Dear Rivermont Community,

We are growing! 

We are very excited to announce some new additions for the 2012-13 school year.  I am especially excited to announce that in the fall Rivermont will be adding additional Early and Lower School classes!

PreSchool - In addition to our existing PreSchool and Junior Kindergarten class, we are adding another PreSchool class that will include a 2 year old program!

Kindergarten - We are also adding a second Kindergarten classroom! Erin DeSplinter will join Cindy Corrigan as Kindergarten teacher this fall.  Erin is a current Rivermont parent and has teaching experience at independent schools in both Illinois and Virginia. She graduated Cum Laude from St. Mary's College in Notre Dame, Indiana. Erin will make an excellent addition to our staff and we are thrilled that she will be joining us next year.

Fourth Grade - Plans are in the works to also add a second Fourth grade classroom!  This class is bursting at the seams and we look forward to being able to accept more new students in this grade.

We are all excited by the possibilities of this growth.  There will be some rearranging of classrooms as we accommodate our new students and new teachers. 

Thanks to support from Fund-A-Need and the Parents' Council we will continue to expand our experiential and electronic learning.  During Labor Day week the Upper School will travel once again to Camp Manito-wish in Boulder Junction, Wisconsin for an outdoor leadership experience while the Middle School will travel to Kampsville, Illinois to learn about archaeology first hand.  In addition, we hope to announce a trip for our fourth and fifth graders.  More on that as plans solidify.

Technology never sleeps and we will continue to enhance our capabilities.  Over the summer the bandwidth available to the campus will double and interactive devices will be upgraded.  Plans are also in the works to launch a new website over the summer.  We are pleased that as we move into the second year of our iPad Pilot Program more textbooks are available digitally.  This should lighten some backpacks!

As this year quickly comes to a close work is well underway to prepare for the new school year.  Keep your eyes on the calendar because there are many special events to wrap up this year.  You won't want to miss them.  One in particular is the Senior Project Presentations.  After many requests to make these presentations accessible to more families we have scheduled them for Wednesday, May 30 at 5:30 PM in the Auditorium.  Consider coming to campus and hearing about the exciting projects the Class of 2012 undertook as they conclude their Rivermont Experience.  Our 125th Commencement exercises will begin at 10:00 AM, Friday, June 1.

Intellect, Character, and Creativity! 

Rick St. Laurent

Headmaster

P.S.  Could we have had any better day for Lunch on the Lawn?  The weather was great! 

Great News! Fourth Grader Dwira Nandini has been selected as a finalist for this week's "Artist of the Week" award for the 4th-6th age group. The finalist who receives the most online votes between now and Saturday May 12 will be selected as our "Artist of the Week."

To view the finalists and cast your vote, simply click on the link below. Voting is limited to one vote per computer per day for each age group!

     http://www.artsonia.com/aotw/vote/0/18639247 

The "Artist of the Week" will be featured on the Artsonia homepage and will receive a commemorative plaque from Artsonia. In addition, Blick Art Materials has generously donated $100 gift certificates to the winning teachers and $50 to the winning artists.

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Freshman Michal Porubcin  won the finals in the #3 singles match at the MAC meet and he and his partner Forrest Campbell won the playoffs to get third in #1 doubles last weekend.  

Would any LS student like to bring a toy or stuffed animal to school? For our final spring service project, LS Student Council would like to Adopt-an-Animal from the Niabi Zoo. Our donations would help an animal receive nutritious snacks and toys that help them exercise and PLAY! In order to raise money, we need you to donate at least 50¢ to bring your stuffed animal/toy to school and introduce them on stage during morning meeting on Tuesday, May 15^th. We hope you will participate and make Rivermont a Zoo for the Day!

Middle and Upper School students are welcome to participate for a $1.00 donation.  (age inflation) 

Rivermont Bus Service Update

Beginning with the 2012-13 school year, Rivermont will no longer be able to provide morning and afternoon bus route service. Extremely low utilization and high costs have caused us to suspend this service. In order to alleviate some of the inconvenience this creates, we will be extending our morning hours. Beginning with the 2012-13 school year, Early Supervision for K-12 will start at 7:00AM. This allows parents time to drop their student(s) off and still get to work in a timely manner.

Early Supervision Extended Hours!

Rivermont would like to announce that we are extending our Early Supervision hours. Beginning with the 2012-13 school year, Early Supervision for K-12 will start at 7:00AM. Early Supervision will run until 7:45AM at which time students will be allowed to go to their respective buildings. Middle and Upper School students can proceed to the Mansion Reading Room and Lower School students will proceed to the Media Center/Library. Light breakfast items will be available for purchase for during the Early Supervision hours.

PLEASE NOTE, THERE ARE NO CHANGES TO BUS SERVICE FOR THE REMAINDER OF THIS SCHOOL YEAR.