RHS Weekly Updates - August 25, 2018

New 

Preparing for the First Day of School: It is almost here!   Things we need to push out before the day arrives.

1. You know traffic is going to be heavy.  Give yourself extra time.
2. The Senior parking is in the basketball court and the far side of the practice field.  Student parking also goes over to the spaces at the far end of the football field.  Please watch carefully for student drivers who must cross traffic to park.
3. Students need to know their first period teacher.  Please also have students check Powerschool accounts for their schedules.  It is the easiest way for everyone to manage when we are learning new schedules.
4. Administrators will have student locators to help those who do not know their first period.
5. Counselors have made progress on the schedule change requests, but there are some requests to review yet.  Students need to follow the schedule they have until all reviews can be made.  Students who have a missing class will need to report to the media center during the period where there is a missing class on the schedule.  
6. We will continue with two lunch periods.  No doubt, they will be busy and the cafeteria staff will have to figure out the timing and amounts of food to prepare.  Also keep in mind that students are still in the process of purchasing lunch passes and parking passes.  After students have taken care of these things that impact the rhythm of lunch, lunch prep and routines will also settle in.  Please be patient for a few days while this happens.

Transportation:  Routes have been posted on the WCPSS website.  The information for those who have been approved for a route is in your Ram’s Powerschool account.

SAT at Rolesville HS:  RHS will hosted our first administration of the SAT today.  Families should look at the upcoming two dates for administration on Oct. 6th and March 9th.  Remember that seating is limited.

From Child Nutrition Services:  “WCPSS Child Nutrition Services wants you to know that you can now apply online to qualify for free and reduced price school meals.  Go online to https://www.wcpss.net/meals to determine if you qualify and complete the online application. To help you, we've shared application information, frequently asked questions and the online application. Families may also visit their school where paper applications will be available.”

From PTSA re. Sr. Breakfast: PTSA needs donations of quite a few items for the sr. breakfast set for August 31st.  When you have signed up on the Sign-Up Genius, you can start dropping the items off at the school.  We have 550 Seniors that we are trying to accommodate, so we have the largest group to accommodate so far!

 Important Request from the Staff Regarding Use of Electronics:  The staff at Rolesville High School is committed to providing our students with experiences that will prepare them to successfully meet course requirements, to understand course content and apply the skills that should be learned in our respective classes.  To that end, we ask both students and parents for your support regarding appropriate use of electronic devices at school. 

 Certainly, there are times when students are permitted to enjoy their own devices such as before school, during lunch and after school.  Students are also invited to utilize their own devices if parent and teacher permission are granted as part of the learning experience.  This said, staff desire to spend their time devoted to support of student learning, not management of student discipline related to electronic devices.  We discussed our concerns regarding lost instructional time due to management of electronics and feel that we need to ask for parental support as we start the year.  We know that students want and need to use their devices, but we also must have common ground regarding our purpose as a school and the parameters when it should be appropriately used.

 Please talk with your Ram to make sure he or she understands that we are here for him or her and we want to have a productive year without unnecessary complications from inappropriate use of electronics.  We deeply desire to make RHS the GREAT learning community it CAN be.  We can only achieve this through respect for our common goals and one another.

Review

 First Day - Aug. 27th: Students will report to first period first, so please reference your online schedule to see where to report.  Most students will use their phones to follow their schedule that day.  For those who do not have a schedule, the first period teacher will tell the students where to go.

First Ten Days:  We will run the Friday Advisory schedule for the first 10 days to be consistent about reporting of student numbers.

PTSA Updates from Meeting on 8/13/18 - Important Updates

• Don’t forget to join PTSA. Pay online at  https://rolesvillehsptsa.memberhub.store.  We will also have opportunities for you to join at athletic events and open houses/parent meetings.
• 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.
• Don’t forget to relink your Harris Teeter, Lowes and Target RedCard for RHS….oh, and Amazon Smile!

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 Academics-> Schedule Change Requests (note change).  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.