“Ensuring improvement”: an overview of RV’s VISION 2020 plan

A large part of RV’s identity in recent years has been its implementation of the VISION 2020 program, which RV created to “ensure that Rancocas Valley is on a constant trajectory of improvement to the year 2020 and beyond.” 

The VISION 2020 initiative was first coordinated during the 2016-17 school year during a series of meetings with superintendents from sending districts, BOE members, RV administrators and more than 200 RV students and alum. The implementation of the VISION2020 program is spearheaded by the “steering committee,” a group of 35 RV stakeholders who met during February 2017 to fully flesh out the initiative. 

Eventually, on February 28, 2017, the RV BOE adopted the foundation of the VISION 2020 initiative. Part of this foundation were four specific strategies dedicated to fulfilling the mission of the RV school district. By the time the final version of the VISION2020 initiative was approved the the BOE on June 27, 2017, the steering committee had devised 21 “Strategic Action Plans” to go along with these strategies. Action Plans 17 through 21 are dedicated to “providing experiences that deepen the understanding and appreciation of diversity.” 

Action Plan 18 aims to diversify RV’s staff via active recruitment strategies. RV intends to accomplish this by advertising job opportunities to HBCUs and Hispanic-Serving Institutions. RV has worked closely with Nemnet, an organization that aims to diversify school staff nationwide, in order to reach out to more teachers and education specialists from underrepresented communities. 

Action Plan 18 also aimed to create a Future Teachers of America club to encourage more RV students into entering the teaching profession; this was accomplished with the Future Educators of America club, established during the 2022-23 school year by Mrs. Sherman and Mr. Heiser. 

Action Plan 19 aims to evaluate the severity of and rectify RV’s achievement gap. RV namely looked at GPA, diversity among class levels, class rank and standardized test scores. Assistant Principal of Pupil Services Mr. Ron Wence worked to measure and quantify the achievement gap, working in tandem with the student information services coordinator. RV also established a data team that compared statistics from RV with statistics from places like Montclair and Los Angeles to better identify RV’s achievement gap; the team met 4 times during the 2018-19 school year. 

Action Plan 20 aims to implement the Anti-Defamation League’s No Place for Hate initiative at RV and to apply to become a No Place for Hate school appointed by the ADL. Many administrators and faculty believe that RV was successful in this; RV incorporated the No Place for Hate initiative into its anti-bullying regulation via its HIB program, which began in the 2018-19 school year. At the end of the 2020-21 school year, the NJ Department of Education graded RV’s adherence to the NJ Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights Act that all NJ public schools have to follow. RV received an overall score of 77 out of 78, with the only one point being deducted because the school safety/climate team did not meet twice during the school year to discuss school climate issues. RV received perfect scores in the 2019-20 and 2018-19 school year and became recognized as a No Place for Hate school on May 23, 2018. Action Plan 20 also resulted in the creation of RV’s No Place for Hate Breakfast club, created in order to “[engage students in] peer leadership training through the Anti-Defamation League.”

Action Plan 21 established the Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Cultural Competency Committee, led by Mr. Stephen Joseph. The other members of the committee are Ms. Valeska Ochoa, Ms. Danet Poteat, Ms. Brighid Marquess, Ms. Karen Carlson and Ms. Bouchra Heiba. One of the main goals of the committee is to foster a more diverse and inclusive environment at RV through cultural events such as Black History Month, Latino Heritage Month, Pride Month and French Week. In addition, to further cultural awareness among RV staff, more than 50 RV students and faculty attended seminars at the University of Pennsylvania related to fostering a more diverse and inclusive environment at RV, and RV entered the Delaware Valley Consortium Excellence Through Equity during the 2019-20 school year.  

Many of these Action Plans were implemented years ago, many RV students feel that they’ve had a noticeable impact in diversity at RV

“[At Lumberton Middle School], my classes were not as diverse as my classes here,” said junior Dillon Macdonald when asked if he felt that the VISION 2020 initiative has been successful.

Another common sentiment among RV students is that the VISION 2020 program is nothing more than a slogan, and wasn’t explained to students in any actual depth. 

“I have no idea what [the VISION2020 program] is,” said junior Kalyan Davé.

In contrast, RV Principal Joseph Martin believes that the VISION2020 program has resulted in noticeable improvement throughout RV. 

“As a principal, I feel that it is making an impact on our building… We feel like we are using our resources to make RV the best place that it can be.”