Romney Middle School (RMS) located in Romney, West Virginia, is a West Virginia public school that serves approximately 525 students in grades 6 through 8 under the direction of Hampshire County Schools. The current principal is John Watson and there are about 60 teachers, administrators, paraprofessionals and service personnel on the staff of RMS who now occupy a modern facility that officially opened on December 6, 2004 It is situated at the end of Calvert Drive via Trojan Way, West Virginia Secondary Route 50/47, off the Northwestern Turnpike (U.S. Route 50) about 3 miles east of Romney on the hill above Hampshire High School. (map)
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According to the history of RMS, the school was formerly located at 111 School Street in the town of Romney. The original building, constructed in about 1930 as Romney High School, was enlarged and renovated several times to accommodate a growing student population. In 1964, the school was reorganized as Romney Junior High School for students in grades 7 through 9 when students in grades 10 through 12 were moved to Hampshire High School, the then newly opened consolidated county high school outside of town. [1] In 1999, the school officially changed from a junior high school to a middle school when the freshmen were also moved to the high school following enlargement of that building and the sixth grade students from several overcrowded county elementary schools were transferred into the middle school. Currently the old building is being utilized for the offices of the Hampshire County Schools with the gymnasium and some classrooms being used by the adjacent Romney Elementary School.[2]
The mascot, a Pioneer, and school colors, blue and gray, can be traced back to the original Romney High School and reflect the history of the area as an early frontier land settled by pioneers and of Romney, West Virginia during the American Civil War with its frequent skirmishes between the Union (blue) and Confederate (gray) soldiers.
The school building is divided into grade level/subject area wings and classes currently are offered within a nine period day in which each student receives a double period (90 minutes) each of language arts and mathematics instruction daily in addition to either a single daily period or an alternating double period of science and social studies every other day. The students may chose from band, chorus, and German as electives and all students attend a rotating block of integrated arts instruction consisting of family and consumer science, keyboarding and computer applications, art, general music, physical education and health. Students may participate in football (boys grades 7 -8), girls' and boys' cross-country, volleyball (girls), girls' and boys' basketball, and girls' and boys' track and field. Many academic fairs and contests are available to the students including Math Field Day competition, science and [social studies] fairs, the [WV Young Writer's Contest], the WV Golden Horseshoe competition, the National Geography Bee, and National Spelling Bee preliminary competitions. [3]& [4] In addition, seventh grade students participate in a Drug Abuse Resistance Education program known as D.A.R.E. which is taught by the [Hampshire County Sheriff's Department. There is also after school D.A.R.E. Freedom Choir the instructor is cpl. Carter.[5] Students participate in all [West Virginia Measures of Academic Progress] state assessments. [6]