Riverdale High School (Oregon)

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Riverdale High School
Motto
Established	1996
Type	Public
Head	Sue Ann Higgens
Location	Portland, , USA
Campus	Suburban
Enrollment	247
Mascot	Mavericks
Colors	Silver, White and Blue
Homepage	http://hs.riverdale.k12.or.us/

Riverdale High School is a high school in Portland, Oregon, United States.

Contents 1 History 2 Athletics 3 Academics 4 References 5 External links

[edit] History

The community of Dunthorpe, which was historically anchored by Riverdale grade school, faced changes in 1991, when Oregon Senate Bill 917 decreed that all school districts should have both primary and secondary schools, and expected smaller school districts like Riverdale to merge. With only one grade school, Riverdale was expected to merge with the Lake Oswego School District to the south.

Riverdale chose to keep its independence. The community purchased an old grade school, the former Collins View School in southwest Portland, which was built in the mid 1930s and closed in 1976. While it was being renovated, high school students were bussed to a leased location at Marylhurst University in neighboring West Linn. In August 2002, Riverdale High officially opened at the former Collins View site.

Riverdale High School includes a highly regarded computer lab featuring a Linux productivity suite widely offered to other schools. The high school is unique in that it is a public school, but students from outside the district must go through an admissions process and pay tuition to attend. [1]

[edit] Athletics

Riverdale offers the following athletic teams:

Fall:

• Soccer
• Volleyball
• Football

Winter:

• Snowboarding
• Basketball

Spring:

• Lacrosse
• Tennis
• Track and Field

[edit] Academics

Riverdale is a small school of approximately 250 students, and offers no Advanced Placement (AP) or International Baccalaureate (IB) classes, but does offer 1 college class to seniors, Writing 121. Their honors program also consists of additional assignments as opposed to separate classes. Despite these educational differences, they are regarded as a highly academic school. They have a history of success with mock trial and bridge building (see note), and they also offer academic clubs such as science bowl and the Spanish club.

Riverdale offers unique academic requirements. Going above and beyond the Oregon diploma, they require 4 years each of math, science, art, social science, and English. They also require 2 years of foreign language, 2 years of seminar, and 1 year of PE. Their most individual requirement, however, is the Senior Exhibition, a year-long project required for all seniors. For this project, students must pick an "essential question" which they research and present about at the end of the year. The "essential question" must require an opinion based on research. As part of the research process, the student must contact experts both inside and outside of the school and write a paper on their finding. Past senior exhibition papers can be found and read at Riverdale High School's website.

Note: Riverdale won the 2005 state mock trial and bridge building competitions. Riverdale also won the bridge building championships in 2006, but failed to win the state mock trial competition. This year, Riverdale swept at the state bridge building competitions for the third time, taking 17 of the top 20 places and taking 1st and 2nd place.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Riverdale School District