RES Family News
November 16th, 2025
November 16th, 2025
Recently our students earned a celebration, and we decided to have a Silly Hair Day! The creativity was incredible—students came with colorful spikes, crazy braids, fun hats, and some even added glitter and ribbons. It was so much fun seeing everyone’s unique hairstyles and playful personalities shine.
This celebration was a wonderful way to reward our students for their hard work, positive behavior, and school spirit. It’s always amazing to see how a little bit of silliness can bring so much joy to our school community!
What's New
Harvest Dinner is Served!!
Richmond Elementary proudly hosted its annual Harvest Dinner on Thursday, November 13th, bringing together students, families, and the wider community for a warm and festive meal. We were honored to welcome our superintendent and several members of the central office and our School Board, who joined our principal, dedicated staff and parent volunteers in serving the meal. Guests enjoyed a hearty spread featuring turkey, local squash, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green beans, gravy, local apple cider, apple crisp, and cookies. Thanks to the hard work and organization of Chef Danielle and our outstanding Cafeteria Staff! More than 600 meals were served to our community, making the event a wonderful celebration of togetherness and gratitude.
RES & CHMS Holiday Giving 2025
The Holiday Giving Program is underway for RES & CHMS families! Each year, we come together to support local families during the holiday season, and we’re so grateful for your participation. Please have all contributions turned in by Friday, December 5th, so we can deliver the gift cards to families on time.
You can drop off your donation at the RES office or send it to school with your student. Be sure to label it with the correct Family number or letter and your name so we can match it to the right family.
Thank you so much for helping spread warmth and cheer this holiday season—your kindness truly makes a difference!
RES Winter Holiday Wishlists
If you winter celebrations include gift giving for the RES teachers and staff, the PTO would like to invite you to check out the wishlists for this year. You can find them HERE.
Whether it's with a gift, note, or simply in your thoughts, please consider taking a moment this season to notice your gratitude for the people who help support the kids in our community. At the wishlist link you'll find all the names of the teachers and staff at RES this year. We're so thankful to be in this together.
Thank you for taking the time and effort to give back to the educators and staff at RES this season.
How to Use the List: Find the name of the person you'd like to buy a gift for. If they have added items to the wishlist, clicking on their name will take you to their list. If they have an Amazon or other wishlist set up you can buy things from that site. Otherwise items may be listed that they don't mind having multiples of and you can purchase locally or however works best for you. We'll keep adding wishlist items as we receive them, feel free to check back during the season.
Please arrange to have items delivered to school before Friday, December 19th if possible, as Tuesday, December 23rd is the last day of school before winter break. Items can be shipped to:
Teacher's Name 125 School St Richmond, VT 05477
Blankets of Hope
Our Kindergarteners participated in the Blankets of Hope project, using their creativity and big hearts to make thoughtful letters and drawings, which they wrapped up with cozy blankets to share with someone in need. They wrote messages to people experiencing housing insecurity to remind them that they are cared for and not alone.
The Community Bank will donate the blankets—with the notes attached—to a local organization that supports individuals experiencing homelessness. Through this special activity with Blankets of Hope, our students discovered their superpower of empathy and learned how meaningful it can be to spread kindness every day!
Message to Community Announcing the Test of our Emergency Notification System
During the early evening hours of Wednesday, November 19th, Mount Mansfield Unified Union School District will conduct a test of our Emergency Notification System. This routine test ensures our communication tools are working properly.
Families will receive a message via phone, text, and email stating:
“This is a test of our emergency notification system. MMUUSD will use this system to notify you in the event of a school closure, early dismissal, or other emergency. If you have received this message in error or would like to add or delete a phone number, please contact your local school or email data@mmuusd.org.”
Important: If you would like to receive emergency notifications via text message, please send a text to 67587 with the message “Y” or “Yes” prior to Wednesday, November 19th.
If you do not receive a message during the evening of November 19th please email data@mmuusd.org to ensure delivery of future notifications.
Friendly reminder that Wednesday’s message is only a test. Thank you for helping us maintain a reliable communication system for our district.
~MMUUSD
**Parent Information Regarding Student Belonging Survey**
All students in grades 3-12 throughout the district will be provided an online survey sometime in the next few weeks related to their sense of belonging in school. Additionally, at RES we will be providing a paper version for our K-2 students. This brief (four question) online survey aims to collect data on student sense of belonging to inform our efforts to better support student well being. If you would like more information or have any questions, please connect with me directly at jeremy.rector@mmuusd.org.
It is our pleasure to announce our Used Book Sale for this school year! This is an event in which students can donate gently used children’s books to the sale. All students will then get the opportunity to buy new-to-them books for 25 cents! Money raised during this sale goes to help support children and families in our community.
Important dates to know:
Nov 3-Nov 21: Bring your gently used books to RES to donate to the sale. Place books in boxes outside of the building. Please clearly label bags or boxes with “Used Book Sale.”
Dec 5th - Used Book Sale! Send quarters in with your student so they can buy books from the sale. Each book is 25¢!
Thank you in advance for supporting this event. Together, we can build a stronger community and help foster the love of reading in our students.
Please reach out to Emily Wood, Jacqui Robinson, or Wendy Purvee if you have any questions about the sale. THANK YOU!
VOLUNTEERING
**If you think you might VOLUNTEER at any point during the school year, please be sure to fill out the Volunteer Form now.**
It is much easier to fill it out now so you can be cleared to volunteer at any point during the school year.
In the upcoming week we will conduct our November Safety Drill, which will be a Lockdown Drill. This year, MMUUSD elementary principals have adopted a trauma-informed, discussion-based approach to these drills. We practice these Options-Based Response Drills twice a year, once in the fall and once in the spring, to ensure that all students know how to respond safely and calmly in an emergency. You can see the scripts that teachers will use during the discussion based drill here: PK Script, K-4 Script. The scripts emphasizes the importance of students listening to teacher directions in the event of an emergency.
The safety of students and staff is our first priority. Therefore, the Mount Mansfield Unified Union (MMUUSD) schools follow the protocols and procedures contained in the current edition of the Vermont School Crisis Guide as well as VT Agency of Education safety requirements. Additionally, based on guidance and recommendations from the Vermont School Crisis Team, Vermont School Safety Center, FBI and US Department of Homeland security we will take an options-based approach to safety, i.e. Run/Hide/Fight. This methodology does not replace current safety protocols for evacuation, sheltering in place or other emergency response procedures, but does give additional tools that may be used to respond to an active threat. You can find a link to the Run/Hide/Fight protocol on the Homeland Security website here.
We have learned that no one size response plan fits each incident and teachers, administrators and students need to have options so that they can effectively respond based on a specific set of circumstances. We will be practicing option-based drills during the school year in a developmentally appropriate manner in order to minimize anxiety for students. While the very unexpected nature of a crisis may make preparation difficult, MMUUSD believes that staff and students should be ready to respond quickly and appropriately to emergency situations. School violence and other emergency events can be difficult to discuss and consider, but we must do our best to be prepared. One of the requirements is for schools to conduct two Options Based Response Drills throughout the school year, one in the fall and one in the spring. RES will be holding the first Options Based Drill the week of November 17th. Please know that age appropriate steps will be taken to reduce student anxiety.
Each school has an Emergency Response Plan, which provides a comprehensive framework for school emergency crisis management. It addresses the roles and responsibilities of town and school organizations and provides a link to local, State, Federal, and private organizations and resources that may be activated to address school emergencies in the supervisory union. These plans are evaluated regularly by our Crisis Response Team and follow all state and local guidelines.
Important details about the Emergency Response Plan:
The safety plan is not public information and copies will not be given out. Parents can be notified of the plan and some of the details, but specific parts will remain confidential for the safety of students and staff.
The safety plan was designed to be similar at all MMUUSD schools. This was done for the following reasons:
a) Responding police officers will have a general knowledge of how the plan works regardless of what school they respond to.
b) Substitute teachers and other district employees who move from school to school will also have a basic knowledge of how the plan works no matter where they are.
3. The safety plan is under constant refinement and will change as situations change or potential threats are determined.
4. While no safety plan can deal with all possible dangers, and while no safety plan can guarantee the safety of everyone involved, it has been shown that having a plan in place and practicing for potential emergencies helps ensure the safety of the students and staff. Further, it supports smooth operation in the event an evacuation is necessary.
Included with this letter is a guide that outlines the following:
1. When And Why Are Students and Staff Asked to Lockdown, Lockout, Shelter-in-Place, or Evacuate
2. Parent Responsibilities During a School Emergency and Reunification After a School Emergency
3. Safety Terms and Procedures
4. How You Will Be Reunited With Your Child
5. How Parents Can Help
6. Recommendations If a School Emergency Occurs
Please don't hesitate to reach out with any questions!
Sincerely,
Jeremy Rector
Principal
Richmond Elementary School
RES PTO
What's the next phase for the RES PTO? Do you have an idea or would you like to join in on the conversation?
Join our next remote monthly meeting 7:30pm - 8:30pm on DECEMBER 4TH, to share your opinion.
At the next meeting, we hope to set up roles and structure for the 2025-26 school year, and a pattern for those procedures in the future. We want to hear from the community and school staff (through a future survey) about what the needs are and how we can help. Do you have a skill you can offer to enrich the RES community and PTO connection?
**RES Student Directory for 2025-26**
The RES PTO publishes a student directory each new school year. Students are listed by classroom, making this booklet a great resource for playdates, carpooling and other activities when you want to know who your student's classmates are. In order to be included in the directory, we need your permission. Please email Jennifer Snow at jenshawsnow@gmail.com with questions about this directory.
Click Here for Form for Student Directory
RES Daily Information
ATTENDANCE
Consistent and regular attendance is paramount to student development and success. On time arrival provides a student with the most positive start to the day. If your student will be absent or tardy, please be sure to enter the information PickUp Patrol by 8:00am. Our first priority is your child's safety. If the absence or tardy is not entered into PickUp Patrol by 8:30am the office will begin to contact families. Students are marked absent until they have checked in with the office.
**Information about PickUp Patrol will be sent out by the end of the week**
From the Nurse
District Illness Guidelines
*Stay Home When Sick*
Students and staff should stay home with any potentially contagious illnesses or symptoms including the following:
Vomiting or Diarrhea - must be 24 hours symptom-free and able to tolerate food and drink before returning to school.
Fever 100.4 or greater - must be home until fever-free without the use of medication for greater than 24 hours.
Any infection requiring antibiotics - keep your student home until they have been on antibiotics for 24 hours.
A persistent cough that disrupts regular activity.
Excessive nasal drainage - check with your child’s doctor before sending your child back to school.
Unexplained rash - check with your child’s doctor before sending your child to school.
Red or draining eyes - check with your child’s doctor before sending your child to school.
COVID-19 - stay home until fever-free without medication for 24 hours and symptoms have improved. Please report any COVID-19 to the school nurse.
Influenza - stay home until fever-free without medication for 24 hours and symptoms have improved. Please report any influenza to the school nurse.
Any other symptoms or illness that impede a student’s ability to learn or staff’s ability to work.
Revised March 2024
Important Dates to Remember
November 24th - November 28th - School Recess
December 4th - PTO Meeting (remote)
December 5th - USED Book Sale
December 10th - Early Release Day
December 24th - January 2nd - School Recess
Community News & Events
Grades 3-8 Indoor Lacrosse Clinics Winter 2025-2026
If you have a girl in the MMUUSD district grades 3rd-8th that would be interested in some indoor winter lacrosse clinic opportunities please complete the form linked below.
The sessions will be led by Mansfield Club coaches and interested participating 8th graders.
WHO: Girls grades 3-8 interested in lacrosse
WHAT: The hour would be spent on community building, skill-development, and small sided games.
WHERE: Forever Summer Indoor facility on Wellness Dr in Williston.
WHEN: Fridays 5-6pm - 12/5, 12/12, 12/19, 1/9, 1/16, 1/23, 1/30, 2/6, 2/13, 2/20, 3/5, 3/13, 3/20, 3/27
HOW: Register at this link HERE
COST: $100 or donation - In order to keep this opportunity accessible to families, we're inviting participants to contribute through a donation-base payment. The cost to cover facility fees is approximately $100 per player (multi-sibling discount) for the winter. We invite you to give what you can to cover costs. If donations are not sufficient to cover costs we'll seek funding raising suggestions and supports.
WHY: Because lacrosse is awesome!
Come for one or come for all! Let's get psyched about Lax!
Questions? Email lindsaybwilcox@gmail.com
Bus Transportation
Below is transportation information for the upcoming school year. Please contact the Bus Garage with any questions you may have. They can be reached at 802-899-4840 or transportation@mmuusd.org.
Food Service
For the 2025-2026 school year, school meals will continue to be free. Even though there is no charge for snack and lunch, we encourage you to fill out this application for free and reduced-price school meals. If many families fill out and return this form, we will get more money from the federal government for free school meals now and in the future. We will also get more money for other school programs. Filling out this form also helps our community provide free summer meals to all kids, and free meals to kids in childcare. HERE is additional information outlining food service, free and reduced lunch, and common questions asked.
From the District
2025-2026 SY District Calendar
The district has put out the SY calendar for next year over the weekend. There are minimal changes compared to this year’s school calendar. The First Student Day is back on a Wednesday (August 27th).
You can view the full 2025-26 SY Calendar HERE and it was shared in the District Happenings as well!
STAY CONNECTED with WHAT'S HAPPENING @ RES
Community News & Events
Important Dates to Remember