| River Valley High School | |
|---|---|
| Address | |
| 4280 Marion-Mt. Gilead Rd. Caledonia, Ohio, 43314 USA |
|
| Information | |
| Type | Public high school |
| School district | River Valley Local School District |
| Grades | 9 to 12 |
| Color(s) | Columbia blue and gold |
| Mascot | Viking |
| Website | School Website |
River Valley High School is a public high school in Caledonia, Ohio. It is the only high school in the River Valley Schools district. In the fall of 2003, a new campus was opened for students due to the possibility of cancer-causing chemicals on the old campus.
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The school has approximately 400-500 students in grades 9 through 12 and an additional 50 or more that attend the nearby Tri-Rivers Vocational School. River Valley is on "block scheduling" which means that the school day is divided into four blocks (A, B, C, and D). Each full block class meets for 93 minutes per day for 18 weeks, or until the first semester ends. Once the semester is over, students are finished with that semester's classes and have new classes to begin after winter exams. They remain in this second round of classes until the end of the school year. River Valley does not have midterms as a whole student body, like other schools around the state, but individual classes have their own midterms scheduled.
Every year, River Valley pays homage to veterans by having a large and appreciative Veterans Day assembly. Up until the 2006 school year, they were headed up by history teacher Richard Jones. They have only 2 Elemantry Schools, called Liberty and Heritage, and a middle school.
Several families raised concerns about the number of leukemia cases among River Valley High School (RVS) graduates: as of April 11, 1999, there were 94 cases in a population of about 35,000[1]. These families formed a parent group called the Concerned River Valley Families. In August 1997, the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Ohio Department of Health (ODH) conducted an initial environmental site assessment of the RVS campus. Based on these assessments, a determination was made that the campus was located on a formerly used defense site (FUDS) known as Marion Engineering Depot (MED). The site was used for storing, maintaining and renovating heavy construction machinery for the U. S. Army from 1942 until 1962[2].
Congress established the Defense Environmental Restoration Program/Formerly Used Defense Site (DERP/FUDS) program to clean up properties that were under the jurisdiction of the Secretary and owned, leased, or possessed by the United States and transferred from Department of Defense (DoD) control prior to Oct. 17, 1986. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) manages the FUDS program.[3]
The Ohio EPA placed MED on its priority list of sites requiring cleanup in Ohio. Since the property is a FUDS, USACE began the investigation under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) process. Local citizens, frustrated with the lengthy environmental process, involved elected government officials and media. Articles appeared in major newspapers throughout Ohio, including: The Columbus Dispatch, The Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio), The Toledo Blade, and The Cincinnati Enquirer. Concerned families initiated stories in the Marion online newspaper, radio stations and television, and eventually gained national news attention in Cosmopolitan Magazine, Good Morning America, and CBS Evening News. A feature story also appeared in Family Circle Magazine.
ODH completed a cancer study in July 2001 of 5,475 RVS graduates (1963 to 1999) and concluded that there was no direct link established between the leukemia rate and MED and that there is no evidence that the incidence of cancer overall is significantly higher among the graduates than national background cancer incidence. Furthermore, the case study concluded that continued study of leukemia among Marion County residents and RVS graduates is unlikely to identify additional factors that will explain the leukemia in these populations[2].
In December 2000, a Memorandum of Understanding and a Cooperative Agreement was signed by the Department of Army, River Valley Schools and State of Ohio to share in the costs of relocating the River Valley Middle and High School campus. As a result of this Cooperative Agreement, the schools were relocated in the fall 2003[2].
In order to graduate, students must obtain 23 credits by the end of their senior year. They are required 4 credits of English, 3 credits of mathematics, 3 credits of science, 3 credits of history (often referred to as social studies), a half-credit of health, a half-credit of physical education (which is two .25 credit hour classes), and a half-credit of Life Planning (all seniors are required to take this class except those who take at least 3 years of Agricultural Science).
Students planning on going to college after graduation are highly encouraged to take 4 credits of English (with emphasis on composition), 3 credits of mathematics (Algebra I, Geometry, Algebra II), 3 credits of science (including Physical Science, Biology and Chemistry), 3 credits of history, 2 credits of foreign language (some schools now recommend 3), and one credit of art.
River Valley does have a long list of academic classes offered regularly, including Advanced Placement courses that allow obtaining of college credit by taking a test at the end of the school year, and are a weighted grade for your high school GPA. They also offer extra core academic classes, such as Physics, Anatomy and Physiology, Pre-Calculus, and A.P. Calculus, for those who wish to have a more rigorous schedule or to explore an area of academics further. Until the 2005 school year, River Valley also offered 3 foreign languages but had to drop German due to financial difficulties. In 2010 they dropped French, also due to Financial Difficulties.