Members of the Rensselaer City School District Community:
Everyone is excited about the PTA bringing trunk or treat back to school this Thursday from 6 to 7:30. No doubt that it will be another memorable experience.
Don’t forget that PreK and 6-12 will dismiss on Friday at 11:45am and K-5 will dismiss at 12:30pm for staff development. Enjoy the early start to the weekend!
Next Friday (11/4) is designated on our calendar for our “Go Home Early” drill. Traditionally, we have simply dismissed 15 minutes early and have not attempted a drill to relocate for dismissal. We are excited to announce that we have partnered with Rensselaer Police Department, Rensselaer Fire Department, and the Questar III safety team to design an evacuation and al dismissal drill. This will help us to practice and plan for any need to evacuate the building including interdepartmental communication and alternate site dismissal. We are working hard to improve preparedness with our #PartnersInSafety.
We will be transporting all VRES students and staff to St. John’s church and moving all JrSr High students to an upper field away from the building. This drill will require parents and community members to stay off school property after 1:20pm and to follow specific instructions for parent pick-up procedures. We anticipate that students will be bussed home approximately 15-20 minutes early as they would have been on any other year for this drill. We hope to have parent pick-up available as much as 30 minutes early depending on how smoothly the drill goes.
Between now and next Friday, you will receive several messages with more information, instructions, maps, diagrams, and answers to any questions. Rest assured that you should have all of the information that you are looking for by then. It is important for us to let the community know about the minor changes in time so that everyone has the ability to plan ahead. If this situation changes your need for a student to ride a bus or get picked up, please notify the respective office as soon as possible so we can plan accordingly.
Speaking of minor time changes, thanks to everyone for your patience with transportation. The past week has been a struggle and we all appreciate your understanding. We continue to look for more drivers. If you know anyone interested, please have them contact me directly.