7/29/24 RCHS Newsletter

Good morning Jaguar community,

I hope that this finds you all doing well and that you all found some quality time with the ones you love doing the things you love this summer. I am so excited to embark on this school year where we are sure to continue our traditions of excellence in Academics, Activities and Athletics. We are so proud to have 569 graduates making their way into the world. Nearly 95% of them will be attending colleges and universities in 40 different states and 7 countries with over 15 million dollars of scholarship funding. Some will take a gap year, some will enter the workforce and some will serve our country and defend our freedoms in our armed forces. I mention this because preparing our students for a successful future will always remain our focus. As a community member I am fortunate to see graduates and their families often. In nearly all of these interactions I am reminded of the pivotal role we play in our students' future success.

Next Wednesday we will be welcoming approximately 592 freshmen. We are excited to watch the Class of 2028 grow and we know they will accomplish so much over their 4 short years here at Rock Canyon High School.

RCHS continues to be the largest comprehensive high school in Douglas County and we continue to be the top ranked academic school in the county and in the state. This is due to incredibly hard working students who are encouraged and supported at home by outstanding families and a K-12 feeder staff that is truly second to none.

As we head into this next year together, I would like to thank you in advance for your support and encouragement of educational excellence. As our beloved security officer JT Adams reminds us almost daily "Teamwork makes the dream work!" Thank you for being on Team Jaguar! It is a great day and it will be a great year to be a Jag!

Take care,

Andy Abner

Principal

Rock Canyon High School

Upcoming Important Dates

8/1/24 New Teacher Orientation - No School

8/2/24 Teacher PD/Work Day - No School

8/5/24 Teacher PD/Work Day - No School

8/6/24 Teacher PD/Work Day - No School

8/7/24 Freshman & New Students ONLY

Freshman Orientation, see information below.
New Student Orientation for students 10-12th grade - 12:30-2:30 pm, more information to follow.

8/7/24 Student Picture Day - All Students

8/8/24 FIRST DAY for ALL STUDENTS (9-12) / JAG Day - NO Late Start

8/9/24 JAG Day- No Late Start

Bell Schedule for Thursday 8/8 & Friday 8/9

Jag Days with Seminar at 7:40

7:40 - 8:15: Seminar
8:20 - 9:05: 1st Period
9:10 - 9:55: 2nd Period
10:00 - 10:45: 3rd Period
See 4th period & lunch schedules below...
12:25 - 1:10: 5th Period
1:15 - 2:00: 6th Period
2:05 - 2:50: 7th Period

More Important Dates

8/16/24 Late Start - 8:20 am

8/22/24 Back to School Night 6:00 - 8:30 pm

8/23/24 Late Start - 8:20 am

8/23/24 Back to School Dance

8/30/24 Late Start - 8:20 am

9/2/24 School Closed - Labor Day

9/13/24 Late Start - 8:20am

9/16/24 - 9/20/24 Homecoming Week

9/20/24 Teacher PD Day / No School

9/27/24 Late Start - 8:20am

Back to School Night 8/22 from 6:00 pm - 8:30 pm

This is a great night to meet your students' teachers.

Teachers will share an introduction of themselves and a brief summary of their courses.
They will not be discussing individual students at this time.
Freshmen parents can join us from 5:15 p.m. until 5:50 p.m. in the auditorium for a special 9th grade informational session.
All parents can join us at 6:00 p.m. in the gym for a Welcome Back presentation from Principal Andy Abner.

Khanmigo

This year Rock Canyon High School will be piloting Khanmigo.

Khanmigo was launched by Khan Academy about a year ago. Khan Academy is a well-established non-profit online education company that provides supplemental resources for students and families. Khanmigo is their latest product and is one of the first dedicated AI tools for schools. An AI tool like Khanmigo could become as common to our student’s educational experience as their computer or a Google search.

Importantly, Khanmigo and Khan Academy’s curricula are not replacements for the work we do in school with our students or our curricula. Khanmigo is only a tool (again, like a computer or Google search) that families and teachers may be able to use to help drive student learning.

We very much appreciate your partnership in helping us determine how it impacts the education of our future leaders. Please know too that as with any of our digital vendors, Khanmigo will follow all state and federal rules and District policies regarding student privacy.

Additional Resources

About Khan Academy

What Is Khanmigo?

FAQ for Learners

Khanmigo Safety and Best Practices

A mini-course about AI For Education

Sal Khan’s TED Talk: How AI could save (not destroy) education

🚫 Bus Route Cancelation Dates

Dear DCSD Families,

Thank you so much for your cooperation and understanding as we implemented a rolling bus cancellation schedule this past school year. While we know this was far from ideal – it did help us keep bus routes predictable and consistent without implementing last minute cancellations.

Last year, your child’s bus route (232) was unaffected by these cancellations. Unfortunately, we have had to restructure some of the bus routes for Rocky Heights Middle School and Rock Canyon High School. This means, in the upcoming school year, your child’s bus route will now be part of the rotating cancellation schedule. For general education bus routes, each student’s bus route will be on for four weeks and then off for one week with this schedule rotating throughout the school year. This rolling bus cancellation schedule is for general education bus routes only. Special Education students who have transportation as a related service will not experience any route cancellations.

The following are the scheduled weeks when your child’s bus route (232) will be cancelled.

Weeks of:

August 26
September 30
November 11
January 7
February 10
March 24
April 29

Additional bus route information will be available in the SMART tag™ Parent App a week prior to the first day of school. Please continue to check the SMART tag™ Parent App for updated route information.

Why is my Child’s Bus Route being Added to the Cancellation Schedule?
Due to significant growth in some areas of Douglas County including new developments such as The Canyons, additional bus routes are needed in DCSD to transport students to their assigned neighborhood school. Unfortunately, even though the need for more bus routes is increasing, DCSD continues to be affected by the nationwide bus driver shortage. The rolling cancellation schedule helps us provide families with some predictability and advanced notice regarding when their child’s route will be cancelled. Families have expressed to us that this is better than experiencing last minute cancellations due to unforeseen, last minute staffing shortages– this was the case back in 2022-2023.

What is Causing the Bus Driver Shortage in DCSD?
Please take a moment to watch the presentation to the DCSD Board of Education from April 2024 which explains the transportation challenges in DCSD. (recording of presentation | presentation slides). DCSD is continuously evaluating our staffing and capacity for the upcoming school year. However, the nationwide bus driver shortage continues to affect school districts across the nation including DCSD. One factor is that the average age of bus drivers is over 50 so each year we tend to have many who retire. This year, we had 25 retirees. Thankfully, the passage of 5A (Mill Levy Override) in November 2023 enabled us to provide more competitive pay, and we were able to hire enough drivers to replace those who recently retired. While this is good news and means we are not in a worse position compared to last year – we were not able to hire enough to fully restore our bus routes and eliminate the rolling cancellation schedule.

Further exacerbating the situation is the enrollment growth we are seeing in parts of the county. We have many new home developments which are growing quickly. However, without additional funding via a Bond initiative, we are unable to construct new schools in those neighborhoods. As a result, more students are in need of bus transportation to a school outside of their neighborhood.

Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact either myself dgrattino@dcsdk12.org or Rich Cosgrove rdcosgrove@dcsdk12.org directly. We appreciate your understanding and collaboration as we strive to enhance our transportation services for the benefit of our students and families.

Sincerely,

Donna Grattino, Director of Transportation

Richard Cosgrove, Chief Operations Officer

Douglas County School District

Express Check-In is OPEN!

⏰ Visit the RCHS homepage on for the express check in link.
Express Check-In is Mandatory for all students.

This process needs to be completed between July 19, 2024 - August 2, 2024.

Please note that students will not be allowed to attend classes until Express Check-In is complete.

If your student will not be attending Rock Canyon, please email Danielle Van Natta at (dvannatta@dcsdk12.org) immediately with your student's name and the school they will be attending.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION

The Parking Permit Application needs to be completed in the Express Check-In under the Forms/Documents list.
This is your only opportunity to apply for a parking pass at RCHS.
🐾 STUDENT Fees will not be billed until the end of August.
Activity Cards will be available for purchase in My School Bucks from July 19th through August 1st.

The Activity Card will admit your student to any home athletic events that charge an entry fee unless it is a play off game. ACT is put on your student's id card and will be required to be shown for entry to games.

Thank you in advance for your help to make the upcoming school year a great success for our students.

RCHS Administration

EngagED Parent Portal Login Process

To log in to the EngagED Parent Portal, you will pair your Infinite Campus Parent Portal username (external parent: username you created during account setup) and @p.dcsdk12.org. For example: if your Infinite Campus username is jsmith, you will enter jsmith@p.dcsdk12.org as your email address on the login screen that follows. Your password is the same one you use for accessing Infinite Campus (external parent: password you created during account setup).

If you have forgotten your DCSD login credentials:
Use these links to retrieve your username and/or reset your password.

If you have followed the steps above and continue to have difficulty, please contact us:

Freshman Orientation Information

Wednesday, August 7 from 7:40 am - 2:50 pm

(Normal school schedule)

There will be a LINK Crew Orientation during the first half of the day where you will meet new people and have some AWESOME Leaders show you the ropes, then lunch and student ID / yearbook photos, and finally a mini schedule run through where you'll get to meet all of your teachers and see who will be in your classes! You won’t really need to bring a lot of stuff - maybe a water bottle, nutrition services will be open for lunch, and a notebook and pen to write down a few things your teachers tell you.

That’s it for now. We will email you again as it gets closer, but mark your calendars for Wednesday, August 7, 2024! It's going to be a great day! Check out the flyer for details about the LINK Crew. We can't wait to see you and get to know you! High School at Rock Canyon is going to be amazing with you here!!

If you have any questions, email Karen Whitney at kwhitney1@dcsdk12.org

Enjoy the rest of your summer!!

Karen Whitney, Katerina Casas, Alexis Savas

LINK Crew Coordinators

Purchase Senior Shirts on 8/7

Senior Shirts (for parents & seniors) will be available for purchase on 8/7/24 for $20

We will have a table in front of the Library from 9-12pm.

School Supplies

Students do NOT need to buy any school supplies for their first day.

*If school supplies are needed for a particular class, teachers will let them know

when they attend their class .

2024-2025 RCHS Bell Schedule

Black Day - Periods 1, 2, 3, 4

Gold Day - Periods 5, S-A, 6, 7

Jag Day - Periods 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 (all periods)

Five Day Week - Black/Gold/Black/Gold/Jag

Four Day Week (Mon Off ) - Gold/Black/Gold/Black

Four Day Week (Fri Off ) - Black/Gold/Black/Gold

**All Students** SEMINAR: Gold Days 9:18 - 9:43 am

RCHS Color Calendar

Student Parking Information

Unfortunately, RCHS has limited parking on campus. Due to our limitations, we cannot allow any Freshman or Sophomores to park on campus. All Seniors who have a driver's license will have access to parking and a limited number of Juniors who are selected in our lottery will be able to park on campus. There are adjacent neighborhoods where some students choose to park, but please talk to your students about being respectful to the neighborhood should they choose this. We are unable to make exceptions for parking. If your student has a medical reason and needs parking, they can park in any number of our handicap parking spots with a legal handicap placard provided by their physician.

Parking Registration and Details may be found at the following url: https://www.rockcanyonjags.com/students/student_parking

No Parking or Student Drop Off / Pick Up at Pax Christi Church

Students & Parents:

There is no parking or parent pick up/drop off allowed at Pax Christi Church.
Unauthorized vehicles will be towed at the owner's expense without further notification.

Student Drop Off

Beginning Thursday, August 8th, RCHS will be following our traffic flow plan.

There are not any new changes this year, however we have many new students and families.

Experience has shown us that it takes about two weeks for everyone to develop their morning routine. We recommend leaving early the first few days until your routine can be refined in a way that allows a safe and timely arrival.

It can take as long as 15 minutes to enter campus and complete a drop off between 7-7:45am. Likewise leaving pick up can take several minutes after your student has been picked up.

Attached you will see a satellite image of Rock Canyon and the surrounding roads. The black arrows are the parent entrance and exit for student pick up and drop off. Parents will enter from McArthur Ranch Rd. Once you arrive in the Southwest corner of the upper parking lot there will be two lanes for drop off to expedite our process.

The blue arrows are the student entrances and exits. The traffic flow plan will be the same for morning drop off and afternoon pickup. We ask that you please review this with your son or daughter if they drive to school.

Due to safety we do not allow student drop off on the east side of campus. This area is for permitted student drivers only who park in this area.

Students who ride the bus should not encounter any challenges in their arrival. If they do, transportation will notify the school and we notify our staff accordingly.

We thank you in advance for your patience and support with helping our students and staff arrive safely each day.

Sincerely,

Rock Canyon High School Administration

Student Picture Day

Student Picture Day is Wednesday, August 7th in the gym.
All underclass students grades 9-11 and NEW seniors to RCHS will have their pictures taken for student ID's and for the yearbook.
The schedule is as follows:

Freshman Only - 11:15am-1:10pm
Incoming New Students - 12:30-2:30pm
All other grades - 8-11am & 1:30-3:00pm Auxiliary Gym
Returning students who are seniors, do not take pictures on this day.

Picture Makeup Day is Monday, August 12th from 8:30 am to 2:00 pm by the auditorium.

Class of 2025 Senior Portrait Information

Parents of the Class of 2025,

Congratulations! It’s time to start marking the milestones of your student’s senior year, which means it is time to start thinking about their senior yearbook photo in the 2025 Black & Gold yearbook.

If you’ve had a senior student before, you know that many families take senior photos the summer before their senior year of high school. The editorial board of the Black & Gold yearbook is still committed to ensuring every student has the opportunity for a free, professional photo in the yearbook. As such, we will continue to work with two photography studios to manage the nearly 600 senior portraits for the panel pages in the 2025 volume of the yearbook -- Keepsake Photography and Monty Nuss Photography. You must have your photo taken by one of these photographers for your portrait to be in the book. (See free day options for these photos below.)

This exclusive photographer process is for senior yearbook photos only. You are still able to use personal photos of your choice for all other purposes – senior tribute ads, graduation announcements, etc. All senior photos will be taken by one of the two photography studios selected through the editorial board’s RFP process -Monty Nuss Photography or Keepsake Photography. Each studio provides excellent photography for your senior, and has created specific opportunities for Rock Canyon seniors.

Seniors who do not schedule an appointment at the Keepsake or Monty Nuss studios will need to attend one of the FREE yearbook days at the school in August and September in order to ensure they will be included in the 2025 yearbook.

Sign-ups will be made available to seniors at the start of the 2024-2025 school year in August.

In the meantime, both studios have created opportunities for families to begin getting senior portraits taken for the 2025 Black & Gold yearbook. Please use the links below to see options from Keepsake and Monty Nuss for RCHS seniors. PDFs of each studio's Senior Magazine are also linked on the school website.

Keepsake Photography 970.880.1308 keepsakephotographers.com and 2025 Senior Jags info,Keepsake

Monty Nuss Photography 303.798.8229 montynuss.com and 2025 Senior Jags info, Monty Nuss

Finally, we offer senior tribute ads for purchase for any family who is interested. We will provide an updated link to information about purchasing a senior tribute ad for your 2025 senior through The Yearbook Company before August.

They will open the site for orders mid-July, but can take questions at TheYearbookCompany.com until that time.
Early-bird deadline is Oct. 5, so there is plenty of time to gather content for your senior’s ad.

We look forward to seeing your senior in the 2025 Black & Gold yearbook!

The Black & Gold editors and staff

rcbgyearbook@gmail.com