Raymore-Peculiar Ninth Grade Center

Important Dates: 

• August 27th: School Pictures 

• August 29th: Open House/Meet the Teacher Night at NGC 

• September 2nd: No School - Labor Day 

• September 3rd: No School - Staff Collaboration Day 

• September 11th: Signs of Suicide (SOS) Prevention Program 

Student Drop-Off and Pick-Up 

I want to thank you all for doing an excellent job in the parent drop-off/pick-up line. The first few days of school tend to be busier than normal and your attention to our process has helped it to run smoothly. When in the drop-off line, please continue to drive to the farthest painted stall possible and continue dropping students off when you are stopped in one of the painted stalls along the sidewalk. This allows us to keep traffic flowing as quickly as possible to avoid delays and waiting in the line. 

Please continue to drop-off your students by 7:20 am so students can make it to class on time. If your student is an afternoon car-rider, please arrive for our dismissal time of 2:30 pm. Links to the videos of our traffic patterns are below:

Video: Drop-Off and Pick-Up at the Ninth Grade Center only

Video: Drop-Off and Pick-Up at the Ninth Grade Center and East Middle School

School Pictures on August 27th 

Students will take their school pictures on the morning of Tuesday, August 27th. School picture packets were sent home with students this week. Please see one the following links for picture package information: Picture Packets / Paquetes de fotos

There is also the option to order pictures online through the following link: Ray-Pec NGC Fall 24 Picture Orders. Once there, enter your email address and click LOGIN. Take a look at the menu of school portrait items available and click on what you want to order. Then, scroll down and click “add to cart”. Follow the prompts to see additional items. Click on “Go to Shopping Cart”. Follow the instructions to order and pay for your selections (you will be asked for student information at checkout). 

Open House/Meet the Teacher on August 29th

5:30 pm: Parent Informational Session in the Gymnasium (same as 7:20 pm) 

6:00 - 7:15 pm: Walk through student schedules to meet teachers

7:20 pm: Parent Informational Session in the Gymnasium (same as 5:30 pm)

Please save the date of Thursday, Aug. 29th, for Curriculum Night / Open House at the Ninth Grade Center. This will be a time for parents to meet with teachers and learn about your child's courses. During the evening, parents will walk through their child's 1st thru 7th period schedule. Before or after the student-schedule walk-through, there will be a parent informational presentation in the gym. There will also be booths set up to learn about how parents can get involved in organizations within Ray-Pec, such as Father’s Club and Parent-Teacher-Student Association (PTSA). 

Focus and Canvas at the NGC 

As you have seen through district communication, the Raymore-Peculiar School District has adopted Focus as our new school information system. Please utilize Focus when you are looking for information about attendance or grades. Canvas, on the other hand, is the learning management system we use for our students to connect virtually for their classes. This is where students can obtain course content information or submit assignments online. 

It is crucial that students start the year off with good work habits and get on top of their classes early. Please encourage your student to develop routine study habits (same location, time, limit distractions, etc.) in order to help them be successful. 

Follow the Ray-Pec Ninth Grade Center on Social Media 

You can follow the Ray-Pec NGC on Facebook or Instagram! Please note that we have new pages since last year. See the current handles for each platform below: 

Facebook: Ray-Pec Ninth Grade Center 

Instagram: raypec.ngc

Ray-Pec High School Parent-Teacher-Student Association 

Ray-Pec High School and Ninth Grade Center have a new Parent-Teacher-Student Association (PTSA) chapter, and we’re seeking parents and students from the NGC to join us in supporting our 9-12 students and staff! Look for the PTSA Table at Meet the Teacher Night on August 29th to become a member and find out how you can help. You can also find more information about our chapter and memberships at https://sites.google.com/view/rphsptsa. 

Repeated Information about Attendance/Before & After School/Cell Phone Policy

Attendance 

Student attendance is of utmost importance and is vital to the success of our students. Not only is it necessary to the success of students while in school, it is also an essential aspect of being successful and thriving in a future workplace. While we understand that there are times when a student may need to be absent from school for various reasons, our goal for all students is to be in attendance for at least 95% of the school days, which allows for approximately 4 missed days in a single semester. Please be aware that if a student misses more than 10 days of any class throughout a semester, they will not receive credit for that course. 

Before and After School Protocols 

We have a beautiful new facility and want our students to maximize the use of it. However, student safety is always a top priority. Therefore, students can only be on campus before or after school hours if they are at a supervised activity, meeting, or event. Please follow the link provided below to view the protocols and procedures for being on campus before or after school. 

NGC Before and After School Student Protocols and Procedures

Student Cell Phone Use and Expectations 

The importance that a cell phone plays in a student’s life certainly cannot be underestimated, and the administration and staff at the NGC want to do our best to recognize and respect this importance. At the same time, however, we also recognize that cell phones can play a distracting role in our students’ lives, especially with the immediate access to social media and other communication forums that students readily have available through their phones. Our primary focus is always to protect the integrity of our instructional time as much as possible, and, in recent years, the data would support that cell phone usage by our students has created a major disruption to our instructional time. Therefore, we have developed and implemented the following building cell phone expectations:

• During instructional time, students will not be allowed to be on their cell phones, whether in the classroom setting or in the hall. For the purpose of this policy, instructional time will be defined as anytime between the tardy bell to begin a class period until the dismissal bell to end a class period. (Note: the time frame that has been designated for students to be at lunch will not be considered instructional time for those students,)

• When students ask for permission to leave class during instructional time to use the restroom or to visit another teacher’s classroom, the expectation will be for the student to leave his/her cell phone in a designated area within the classroom. Please note that the student can power the cell phone down, turn it off, etc. as our intent is not to access the phone. We simply want to provide for the security of the cell phone and for the student’s success and safety as much as possible. Use of cell phones while out of class, not only delays a student’s timely return to class but also often leads to other unintended consequences when students access or post on social media. 

• Should a student need to make a phone call, then he or she can ask for teacher permission to go to the office. Likewise, should a parent need to contact a student for an immediate emergency, for the sake of the student’s safety and welfare, we prefer that the contact go through the office as opposed to the student receiving the information personally. This will provide the opportunity for additional support for the student if needed.

• Students will still be allowed to access and use cellphones between class periods and during their designated lunch time.