Meet the Administrators

 

A Message from Our Principal

Our Amazing Students Are Truly Leveling Up!

 

 

It’s hard to believe we are in the last quarter of the 2025-2026 school year. It feels as though only a few months ago we welcomed our Head Start, kindergarten, and new students to Riverland Elementary School. Thanks to your continued support and feedback, we have maintained a safe and welcoming learning environment, where students feel loved and valued. Consequently, our students demonstrated proficiency increases of 10% in reading and 11% in math from last school year, as supported by the Florida Assessment of Student Thinking (FAST) Progress Monitoring 2 results. These increases earned Riverland Elementary School the sixth highest growth among all 143 elementary schools in Broward County. Similarly, the Middle-of-the-Year District Science Assessment reflects an incredibly impressive 35% increase in predicted proficiency on the Statewide Grade 5 Science Assessment for our fifth grade students. Fittingly, we look forward to recognizing our students’ academic gains and efforts during our quarterly awards ceremonies.

As we do around this time of year, we will administer a series of assessments to our Kindergarten through fifth-grade students to determine and celebrate their academic progress in math, reading, science, and writing. These assessments include STAR Renaissance Assessments, Florida Assessment of Student Thinking (FAST), the Statewide Grade 5 Science Assessment, the End-of-Year Science Assessment, and other assessments that may be needed to meet promotion criteria. More specifically, below please find Riverland Elementary School’s assessment schedule:

NOTE: ELA and Math i-Ready Diagnostic 3 will be administered in two sessions, over the course of two days.

We thank you in advance for helping us provide optimal testing conditions by ensuring our students get eight to 10 hours of sleep, eat a nutritious breakfast, and arrive at school on time, in addition to providing them with encouragement and support.

In order to maintain instructional momentum and enthusiastically engage our students, we will continue to provide all students with a well-rounded, high quality education, supplemented with many hands-on activities. Consequently, our students will continue receiving additional academic assistance in small groups, specifically designed to meet each student’s individual needs. We are also excited to provide free tutoring via our Title I Extended Learning Opportunities (ELOs).

As always, we strongly encourage you to remain active in your child’s education and schedule a minimum of two parent-teacher conferences this school year. Please note that parent-teacher conferences are by appointment and may be scheduled by contacting Mrs. Ramirez at (754) 323-7200. All parent-teacher conferences are held on Wednesdays and Fridays from 2:30 PM to 3:00 PM.

As a reminder, our school days start promptly at 8:00 AM and conclude at 2:00 PM. All instructional days begin with 10 minutes of mindfulness. As such, we respectfully request that you plan to have your children at school between 7:30 AM and 7:40 AM. Doing so will allow your children to transition into the learning mindset and provide them with the option to enjoy a free and nutritious breakfast in our school’s cafeteria.

Additionally, we want to remind everyone that safety and security continue to be our top priority. As such, we will continue to utilize our single point of entry, through our front office, and keep classroom doors locked at all times. As an added layer of precaution, all staff members and students wear school identification badges at all times.

Likewise, we will continue to provide a safe and welcoming environment by closely monitoring access onto our school campus. Accordingly, please make certain that you bring a form of photo identification when visiting our campus, as all visitors will be asked to present photo identification to access our campus. Please note that children will only be dismissed to those individuals identified on the Student Emergency Contact Card.

Moreover, we will continue to practice our emergency drills, including fire and tornado drills. We will also practice lockdown drills and the safety practices outlined in our school’s safety plan. However, please note that we will advise you via ParentLink when these drills take place so that you are informed and not alarmed.

Lastly, please note that in accordance with Florida Statute 1012.34, parents have the right to provide input into the performance evaluations of instructional and/or administrative employees. Parents interested in providing input into the performance evaluations of Riverland Elementary School’s instructional and/or administrative employee evaluations may contact our office at (754) 323-7200 by April 3, 2026.

In closing, we welcome the fourth quarter with great excitement and commitment; we look forward to celebrating the hard work our students and staff have put in throughout this school year as we administer and analyze the various progress monitoring assessments. We thank you, as always, for supporting Riverland Elementary School.

Respectfully,

Mr. Gil,

Principal