Welcome back to our all of our returning students and a special welcome is extended to all of our freshmen and students new to our school. Every school year brings a variety of changes, each with the hope that it will lead to improvement for our students’ overall academic success. This year is no different. The first cohort of students enrolled in Project Lead the Way this year. We are anxious to see how this program progresses. The program is indeed challenging but certainly a great opportunity for our students who are interested in getting a head start on a path to engineering. Mr. Hans, our Project Lead the Way Coordinator, underwent extensive training over the summer and is ready to hit the ground running. We are looking to see the wealth of opportunities unfold throughout this program.

 

It is common knowledge that schools are under tremendous pressure to meet No Child Left Behind (NCLB) requirements and/or show annual yearly progress (AYP). Our strategic plan and changes over the past five years have focused on meeting these requirements. Unfortunately, our efforts have yet to yield positive results in two of the sub groups. Despite a significant increase in test scores, our results indicated that we did not make AYP in the language arts portion for special needs students and in the math portion for African American students. Our internal records do however indicate that we are progressing in these areas, so much in fact that we are challenging the state’s compilation of these test scores. While we hope that our challenge is upheld, we continue to remain steadfast in our belief that our efforts are making a difference in how our students learn. One of my beliefs is that an organization, or an individual, can and should always try to grow and improve. Our data shows that RVRHS is indeed improving and thus we celebrate the academic success we have achieved thus far.

 

RVRHS is half way through the strategic plan (a copy of the plan can be found on our website under the About Us icon). Please feel free to send me an email on any thoughts you have about the plan. The strategic plan review will be combined with planning for the next Middle States Accreditation process. The accreditation process occurs approximately every ten years and assists the school in planning for and meeting criteria established by the Middle States Accreditation Association. Obtaining successful accreditation is essential in ensuring our students have the proper high school preparation tools to pursue higher education. We are currently accredited and fully expect to maintain that status.

 

As always, we welcome your thoughts, suggestions and concerns on how we can continue to make RVRHS an environment where that is exciting, challenging, safe and orderly. I look forward to meeting and greeting you at Back to School Nights, athletic events, theatre performances and the like. All are welcome to attend our monthly Parent Advisory Committee meeting every third Wednesday of the month where we discuss the monthly progress of school. The meetings are held in the Superintendent’s Conference Room at 7:00 pm.

 

Here’s to a great year ahead!

Dr. Michael Moskalski