On November 30, RV hosted its second and final community engagement center of the year in the C120 and the cafeteria.
The event aims to make RV’s vision for the upcoming school years more transparent, and to give RV stakeholders more influence on future decisions.
The event began with Superintendent Dr. Christopher Heilig giving background to RV’s VISION2020 initiative. The initiative is composed of 21 different “Action Plans” each intending to improve the climate and culture of the school.
Heilig and RV Principal Joseph Martin lauded the VISION2020 initiative as a success, noting RV’s impressive stats on school review site Niche.com. According to Niche, RV is the third best public high school in Burlington County, ranked only behind Moorestown and Lenape High Schools.
“It gives me great pride as the building leader to hear this great news. While ‘rankings’ don’t always catch my eye, it is nice once and while to read about some of our accolades and ongoing progress,” said Martin when the ranking was first announced in November of last year.
After the introduction in C120, the event then moved to the cafeteria. The attendees, comprised of students, teachers and parents in the community, were split into several groups overseen by RV’s department supervisors. The supervisors then facilitated a conversation between the group centered around what the profile of the ideal RV graduate should look like.
English teacher Cindy Pugliese and Chemistry teacher Evan Snyder emphasized that developing teamwork skills should be crucial to RV’s mission.
“I think [humanities] teachers are turned off by the idea of incorporating STEM concepts into their classes,” said Snyder. “But I think we can learn a lot from the collaborative aspect of a class like [Project Lead The Way].”
Another point of emphasis during the conversation was the importance of teaching students about financial literacy, especially as students approach college age.
“A lot of students here probably don’t know how to balance a check… I don’t know if students know that closing a credit card actually hurts your credit score,” said RV counselor Deshe Clark.
Around 60 people attended the event, with many of them being RV teachers. While there were only a few students present, they found that the event was very insightful.
“Community engagement sessions are gateways into the lives of students,” said senior Francesco Vazquez. “They help form valuable connections between a diverse range of people in order to strengthen the school’s culture.”
