Ram-ily Connection
Partnering with Parents for Student Achievement
February Edition
RGSD Vision Statement
RGHS Mission Statement
Family Focus: Changing the Narrative
For many years February has been designated as Black History Month in America. Traditionally we see tributes and salutes pour in on social media and television that highlight contributions of notable African Americans such as Rosa Parks or John Lewis. However, oftentimes the tributes and stories stop with a few key figures or stories that most have already heard several times before. Although there is a wealth of knowledge about Black culture and numerous historical figures that should be discussed on a regular basis, it is not universally acknowledged, as it should be, in many spaces.
This edition of the Ram-ily Connection aims to show how the contributions of African Americans have played a major role in shaping American culture. Black history is American History. Please take a moment to review the next section to learn more about the various contributions. We hope that it has a lasting impact this month and EVERY MONTH.
In addition to the information below, we also want to encourage our students to participate in our weekly Black Excellence Trivia Challenge. Each week we will feature a new theme relating to Black history. The themes are the following:
- Week 1: Black Authors/Literature
- Week 2: HBCU Pride
- Week 3: Freedom Fighters
- Week 4: Celebration of Black Excellence (poster contest)
Facts related to Black history will be read during the announcements daily (also on Google Classroom), starting February 1, 2022 and a trivia question related to the facts will be announced at the end of the week. To participate, click on the link below for details:
Black Excellence Trivia Challenge -- https://classroom.google.com/c/NDY1MDc0ODIyMjQ1?cjc=awvhc35
Week 1: Black Authors/Literature
Tananarive Due
*Source: https://www.tananarivedue.com/
Click on the link below to listen to her speak about one of her novels, The Between.
Angie Thomas
Angie Thomas was born, raised, and still lives in Jackson, Mississippi. A former teen rapper, she holds a BFA in creative writing from Belhaven University. Her award-winning, acclaimed debut novel, The Hate U Give, is a #1 New York Times bestseller and major motion picture from Fox 2000, starring Amandla Stenberg and directed by George Tillman, Jr. Her second novel, On the Come Up, is a #1 NYT bestseller as well, and a film is in development with Paramount Pictures with Angie acting as a producer. In 2020, Angie released Find Your Voice: A Guided Journal to Writing Your Truth as a tool to help aspiring writers tell their stories. In 2021, Angie returned to the world of Garden Heights with Concrete Rose, a prequel to The Hate U Give that focuses on seventeen-year-old Maverick Carter.
*Source: https://angiethomas.com/
Click on the link below to listen to her speak about her latest book, Concrete Rose.
https://youtu.be/FcytelnS2QgJason Reynolds
Jason Reynolds is an American author who writes novels and poetry for young adult and middle-grade audiences, including Ghost, a National Book Award Finalist for Young People's Literature.
Born in Washington, DC and raised in neighboring Oxon Hill, Maryland, Reynolds found inspiration in rap to begin writing poetry at nine years old. He focused on poetry for approximately the next two decades, only reading a novel cover to cover for the first time at age 17 and publishing several poetry collections before he published his own first novel, When I Was The Greatest, in 2014. He won the Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe Award for New Talent for this first work of prose and seven more novels followed in the next four years, including Ghost (2016) and two more books in what became his New York Times best-selling Track series, Patina (2017) and Sunny (2018); As Brave As You (2016), winner of the 2016 Kirkus Prize, the 2017 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work for Youth/Teen, and the 2017 Schneider Family Book Award; and a Marvel Comics novel called Miles Morales: Spider-Man (2017).
*Source:https://www.jasonwritesbooks.com/
Click here to listen to his powerful interview with Stephen Colbert about his latest book Stuntboy.
Week 2: HBCU Pride
This section will highlight prominent African Americans who graduated from a HBCU.
Kenya Barris-Clark Atlanta University
Kenya Barris has created numerous television shows, including the critically acclaimed Black-ish. He was a writer for The Game, Girlfriends, and Soul Food. Barris co-created and produced America's Next Top Model with Tyra Banks. He also penned the film Girls Trip. He co-produced the 2019 film Little and co-wrote the screenplay for the 2019 theatrical release Shaft.
In 2020, Barris made his acting debut in #BlackAF, a series he developed for Netflix, co-starring Rashida Jones and Iman Benson. In October 2020, Barris announced that he will write, produce and direct a biopic on comedian Richard Pryor for MGM.
*Source: IMDb.com
Stacey Abrams-Spelman College
Oprah Winfrey-Tennessee State University
In 2013, Winfrey was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Obama and received honorary doctorate degrees from Duke and Harvard. Winfrey has won many accolades throughout her career which includes 18 Daytime Emmy Awards, including the Lifetime Achievement Award and the Chairman's Award, two Prime Time Emmy Awards, including the Bob Hope Humanitarian Award, a Tony Award, a Peabody Award and the Jean Hersholt Award, awarded by the Academy Awards and two additional Academy Award nominations. Winfrey was elected as a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2021.
*Source: biography.com
Week 3: Freedom Fighters-Black Activists
Kimberle' Crenshaw
Kimberlé W. Crenshaw is a pioneering scholar and writer on civil rights, critical race theory, Black feminist legal theory, and race, racism and the law. In addition to her position at Columbia Law School, she is a Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Crenshaw’s work has been foundational in critical race theory and in “intersectionality,” a term she coined to describe the double bind of simultaneous racial and gender prejudice. Her studies, writing, and activism have identified key issues in the perpetuation of inequality, including the “school to prison pipeline” for African American children and the criminalization of behavior among Black teenage girls.
To find out more about what Critical Race Theory actually is, click on the link below:
https://www.edweek.org/leadership/what-is-critical-race-theory-and-why-is-it-under-attack/2021/05
*Source: https://www.law.columbia.edu/faculty/kimberle-w-crenshaw
Ella Baker
Ella Baker became one of the leading figures of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and '60s. Following her early work for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, she was one of the founders of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in 1957. Three years later, she helped launch the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).
While not as well known as Martin Luther King Jr., John Lewis, or other famed leaders of the civil rights movement, Baker was a powerful behind-the-scenes force that ensured the success of some of the movement's most important organizations and events.
Her life and accomplishments were chronicled in the 1981 documentary Fundi: The Story of Ella Baker. "Fundi" was her nickname, from a Swahili word that means a person who passes down a craft to the next generation.
*Source: biography.com
James Farmer
James Farmer was educated at Wiley College in Marshall, Texas (1938), and at Howard University in Washington, D.C. (1941), where his father taught divinity. In 1942 he cofounded CORE, which originated integrated bus trips through the South, called Freedom Rides, to challenge local efforts to block the desegregation of interstate busing. Farmer, who sought racial justice by means of nonviolence, was often a target of racial violence himself.
He resigned from the leadership of CORE in 1965, and in 1968 he lost a run for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives to Shirley Chisholm. In 1969–70 he served as assistant secretary of health, education and welfare under President Richard M. Nixon. In 1985 Farmer published his autobiography, Lay Bare the Heart, and in 1998 he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He was also portrayed in the well-known film, The Great Debaters.
*Source: https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/farmer-james
Week 4: Celebration of Black Excellence
Fritz Pollard
After serving in the Army during World War I, he joined the Akron Pros of the American Professional Football Association, which later became the NFL. He was one of only two Black players in the new league. In 1921, while he was still a player, the team also named him its coach – the first African American head coach in league history.
Over the next seven years, Pollard coached four different teams and founded a Chicago football team of all-African American players. Later, he launched a newspaper and ran a successful investment firm. Pollard was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2005.
*Source: https://www.profootballhof.com/players/fritz-pollard/
Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander
In 1947, President Harry Truman named her to his Committee on Civil Rights, whose report became a blueprint for the civil rights movement. Some 30 years later, President Jimmy Carter appointed her chair of the White House Conference on Aging, which sought to address the social and economic needs of the elderly.
*Source: https://archives.upenn.edu/exhibits/penn-people/biography/sadie-tanner-mossell-alexander
Jacob Lawrence
Jacob Lawrence was an American painter known for his portrayal of African-American historical subjects and contemporary life. Lawrence referred to his style as "dynamic cubism", although by his own account the primary influence was not so much French art as the shapes and colors of Harlem. He brought the African-American experience to life using blacks and browns juxtaposed with vivid colors. He also taught and spent 16 years as a professor at the University of Washington.
Lawrence is among the best known twentieth-century African-American painters, known for his modernist illustrations of everyday life as well as narratives of African-American history and historical figures. At the age of 23 he gained national recognition with his 60-panel The Migration Series, which depicted the Great Migration of African Americans from the rural South to the urban North. The series was purchased jointly by the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., and the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York. Lawrence's works are in the permanent collections of numerous museums, including the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, Reynolda House Museum of Art, and the Museum of Northwest Art. His 1947 painting The Builders hangs in the White House.
*Source: https://www.moma.org/artists/3418
Rams Spotlight
Celebrating Athletic and Academic Success at RGHS!
Deaira D.
Jocelyn J.
Kourtney S.
Enoryt W.
Mia C.
Nekaybaw T.
Super Star Readers
Ms. Dunnell's classes took the STAR reading exam to see how their reading levels were doing. The following students showed over 200 points growth between September and January!! The average growth at the middle school level is 70 points a year, so these scholars showed awesome growth in only 4 months.
- Toni Reed +210 points
- Tanyria Robertson +245 points
- Mikeia Bethany +280 points
- Corrington Williams +285 points
Mr. Vaught's American Gov't
- Precious Barry
- Mykale Gladden
- Alexis Taylor
- MacHai Daughtiry
- Kellyn Lenard
- Tommia Finley
- Jazzy Collins
- Mikayla Green
- Alondria Smith
- Ethan Parker
- Tatyana Bass
- Jaylen Wilburn
What's Going On At The View?
- Jan 15-Mar 1: Walgreens Expressions Challenge -see the flyer below for more details
- Feb 1-28: RGHS Black Excellence Challenge/Trivia
- Feb 1-24: RGHS Rams & Lady Rams Basketball Game--Click the link for their schedule- https://www.mshsaa.org/MySchool/?s=185
- Feb 1-28: Saint Louis County Library Black History Celebrations 2022- https://www.slcl.org/content/black-history-celebration
- Feb 3: Dream It Big Inc. Food distribution (every Thursday this month unless inclement weather)
- Feb 8: Riverview Gardens School District Special Administrative Board Meeting - Open Session
(To view the agenda, visit https://go.boarddocs.com/mo/rgsd/Board.nsf/Public)
Feb 11: Professional Development Day-No School
- Feb 17-25 Missouri Historical Society Black History events- https://mohistory.org/black-history-month-2022
- Feb 21: President's Day-No School (District Closed)
- Feb 22: Riverview Gardens School District Special Administrative Board Meeting - Open Session
(To view the agenda, visit https://go.boarddocs.com/mo/rgsd/Board.nsf/Public)
Family Resources
RGHS Reminders
2021-2022 RGHS Admin Team
Ms. Brook Bennett-Assistant Principal
Office 2: A-F
Ext. 22122
Mr. Alex Clark- Assistant Principal
Office 3: G-L
Ext.22159
Mr. Jamison Rusthoven-Assistant Principal
Office 4: M-S
Ext.22193
Dr. Monica Perry- Assistant Principal
Upper Office 9: T-Z
Ext. 22221
Dr. Jarret Smith-Alternative Ed. Administrator
Lower Office 9
Ext. 22238
Ms. Mashonda Behling-Special School District Area Coordinator
Office 3
Ext.22246
Mr. Zachary Thurwalker- Athletic Director
Gym
Ext. 22199
Home to School Coordinator Team
The Home to School Coordinator Team is committed to continue our efforts to support students and families as they connect with the school community during the 2021-2022 school year. We aim to encourage students to attend school regularly and strive for academic success. In doing so, we will connect with school counselors, teachers, administrators and community agencies to implement strategies and develop activities that will promote student success. Feel free to contact us using the information provided below:
- Mrs. C. Brown: Office 2 (A-F)
Ext. 22125
- Mr. D. Pitts: Office 3 (G-L)
Ext. 22157
- Mr. T. Martin: Office 4 (M-S)
22194
- Ms. T. Pikes: Office 9 (T-Z)
Ext. 22123
Student Support Team
9th grade counselor: Ms. R. Ross
ext. 22226
10th grade counselor: Mr. M. Wharton
ext. 22223
11th grade counselor: Mrs. T. Beverly
tjacksonbeverly@rgsd.k12.mo.us
ext.22228
12th grade counselor: Mrs. A. Graham
ext.22225
Social Worker: Ms. W. Ross
ext. 22224
College Advisor: Mr. M. Morrison
ext. 22236
Student Attendance
Expectations: Learning During a Quarantine
In the event that scholars and/or teachers are sent home for 10 days of quarantine, the affected group of students will participate in virtual learning with their classroom teacher. Students and teachers must log into Google Classroom for virtual learning during the quarantine period. Therefore, teachers will implement the concurrent teaching model that was implemented in Spring 2021, using the Google Classroom platform.
Student Class Schedule
- Student's lunch pin is their username
- Student's 6-digit birthday is their password, ie.091619 (September 16, 2019)
RGHS Dress Code & Mask Guidelines
Student ID's
Additionally, students must get a temporary ID if they do not have their permanent ID when they check in at school. The prices for temporary ID's and Replacement ID's are the following:
- Temporary ID= $ 1.00
- Replacement ID= $ 3.00
- Replacement ID and lanyard=$ 5.00
A "Quote" to Remember
THANKS FOR VIEWING THIS MONTH'S NEWSLETTER!
Riverview Gardens High School
Email: cbrown@rgsd.k12.mo.us
Website: https://riverviewgardenshighrgsd.schoolinsites.com/
Phone: (314)869-4700 22125
Twitter: @RGHS_official