I hope everyone is having an enjoyable summer. We still have plenty of summer left, but the purpose of this correspondence is to provide you with the information you may need to plan for the upcoming school year. The office staff has been busy preparing for the upcoming school year, many teachers have been participating in professional development, and our custodial staff has been busy getting the building ready for the upcoming school year. Many students are taking advantage of our Summer Fitness Program, so it has been great seeing so many students around the campus!

We are very much looking forward to seeing our students return for the first day of school on Wednesday, August 30th.

The school day will begin at 8:10 AM and end at 2:40 PM. On early release dates, the school day will begin at 8:10 AM and end at 11:25 AM.

In mid-August, we plan to make student academic schedules for the 2023-2024 school year available on the X2 Aspen Student Portal. We will send a separate email when these schedules are available. In this correspondence in mid-August, we will indicate when counselors will be available to review any schedule change requests with students and families.

Below is a copy of the district calendar for the 2023-2024 school year. It is great to save the date on the early release professional development days which are listed on this calendar. The calendar also has the dates for December, February, and April vacation!

August

8/14-8/16 Student Government Council Camp 9:00 AM- 2:00 PM

8/16 Fall Sports Meet the Coach's Night 6:00-7:30 PM

8/17 Student Leadership Training 4:00 PM -10:00 PM

8/18 Start of Football

8/21-8/23 Band Camp 9:00 AM- 4:00 PM

8/23 College Application Bootcamp for Seniors 11:30 AM- 2:15 PM

8/28-8/29 Staff Return to RHS for Professional Development

8/28 New Student Orientation for Grade 9 Students 6:30-8:00 PM

8/30 First Day of School for Students

September

9/1 No School Labor Day Weekend

9/4 No School Labor Day Weekend

9/7 School Picture Day

9/12 Senate Leadership Council Meeting 7:30 AM- 8:00 AM (Library)

9/13 Back to School Night for Parents/Guardians 6:30 PM-8:30 PM

9/16 Saturday School 9:00 AM-12:00 PM

9/21 Early Release for Staff Professional Development @ 11:25 AM

9/26 Site Council Meeting 7:30 AM-8:00 AM (Superintendent’s Conference Room)

Bus transportation registration closed on July 7, so the routing can be implemented. This process determines the number of students on each bus. If you have not registered and your student's bus has been filled due to demand, they will be placed on a waiting list. Please contact Noelle Novio at nnovio@rocklandschools.org or 781-871-8418 with any questions. Bus information will be posted in mid-August in your student's Aspen account under the transportation tab.

Rockland High School does not post general supply lists in advance of the start of the school year like they do at the elementary and middle school level. Each teacher will provide students with a list of needed supplies for the class once school starts on August 30th. The student's Chromebook, Chromebook charger, a pencil/pen, notebook, and folder are perfect for the first day of school.

Students are encouraged to participate in summer reading prior to the start of the 2023-2024 school year. Selected titles, listed below, are available digitally via Sora. All students have access to Sora; if you need help logging into your account, please review these log in instructions. Rockland Memorial Library will have these titles available in print.

Students who participate are asked to read one of these titles, assume the role of their favorite character, and complete these Google Slides. Please make a copy of these slides to edit. The slides mimics a popular social media platform and should be edited to include the following components:

• Character name

• Username

• Profile Quote taken from the book that reflects your character’s identity

• Five (5) posts that your character would post that include:

• Images reflecting an important scene in the book

• Images reflecting your character’s personality

• Hashtags explaining the images

• Responses from other character to your characters posts

Students will use Canva to design their images and finish the assignment on the linked Google Slides. Completed assignments should be emailed to jkemp@rocklandschools.org by September 15th.

All students who complete the summer reading assignment are invited to participate in a Library Takeover! Students will be called down September 28th during Dog Block to participate in a book chat and see their posts on display! We will discuss and critique the titles.

Titles

• The Agathas by Kathleen Glasgow

• The Honeys by Ryan La Sala

• Queen of the Tiles by Hanna Alfak

• Hollow Fires by Samira Ahmed

• Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin

Summer homework for Honors English and AP classes is listed below.

All incoming freshmen and any new students (and families!) to Rockland High School are encouraged to attend New Student & Freshmen Transition Night, which will be held in the Rockland High School Auditorium from 6:30-8 PM on Monday, August 28th. During the evening, each incoming Grade 9 student and their family will be presented with an overview of the high school experience from the student’s perspective and have a chance to tour the building with their schedule for the upcoming school year. Grade 9 students will also meet their upperclassman mentor.

Fall sports registrations are happening now! All student-athletes participating in football will begin the practice season on Friday, August 18th. Other student-athletes participating in fall sports will begin on Monday, August 21st.

Rockland High School offers the following fall sports:

• Football

• Cheerleading

• Soccer (Boys and Girls)

• Volleyball

• Golf

• Cross Country (Boys and Girls)

Below is the contact information for our fall varsity coaches:

Cheerleading

Ms. Jeanine Reardon

jreardon@rocklandschools.org

Boys Cross Country

Mr. Steve Capone

scapone@rocklandschools.org

Girls Cross Country

Ms. Kara Penney

kpenney@rocklandschools.org

Football

Mr. Nicholas Liquori

nliquori@rocklandschools.org

Golf

Mr. Greg Banks

GBanks@rocklandschools.org

Boys Soccer

Mr. Daniel Kimball

dkimball@rocklandschools.org

Girls Soccer

Ms. Marcia Beatty

mbeatty@rocklandschools.org

Volleyball

Ms. Emily Adams

eadams@rocklandschools.org

The best way to stay connected is to visit Arbiter Live on an electronic device as you can have real-time updates to game schedules.

Fall sports registration is now open! Rockland HS will be using Arbiter Registration (Formerly FamilyID) to register student-athletes.

https://www.familyid.com/rockland-high-school-athletics/fall-2023-rockland-hs-athletics-registration

All questions can be directed to Athletic Director, Dan Kimball @ Dkimball@rocklandschools.org.

There will be a Meet the Coach's Night for student-athletes and parents on Wednesday August 16th from 6:00-7:30 PM in the Auditorium!

This year, the Athletic Department is sponsoring a Summer Fitness Program. Any student is welcome to come by the fitness center when it is open (Tuesdays-Thursdays 8:00 AM-2:00 PM), led by our staff coaches. It's been great to see so many students here on campus this summer promoting physical fitness!

As July comes to a close this week, I wish students and families a safe and enjoyable rest of the summer. The office is open in the summer Monday thru Thursday, 7am until 2pm. Please call us, send us an email, or stop by if you need anything! See you soon!

School Website

Aspen Student & Family Portal

Arbiter Live- Athletic Schedules

Breakfast & Lunch Menus

John M. Harrison

Principal

Email: jharrison@rocklandschools.org
Website: https://www.rocklandschools.org/o/rockland-high
Location: 52 Mackinlay Way, Rockland, MA, USA
Phone: 781-871-0541
Twitter: @RocklandHS