New Richmond High School

New Richmond High School
New Richmond Schools
Address
1131 Bethel-New Richmond Road
New Richmond, Ohio, (Clermont County) 45157
United States
Coordinates 38°57′14″N 84°16′4″W / 38.95389°N 84.26778°W / 38.95389; -84.26778Coordinates: 38°57′14″N 84°16′4″W / 38.95389°N 84.26778°W / 38.95389; -84.26778
Information
Type Public, Coeducational high school
Established 1944
School district New Richmond Exempted Village School District
Superintendent Adam Bird
Principal Mark Bailey
Grades 9-12
Enrollment 772 (2007–2008)
Color(s) Red and Black [1]         
Athletics conference Southern Buckeye Athletic/Academic Conference[1]
Mascot Lions[1]
Newspaper The Messenger
Yearbook NERIHI
Athletic Director Doug Foote[1]
Website School Website

New Richmond High School is a public high school located in southwestern Clermont County, Ohio approximately twenty-five miles east of downtown Cincinnati. New Richmond High School is a four-year comprehensive high school with a student enrollment of approximately 750. Another 75 high school students receive specialized vocational training by attending one of the career development campuses in the Grant Vocational School. It is the only high school in the New Richmond Exempted Village School District. New Richmond High School has been rated excellent by the state of Ohio for three years and the entire district is now rated as excellent by the Ohio Department Of Education.

History

Two nearby townships wished to be combined with the New Richmond Exempted School District (NREVSD) in the late fifties. Pierce Township School became part of the New Richmond Exempted Village School District in 1955, followed by Monroe School in 1959. Moscow School consolidated with New Richmond District in 1962 and functioned within the New Richmond District until it closed its doors in 1980.

The school at Market Street became overcrowded. As a result, 73 acres (300,000 m2) of farmland were purchased from Maud Arnold on Bethel-New Richmond Road to build an elementary school. New Richmond Elementary (NRE) was dedicated on May 18, 1958. This left the Market Street School for grades 7-12. Later, in 1965 the New Richmond High School (NRHS) was erected next door to NRE, leaving the middle school at Market Street. Nine years later in 1974, a middle school was built on the same grounds as NRE and NRHS. This is now known as the Main Campus.

Until 1980 the administrative offices were housed in the Market Street building. They relocated to the Middle School and in 1983, the building was sold for $80,100. For the next seven years, the building remained vacant and was left to deteriorate. In 1990, the board repurchased the building at the original sale price of $80,100. Extensive renovations and repairs were made, and the building was once again used for public purposes.

The Market Street building was rededicated on August 27, 1995. The total cost of the repairs and remodeling was $2,500,000. It now serves as a community resource center. This building houses the NREVSD administrative offices, the New Richmond High School Graduation Academy, and the Boys and Girls Club of New Richmond

In 1997, a new elementary school was built to replace the Pierce Elementary building. This new school, Locust Corner Elementary (LCE), is located behind Pierce Elementary. The Pierce building has since been demolished. (Click here to view pictures.) Monroe and NRE underwent major renovations as well. The students and staff at Monroe Elementary spent one school year, 1994–1995, in mobile classrooms during construction. Their sacrifice paid off when they moved back into the beautifully renovated and enlarged building.

History sometimes repeats itself. Just as had happened one hundred years earlier at the Market Street School, NRE was moved into another building, the Pierce elementary building, while renovations were being made. Luckily, this time it was not due to severe safety issues. Half of the NRE students and staff spent the 1998–1999 school year in the Pierce building, while the other half - students from the Moscow area - spent the year at Monroe Elementary.

Financial Crisis

New Richmond’s Board of Education has been presented with a plan to use attrition and ask district voters to approve a future capital improvement levy to offset the projected loss of $8.1 million the New Richmond Exempted Village Schools will experience after 2016 due to Ohio’s deregulation of electrical utilities.

The contingency plan, submitted by New Richmond superintendent Adam Bird at a combined school board work session and meeting of the district’s Financial Planning Committee Dec. 6, anticipates savings of $4.7 million per year by 2017 by not replacing 35 teachers and 14 support staff personnel expected to retire in the next five years.

The plan received the endorsement of the financial planning committee, which includes Scott Henderson, Jeanie Williams and Joe Middeler from the New Richmond business community, and parents Laura Jones, Rich Grogan and Mark Miller. Bird and the committee were asked to come up with recommendations by the board’s January meeting.

When Ohio deregulated electrical utilities in 2001 and reduced their assessed value from 88 to 25 percent, the state began taxing utilities on a kilowatt per hour basis and agreed to share that revenue with affected school districts for 15 years in the form of deregulation payments.

“This plan was born out of necessity,” said Bird. “These changes are being considered because of our financial forecast.”

The plan is based on a district retirement survey made in September. Bird noted that there’s no guarantee there will be the number of retirements anticipated and for that reason he included a reduction in force (RIF) clause in each year of the 5-year plan.

“A reduction in force will be used if anticipated retirements do not occur,” said Bird.

The plan also calls for a change in school day starts in 2011-12 to make the transportation department more efficient, changing Locust Corner Elementary and Monroe Elementary into P-4 buildings and New Richmond Elementary into a grade 5-6 building in the 2014-15 school year and go to a three-tier busing system and discussing a permanent improvement levy with the community in the next five years.

“Attrition is the way to go,” noted board member Kevin Walriven, who pointed to reductions of $2,272,474 in operating expenses over the past 10 years with the reduction of 25 positions due to attrition. “When you RIF you don’t lose the experienced teacher, you lose a beginning teacher.”

Since 2001 New Richmond schools have reduced administrators from 16 to 12, classroom teachers from 179 to 163 and classroom support staff from 41 to 36.

If all the retirements materialize over the next five years, New Richmond will need to transfer teachers based on their certification to fill openings.

New Richmond also faces a possible additional loss of $1.4 million per year should Duke Energy prevail in its request to the state to have the value of its non-generating property (meters, poles, substations) lowered.

A 5 mil permanent improvement levy could be considered in the next five years and would generate $2.5 million annually to be used to maintain school facilities, purchase computers, buses and textbooks, and capital expenditures.

The changes in planned spending and increased revenue of $7.2 million over 5 years will come to within $2.3 million in managing the 2016 shortfall in revenue.

Bird said the second phase of the plan to address the remaining $2.3 shortfall will be addressed by examining every appropriation to make sure it is essential, continue to lobby legislators to replace deregulation payments with additional kilowatt tax revenue funding, and to closely monitor the State Foundation Program as it develops in the biennium budgeting process.

“There will be three Ohio biennium budgets, two presidential elections and another gubernatorial election before that decision is necessary,” said Bird.

Ohio’s biennial budget could become a problem long before 2016.

Ohio faces an $8 billion shortfall in its next biennium budget in June and governor-elect John Kasich has said the shortfall will be made by budget cuts. The cuts may mean a 10 to 20 percent cut in state aid to schools. New Richmond receives 15 percent of its current $26 million in revenue from the state, compared to 43 percent for Batavia, 57 percent for Goshen and 66 percent for Bethel.

“What was once an asset of having two power stations in the school district could become a liability to the community in 2017,” said Bird. “The assessed value of the generating plants inflates the total value of the school district upon which school foundation payments are based and the district receives less state aid.”

Main Campus

New Richmond High School

The original building opened for the 1965-1966 school year. The classroom wing of New Richmond High School has a red brick exterior and the activity wing has a tan brick exterior.

Academic Wing

Three Floors of instruction including:

Science/Multi-Purpose Wing

Two floors of instructional space connected to the main academic building including:

Activity Wing

  • 500 seats
  • An orchestra pit
  • A stage with backstage areas for sets, furniture, costumes, tools, and changing space.
  • A sound/lighting booth with state-of-the-art lighting and audio equipment.
  • Once the library, this room has been renovated and is the new home of the NRHS Troubadours.
  • Four lane 25m lap pool
  • Seating for 50
  • Seating for 800 on the floor
  • Seating for 400 on the balcony
  • 2 storage spaces
  • 20 tables with 240 seats
  • 2 serving lines
  • A snack stand
  • Computer lab
  • Library
  • Distance Learning Lab
  • Teacher Academy Program
  • Weight Room
  • Band Room
  • Percussion room
  • Wood shop
  • Locker rooms

New Richmond Middle School

New Richmond Middle School serves 7th and 8th grade students. The School was built in 1971 and has a cement facade. The School is relatively basic because of the facilities of New Richmond High school. The school has a gym(seats 400), a cafeteria(seats 240), a library with a computer lab, 18 general classrooms, 3 science rooms, an art room, 2 computer labs, a chorus room and a band room.

New Richmond Elementary School

New Richmond Elementary School is one of three elementary schools in the New Richmond School District serving grades K-6. The School was the first on the main campus opening in 1958. The School includes a gym and a cafeteria separated by a large folding wall, a stage that opens to the gym, a library, a literacy computer lab, a technology lab, a TV studio, two preschool rooms, a science lab, a commons, facilities for music and visual arts, and 27 general classrooms. Recent publications indicate that in the near future NRE will house all of the districts 5th and 6th grade students.

Athletic Facilities

The campus also includes top notch athletic facilities which include a set of 3 tennis courts and a practice tennis court, 2 baseball/softball fields, 1 practice field, and a newly added 7 million dollar stadium, including artificial turf, buildings for both team, the home team's (the Lions') includes a weight training room, a paramedic station and coaches' offices. The stadium, used for soccer, football, track and field events, includes an 8 lane track, a high jump pit, a pole vault pit, and a long jump area. The home team's seats are incredibly ergonomic, including actual chairs instead of traditional bleacher/benches. The sound system and lights are all controlled from a state-of-the-art A/V room on top of the home team's stands, and includes cameras and camera posts. Furthermore, the field-turf, a new age playing surface, has been installed onto the formerly grass football field which improves its durability and allows it to be used for other field sports such as soccer and lacrosse. The campus also has a one million dollar baseball/softball complex featuring turf fields.

Major Construction Projects

Locust Corner Campus

Locust Corner Elementary School is one of three elementary schools in the New Richmond School District and is the only building on the L.C.E. campus. The school was built in 1997 making it the newest N.R. school. The school is about 85,000 square feet (7,900 m2) and is made up of 23 academic classrooms, a technology lab, a literacy lab, a library, facilities for music and visual arts, a gym and a cafetorium. The gym and cafetorium open up to each other, making it a multi-use space. The cafeteria is connected to the stage allowing for a convienent performance space for the school's annual musical, which is performed by fifth and sixth graders.

Monroe Campus

Monroe is an elementary school in the N.R. school district and includes a gym(with a stage),a cafeteria, a library, and three academic classroom wings with a total of 34 classrooms. The second and third grade wing is circular and located on the lower level. The fourth, fifth, and sixth grade wing is two stories and located between the 2nd/3rd wing and the primary wing. The primary wing is located on the main floor in the front part of the building and houses pre-school, kindergarten, and first grade. The Monroe campus consists of the district transportation office and Monroe Elementary School. The transportation office even has its own "bus wash". There are also 4 baseball diamonds located behind the transportation office.

District Market Street Building

The Market Street Building was the original School in the N.R. district. Recent publications indicate that NR Schools will sell this building in the near future to make up for financial shortcomings.

Boys And Girls Club

This is a program to monitor children before and after school. The club is in the gym/auditorium of the old school.

Graduation Academy

This is a credit recovery program for New Richmond High School at-risk students who would not graduate without the accelerated pace of the classes. The program features NovaNET online classes.

Administration Offices

The following Administrators have offices in this building: The Superintendent (Adam Bird), Treasurer (Mike Mowery), Technology Coordinator (Matthew Prichard), and Director of Pupil Services (John Frye).

Students

New Richmond's student body consists of approximately 750 students and is predominately homogeneous, being made up primarily of lower-middle to middle class Caucasian students.

Faculty

In the '06-'07 school year, musical director, Doug Heflin, was nominated as the Wal-Mart teacher of the year. The average experience of New Richmond High School teachers is 16 years.

Curriculum

All students grades 10-12 are required to have at least 20 hours of community service to graduate.

A complete high school program is offered at New Richmond High School. For the 2006–2007 school year, students are required to complete the following program of studies:

SubjectCredits RequiredNotes
English4Must be in English 9, 10, 11 and 12
Mathematics4Must include Algebra I and Geometry; Recommended students may take integrated math courses which include the topics of traditional Algebra I and Geometry
Science4Must include 1 unit of physical science and 1 unit of biological science
Social Studies3Must include 2 units of United States History and 1 unit of American Government
Health .5
Physical Education .5
Fine Arts 1.0 This includes music and art classes.
Practical arts 1.0 Choose from business, woods, engineering/drafting, and computer technology.
Electives 5.0 electives include: business/technology, foreign language, or the fine arts: music or visual arts
Total 23.0

Troubadours

The Troubs are a choral group consisting of 119 sophomores, juniors, and seniors. The group has performed in The Heritage National Music Festival in Washington D.C., Carnegie Hall in New York City and as of Spring Break 2011, Annapolis, Maryland. The Troubs were recently named the winners of the Pontiac Create your own Commercial contest and received $10,000. In March 2008, the Troubadours competed in The Heritage National Music Festival in Chicago and received first place. The men troubadours brought home the gold at the competition and the ladies brought home the silver. In March 2011, the Troubadours once again competed in "The Heritage National Music Festival" but this time in Annapolis. The Troubadours as a group brought home the first gold medal for a mixed group in school history. The women also brought home a gold rating and the men brought home a silver.

Band

The NRHS band consists of 96 members. The band performs at football games during the fall, at home basketball games in the winter and does concert and jazz band starting in late fall to the end of the school year. Notable performances include UC Band Day in which many bands including New Richmond perform with the Cincinnati Bearcats band during halftime at Nippert Stadium. Their halftime shows tend to follow a genre of classic rock with pieces from The Beatles, Carlos Santana, Chicago, Jackson 5, Journey, Rush, Led Zeppelin and Styx. The band is currently under the direction of Mike McKinley.

Athletics

All students are able to participate in athletics free of charge in this district. New Richmond High School's 1999-2000 Boys' Soccer team achieved an undefeated record of 11-0-4, while winning the Southern Buckeye Conference championship. The team was coached by Denny Hopewell, in just his second year as the varsity coach.

Fall sports

Winter sports

Spring sports

Other extracurricular activities

All students are able to participate in extracurricular and/or athletic activities free of charge.

Mission statement

“ Every child a high performing student. Every stakeholder a high performing team member... ”

Notable Alumni

Notes and references

External links

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