RHS Weekly Updates  |  July 28, 2018

New

Families who are leaving: We need as accurate a planning student number as we can get.  This number impacts the number of teachers and number of classes that we are able to offer.  If you are leaving (even if the records request has not been made by another school), please cue us to tell us that this adjustment is on the way.  The less change we have after the start of school regarding teachers, classes, schedules, etc, the better off everyone will be.

Registration deadline July 30th - Important regarding Bus Transportation:  If you know folks moving into or have moved into the area and will have students at RHS next year, it is SUPER important that they register students by July 30th in order to have bus transportation available to start school.  Families who register after that date have no guarantee when bus transportation will be provided and need to be advised that they should expect to provide transportation for the first 30 days of school. It is also important to check your child’s Powerschool account to see if it has been marked yes or no for transportation provided.

Senior Portraits - IMPORTANT:  Don’t forget that they will be on the RHS campus the week of July 30th!  You should have gotten your appointment time in the mail.

 Parking and Off-Campus Passes Updated: We opened the Online School Payments for parking fees and lunch passes on July 25th.  The required paperwork and details have been posted online on the school website. Remember that there are very specific requirements that must be reviewed and completed before students are eligible to get a parking permit.  They are:

• 2.0 or higher GPA must exist and be maintained
• All fees and fines cleared
• Review all requirements before paying and applying
• Complete and submit a NOTARIZED parking application and attach a photocopy of your license
• Attach a photocopy of the registration of each (max 2) car that you have on your application

Dates and times for pick-ups are listed on the application forms for both types of applications.  All applications can be dropped off in the main office as there are labelled containers to collect them on the counter.  The deadlines for drop-off are listed online as well as the pick-up dates. The first deadline for paperwork drop-off is August 10th.  Since seniors have pictures onsite this week, it would great if they could submit the paperwork on the same day they come in for pictures.

Senior Fees - Revised:  This fee is required for graduation.  We will provide the deadlines and important dates for seniors at the senior breakfast.  The bookkeeper set the Online School Payments portal to go live on July 16th, so you should be able to pay now.  Feel free to go ahead and pay to check that off the senior list.

 Schedule Change Requests:  We will follow a process very similar to the one we used last year.  All information is list on our website under Students -> Student Services -> Schedule Change Requests.  Online access to request a change will be available from August 13-29.  Counselors will review the requests and respond to those that they can change from September 4-7.  The following information was made available to students during registration in the Spring 2018 and was posted on the RHS website at that time:  Once course selections are made, schedule change requests will only be made for the following reasons:

1) A student wants to increase rigor (moving from an Academic course to Honors course or an Honors course to an AP course)

2) A student is scheduled for a course they have previously passed, a student is missing a course needed to graduate (this only applies to Seniors)

3) A student has an incomplete schedule (holes in schedules will be filled with courses selected during the registration process OR classes with available space at the time of the request)

4) A student is scheduled for the same course twice, or a student has a schedule with a sequencing issue (i.e. scheduled for Spanish II before Spanish I - in this case the scheduling issue will be fixed, but the student will not be able to select new courses).

Students WILL NOT be able to change their schedule because they no longer wish to take a course they requested, they prefer to have a different teacher, or because they received a course that was not one of their top choices.

Wake Tech RTP Campus EXPLORE:  There is a welcome event set for August 7th.  If this might be in the future of your Ram, you might want to explore their newest addition.

PTSA Planning: The Board met this past week to begin to prepare for the upcoming year.  Here are a few highlights.

• Memberships will be paid online with details to come.  We will have computers available at events to make it easy to join through the membership hub.
• The Board wishes to reinstate the scholarship opportunity for the upcoming year.  For a student to be eligible to apply, he or she must be a PTSA member.
• Anyone who will be a volunteer during the year must register to be a WCPSS volunteer.  We will also have computers available at events, since you have to be on a WCPSS campus to register.  It is very important that you reapply each year or apply for the first time early in the year...no later than October 31st.
• There will be upcoming Sign-Up Geniuses, especially for the senior breakfast (first Friday of the school year)  PTSA will need water, juice boxes, individually packaged breakfast bars, napkins, plates, etc. If you want to send any of these items next week when your senior takes his or her pictures, have them drop the items off in the office.
• Don’t forget to relink your Harris Teeter, Lowes and Target RedCard for RHS….oh, and Amazon Smile!  We also have key ring cards for Publix.  This is the easiest way to support PTSA at RHS.

Review

Ram Camp (August 9th) and School Pictures for 9th graders:  You should have gotten the postcard with information to tell you how to register rising 9th graders for Ram Camp.  Please make sure you register soon as we have much planning to do. We need to prepare materials, find enough staff to support the event and plan for feeding them, as well.  We need to know how many students to anticipate. In addition, we will take 9th grade school pictures during this event, so students need to be aware that their yearbook picture will be taken on this day!  Gotta look good your first day on campus!!!

Office hours and staffing:  As I am sure you are aware, we operate with limited staff.  The office hours are 7AM-3PM. I wanted to make sure you all are aware in case you have business and need to plan to come to school or call during office hours.  Likewise, administrators, counselors and clerical staff are in and out as not all employees are 12-month employees. It is possible that folks who are not 12 month staff will not see email for a period of time.  

ACT/SAT before Senior Year:  I spoke with the juniors last year to remind them that college applications come quicker than students often prepare to take the ACT or SAT.  If students need to take the exams again before applying for college, it is really important to look at offerings online and make plans to test early!

Free Summer Audiobooks Program for Teens - SYNC:  Teens can get two free book downloads per week.  Visit www.audiobooksync.com.  Titles change every Thursday at 7 AM.  Books are available for 7 days only for download. Once downloaded, they are yours to keep.