All of our Roanoke Rapids Graded School District hallways and classrooms are alive with excitement as students have returned for the 2024-25 school year. 

Most students began on August 26, except for those at Roanoke Rapids Early College, who started on August 6, and Clara Hearne Pre-Kindergarten, who started on August 29. 

I was grateful to visit our schools on the first day, which is always one of my favorites. 

Executive Director of Instructional Services Lauren Hinnant; Executive Director of CTE, Accountability, and Testing Felicia Few; Public and Student Information Officer Mandy Clark; Director of Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) and Exceptional Children (EC) Krissy Martin, and I enjoyed spending time in each classroom welcoming back our students and staff. This year, we also had the opportunity to share some of the wonderful opportunities we have in RRGSD with one of our legislators.

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We were excited to show off Belmont Elementary School to Congressman Don Davis, who represents our North Carolina 1st District in the United States House of Representatives. Congressman Davis and District Director Kim Mack joined us at Belmont Elementary School with our administrative staff Principal Lindsey Goble, Assistant Principal Heather Karns, and Principal Resident Josh Clark to visit classrooms, welcome students and staff, and even participate in some lessons. 

Our students loved getting to meet Congressman Davis and learn about how he represents us in Washington DC.

Like us at RRGSD, Congressman Davis knows the importance of collaboration and how every person’s job is essential to our schools running smoothly. 

We are proud of the hard work of our school nutrition staff, bus drivers, office staff, school nurses, school counselors, media coordinators, teacher assistants, school resource officers, community outreach liaisons, student success advocates, instructional support staff, custodians, teachers, and administrators to make this opening great. 

As he toured Belmont Elementary, Congressman Davis was so complimentary of our facilities including how clean the building looked and smelled and how visually appealing our hallways, classrooms, and playgrounds were. 

I was so appreciative that when we met Karen Sykes, one of our custodians, in the hallway, Congressman Davis stopped to share his thanks for the wonderful job she and our other custodians did in preparing for the first day of school. 

We hope that Congressman Davis and Director Mack will join us again soon to see more of the wonderful things happening at RRGSD.

This past week, we have been celebrating our elementary school teachers, who have become Literacy Champions as they have been LEARNing, LOVE-ing, TEACHing, and TRANSFORMing at Belmont Elementary and Manning Elementary Schools. 

Over the last two years, they have undertaken a rigorous journey through the LETRS (Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling) professional learning course, which was no easy feat. 

Their dedication to mastering the science of reading has been inspiring. They deepened their understanding of phonics, fluency, and comprehension and equipped themselves to unlock the world of reading for our students. 

This work has been a gigantic lift, especially on top of the already strenuous work of teaching. I am so incredibly proud of the time and effort they devoted to this learning.

When I shared RRGSD’s Vision 2035 just a few short years ago, one of the essential cornerstones of that vision was preparing students with the foundational skills they need to become competent, confident readers.

Our teachers’ work completing LETRS has been a crucial step toward making that vision a reality, and our data are already starting to prove it. 

In the 2023-2024 school year, RRGSD outpaced the state of North Carolina in DIBELS (Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills — a set of procedures and measures for assessing the acquisition of literacy skills) growth, in EVERY grade level (K-3) and EVERY subgroup of students. For years to come, this hard work will resonate in the lives of countless students. If you see one of our elementary school teachers, please congratulate them for becoming a Literacy Champion!

I want to thank the John 3:16 Center for their Stock the Classroom school supply drop off for our RRHS students. 

These school supplies are so important to helping our students succeed during the school year. From September 1 through 30, 2024, John 3:16 Center will host a Sock and Underwear Drive for new items in all sizes to be used at Christmas time. 

We hope that you can partner with John 3:16 in collecting these items. Also, the John 3:16 Center and East Tenth Street Christian Church are partnering in Roanoke Valley Fights Hunger, which is scheduled for September 14, 2024. The goal of this event is to package 20,000 Harvest Packs to help children in the community and help put an end to hunger together. Please contact the John 3:16 Center if you can sign up to help.

Welcome back RRGSD!