Ralston Valley High School Explained

Ralston Valley High School
Motto:Challenge yourself to be a person others admire.
Address:13355 West 80th Avenue
State:Colorado
Zipcode:80005
Country:US
Ceeb:060051
Principal:Mica Buenning
Teaching Staff:87.55
Ratio:21.05
Grades:9–12
Enrollment:1,843
Enrollment As Of:2022–23
Athletics:5A
Conference:Jefferson County League
Rivals:Pomona High School, Arvada West High School
Colors:Navy blue, Carolina blue, silver
Campus Size:54acres

Ralston Valley High School (RVHS or RV) is a comprehensive, four-year public high school in Arvada, a northwest suburb of Denver, Colorado. Opened in 2000, its enrollment is around 1800 students.

Ralston Valley High School is an eight-time recipient of an "Excellent" rating by the Colorado Department of Education.

History

The 24th public high school built in Jefferson County, Ralston Valley's opening relieved Arvada West High School, which was serving students in 1999, was on a split schedule. Groundbreaking occurred in March 1999, and the school opened in the fall of 2000.[1] With the exception of a few years when the award program was discontinued after 2019, RVHS has received the Colorado Department of Education's John Irwin School of Excellence Award yearly since 2005.[2]

The mascot of Ralston Valley is the mustang. It was selected based on votes from local elementary and middle school students in Jefferson County, as well as Arvada West HS students 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.

Curriculum

College preparation is the focus in all RVHS classes. RVHS offers Advanced Placement courses for freshmen and sophomore. Students may opt to pursue an Honors Diploma.

Campus

The school building, situated on a 54acres 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.[3]

In March 2007, the school finished additional construction for expansion. This consisted of the addition of 47700square feet of classroom and science labs to the east side of the building as well as 45700square feet of classroom and more science labs to the south side.[4] This renovation closed off the lower level in a full square to connect the science, math and (new) foreign language halls. 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, commons and a remodeled art department and locker rooms. The 28.5-acre site offers soccer, softball and multi-use fields.

Further renovations included the addition of 10443square feet resulting in an auxiliary gym with a bleacher mezzanine, weight room and expanded athletic locker rooms. RVHS has 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.

In 2023, a new library was constructed and additional classrooms were added in place of where the old library was.

Principals

Extracurricular activities and classes

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 has received the Steinmark Award competing in the Jeffco league. The Steinmark is awarded to the school with the top overall athletic performance in the league. 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:[5]

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).

Notable alumni

Notes and References

  1. Bingham, Janet (1999-02-26). "District makes start on Legacy". Denver Post : pp. B-02.
  2. Web site: 2019 John Irwin Recipients CDE . 2023-05-10 . www.cde.state.co.us.
  3. http://aiacolorado.org/awards/south-awards/archive.php AIA Colorado South - Awards
  4. http://jeffcoweb.jeffco.k12.co.us/profiles/construction/high/ralston/index.html Ralston Valley High School Construction Overview
  5. http://www.chsaa.org/about/pdf/champions.pdf State Team Champions
  6. http://www.9news.com/sports/prep/article.aspx?storyid=86545 Colorado Swim Title
  7. News: Meyer . John . Ralston Valley grad Mariah Bell emerges as a contender for Olympic team in figure skating . 19 February 2023 . The Denver Post . 25 January 2017 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190702004525/https://www.denverpost.com/2017/01/24/ralston-valley-grad-mariah-bell-olympic-figure-skating/ . 2 July 2019 . live.
  8. News: Chris . Tomasson . Tomasson: Nelson wouldn't mind being wrong . Rocky Mountain News . 2007-03-16 .
  9. Web site: Jordan Holloway Stats, Fantasy & News Miami Marlins. MLB.com.
  10. Web site: Dan Skipper. 8 May 2015.
  11. Web site: Andrew Wingard (SS): Bio, News, Stats & more.
  12. http://jeffcoweb.jeffco.k12.co.us/communications/key/2007/February/2007.02.13.html Key Communiqué