We are so very excited to welcome Shea Nash back to our team at RCA! Shea will be joining us as our new Math Teacher.
I’m thrilled to annouce that Mrs. Bridget has returned to the Kenai Peninsula and will be joining the staff at RCA!
You may recognize her from the spring, here’s our new school secretary, Amanda Barber!
Dear RCA Families,
Wishing you an early welcome to the 20-21 School Year at RCA! Although school is still over a month away, I wanted to touch base with you about some important updates.
Our Board of Education approved the August SmartStart 2020 this week. Information about this plan can be found on KPBSD’s website at www.kpbsd.org and new information is updated as it becomes available. I will also continue to update our school’s website (https://rivercityacademy.blogs.kpbsd.k12.ak.us/) and make posts to our social media.
Unfortunately we are still in uncertain times but I’m here to assure you that throughout this pandemic we will continue to support all of our families and their unique needs. You can count on parental choice, consistency and continuity, and symptom free schools. We will have pathways for families who decide that in-person school is best for them, as well as pathways for families who wish to continue remote learning. If we find ourselves in a situation where remote learning is our only choice, we will leverage our best resources to find a remote option for each and every family. We have an eager and capable staff who can’t wait to work with students again!
RCA is a community. We are not dependent on buildings and bells schedules to bring us together. We will build and expand our positive school culture and continue our academic success in ways that meet the safety, health and social needs of our kids. They deserve our best work.
Looking forward, many things will stay the same. We will host our bi-weekly morning meetings to come together as a school. Student voice will continue to influence and drive our community. We will continue to use the Summit Learning Platform for our classes. Students will continue to have 24/7 access to their entire curriculum. We will continue to build meaningful relationships with our students and families through our mentoring program. Students will continue to have 1:1 weekly check-ins with their mentors. We will continue to offer support through personalized learning time (PLT) and open office hours. We will continue to score students on cognitive skills and embrace our culture of revision. We will host interesting and engaging interim (elective) classes at least three times a year. We will be creative and flexible in meeting both the academic and social needs of our students. We’ve got this.
In the coming weeks, I’ll have exciting news to share with you about new staff members who are joining our ranks. And I’ll also share more specifics about your choices with RCA come August. Feel free to reach out to me with any questions that you may have. I’m happy to answer them and possibly include them on our Questions section of our website.
I hope that you enjoy the sunshine. Take some time to relax and refresh. We’ll be back together soon enough and I am very excited for what this year will bring.
Very Sincerely,
Dawn
Mentoring matters. Recent research supports the importance of developing positive connections between kids and adults. Sources of Strength identifies Mentors or Trusted Adults as one of the sources that help people (not just adolescents) build resiliency. Mentoring increases graduation rates, college attendance rates and retention in the workplace. Developing a mentoring relationship is one of the protective factors for children who experience Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES).
Yet, the research does not quantify the reason why mentoring matters at RCA. Mentoring is part of our school culture. Mentoring builds our positive school climate. Mentoring models positive relationships and creates connections with all students.
Mentoring is part of who we are.
