The first day of class for students will be Tuesday, August 23. Students will find their alpha room assignment to pick up their schedule posted in the cafeteria. We will have lots of staff in the cafeteria to assist students with finding their assigned room. Once all logistics have been taken care of in the alpha assigned rooms, an announcement will be made for students to move to their first period class. The rest of the day will be a regular A-Day for students. The school day has been extended by 5 minutes, per Texas Legislation. Therefore, the school day will end for all district high schools at 4:15 pm. You can access the Cedar Ridge A/B Yearly Calendar and the Cedar Ridge Bell Schedule by clicking on the words.
The only students who will be allowed to see the counselors for a schedule change the first week of school are students whose schedules have one of the following- 1. a missing class for a specific period, 2. the same course scheduled twice, or 3. a mistake on the schedule. We built our master schedule and made teaching assignments for the 2016-17 school year completely based upon the classes that students requested at the end of the 2015-16 school year. All students and parents met with their counselor to discuss the schedule requests for the following year, and a Course Verification Sheet was sent home in the Spring as a last check to be sure the classes a student had requested were still the ones they wanted. Therefore, we will not be changing students’ classes unless there is a mistake or a problem with the schedule.
Please be aware that the counselors will be busy the first week enrolling new students and getting their schedules created, so they will have limited availability for other things.
I want to encourage everyone to communicate with a teacher directly if you have concerns about a class or your child’s progress in the class. You may email or call any of our teachers. Since some of our teachers rotate to different rooms to teach, it may be safest to email your questions, concerns, or request for a meeting. If after you have met or talked with a teacher, you still have concerns, then the next step would be to contact your child’s assistant principal or counselor for assistance. The best way to serve your child will be to build a partnership between teachers and parents, so please don’t hesitate contacting them. You can access the campus grading policies and the RRISD Student/Parent Handbook and Student Code of Conduct by clicking on the words in blue. You will find the RRISD policies, which the campus follows. Of particular interest would be the district Dress Code and Cell Phone/Personal Device guidelines.
Mark your calendars for the Cedar Ridge Meet-the-Teacher Night, Tuesday, September 13. You will receive more details as we get nearer to the date.
Last week, we sent an email to all families sharing an update on the construction that has begun on the Cedar Ridge Performing Arts Auditorium. If you missed our email, please click on the link in the previous sentence to access the letter that was sent. We are excited about the new addition, and we hope everyone will do their best to be patient with any inconvenience caused by the construction. It will be worth it! If you did not receive your email, please check in the online registration system to be sure your email address has been updated.
I want to take this opportunity to brag on Ms. Karen Searles, long time Cedar Ridge Dance teacher and Next Gen teacher. She was published in the July issue of Dance Studio Magazine. Click on the link to access the article. We are so proud of her as a teacher and as a leader in her field. She is an incredibly creative and innovative educator who encourages those same qualities in her students.
Another teacher who deserves bragging on, is Ms. Belinda Jacobs, Cedar Ridge Science teacher. Recently, Ms. Jacobs was given the 2016 National Association of Geoscience Teachers (NAGT) “Outstanding Earth Science Teacher” award for the state of Texas. She has attended extensive professional development and presented at many conferences on topics related to Geoscience over the past few years. She has been involved in curriculum writing and development for the state and for the University of Texas On-Ramps Program for Earth and Space Science. We are so proud of her representing the state of Texas through this impressive honor.
I look forward to sharing lots of wonderful things our students and staff are accomplishing throughout the year. Please help support our campus by joining the Cedar Ridge PTSA. They provide grants for our teachers to do innovative projects and lessons with our students. Another important organization that needs all of our support is the Cedar Ridge Project Grad Organization. We are encouraging everyone to get involved and support Project Grad, regardless of what grade your child is in. Project Grad will be held at Cedar Ridge this year, for the first time, and we expect a big crowd! Please donate or volunteer for Project Grad! You can find links to both organizations on the Cedar Ridge High School Website.
