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March 31 Riverdale High School News

Riverdale High School

Thursday, March 31 

Riverdale High School News
 
Hello Everyone,
As we send this out, we are just a day away from April. It’s amazing how fast time goes by. With Spring Break in the rearview mirror, we are closing in on the end of the school year quickly. I wish the best to all of you as we work our way through the next couple of months.  
I would love to have our caregivers help us out with something for the rest of the year. One issue that we continue to see from many of our students is a lot of absences. In the world of COVID we have become used to working with that, since so many absences had to be taken to keep everyone safe. Unfortunately, that really exacerbates the issue when someone is absent for non-illness reasons. Spring tends to be the time that we see a lot of non-illness related absences, and it would greatly help your students and the staff if you can limit those.  
Our request: Please make attendance a priority for the rest of this year. Here’s what we want:
 
  • If your student is healthy, please send them to school.  
  • If you are planning get-aways, please keep school in mind. 
  • If you can avoid having appointments during the school day, please do so.  
  • Help your student get to school on time! There’s been a lot of morning tardiness lately; help us improve that.  
  • However, if your student is sick, and showing any signs or primary symptoms of COVID, please keep them home!  
 
In closing, I am not asking you to send your child to school when they are sick - we need to remain vigilant and do what’s in everyone's best interests when students are sick. I am asking you to please limit other absences. Students need to be at school. It improves their learning, the learning of those around them and the effectiveness of our teaching. Please keep them in school as much as possible, and we’ll keep them busy with meaningful learning as well.  
- Bart Hawkins, RHS Principal (he/him)
 

Asian American Youth Leadership Conference

Riverdale High School has been invited to attend the Asian American Youth Leadership Conference on Friday, April 22 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
We have the opportunity to take four students of Asian American or Pacific Islander descent to the conference. 
See more details below:
Each year, close to 500 high school students, selected from multiple school districts, both public and private, from Oregon and SW Washington attend the Asian American Youth Leadership Conference. Typically, 40 high schools from multiple school districts are represented at the conference. Students from diverse ethnic backgrounds, including Cambodian, Chinese, Filipino, Hmong, Indian, Iranian, Japanese, Korean, Laotian, Mien, Pacific Islander, Pakistani, Thai, Tibetan, and Vietnamese, among others were in attendance. Furthermore, close to 30% of the students self-reported as “mixed-race” or “other.”
Since its founding in 1993, the conference has helped thousands of students realize their individual potential as leaders of tomorrow. Each year, the program has been planned around a theme relevant to the students’ focus on leadership-development, communication, and cultural identity. At each conference, over 100 adult volunteers and school chaperones participate in the facilitation of the activities and workshops. 
Utilizing the talents and experiences of college students and professionals to facilitate workshops, the conference incorporates various topic-related exercises and activities to enhance and reinforce leadership skills and ideals. The conference also gathers prominent members of the community to inspire Asian high school students to develop leadership qualities as well as to pursue leadership positions.
Students or their families must be able to transport them to and from the conference. 
The conference requires students who attend to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and wear a mask at the event.
If you are interested in attending, please get a permission slip from Grace Thompson at the front desk. If more than four students want to attend, we will choose based on a lottery system. Permission slips are due no later than Friday, April 8.
Adult chaperones from RHS at the event will be Abby Rotwein, Director of Equity and Inclusion, and Michele Rosenbaum, School Board Director.
If you have questions, please email Abby at arotwein@riverdale.k12.or.us.
 

REMINDER

Upcoming High School Assembly with Karen Gaffney

I am overjoyed to share that we have an incredible guest speaker coming to Riverdale High School on Friday, April 15th. Her name is Karen Gaffney, and her bio is below:

KAREN’S STORY

 
Karen has been a life long advocate, role model and standard bearer that proclaims DOWN SYNDROME IS A LIFE MEANT TO BE LIVED! And, as she often says, DOWN SYNDROME IS A LIFE MEANT TO BE SAVED!
Karen graduated from St. Mary’s Academy in Portland, Oregon and earned a two-year Associates of Science degree from Portland Community College. She successfully swam the English Channel as part of a six-person relay team. She also swam 9 miles, non stop straight across the width of Lake Tahoe, in 59-degree water to raise money for the National Down Syndrome Congress and to show the world that people with Down Syndrome are more alike, rather than different, from everyone else. She has countless open water swims on her athletic resume, including swimming 8 miles across Lake Champlain for the North County Down Syndrome Association and 5 miles from Molokini to Wailea Beach in Maui for Best Buddies of Hawai’i.
Karen travels the country speaking to a wide range of audiences about overcoming limitations and about what can be accomplished with positive expectations. Karen tackles any challenge she faces with determination and commitment, knowing she has limits, but not allowing them to limit her drive to succeed.
 
You can learn more about Karen at her website, Karen Gaffney Foundation. I encourage you to check out her TEDxPortland talk and the video of her swimming across Lake Tahoe. The links are below:
 
 
 
 

REMINDER

SmartPass Tool at RHS

RHS has a new hall pass system that is up and running. There are kiosks in many rooms, and those that do not have them will have teachers or staff that issue passes directly. Please familiarize yourselves with how to use it by watching the tutorial.
Please be aware that we are going to be checking students to make sure they are on a pass from a classroom when they are in the halls. Starting soon, there will be consequences, such as a short lunch detention or after school detention. Eventually, pass privileges may be taken away from students that consistently abuse the privilege. 
 
 

Lake Oswego Lacrosse Schedules

RHS has a few students who play on the boys and girls lacrosse teams. If you'd like to support them by attending a game, view their schedule below. Home games are played at Lake Oswego High School. *The Saturday 4/9 game vs Summit is actually at West Linn High School. The girls’ schedule can be found here.
 
 

Important Dates

  • Thursday, March 31 - Junior Parent College Night from 6-7 p.m. via Google Meet
  • Wednesday, April 6 - College Workshop III | An Introduction to Narrative Writing and College Essays
  • Thursday, April 7 - Sophomore Parent College Night from 6-7 p.m. via Google Meet
  • Thursday, April 14 - Freshman Parent College Night from 6-7 p.m. via Google Meet
  • Wednesday, April 20 - College Workshop IV | In-depth Essay Brainstorming and Writing
  • Friday, April 22 - Teacher Inservice Day (No School)
  • Wednesday, May 11 - District Arts Night at RHS from 6-8 p.m.
  • Wednesday May 11 - College Workshop V | Common College Essay Supplementals