Rondout Valley High School

Rondout Valley High School (RVHS) is a public high school in Accord, New York, United States. The population is made up of 9th through 12th graders of the Rondout Valley School District, encompassing Marbletown, Rosendale, and Kerhonkson. Year groups average approximately 200 students. The student to teacher ratio is 14.354 : 1.

Administration

The high school administration consists of a principal and two assistant principals. In the 2007-2008 school year, the principal was changed numerous times and the assistant principals were Kris Miller and Trudi Melamed Turck. The current principal is Lillian Phillips.

Academics

RVHS is a New York State public high school, and so subscribes to the state regents board for its academic standards. In addition to the standard regents track, there is an honors program and a special education program at RVHS. Participation in these programs is determined by academic ability of the student. RVHS also offers nine Advanced Placement (AP) courses.

School Mascot

The mascot for RVHS is a gander, affectionately referred to as "Greg the Gander." The gander mascot can be seen at football games, on school uniforms and on artwork throughout the school.

WISE

Wise Individualized Senior Experience (WISE) is a program available to seniors in their final semester. In this program, the student drops two classes (most frequently English and History) and pursues a project of their interest. They are required to keep a journal where they log the progress of their project through the course of the semester. At the end of the year, each student presents his work to evaluators, friends, and other interested students. The program is generally seen as a valuable experience for the students. Past projects have included: building a boat, creating a website, teaching foreign languages to younger students, building a computer, filming a movie, culinary exploration, dance choreography, senior book, creating a community mural, social action, and writing a comic book.

New Visions

In addition to wise, New Visions is another program available to seniors in their final semester. In this program, the student's English and History requirements are waived, however he/she must take what remaining classes are needed for graduation. Half of the school day these classes are completed, but the remaining half (may it be morning or afternoon) is devoted to distanced learning. Two days out of the week New Visions students take either college English 101&102 or Political Science 109 (Scheduling depends on the New Visions path chosen and the instructors) at UCCC. On the remaining three days the students take part in an internship in their New Visions field. New Visions offers the chance to work first hand in Education, Health, Law, and Communications/Journalism. In addition to the normal course work associated with the college credits the student will be required to do projects pertaining to the New Visions program chosen, and be required to keep a daily journal logging the events of their internship. While New Visions is definitely not the "easy way" to finish senior year, many students take it to complete 9 college credits and to be able to see first hand what a possible career in that field may be like.

References

External links

* [http://rondout.k12.ny.us/ Rondout Valley High School website]
* [http://new-york.schooltree.org/public/Rondout-Valley-High-061872.html schooltree.org profile]