Ridgewood Middle School holds family night

WEST LAFAYETTE – Ridgewood Middle School’s cafeteria was full on the evening of Wednesday, March 8 during the school’s family night. Along with a spaghetti supper, activities were planned throughout the school to ensure everyone had a good time.

“Family Night was planned as a way to bring staff and families together in a fun, casual way,” said Trista Claxon, principal of the school.  “We want to build good relationships with our students’ families because we know how important that is to both our staff and our students.”

Claxon and Chief Klopfenstein, of the West Lafayette Police Department, were presenting a session on the ALICE program that is used at the school. ALICE is the school’s intruder plan and allows teachers the freedom to decide what course of action may be best for their students.

“We’ve always been told to lock down and hide, but in some cases, it may better to evacuate the room. We want parents to understand the emergency plans we have for the safety of their children,” said Claxon. Other informative sessions were also available for parents, such as the new graduation requirements that will affect these students.

The middle school choir, bell choir and band entertained visitors throughout the event. In the gym, interactive activities were offered that showcased math and science. Students were able to experiment with several items and have fun while learning important skills. A photo booth was also located in the gym and was a very popular stop for many. Props were available and the pictures were printed while you waited.

An important part of family night was the book fair. Along with books, posters were a popular item. Sandy Hardesty was shopping at the fair with her granddaughter, Drayvn. “She loves books and I want to encourage that as much as possible.” Drayvn is also part of the choir and Hardesty wanted to come to family night to see the choir’s performance.

During the evening, raffle tickets were also being sold to win a quilt that several math classes had sewn to earn money for a field trip. The quilt is made entirely of Ridgewood t-shirts and tickets are still available at the school. Chess and cardio-drumming were popular activities for the night, too.

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