Ridge Community High School or RCHS is a public high school located on the Davenport, Florida and Haines City, Florida Line. RCHS was established in 2005 in Polk County. It currentlywhen serves 2,900 students and has approx. 165 staff members on campus.citation needed Ridge Community High School is one of many schools with a separate 9th Grade campus with its own front office. The main campus holds students in 10th, 11th, and 12th grade with some exceptions. Ridge Community High School sits on 76 acres (310,000Â m2) of land. Ridge Community High School is zoned for Davenport and Haines City. Ridge Community High School's rivals include Haines City High School, Lake Wales High School and others in Polk County. The principal of RCHS is currently Stephen Ely, taking over for Russell Donnelly who is now the principal at Citrus Ridge Academy. Sherry Wells was the founding principal between the school's opening in 2005 and 2015. Current Assistant Principals include Angela Clark, Greg Lewis, Joshua Hackett and Karen Johnson. Previously, Donnelly served as an Assistant Principal until his promotion in 2015. Dale Fryzel, who opened the school with Donnelly and Wells, retired in 2014. Ridge Community High School is part of the Polk County School Board. RCHS's mascot is the Bolt, and the school motto is Once a Bolt, always a Bolt.
RCHS serves grades 9 - 12. RCHS is also referred to as Ridge by fellow students and alumni.
Departments
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The following departments are offered at Ridge Community High school:
- Agriculture Department
- Exceptional Student Education Department
- Family and Consumer Science Department
- Music Department
- Visual and Digital Art Department
- JROTC Department
- English Language Arts Department
- Math Department
- Physical Education Department
- Science Department
- Social Studies Department
- World Language Department
- Theatre and Dance Department
Clubs
The following clubs are available for students to participate at Ridge Community High school:
- TSA club - The Technology Student Association (TSA) is the only student organization devoted exclusively to the needs of students engaged in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).
- Art and Art Honors club - Art Honor Society program to inspire and recognize students who have shown an outstanding ability and interest in art.
- Spanish club â€" The Spanish Club is an organization that enriches knowledge of the Hispanic Culture on campus. This club is not only for Hispanic students or students taking a Spanish class, but for anyone who would like to enhance their cultural awareness.
- HOSA - is a national student organization recognized by the U.S. Department of Education and the Health Science Education (HSE) Division of ACTE.
- National Honor Society - The National Honor Society (NHS) is the nation's premier organization established to recognize outstanding high school students.
- Sigma - Sigma Alpha Sigma is an extracurricular organization for high schools designed to foster leadership skills among students who will promote academic excellence within the student body of a school.
- Tri-M Music Honor Society - Tri-M Music Honor Society, formerly known as ModernMusic Masters, is a high school and middle school music honor society and is a program of the National Association for MusicEducation (NAfME).
- Key Club - It is a student-led organization that teaches leadership through service to others.
- FFA club - FFA is a dynamic student-led leadership development organization for students of agricultural education.
- Anime Club - An anime club is an organization that meets to discuss, show, and promote anime in a local community setting and can also focus on broadening Japanese cultural understanding.
Athletics
The Following are sports teams that are available for students at Ridge Community High School:
- Boys Soccer
- Girls Soccer
- Boys Football
- Wrestling
- Boys Basketball
- Girls Basketball
- Cross Country
- Swimming
- Competitive Cheer
- Boys Baseball
- Boys Tennis
- Softball
Notable alumni
- Karlos Williams, running back for the Pittsburgh Steelers, former running back for the Buffalo Bills
- Vince Williams, linebacker for the Pittsburgh Steelers
- Mike James, running back for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Overview
Ridge Community High School was ranked as a D school from 2005 to 2010, the school has been recognized for their high standardized Advanced Placement and honors classes. RCHS is now listed as a B Rank school as of late 2012. Students at RCHS can participate in Dual enrollment, chiefly Polk State College. Polk State College is also part of Ridge Community High School, and provides evening classes bearing college credit to students of RCHS for no cost. As of 2015, a new Dual enrollment program with Southeastern University will be introduced starting for the 2015-2016 school year.