Principal's Message
WELCOME TO RIVERSIDE SCHOOL
Welcome to the New School Year!
As I start my 12th year as principal at Riverside, we have much to be proud of as a community over the past year:
-The ways our students have shown caring, respect, determination, and academic excellence throughout the past year.
-The ways our teachers and staff have further developed a professional learning community, caring for and leading our students to excellence in their academics and character development.
-The support our teachers and staff have received from the parent community and the PTA to further the work of developing great thinkers, creators, and leaders at the school.
In all of these ways we have shown our strength.
I look forward to our continued partnership with each parent, family member, and community member to offer the best possible education for the children at Riverside School. One of my key goals, working closely with our very talented and caring staff, is to help Riverside students become some of the best readers, writers, thinkers, creators, mathematicians, artists, musicians, and school and community leaders among all the students in Greenwich. Together in partnership with all of you, we can make that a reality.
Riverside School opened in the fall of 1933 as a K-8 neighborhood school. Now in our 90th year, we continue to be one of the largest elementary schools in the district with a very rich tradition with 470 students in 23 classrooms.
A major contributing factor to our continued success has been our long history of collaboration between our very supportive parents and PTA and our teachers and staff. Student achievement as measured by the annual state assessments is consistently high. We are proud of our statewide ranking, including recently being named the #4 best elementary school in Connecticut by U.S. News & World Report: https://www.usnews.
In a Thomas Friedman New York Times article a number of years ago, he reported on a study by the National School Boards Association’s Center for Public Education, their findings concluded:
Parent actions that support children’s learning at home are most likely to have an impact on academic achievement at school. Monitoring homework, making sure children get to school and talking about the idea of college, are powerful drivers of student achievement.
In addition to our academic achievement, we are very proud of our long-standing social emotional learning (SEL) and civic-minded programs. The Riverside Rangers and our ROPES/District Behavior Norms character development programs encourage students to assume leadership roles and contribute to their school.
Our annual Veteran's Day, Flag Day and Earth Day celebrations, along with other school events, foster a sense of school and community pride.
On behalf of Assistant Principal, Mr. Eugene Matejek, the staff and the students of Riverside School, I welcome you all to our school. We look forward to your observations and suggestions for growth and improvement.
Christopher Weiss, Principal