- River Ridge High School (RRHS), commonly referred to as Ridge, is an American high school located in Lacey, Washington, USA and is one of three comprehensive high schools of the North Thurston Public Schools. It was established in 1993 and named for its proximity to the geographical ridge of the Nisqually River valley. It earned its mascot name due to its location within the Hawk's Prairie area of Thurston County off Exit 111 of Interstate 5.
- River Ridge serves many students with parents who are in or have retired from the military due to its proximity to Fort Lewis. River Ridge was constructed as a community solution to handle the over-flowing capacities of neighboring Timberline and North Thurston High Schools in the late 1980s-early 1990s.
- History
- Campus
-
River Ridge is the third high school established in the Lacey area and the first in its area to carry on a unique house system of organizing classrooms, dubbed "school within a school": students are split into the four houses (Kalama[2](A), Olympic(B), Cascade(C), and Durazno(D)) in which each house has its own office and administrative team. Other buildings serve to house electives, athletics, library media center, and main administrative offices. A common cricism in the school's architectural layout is the use of Breezeway to connect the seven buildings, which provides little protection from the Pacific Northwest weather.
- At one point the school building was also home to the experimental high school, New Century High School, which is now South Sound High School. River Ridge has not used school bells between classes since its start.
- Current Demographics
-
RRHS has a current enrollment of 1196 with 68 certificated staff members of which over 60% of them have earned a master's degree. The average years of teaching experience among the staff is 13 years. River Ridge was opened in 1993 and started out with a lot of difficulties with the student population but since 2006 has a drop out rate of 4.4% and 83% on-time graduation rate. Roughly a quarter of students are on the free or reduced lunch program. Many students manage to attend a four year college, choosing such academic challenges as University of Washington but most opting for South Puget Sound Community College.
- Academics
-
Since its start, River Ridge has always had Graduation Project as a required class for its seniors; this is even before it became a mandatory state-wide requirement in Washington. Currently, wood shop is not offered here. In addition, three foreign language classes offered at River Ridge High School: Spanish, Japanese, and French (in order of enrollment). German was offered in the past.
- College-bound students have various opportunities to earn college credit during their tenure at RRHS. Like many schools in Washington State, River Ridge allows its students to participate in the Running Start program, allowing them to attend actual college classes while simultaneously satisfying high school graduation requirements. River Ridge running start participants attend nearby South Puget Sound Community College in its Tumwater or Hawks Prairie campuses or at Pierce College in Lakewood. In addition like most American high schools, many students choose to participate in Advanced Placement (AP) classes, allowing them to earn college credit in Calculus, Government, and World History among others.
- Career-minded students interested in a vocational education are able to attend classes at New Market Vocational Skills Center in Tumwater.
- Athletics
-
Recent recognition for RRHS has been due to the success of its athletic program. The River Ridge Hawks are a 2A-division member of the Evergreen League in District 4 as organized by the WIAA. It was formerly aligned with the Narrows League as a 4A school from 1993 to 1999 and the Pac 9 League as a 3A school from 1999 to 2006. The Hawks use a version of East Carolina University's E.C. Victory as its fight song; it previously used Indiana, Our Indiana.
- River Ridge Hawks
-
The school's track team, under the great lead of coach Phil Lonborg, has been known for winning league championships every year, Boy's District Championships in 2007 and 2009, and has won back to back Girl's State Track and Field Championships in 1994 and 1995. Girl's Basketball and Volleyball have also been very successful from 2003-2007. The baseball team has seen recent success as well by winning 2 league titles in 2004 & 2006, a district title in 2008, and have made three playoff appearances since 2004 including a 5th place state finish in 2006. In 2007, the Girl's Basketball team won the State 2A Championship while the Boys Basketball team went on to win 3rd place. 2008 marks the second consecutive year that both teams qualified for the state tournament.
- {| class="wikitable"! colspan="4"|State Championships
- Girls Swimming- 8th, 2006; 5th, 2007 (based on individual races)
- Baseball - 5th, 2006; DNP, 2008
- Basketball, Boys - DNP, 2001; 3rd, 2007; DNP, 2008; 3rd, 2009
- Basketball, Girls - DNP, 2004; 5th, 2006;
- Fastpitch - DNP, 2007; 7th, 2008
- Football - Lost QF, 1998; Lost qualifier, 2004;
- Track & Field, Boys - 7th, 1994; 6th, 1995; 4th, 1999; 3rd, 2000; 5th, 2001; 5th, 2004; 6th, 2007;
- Track & Field, Girls - 7th, 1996; 8th, 2000; 4th, 2001; 7th, 2007;
- Volleyball - 3rd, 1995; 6th, 2003
- Wrestling - 12th, 2003; 12th, 2006
- Academic State Championships
- Boys Tennis - 2005
- Boys Golf - 2005
- Dance team
-
River Ridge's dance team took first place in the 2007 1A/2A WIAA state dance team competition. They are known to specialize in hip hop due to its popularity and the school's diversity. With every year they continue to choreograph their own routines compared to teams who hire their choreographer.
- Activities
- Co-curricular
- Band and Music
-
River Ridge has two choirs (Concert and Symphonic), two string orchestras, and three band classes (Concert Band, Wind Ensemble, and Jazz Ensemble). A marching band program is run during the fall season and pep band during winter.
- Starting the 2008-09 school year, River Ridge will be the only school in the area to host a taiko ensemble through The River Ridge Taiko Project, which is currently seeking private funding.
- Theater
-
The River Ridge Theater Department, produces at least five works a year, including at least one full-length musical. Theater students are able to join Thespian Troupe 6120 in an annual ceremony near the end of the school year, while technical theater students are eligible to join the Permanent Technical Crew allowing them to become school district employees paid to work as crew, designers, stage managers, and technical directors for non-theater events that use the River Ridge theater space.
- Every year, River Ridge students can audition for, and are guaranteed at least one part in, the student produced and directed Student Works production, made solely of student created one act plays and dances. The Educational Theatre Association has named River Ridge an Outstanding School in 2004, the same year that Dr. James Koval and Carolyn Lint, the superintendent and assistant superintendent were awarded that 2004 Administrator's Award.
- Extracurricular
-
River Ridge has a diversity of clubs. Besides the high school staples of AcDec, DECA, Interact, Key Club, Honor Society, and SkillsUSA, there are also recreational and hobby clubs that focus exclusively on breakdancing, Anime, guitar, electric vehicles (RREV), and awareness clubs such as Environmental club and Priority One, a Christianity based club. RRHS also hosts the MESA program, part of Tacoma/South Puget Sound MESA hosted at Pacific Lutheran University. Knowledge bowl was discontinued due to lack of participation.
- Annual club-sponsored events at River Ridge include blood drives hosted by the National Honor Society chapter for the Puget Sound Blood Center, a luau run by the SkillsUSA team (indefinitely discontinued), and Ridgestock, started by the Literary Magazine Club. Ridgestock allows local garage bands to showcase their skills and earn bragging rights. For the first time, Ridgestock will be run as a battle of the bands format.
- Student Government
-
The Associated Student Body program at RRHS is involved in building community and maintaining a reasonable social climate at the school through its assemblies and school-wide activities throughout the year. Student government is primarily organized by house, in which advisories elect representatives to the house councils, and senators are elected for each house. ASB executives are then elected from the senators for the school level. In addition, class representatives are appointed every year to raise funds for graduation activities.
- Notable alumni
- Jerramy Stevens, tight end for Tampa Bay Buccaneers and former Seattle Seahawk.
- Mia Guzman, import model, actress and singer.
- Ryan 'Balthazar' Brown, vocalist, guitarist and songwriter for heavy metal band Headless Pez.
- See also
- North Thurston High School
- Timberline High School
- External links
- Official Site
- The Olympian site
- Washington State Report Card
- Source: Wikipedia; it is used under the GNU Free Documentation License. You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the GFDL.
-
Add/edit information about this school (e.g., awards, news stories, notable alumni, fun facts)
|
View current housing listings in this area
Find your graduating class at Classmates.com
Review school: 
