ROOTED IN BELONGING, GROWING IN EXCELLENCE
May 2025
Greetings from the Deeper Dive!
I hope that everyone had an amazing April! The school year truly seems to be flying by, especially with the sprinkles of warm weather throughout our last few weeks. While everything is moving so fast around us, I want to pause to take a much-needed moment to thank our amazing staff. May welcomes many celebrations, and Staff Appreciation is one that is near and dear to our entire district. Whether you service students directly in the classroom, manage day-to-day school operations, assist students, their families, and fellow staff members in the school office, help to plan, facilitate, and organize district-wide educational efforts, or any role in between–thank you! Schools are the centers of our communities, and Royal Oak Schools continues to be a community of excellence with a fantastic staff. I am honored to belong to this great group!
Speaking of belonging, I was honored to speak at the 107th Michigan PTA Annual Convention last month. During my presentation, I was able to share data about the correlation between sense of belonging and academic achievement with the audience. A previous Education Week study shared a takeaway: "Teachers feel that students need to feel a part of school to succeed academically." We are excited to promote and increase this sense of belonging during our UMatter and Inclusion Weeks at ROHS and ROMS, respectively. ROHS' UMatter Week (April 29-May 2) and ROMS' Inclusion Week (May 19-May 22) focus on supporting students' mental wellness and sense of belonging. The students and staff have worked very hard to plan and facilitate powerful sessions for both weeks. If you have a child at ROMS and/or ROHS, please check in with them and/or the school communication to get more details on these amazing weeks.
Additionally, I want to thank our staff for all of the hard work that they have put into remaining dedicated to being continual learners. Our Curriculum and Instruction team works diligently with many departments and schools to plan our late start professional development sessions. The world of education is ever-evolving, and ROS is committed to ensuring our staff members have the most up-to-date terminology, best practices, tools, strategies, and much more. Our late-start sessions have proven beneficial in achieving success in this area. As we wrapped up April, all our buildings engaged in a late start session focused on Neurodiversity. The knowledge gained and shared during this session will directly impact instruction and interactions, promote awareness and acceptance, increase collaboration with schools and caregivers, and elevate student agency and input. Thank you to everyone who helped to plan and facilitate these sessions. I am proud of all that we have accomplished so far this year!
~Ashley Phillips, DEI Coordinator