Richard Montgomery High School
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| Established | 1892 |
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| Type | Public Secondary |
| Principal | Moreno Carrasco |
| Students | 1,916 (2004-5) |
| Grades | 9–12 |
| Location | Rockville, Maryland, USA |
| District | Montgomery County Public Schools |
| Campus | Suburban |
| Colors | Black and Gold |
| Mascot | Rockets |
| Newspaper | The Tide |
| Website | Click |
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Richard Montgomery High School (#201) is a secondary public school located in Rockville, Maryland.
Richard Montgomery High School is named for Richard Montgomery, an American General who died while attempting to capture the British-held (now Canadian) city of Quebec. The school is either usually referred to by its full name, or by the acronym "RM" in everyday parlance by its students and alumni, presumably because shortening it to Montgomery would be too vague, and also perhaps to distinguish it from Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring.
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[edit] Academics
The school houses Montgomery County's first International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IB), which attracts top students from the entire county. It also includes the International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme (MYP), in which freshmen and sophomores take rigorous classes. The average class size is 24.8, with a student to staff ratio of 12.8:1. [1]
In 2007, Richard Montgomery was featured in Newsweek magazine as the 27th highest-rated high school in the nation. [2] In June 2002, it won its first award in National Scholastic Championship at George Washington University. Richard Montgomery High School won the 2003 "Blue Ribbon in Education Award" by the United States Department of Education. RM has been identified as the number one school in the D.C. metropolitan area in the Challenge Index for Rigor.
[edit] Students
Upon graduation, 92.9% of the class of 2003 planned to go through a type of post-secondary school, 4% plan to go straight into the workforce and 0.9% into the military. There was a 91.9% attendance rate and a 1.8% drop out rate in 2002-2003.
The student body is 44.6% White, 23.6% Asian, 14.6% Hispanic, 17% African American, and 0.2% American Indian.[3]
Currently 1,924 students are enrolled and approximately 14.9% of the student body is eligible for free/reduced lunches.
[edit] History and campus
Rockville High School was established in 1892, when the state Board of Education first allocated funds to local school to educate high school students. The first class graduated from Rockville High School in 1897.
A new high school was constructed and opened for use in September 1905 on East Montgomery Avenue and Monroe Street. An addition was built in 1917, expanding the school to 19 classrooms. When the Rockville Colored High School was opened in 1935, the school for white children was renamed Richard Montgomery High School to distinguish between the two.
The building was completed in 1942 at 49,167 sq.ft, after a fire destroyed the old high school in 1940. Additions to the school were made in 1952 at 39,895 sq.ft, 1959 at 37,425 sq.ft, in 1964 at 56,703 sq.ft, 1969 at 4,000 sq.ft, 1975 at 35,890 sq.ft, 1976 at 8,300 sq.ft, and 1988 at 1,938 sq.ft. A new 311,500 sq.ft building, completed in December 2007, was built on the athletic fields. The old 233,318 sq.ft building is in the process of being demolished and new athletic fields will be created on the site of the old building. Until the 2008-2009 school year, all athletic practices and games will be held at other sites. The current campus is 26.2 acres (106,000 m²) in size. [4] [5]
On February 25, 1990, the school media center was vandalized, with an initial damage of $600,000; according to the Washington Post, the vandals ruined the school's television studio, smashed computers, burned books in the library and left antisemitic graffiti. On March 6, 1990, a march in Rockville attracted an estimated 2,000 individuals to protest the damage and the purported anti-semitism behind it. But the Montgomery County Police were already aware that the perpetrators were not a hate group but a former student who had dropped out the previous year, Jason Knight, and a current senior, Steve Bonner. Knight and Bonner were arrested the following day. According to records of the Montgomery County Circuit Court, Knight was later sentenced to three years in prison, with eighteen months suspended. Bonner was sentenced to three years in prison, with twenty-four months suspended.
In April 2008, the DC Examiner newspaper ran a series of four articles revealing that the school principal, Mr. Moreno Carrasco, had allegedly been running a private business on school time. The third article reported that Carrasco was using materials that appeared to be plagiarized from a seminar that he had attended at school district expense. [6][7][8] [9]. Similar articles appeared in the Washington Post[10], the Montgomery County Gazette[11], and the Montgomery Sentinel[12]. Shortly after the third Examiner article was published, Carrasco went on extended sick leave.
On April 24, 2008, Carrasco returned to work and made a statement on the morning announcements that the accusations against him made him physically and mentally sick. Despite requests from parents, the comments that Carrasco made to the students and teachers have not been made available in printed form.
During Carrasco's absence, the RMHS newspaper, The Tide, requested that administrators approve publication of an article about the investigation into Carrasco's alleged ethics violations and business endeavors. Assistant Principal Veronica McCall denied permission for publication of the article, but was overridden by Community Superintendent Dr. Sherry Liebes after The Tide editors announced that they would go public with news of the denial.[13][14] The article was finally published online on April 24, 2008.[15]
Brief references to McCall's involvement in Carrasco's seminars have appeared in the DC Examiner and RMHS Tide articles, but McCall has not publicly stated whether or not she knew that Carrasco was running the seminars for personal profit or whether she was compensated by Carrasco for helping to present the seminars.
The Carrasco scandal triggered publication of an article by Wayne Goldstein, president of the Montgomery County Civic Federation. In the article, which was published in the April 22, 2008 issue of the Montgomery Sentinel and on the MCCF web site, Goldstein asserts that Montgomery County Public Schools Superintendent Jerry Weast "has little concern about the ethical behavior of himself or others."[16]
[edit] Reconstruction
Richard Montgomery opened its new, modernized building following the end of students' 2007 Winter Break. The new building features wireless internet, LCD projectors in every classroom, a limited quantity of smartboards, and a golf cart for Principal Carrasco. The new facilities, however, lack the capability to access older forms of media, such as material on VHS and photographic slides.
[edit] ID Policy
One of the new policies following students' move to the new building was the institution of a policy requiring students to have their Student IDs visible at all times.[citation needed]
[edit] Extracurricular activities
[edit] Sports
Several of RM's athletes advanced to the professional level, including Gordy Coleman (Class of '52?) with the Cincinnati Reds and Mike Curtis (Class of '61) with the All-Pro Baltimore Colts.
Richard Montgomery's Girls' Swimming and Diving Team has been undefeated in dual meets since 2003. The Girls' Swimming and Diving Team is currently ranked 12th in the nation and holds the Division I title ('04, '05, '06) and County title ('05, '06, '07). The Girls' Swim Team has a record of 22-0 over the past 4 years.
The school also has a very established Golf Team. In the 2007-2008 school year they went undefeated for the first time in RM history. Two of their players also won the Athlete of the Month award for their performance.
Cross country and Track are in addition two of the school's esteemed sports. RM has won numerous boy's track state titles and has many upcoming athletes to watch out for.
[edit] Other Activities
National Forensics League, Musicals, Plays, Choral and Instrumental ensembles have helped distinguish Richard Montgomery as a noted school for the arts. Its literary magazine Fine Lines and the Citizenship Law Related Education Program (CLREP) Mock Trial Team have won multiple national and statewide championships and honors.
Richard Montgomery is one of very few schools in the entire state of Maryland which has not only its own student newspaper, "The Tide" but also its own award winning student literary magazine "Fine Lines".
Richard Montgomery's Quizbowl team (known as It's Academic) is one of the finest in the nation, and has won numerous awards and honors, including a victory at the National Scholastics Championship in 2002. As of 2007, they are the highest ranked team in the state of Maryland and the Maryland state quizbowl champions. In 2006, they won the NAQT High School National Championship Tournament, defeating State College Area High School in the final at Chicago.
[edit] Music
The musical program at Richard Montgomery is led by Ronald Frezzo who directs the choral music program and Peter Perry who directs the instrumental music program. Both departments have a number of different musical ensembles requiring various degrees of skill. All ensembles meet during the school day as scheduled classes with extra rehearsals and performances in the evenings. The most skilled ensembles such as the Madrigals, Richard Montgomery's chamber choir, often travel off campus to perform at various venues.
The school also has a long tradition of student led ensembles which rehearse on their own and perform both at official venues such as the choral concerts and unnofficial venues such as coffee houses hosted by Fine Lines, which has had acts including acclaimed punk/alternative band Stuck In The Mud. Notable examples include student led a cappella groups such as "The Testostertones" and "Resonance" which are similar in operation to the many collegiate groups found on college campuses today.
[edit] Drama
The largest extracurricular club in the school is the Black Maskers Drama Club, boasting a membership of approximately 200. Members of Black Maskers may, upon participation in a sufficient number of shows in various capacities, become members of the International Thespian Society Troupe #1748. Richard Montgomery shows one drama in the fall and a musical in the spring. The Drama Club is led by Emily Krebs and Denise Saladyga and music for the spring musicals is directed by Ronald Frezzo and Peter Perry.
Associated with, but not under the Drama Club are the Shakespeare Club and the Improv Club which meet regularly but in a more informal setting.
[edit] Honors Societies
The school also has six honors societies. These include the National Honors Society, the Alejo Carpentier chapter of the Spanish Honors Society, the French Honors Society, the Chinese Honors Society, the English Honors Society, and the Tri-M Music Honors Society.
[edit] Student Government and Politics
RM's student body is represented through the Student Government Association (SGA), whose officers are elected each April. The student body at large is represented through a system of delegates who attend monthly General Assemblies. The SGA officers appoint an Executive Board to help in community service projects and special functions. Additionally, each grade elects four officers every April. Emily Tucker is the newly elected SGA President for the 2008-2009 school year. RM also has politically oriented clubs such as Young Democrats, Young Republicans, and Young Independents. RM also has an independent political forum for student discussion called The Richard Montgomery Liberation Front.
[edit] External links
- Richard Montgomery High School's website
- Richard Montgomery High School location
- Review on greatschools.net
- Article on IB & AP exams at Richard Montgomery from the Washington Post
- History of Richard Montgomery High School
- RMHS Class of 1987 Reunion Site
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