RHS Parent Group Minutes, January 7, 2008

Pegi Shea welcomed the group and reminded everyone of the need to determine a new leader by the February meeting. She can lead the Feb. 4 meeting but will be unavailable for the rest of the year.

Principal's Update: Brian gave an update on construction; Brian has left the trailer ahead of schedule. The new main entrance is being worked on and is about 6 weeks from completion. Auditorium is on-track, and can house events before the end of the school year.

9th - transition: Meeting of the class of 2012 - no major changes to the Freshmen Academies (program information is available on the PG website): www.rhsparents.com. The administration is keeping mandatory study halls, and an upperclassman mentor program will be in place before school starts in September 2009. Five subjects will continue to be the focus in Freshman Academies: Math, Business, Science, Social Studies, and English. They may add world languages.

Orientation will be held for incoming freshman on Jan 31 (Snow date Feb 7).
Pegi reminded everyone that the RHS parent group has a table at the orientation, where we hand out welcome packets and collect email addresses. Pegi asked for help. Kim Marinan and Brian talked about the orientation process for 8th graders. Counselors are going to VCMS on Friday. In early April - the 8th graders will visit the high school. Kids really enjoy the visit, Brian said. Counselors may follow up the visits with a Q&A session at VCMS.

Budget: Superintendent meeting is set for Thursday night Jan. 10, 7:00 PM at BOE building where both RHS and VCMS budgets will be presented by the principals. Schools have been told to keep requests to a 3% increase. Brian Levesque - asked department heads to create a need based budget. Especially important is the addition of a guidance counselor. Currently, the total workload is 285 students per counselor. An additional counselor would bring that down to 225-240. By state mandate, high schools must reinstitute in-school suspensions so one new staff position is required - which will cost more naturally.

Another staff member is needed for the Career center, where students can work towards certification for certain jobs, e.g. child care. Until now, a 3-year grant has covered the costs of the program. But now, it needs to be absorbed into general high school budget.

Cuts to the education budget have resulted in a reduction of full-time kindergarten classes from 8 to 2. The 2 classes are funded only through grants.
Brian stressed the need for early childhood education before learning problems snowball. He urged parents to organize support for voting at town budget referendum. Let's pass the budget at the first vote.

Also discussed were alternative ways for students to gain credit, for example, for a failed high school class, and even for college credit. These costs are paid by the individuals&emdash;not the school system. MCC has a program for students who take courses that are free if they meet certain requirements, such as a B average, good standing. In addition to Advanced Placement courses, certain RHS teachers have been certified to teach “college” subjects in high school. For example, Mr. Argenta was just certified for Environmental Science.
If students are interested in alternative ways to gain high school or college credit, they should speak to their guidance counselor.

Project Graduation: Art Auction Friday Feb 8th. Beautifully framed art, sports and celebrity memorabilia, tickets to arts and sports events. Last year they raised over $5,000. Please come. Tickets are $10.00 each and include food. If anyone has ideas for fund raisers, please contact Maureen Donahue at 875-7361 or Donahue_mj@comcast.net. Many area businesses are receptive to fund-raising events: Bernie's, Appleby's ($1000 raised there), Barnes & Noble.


Panel Discussion : RHS Graduates return to share their experiences in college.

Maggie Hamlin, Carnegie Mellon - Pittsburgh - major undeclared
Brendon Foley , UCONN 4th semester - Music Ed major.
Suzanne Carlson, 3rd Year Hampshire College.

How did you pick your school? - Suzanne expressed dissatisfaction at assistance from the RHS guidance department in finding the right school for her.
She found out about Hampshire College from an RHS teacher. Hampshire College has many independent areas of study (Ichthyology, Herpetology, Fisheries Conservation management, Non-fiction writing, Photography), and is in a consortium of other universities (Amherst, UMASS-Northampton) students can take classes at. The school encourages new ways of learning and is arranged more like a graduate program. Program of study is grouped Division 1 - introductory, Division 2 - expanded usually 2 years and Div -3 is like a graduation project. A committee of teachers helps you be successful. Instead of exams and grades, students receive written narrative evaluations from teachers.

Maggie looked at engineering schools, her Dad is an engineer. She wanted to go to Tuffs but was not accepted. She was accepted at RPI, but felt it was too specialized with engineering. Carnegie Mellon was good for several reasons: it is a big university in a city with lots of academic and social choices, and it's only a 60-minute plane ride away, so she can come home easily. She switched her major to humanities, and C-M was very helpful.

Brendon - only applied to a few schools that had good music programs. He was accepted at UCONN and LSU (Louisiana State University). Brendon is going to UCONN because they offer all the classes required to become a certified music teacher in CT. He has to wait until his 3rd year to apply to the music school. Right now he is in general education. He is in several bands including the marching band and pep band. (Look for him on televised basketball games!)

All agreed that the best way to find out about colleges is by talking with people who go there. Take the guided tours, but also go on campus on your own and talk with people. When college reps come to RHS, get permission during a class to see them. You can get excused days from RHS for college visits. You can find students on "Face Book," and ask them. You can find RHS alumni who can talk about their schools. It's really up to the individual students to find the schools that are best for their way of living and learning.

What type of classes did you take? Lectures, seminars,

For general courses like Math, Science, English, History, Maggie and Brendon talked about large halls with 250 students where the teacher would give a lecture. Then once or twice a week, you go for a lab or a discussion on the lectured material. These classes are smaller (20 students), run by teaching assistants. Quality of assistants varies--some good TA's and some bad. At large schools, independent study is reserved for upper classmen. But some majors have smaller classes. Brendon enjoys his UCONN Music classes, because there are only 40 people.

Suzanne described Hampshire. The school is very small - 1300 undergrads in entire school. She is exempt from UMASS pre-requisite classes, and can take 500-level classes. She works directly with a committee of teachers, and her course of study is self-directed.

Brendon stressed the benefit of professors' "office hours," when they are available to you one on one. They have so much to offer you.

What are some life lessons you find living on campus?

Maggie said C-M has a housing shortage. Lots of kids get apartments in the city. Her first year, she was assigned a roommate who had a very different style. Maggie's neatness versus her roommate's messiness; Maggie's fast pace versus a more relaxed (slow) pace. She joined a sorority, and now she gets to live in a house.

Suzanne said that Hampshire housing is 80% single dorm rooms. She did really well because she could sit and study in a quiet atmosphere. Last year, she really enjoyed being a resident assistant (RA), and she had about 40 dorm kids under her watch, and had to look for homesickness, depression. This year she tried an on-campus double with a roommate. The roommate was great, but the dorm was too noisy. She's now living in a house share and likes her quiet and space.

What about food programs?

All schools have various plans - point systems, blocks, unlimited. UCONN has a Grab & Go - take out food. There are some restaurants - on or just off campus that accept the points. At C-M, students must be on a plan. Since it's in a city, there are lots of options - vegan - indian, chinese.

What did RHS do best to prepare you for college?

Maggie: most kids at Carnegie went to private schools. She was given an opportunity to meet lots of different kinds of kids at RHS - and she did better with the college transition.

Brendon said that certain RHS teachers really helped with growth and learning through some difficult times. All three students in the panel were very involved with clubs and activities at RHS. An important preparation for college is to build good people skills, because you can not just sit in your dorms every day.

Suzanne: she learned to fight for what she wanted. She was not a traditional student, and wanted an independent study. She wrote a proposal, got a teacher to sponsor her, and it was approved. She was able to share this experience with her college professors, and ask them to challenge her. In particular, the RHS photo program 1 and 2 was very good and helped prepare her for her major.
Suzanne said it would be good for RHS to offer more independent studies (it's available to only juniors and seniors) It's really good for students that are self-motivated.

Brian Levesque estimated that about 100 RHS students now do independent study annually. Either advanced studies on existing classes, or totally unique topics of interest.


What is your biggest academic surprise?

Maggie: Her first D - after working so hard. She never received lower than a B at RHS

Brendon: his first hit with low grades. He said RHS wasn't - but there is big difference in professors' expectations, and the amount of work. It's hard to stay on track with so much going on - on campus.

Suzanne: My first tutorial class was full of kids who were "geniuses." One actually quoted Proust.

Financially, Suzanne she had a job work-study, and was pleasantly surprised at the amount of financial aid.

Kim Marinan said RHS does a good job getting information on scholarships. $300,000 annually is given to students at Rockville.

Social Events at College:

Suzanne: at Hampshire, there's no athletics (except for Frisbee team), but they have Casino night, Masquerade night, Concerts, Safe & Substance free. There's a free bus to Downtown Northampton & Amherst.

Maggie: There are a lot of Frat/Sorority, Art parties, hosted in apartments, $1. movies - Late nite student organizations. Asian students throw parties. In the city, there's shopping, concerts, professional sports--Baseball, Hockey, Pro-Football. Not much student athletics. No one has cars but lots of buses are around.

Brendon said UCONN "is not a party school" anymore. There are game rooms in every dorm hall. Late night activities every weekend. DJ parties, Craft fairs, Boston Pops, Concerts, Shows, Club performances. A lot of students leave every weekend, but some stay.

Meeting was adjourned. Everyone was thanked for coming. Alumni were thanked for giving their time and sharing their post RHS experience.