Primary Support Center Paraeducator position or know someone who might be interested, please contact our office at 253-373-7870.

Families will receive an email on Monday, August 22^nd, notifying you of your child’s teacher. You may then come to school for Meet the Teacher Night which happens Tuesday from 5:30-6:30 p.m. to meet your child’s teacher in person. Teachers are looking forward to meeting students and families and sharing a little bit about themselves and their classroom before the first day of school.

If you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to reach out to our office, Assistant Principal Dinah Ladd, or me. The office can be reached at 253-373-7870, Ms. Ladd is at dinah.ladd@kent.k12.wa.us or 253-373-3049, and you may contact me at douglas.neufeld@kent.k12.wa.us or 253-373-3044. I am looking forward to an amazing 2022-23 school year!

Sincerely,
Doug Neufeld, Principal