Dear Parents,

I generally do not forward emails, unless they are really outstanding. In fact, the truth is I sort of dislike my email account because so much garbage comes mixed in with the emails I really need, however this one is different. Here is the edited version of an email, Melissa Lemm forwarded to my address. Thanks, Mrs. Lemm for sharing this.

“Last week, while traveling to Chicago on business, I noticed a Marine sergeant traveling with a folded American flag, but did not put two and two together .

After we had boarded our flight, I turned to the sergeant, who had been moved up to the first class section (across from me), and inquired if he was heading home .

“No,” he responded. “Heading out?” I asked.

“No, I’m escorting a soldier home.” “Going to pick him up?” I inquired.

“No, he is with me right now . He was killed in Iraq. I’m taking him home to his family. ”

The realization of what he had been asked to do hit me like a punch to the stomach. It was an honor for him. He told me that although he did not know the fallen soldier, he had delivered the news of his death to the soldier’s family and felt as if he knew them well after many conversations in so few days.

I turned to him, extended my hand and said, “Thank you. Thank you for doing what you do so that my family and I can do what we do in freedom.”

Upon landing in Chicago’s O’Hare airport, the pilot stopped short of the gate and made the following announcement,

“Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to note that we have the honor of having Sergeant Steely of the United States Marine Corp joining us on this flight. He is escorting a fallen comrade back home to his family. I would ask that you please remain in your seats. When we reach the gate I’ll open the forward door to allow Sergeant Steely to deplane and receive his fellow soldier. W e will then turn off the seat belt sign.”

Without a sound, all went as r quested. I noticed that the sergeant covered the casket with the flag he was holding and then saluted it as it was carried to the waiting hearse. His actions made me realize again how proud I am to be an American.”

I want to interrupt this email at this point and remind you that on Friday, November 9, RCS will celebrate Veterans Day. An all school chapel will be held in the gym at 8:45 a.m. Please encourage your student to wear something red on that day as a symbol of unity and support for all the men and women who have served and are serving us in every branch of our military. If your schedule allows, please feel free to join us for this celebration and please wear red.

May I also encourage each of you to join with other patriotic Americans by wearing red each Friday. Let’s join the vast majority of Americans who love freedom and value our troops in a show of support by participating in “Red on Fridays”.

God bless America!

Sincerely in Christ,

Ray Leenstra (Psalm 127:1)

Dear Parents,

Greetings from the Administration of RCS. We welcome you back and hope all of you have had a great summer. If you are new to RCS, we hope and pray this will quickly feel like home. We have been busy all summer long getting things ready for September 4. We are excited that it is finally here. These are some of the projects we have been working on this summer:

a) We remodeled KA, KB and the Pre-K 3 day classrooms so you will want to see these rooms.

b) You'll notice a new 8 foot high block wall being built on our original west property line. We were pleased that the city approved this variance to allow us to go to 8 feet. We felt this was beneficial in guarding the safety of our students as well as providing a sound barrier for our neighbors.

c) We also hope to complete our middle school game room in the early part of September.

In the first few weeks of school, we will graciously provide you with a directory of our staff’s phone numbers and addresses. We have always thought of ourselves as a close-knit school community and we wish to keep it that way. I would please ask that you guard this personal information carefully and that you use the staff phone numbers and addresses only for academic purposes. If you could please honor these simple guidelines, it would help our staff greatly.

a) Please only call your child's teacher if it is an absolute emergency.

b) Please do not allow your student to go to a teacher's house address unless they have been invited there personally by the teacher.

Allow me to explain. Our faculty generally arrive early, before 8:00 a.m., some by 7:00 a.m., most by 7:30 a.m. With grading, lesson plans, additional assignments, coaching, grad school, and meetings, etc., our men and women put in a fair number of hours per day. None of them need to spend extra time answering questions at home or cleaning up a TP job from the night before. We have set up the following systems to assist you in resolving whatever questions or concerns that may occur.

a) On the www.redlandschristianschool.org website, you will notice a link to teachers and staff. If necessary, send an email. We have asked our staff to check emails daily and return them as quickly as possible.

b) In grades pre-K through 5th, your teachers post their weekly newsletter on the web. It is a great source of current information for the class and the week's activities.

c) In grades 6-8, we have a service called Edline. We will do our absolute best to update this weekly. If you notice updates are lagging, please let Mr. Witvliet or myself know and we will check on it.

d) We have set from 3:15 p.m. to 3:45 p.m. as a time when staff should be available to the parents. It may be helpful to call ahead and make arrangements through the Assistant Administrators: Grades Pre-K thru 5th is Kathy Barr, Grades 6-8 is Mark Witvliet.

e) Finally, if all these fail, please call me and I will gladly assist. My number at school is 793-5172 ext. 304, or call my cell phone at (909) 838-9807.

I am praying that we can all serve each other in a reasonable manner respecting each other’s needs for downtime. Thank you so much for helping us. Let’s make this year our absolute best.

Sincerely in Christ,

Ray Leenstra (Psalm 127:1)