Good evening everyone! As the first weekly update of the 2013-2014 school
year, I am happy to welcome you back to school and to welcome any newcomers.  If
you know of newcomers to our school, please have them contact me with their
email addresses so that I can add them to our group.

We have had a very smooth and successful start to the school year so far.  I
am very pleased that our beginning of the year scheduling issues for high school
students have been minimal and should be fairly settled at this point.  This
will allow everyone to be placed quickly and will allow instruction to begin
immediately within these classes.  Our school is once again participating in
Advance Kentucky, which is an initiative that encourages students to take AP
English, Math and Science courses to prepare for theAP exams at the end
of the year.  Students are reimbursed for partial amounts of the costs of the
exams and they are also awarded monetary incentives for passing these exams
($100).  Ultimately, however, your child is exposed to rigorous, highly
demanding course work that helps to prepare him or her for college level
courses. 

We have modified the schedule this year with students only having 6 regular
class periods and a 40 minute block for what we are referring to as Academic
Advising and/or RTI(Response to Intervention).  Students will
receive more specific instruction in identified areas to either help improve the
student's achievement in that area or they could receive more individualized
attention designed to enrich or expand upon student interests, as well. 
Decisions about how to use this time for your student will be based on data and
other forms of evidence that we will use to best meet the needs of our
students. 

I believe we have middle school soccer and volleyball beginning their
schedules this week.  Our RHSGirls golf team will be traveling to
Dale Hollow State Park tomorrow afternoon to play in the Class A tournament.  We
wish them well and for them to return home safely.  There is also a football
scrimmage Thursday night against Glasgow. This is going to be an awesome year
for our Panther Football team and we are extremely excited about getting this
season underway!!

On a personal note, I want to thank all of you who have sent well wishes and
thoughts for me during my time of illness.  I am on track with my treatment
program and continue to make good progress toward my recovery.  As always, if we
can do anything to assist you with your child's educational process, please do
not hesitate to ask.  Thank you for allowing us to serve your children in this
capacity.  We look forward to great things for our school this year.

Thank you,
Kim McDaniel