Dear FRES Families,

We are excited to welcome you back to FRES for the 2024-2025 school year. We hope that summer brought you time to slow down and provide time to be with family and friends. Here at FRES, we have been busy preparing for September. A big shout out to our summer crew in the office helping with new enrollment, running the office and to our cleaning staff as we get ready for September. We couldn’t do summer without them! Along with getting the building ready, we have been busy working on class placement and schedules. A great deal of time goes into placement. We read through all the parent feedback and work with teachers on best balancing classes. Although we cannot match every single request, we do try our best. Given the intricacies of balancing placements, we are unable to make any changes to teacher assignments at this time.

As you look at your placements, know that there will be some new faces and new names when you return in the fall. To help put our own faces and names we are excited to introduce Mr. Christopher Simmons who will be a Teacher on Special Assignment here at FRES in the main office. He will be supporting our students and staff along with us as we do all things FRES. This will be Mr. Simmons 24th year at Brighton (almost all at 5th grade)! When not at school, Mr. Simmons enjoys time with his wife, four daughters, family dog and exploring new beach towns when on vacation. A little about us! Ms. Coggins is going into her second year as Principal, following 17 years as teacher/administrator in the Buffalo region. Ms. Coggins is thrilled to be back in the greater Rochester area and living close to family with her pup Oliver. Mrs. Wheeler is going into her 4th year as an administrator in Brighton following nearly a decade in the Rochester City School District as a teacher, interventionist and administrator. She loves spending time with her husband and 1 year old son!

In your teacher’s welcome letter, you will find dates and times for coming in to meet your teacher. Some dates to keep in mind as we get closer to the start of school:

• Popsicles with the Principals on Thursday, 8/29 from 5:30-6:30 back by the playground. (the building will not be open for walking through at that time, so come with your sneakers ready to play)

• New Student Orientation Thursday 8/29 5:00-5:30 (for families brand new to Brighton- not grade 3), we will hold our new student orientation prior to the popsicles at 5pm in the cafetorium (this is for new Brighton families only, not incoming 3rd graders for CRPS).

• First Day: Tuesday, 9/3 • Grade 3 Curriculum Night Tuesday 9/10 (5:45 in the cafetorium with administrators, 6pm in the classrooms)

• Grade 4 and Grade 5 Curriculum Night, Thursday 9/18 at 6pm (5:45 in the cafetorium with administrators, 6pm in the classrooms)

Lastly, we are fortunate to live and learn in a place rich in technology and our students have access to their iPads here at FRES. As a district, we are working to keep the focus on learning and not personal devices. Therefore, personal devices and smart watches are not allowed in the classroom environment. If brought to school, students will be asked to put them in their backpacks/lockers or best, they will be told to leave them at home. Please know that lockers are not locked, and the school is not responsible for lost or stolen items. Thank you for supporting this K-12 expectation. As the next few weeks will surely fly by, we hope you take time to rest and enjoy the down time. We look forward to seeing you at Popsicles with Principals or on the first day of school. We also will be sending home weekly updates that include a variety of information to keep you updated on the happenings here at school through ParentSquare/Smore. Thank you for partnering with us on your child’s journey here at FRES.

Ms. Coggins and Mrs. Wheeler