Ralston Valley High School

Tradition of excellence

School motto: "Challenge yourself to be a person others admire."

RVHS opened in the fall of 2000. With the exception of a few years when the award program was discontinued, RVHS has received the Colorado Department of Education's John Irwin School of Excellence Award yearly since 2005 and proudly received the award again for the 2013 school year. This award recognizes public schools that have demonstrated the highest achievement on statewide assessments, and is given to the top 8 percent of public schools in the state based on student achievement.

History

The 24th high school built in Jefferson County Public Schools, Ralston Valley's opening relieved Arvada West High School, which was serving so many students in 1999 it was on a split schedule. Groundbreaking occurred in March 1999 and the school opened in the fall of 2000.

The mascot of Ralston Valley is the Mustang. It was selected based on votes from local elementary and middle school students in Jefferson County who would be attending RVHS. The mascot is significant to the location of the school, which is located on land that was formerly a ranch that raised and bred horses. Part of this ranch still exists across the street from the southern edge of campus.

College prep high school

Due to the high percentage of RVHS students who plan to go to college, college preparation is the focus in all RVHS classes. High academic standards are in place for all courses. RVHS offers an honors strand of courses for freshmen and sophomores, and numerous Advanced Placement courses. Students may opt to pursue an Honors Diploma as well. Upon graduation, 88.5% of RHVS students plan to attend college (district average = 74%).

RVHS's average composite ACT score is 22.4 (district = 20.4; state = 19.4).

Campus

The school building, situated on a 54-acre (220,000 m²) site in northwest Arvada, was designed by LKA Partners and won a Merit Award in 2002 from the Colorado chapter of the American Institute of Architects.

In March 2007, the school finished additional construction for expansion. This consisted of the addition of 47,700 sq ft (4,430 m²) of classroom and science labs to the east side of the building as well as 45,700 sq ft (4,250 m²) of classroom and more science labs to the south side. This renovation closed off the lower level in a full square to connect the science, math and (new) foreign language halls. Previously, the science and math halls were only connected in a horseshoe shape. The Ralston Valley High School addition and remodel includes 170,000 square feet of new construction and 42,000 square feet of remodeling. The project entailed demolition of the existing academic and administration areas and the redevelopment of the site. The new facility has 44 general classrooms, 12 science classrooms, library, media area, auxiliary gym, administration area, kitchen and commons. The remodeling included locker rooms and art department. The 28.5-acre site offers soccer, softball and multi-use fields.

Further renovations included the addition of 10,443-square-foot (970.2 m²) resulting in an auxiliary gym with a bleacher mezzanine, weight room and expanded athletic locker rooms. RVHS is one of only a few high schools to have the Millikan oil-drop experiment equipment along with the equipment for finding the mass of an electron.

Additional improvements:

Construction began in December 2005, was completed in September 2007, and cost $29.5 million.

Students and faculty

Ralston Valley has a veteran teaching staff who average over 12 years of experience in education. In addition, 69% of the faculty have a master's degree in education and/or a particular subject area.

The student-teacher ratio is 22.6 to 1.

Administration

Former principals:

School publications

Athletics

Ralston Valley has won nine state championship titles in softball, boys' basketball, baseball, swimming & diving, coed cheerleading, and poms. The Mustangs have won 74 Jeffco league championships in 13 different sports. The school's stellar performance across the board has led to its receiving the Steinmark Award in eight out of the ten years it has competed in the Jeffco league. The Steinmark is awarded to the school with the top overall athletic performance in the league. Numerous Ralston Valley seniors have received athletic scholarships at Division I and II NCAA schools, along with nearly every US service academy.

Ralston Valley fields teams in baseball, basketball, cheerleading, cross county, football. golf, ice hockey, girls' lacrosse, poms, soccer, softball, swimming, tennis, track and field, volleyball, and wrestling in interscholastic competition.

Ralston Valley initially competed in Class 4A Athletics in every sport except football. Football initially competed in 3A in its first two seasons, before moving up a classification to 4A. The school has since moved to Class 5A (the highest level in Colorado) as of fall 2009 in all athletics.

State championships won by the school include:

The basketball court is named in honor of Lisa Nelson (coach and teacher) and the gym is named in gratitude after Jim Hynes (former athletic director and assistant principal).

Drama and arts

The Theater Arts Program at Ralston Valley High School combines challenging classroom instruction with a multitude of opportunities for all levels and abilities. Theater performance opportunities include a full length play and musical, an evening of improv comedy, an evening of one-acts, a children's theater program that performs for local elementary schools, a drama club, an active thespian troupe, and a stage craft construction class.

The Visual Arts Program at Ralston Valley provides students with many opportunities to express themselves and develop an artistic voice. Ralston Valley artists have been well represented in numerous shows in the Denver area and frequently take home the top honors. Many students have gone on to study art-related fields in college, several earning scholarships.

Music

The Ralston Valley Music Department is one of the most well-rounded music programs in Jefferson County, under the direction of two veteran directors with more than 50 years of experience. Each year, many RV students are selected to All-County and All-State Ensembles, including Choir, Orchestra, Band, and Jazz Ensemble. Many performing ensembles have traveled out of state to perform in numerous festivals at locations including Orlando, Florida, Las Vegas, Nevada, and London to perform in the New Year's Day Parade and Music Festival.

The Mustangs have been a semi-finalist at the State Marching Band Competition for the past nine years. The band has also been selected to perform in the Parade of Lights eight times in the last ten years.

Ralston Valley hosts the Mile High Jazz Festival, one of Colorado's largest public school jazz festivals.

The String Orchestra program is one of the largest in the county and the Chamber Orchestra has been selected to perform at the prestigious Colorado Music Educator's State Convention. Ralston Valley's top choir, Shades of Blue, was the only Colorado choir selected to perform in New York City in May 2005 to honor the 60th anniversary of the end of WWII.

The Ralston Valley Marching Band placed first in the 2013 and 2014 Arvada Harvest Festival.

Ralston Valley High School offers all students a chance to perform in other extra-curricular performing groups such as Pep Band & Pit Orchestra.

Student government

Events such as school dances are the more obvious student government projects, but that is only a small part of what student government does. Members of student government are assigned to different committees throughout the year, pertaining to a range of categories that help the school or community. Each class is responsible for putting on a community service project such as the Lisa Nelson Memorial 5K run/walk. Here is a list of the committees for the 2013-2014 school year.

Student government members have the opportunity to improve their own individual skills at a state or nation-wide leadership camps including CHSAA State Leadership Camp, CHSAA Fall Conference, and Economics for Leaders. They also share their leadership skills with each other through student-led class activities and a weekend leadership retreat.

Student organizations

Ralston Valley offers a variety of clubs and organizations, including:

Honor societies and organizations

Notable alumni