R-FH Ends a Great Semester

The first semester at Rumson Fair Haven Regional High School is officially over and Superintendent Dr. Peter Righi said that it was one of the school's best. "This half of the year has flown by," he said. "What impresses me the most about this semester is that the students came prepared to learn, the athletic teams have had great fall seasons and all of my teachers have been working really hard." The school has had a great athletic and academic semester. Two highlights from the semester include the football team who brought home a state championship title and overall improved test scores. "This year our State quarterly exam went much smoother then any of the quarterlies in the last year," Righi said.  This semester, students scored much higher on their quarterly exam. This means that the students are picking up on key concepts much better then in years past. Righi credits such a great first semester to a focus on three main goals: student wellness, academic improvement and becoming a professional learning community. For student wellness, the school has established different programs to help promote healthy behaviors and decisions among the student body.  "We want our students to be well and make good decisions," said Righi. Dr. Suzanne Fico, the high school's student assistance councilor, organizes the programs with the help of the peer leadership program. The programs help teach kids the skills they need to deal with everything from peer pressure, drinking, drugs and bullying. In November, the peer leaders lead a discussion and workshop focused on combating cyber bullying. For academics, Righi said that there have been a lot of changes in the past couple years that have helped his faculty and students focus on improvement.  One of the changes was forming a ninth period in the school day where students can seek out teachers in any subject for extra help or study time. Righi says that now the students have plenty of opportunity to get the academic assistance that they need. "A lot of times, students can get lost," Righi explained. "All of my teachers spend extra hours each week to help students study something they are struggling with, enrich students who are doing well and want to learn more, or collaborate with other faculty on ways to improve their teaching skills." Righi said he is pleased with the academic improvements made so far this year, but a goal for the next year is to increase the number of AP classes offered to students. For becoming a professional learning community, Righi said that the teachers are expected to grow and expand their teaching knowledge on a regular basis. In addition to setting aside time for student assistance, the R-FH faculty spends time learning improved ways to be efficient teachers. Righi said that his staff prides themselves on continuing to learn together. "The life-long learner. We model that here at R-FH," he said. Some of the ways they continue to learn include taking graduate classes, bringing in outsiders to teach the faculty new teaching techniques or methods or having collaborative brain storm staff meetings where they share knowledge that already exists among the faculty. "We want to become a professional learning community in order to improve instruction of the students," Righi said. Overall, the superintendent said he is pleased with the fall semester and looks forward to the spring where he hopes to continue to focus on their goals and achieve great accomplishments. He said that the faculty and students make his job easy and he is happy to be about of the school, "I just love it!" he said.