An education celebration : New Rogers Heritage High dedicated on Sunday
Posted on Monday, August 18, 2008
ROGERS — Although Rogers ’ newest high school is a celebration of the city’s heritage, all minds were focused on the future Sunday.
Rogers alumni, schoolteachers, students, parents, civic leaders and other members of the community gathered at the gymnasium of the new Rogers Heritage High School for its dedication ceremony.
The ceremony was a celebration and announcement of a new step in the city’s future. A step for the new Heritage High, which is named to honor those who attended school on the site at 1114 S. 5 th St., whether as students at the high school or at its sophomore campus.
“ I know of no community that has given so much of themselves to young people and their education, ” said Joye R. Kelley, president of the Rogers School Board.
RHHS now stands on the grounds where Rogers High School was from 1960 to 2001. From 2001 to 2006, the school was the site of the Sophomore campus.
More than two-thirds of the school is the result of brand-new construction. The remaining portion is what is left of the building that housed Rogers High School before RHS moved to a new building on Perry Road.
Now, RHHS joins Rogers High School as a 9-12 th-grade school; although, this school year will be the only time Heritage High School won’t graduate any seniors — all seniors set to graduate in 2009 were allowed to stay at RHS.
Feeder schools for RHHS are Greer Lingle Middle School and Oakdale Middle School.
“ This is a place where all belong, all learn, and all succeed, ” said Superintendent of Schools Dr. Janie Darr.
Raymond Burns, president of the Rogers-Lowell Chamber of Commerce, said Heritage High will also help attract newcomers to the area.
When recruiting persons and businesses to Rogers and northwest formed in recent years.
“ Our city is enjoying a complete transformation. I go all over our state... I see stagnant communities with very little vision... I feel pleased and blessed to be a mayor where mediocrity is unacceptable, ” he said.
After RHHS Principal Karen Steen explained how she plans to focus on student achievement, she thanked a number of the persons who helped along the way as Heritage was built and shaped. That included her family, during which she stifled tears and thanked them for their support in recent weeks as she has prepared to open the school.
But the real future of Heritage High begins today, when students attend class for the first day of school.
The students ’ first day will look much like a regular day, except for the beginning. On that first day, students will report to what are being called “ alpha classes, ” to which students were assigned in a letter that went out to them last week. The alpha classes are where students will receive maps of the school (maps will be in the letters as well ), their class schedules and other pertinent information. The students will then fill out schedule-change forms, if needed. Highlighters will be available for students to mark their classes ’ locations on the maps.
The alpha-class teachers will then take up the schedule-change forms. Once those forms, as well as schedules for students who didn’t show up the first day of school, are delivered back to the main office for all the classes, the students will be dismissed to their regular first-period classes. The students will then go through their regular schedules, but with shortened classes for the first day. Arkansas, Burns said, a number of amenities in the area are named.
“ Right on the top of that list is the Rogers Public School System. This is just another weapon we can put in our arsenal to get people to move to northwest Arkansas, ” he said.
Rogers Mayor SteveWomack saw the school’s opening as another way the city has trans-
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