Schools
Royal Oak Superintendent's Update: Early Outs, Fall Arts
Also, resources keep school patrons up-to-date on what lawmakers in Lansing are doing on education.
Shawn Lewis-Lakin, superintendent of Royal Oak schools, has shared his monthly update with Patch readers.
Calendar Reminders
On Friday, October 30, 2015, elementary school students will be dismissed at 11:33 a.m., Middle School students will be dismissed at 11:10 a.m., and high school students will be dismissed at 11:10 a.m.
Stay Connected
Tuesday, November 3, 2015, Election Day, is not a student attendance day. While faculty members will be working, this is not a day scheduled for student instruction.
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For additional information regarding the Royal Oak Schools calendar, including an outline of the complete 2015-2016 school year calendar, click here.
Election Day
Tuesday, November 3, 2015, is an Election Day! Please remember to exercise your right to vote next Tuesday. For voting information, visit the Michigan Voter Information Center.
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Lansing and Legislation
Critical decisions that impact schools and students in our local community are made by our elected officials serving in Lansing. I encourage families, community members and all who work in our schools to be informed about legislation that impacts our students and schools.
One source of information that I recommend for learning about legislative issues is the Tri-County Alliance for Public Education.
If you register for the “take action” alerts from TCA, you will be notified when critical legislation impacting our schools is being considered in Lansing. You do not need to agree with the Tri-County position or take the action they recommend; sometimes I disagree with the positions taken by Tri-County and do not take the action they suggest.
However, the value I have found in registering for the alerts is that by receiving them I know when critical decisions impacting schools are being made in Lansing. Please engage the legislative process as it impacts our students and schools.
Food Service News
Our Food Service Department is making enhanced information regarding menus available to families. To access the new digital menus, which include complete nutritional information for all items served, click here. This link may also be found by clicking on the Food Services link found under the resources heading, which appears towards the bottom of the right column on each building’s webpage.
ROHS Fall Play
The Royal Oak High School Drama Club will be presenting their fall play, “Crazy For You,” on November 13-15, 2015. For more information, including how to purchase tickets online, visit the Drama Club website, www.rodrama.com.
Read More About the Play on Royal Oak Patch
Royal Oak Schools Performing Arts Committee
This is a group of school administrators, PTA members, teachers, parents, Booster Club members, Performing Arts Coaches, and community members who are working to raise funds to enhance the Kimball Auditorium at Royal Oak High School.
The district has committed significant resources to upgrading the auditorium; much needed infrastructure work will be done utilizing district capital expenditure funds. ROSPAC is working on one aspect of the project: seats.
Their goal: To raise $100,000 so that when the district completes the other aspects of the project new seats can be installed as well. To learn more about the effort, including how you can contribute, click here.
Online Charter School Students Falling Behind Peers
According to a new study, students of online charter schools had significantly weaker academic performance compared with their counterparts in conventional public schools.
Recent reports published by the Center for Research on Education Outcomes show that the majority of online charter students had far weaker academic growth in both math and reading when compared to peers in traditional school settings. To read more, click here.
PTA Resources
We are fortunate to have strong PTA organizations in each of our school buildings. If you have not yet found your way to a PTA group, I encourage you to do so. Links to PTA websites are available from each school’s homepage: Go to royaloakschools.org, click on the tab for your school, and go towards the bottom of the right hand column.
You will find the link to the PTA under the heading “resources.” At the recent curriculum and assessment forum sponsored by our PTA council, copies of a National PTA resource titled “Parent’s Guide to Student Success” were distributed.
If you would like to view a copy of this resource, you may do so by clicking here.
Parent Series
The Royal Oak PTA Council and Royal Oak Middle School are sponsoring a five part Parent Workshop Series. You are welcome to attend the entire series or simply the sessions that are of interest to you.
The workshops are free. The next workshop in the series will be held on November 19, 2015, on the topic “Building the “Avoiding Helicopter Parenting (but still be in the airport).” All workshops are at Royal Oak Middle School and begin at 6:00 p.m. For more information, including how to register for the workshops, please click here.
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Sincerely,
Shawn Lewis-Lakin, Superintendent of Schools
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