July 31, 2025 RCSD Educator Digest

Communications

ParentSquare

• ParentSquare and Gmail are our only two official means of communication with families. Please reach out with any questions.
• For a review, these training slides are available. Links to online trainings are provided on the last slide.
• Please review these ParentSquare changes at your earliest convenience. A major change is the unmerging of personal and professional accounts - learn more here.
• All permission slips/forms should be accessible in ParentSquare forms. Have a form you don’t see in ParentSquare? Please contact Jessica Hull.
• We’ll be once again hosting two family nights for ParentSquare. See flyer for details.
• Trouble with your account? Contact Jessica Hull for support.

Contact: Jessica Hull

Communications 101
For all things Communications in RCSD, refer to our updated Communications 101 Guide.

Visitor Photos/Videos
In accordance with state and federal privacy regulations and our RCSD opt-out, please ensure this information is shared with families throughout the year.
Contact: Jessica Hull

Every Day Matters Attendance Campaign

• Here are slides you can use in your back-to-school presentations/messaging in PDF and PNG formats.
• The Every Day Matters webpage can be found here.

Contact: Jessica Hull

Temperature Guidelines
With high temperatures, it is important that we encourage students that are outside to drink water and get breaks in the shade. When temperatures are 95 degrees and above, activities should be adjusted to reduce strenuous exercises. When the temperature is 100 degrees at the time of the activity, bring the students inside. Any time it is 100 degrees or above, students must be brought inside. For example, if the forecast is a high of 102, but at lunchtime, it is 92, students can go outside and play.
With all warm days, staff should be encouraged to remind students to reduce running/exertion activities and allow any student who complains of overheating to go to the office for rest and observation. With direct sun, certain areas of a school site may increase heat exposure, such as blacktop or concrete areas. Caution should be taken to observe all students for signs of overexposure.
Students who are abnormally affected by high temperatures should be given special consideration, and require follow-up by staff.

Educational Services

Hello RCSD Educators,
Welcome back! We hope you all had a wonderful summer. Our first Professional Development day of the year is coming up on 8/4/25! Below is the schedule for the day:
Location: Bayside Blue Oaks (10000 Alantown Drive)

All Certificated RCSD Staff
8:00 Doors Open - Coffee & Donuts Available
8:30 Keynote - Suzanne Dailey and Derk Garcia
Lunch

Elementary Staff
12:00 Meet back at your school site

• K-2 Amira Screener Training (via Zoom)
• 3-5 CAASPP Blueprints & Data

1:15-1:50

• Update essential standards pacing guides

1:50-3:00

• 70 minutes for BTSN (for those sites with Back to School Night prior to the first day of school)

* Principals will share the room locations for K-2 and 3-5 teachers

Middle School
12:00 -3:00 Flex Time (at your school site)

ESS
Location: Eich Middle School
12:00-1:30 ESS Department Meeting
1:30-3:00

• Planning time at sites

1:50 -3:00

• 70 minutes for BTSN (for those sites with Back to School Night prior to the first day of school)

K-5 Professional Development Cycle
All K-5, SDC, and RSP teachers will have District Cycle Professional Development this year. Please review this PD Cycle Schedule to see which date(s) your PLC will be attending Professional Development. Please let us know if you notice any discrepancies in grade level placements or PLC members listed. More information will be shared as your PD date approaches.
Contact: Kelly Yusim, Lisa Wegsteen, or Monique Homesley

6-8 Professional Development Cycle
6-8 Math, ELA, ELD, Science, History, SDC, and RSP teachers will attend Professional Development this year. Please review this PD Cycle Schedule to see which date(s) your PLC will be attending. Please let us know if you notice any discrepancies in department placements or PLC members listed.
Contact: Kelly Yusim, Jennie Ruvalcaba, Lisa Wegsteen, or Monique Homesley

K-1 Foundational Skills Assessments
Beginning-of-Year Foundational Reading Skills data for Kindergarten and 1st Grade is due in ESGI by September 19th. This includes only reading assessments. All resources can be found in the K and 1st Grade Key Resource Document and in the new Foundational Skills Hub to help make access easier. Thanks for your attention to this!
Kindergarten Foundational Skills Hub
1st Grade Foundational Skills Hub
Contact: Kelly Yusim

2025-2026 Assessment Calendar and Report Card Dates
A reminder, you can always find both of these using the tabs above in the digest.
Below is the assessment calendar for the 2025-2026 school year.
2025-2026 Assessment Calendar

6-8 IXL Math Diagnostic
This school year students in grades 6-8 will be using IXL’s new option, the LevelUp Diagnostic, for diagnostic assessment in the area of math. This diagnostic is similar in many ways to the previous Real-Time/Flex Diagnostic. Here’s a quick list of some of the key similarities and differences:
What’s similar?

• User-friendly scoring
• Time to complete the test
• Click path for student access
• Score reports and analytics.

What’s different?

• Scaled score is based only on the work shown on that diagnostic (Flex Diagnostic used data from other skills practiced)
• No “I don’t this yet” option
• No immediate correct/incorrect feedback
• Additional report available: standards report

Contact: Lisa Wegsteen