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Top ranking highlights amazing month at RCS

September was a truly amazing month for Russellville City Schools, as we received several recognitions that should make our community proud!

We couldn’t have been more excited to find out this past month that our own Russellville High School was named the #1 Standout High School in Alabama by the nationally recognized school ranking site Niche.com, which was a reflection of the caliber of teachers and students we have in our system.

Our teachers work so hard every single day to make sure the students in their classrooms are getting the best education possible. They use technology and out-of-the-box teaching to get students engaged and to help them apply the things they are learning to real-life situations. And our talented and hardworking students are constantly setting goals for themselves and surpassing them. They don’t let obstacles or challenges stand in the way of the bright futures they want to have, and I’m thankful we are able to provide them with the right kind of environment at RCS to achieve those goals.

RCS also had the privilege this past month of hosting the statewide AP Celebration, thanks to the amazing growth shown on our students’ AP scores from last year to this past year (a 122-percent increase)! At the celebration, Russellville was also named the first School of Excellence by A+ College Ready, which was a great honor for our system. RCS has so many strengths, and I am proud that academics and learning are at the top of the list of those strengths we have here.

But the lessons learned inside the classroom aren’t the only lessons we want our students to learn. In order to make sure our students are prepared for life beyond the walls of our schools, we want our students to also learn lessons about the importance of kindness, compassion, charity and helping your fellow neighbor. To put this in action, our school system “adopted” the Lumberton Independent School District in Lumberton, Texas–a system that had many students and teachers who lost everything to the flooding from Hurricane Harvey.

For two weeks, our students and faculty gathered monetary donations for these fellow Americans in need, and soon our community joined in as well. Our city leaders, first responders, businesses and community members truly stepped up to the plate to partner with us as we tried to help the people of Lumberton. And thanks to the generosity of the people of Russellville, we were able to send more than $15,000 to the Lumberton ISD to help with their needs. I want to thank each and every person who made a donation to this relief effort or played any part in making this possible. We were truly able to show kindness and compassion to these people in need while also showing our own students that it’s always good to help other people–important lessons we could all learn from.

We are also in the middle of our fall sports season, and we appreciate the continued support of our community in this area. We have some very talented

student-athletes who are learning valuable lessons each week, whether they win or lose. Being part of a team means being part of something bigger than yourself and learning to work together, be a team player, how to be a leader, and learning important lessons about winning and losing with grace and class. Athletic events are so much more than a score on a scoreboard, and I am very proud of our student-athletes and how they handle themselves on and off the field. Positivity goes a long way!

This coming month we will have more exciting things taking place at our schools, and one big event we are looking forward to is the annual Russellville City Schools Education Foundation Run on October 21. This is a great event for the Foundation and a way to raise funds for the student scholarships and teacher grants they give out each year. We’re hoping to see a lot of participants at this year’s event, so come on out and support our schools! More information about this event will be distributed via social media in the coming weeks.

There is so much more taking place within our system, and we would love for each of you to know about our events, activities and successes. If you want to keep up with what’s going on at RCS on a daily basis, make sure to follow our district Twitter (@RussellvilleK12) and Facebook accounts as well as the Twitter (@Russellville_HS, @RussellvilleMS, @ResElem, @Westatrcs) and Facebook accounts for each of our four schools.

As always, it’s GREAT to be a Golden Tiger!

Heath Grimes

Superintendent

Russellville City Schools

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