Richard Montgomery High School
Encyclopedia
Richard Montgomery High School (#201) is a secondary public school located in Rockville, Maryland
Rockville, Maryland
Rockville is the county seat of Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. It is a major incorporated city in the central part of Montgomery County and forms part of the Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area. The 2010 U.S...

.

Richard Montgomery High School is named for Richard Montgomery
Richard Montgomery
Richard Montgomery was an Irish-born soldier who first served in the British Army. He later became a brigadier-general in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War and he is most famous for leading the failed 1775 invasion of Canada.Montgomery was born and raised in Ireland...

, an American General who died while attempting to capture the British-held (now Canadian
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

) city of Quebec. The school is usually referred to by either 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
Montgomery Blair High School
Montgomery Blair High School is a public high school located in unincorporated Silver Spring in Montgomery County, Maryland, United States...

 in Silver Spring
Silver Spring, Maryland
Silver Spring is an unincorporated area and census-designated place in Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. It had a population of 71,452 at the 2010 census, making it the fourth most populous place in Maryland, after Baltimore, Columbia, and Germantown.The urbanized, oldest, and...

. Over the years, Richard Montgomery has won awards for being the number one school in Montgomery County and Maryland state. Intel Science Talent Search finalists, national essay competition winners, and multiple Presidential Scholars have been recent graduates of RM.

Academics

The school houses Montgomery County's first International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IB). This competitive-entry magnet program draws students from all over Montgomery County and has a IB diploma rate of 99%, the highest in the United States of its kind. 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, although this number has recently been increasing, with a student to staff ratio of 12.8:1.

In 2007, Richard Montgomery was featured in Newsweek
Newsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...

magazine as the 27th highest-rated high school in the nation. In June 2002, it won its first award in National Scholastic Championship at George Washington University
George Washington University
The George Washington University is a private, coeducational comprehensive university located in Washington, D.C. in the United States...

. Richard Montgomery High School won the 2003 "Blue Ribbon in Education Award" by the United States Department of Education
United States Department of Education
The United States Department of Education, also referred to as ED or the ED for Education Department, is a Cabinet-level department of the United States government...

. RM has been identified as the number one school in the D.C. metropolitan area in the Challenge Index
Challenge Index
The Challenge Index is a method for the statistical ranking of top public high schools in the United States by Washington Post columnist Jay Mathews...

 for Rigor.

Students

Upon graduation, 79.2% of the class of 2008 planned for only post-secondary education,14.5% for post-secondary education and employment, 1.1% planned to go straight into the workforce and 1.4% into the military. There was a 92.1% attendance rate and a 2.0% drop out rate in 2002-2003.

The student body of 2008-2009 was 42.4% White, 24.5% Asian, 17% African American, 15.9% Hispanic, and 0.2% American Indian.
Currently 2,150 students are enrolled and approximately 15.6% of the student body is eligible for free/reduced lunches.

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. Rockville Colored High School was opened in 1927. The school for white children was renamed Richard Montgomery High School to distinguish between the two in 1935.

The building was completed in 1942 at 49167 sq ft (4,567.8 m²), after a fire destroyed the old high school in 1940. Additions to the school were made in 1952 at 39895 sq ft (3,706.4 m²), 1959 at 37425 sq ft (3,476.9 m²), in 1964 at 56703 sq ft (5,267.9 m²), 1969 at 4000 sq ft (371.6 m²), 1975 at 35890 sq ft (3,334.3 m²), 1976 at 8300 sq ft (771.1 m²), and 1988 at 1938 sq ft (180 m²). A new 311500 sq ft (28,939.3 m²) building, completed in December 2007, was built on the athletic fields. The old 233318 sq ft (21,676 m²) building was demolished over the summer of 2008, and new athletic fields were created on the site of the old building. Until a few months into the 2008-2009 school year, all athletic practices and games were held at other sites. The current campus is 26.2 acres (106,000 m²) in size.

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. Similar articles appeared in the Washington Post, the Montgomery County Gazette, and the Montgomery Sentinel. Shortly after the third Examiner article was published, Carrasco went on extended sick leave.

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. The article was finally published online on April 24, 2008.

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."

On June 10, 2008, Montgomery County Public Schools announced that Carrasco had been named the new director of secondary leadership training. The announcement also stated that the allegations about Carrasco's involvement in private consulting were "thoroughly investigated" and "not substantiated."

On June 23, 2008, Nelson McLeod II was named the new principal of Richard Montgomery High School.

Reconstruction

Richard Montgomery opened its new $71 million building following the end of students' 2007 Winter Break. The new building features wireless internet to the teachers, LCD projectors in every classroom, dozens of Promethean interactive whiteboards and learner response devices, a modern auditorium, and a good quality recording and TV studio. The new facilities lack the capability to access older forms of media, such as material on VHS and photographic slides; however, teachers sometimes bring in their own video players to rectify the problem.

The school has an artificial turf stadium next to tennis courts and a track. The location where the former school stood is the current location of the baseball fields.

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.

As of the 2008-2009 school year, the ID policy has been changed. Students are no longer required to wear their ID in some fashion, but must be able to produce it if a staff member requests it.

Extracurricular activities

Sports

Several of RM's athletes advanced to the professional level, including Gordy Coleman
Gordy Coleman
Gordon Calvin Coleman was a Major League first baseman with the Cleveland Indians and the Cincinnati Reds ....

 (Class of '52?) with the Cincinnati Reds and Mike Curtis
Mike Curtis (American football)
James Michael "Mike" Curtis is a former professional American football player for the Baltimore Colts, the Seattle Seahawks and the Washington Redskins, who played 14 seasons from 1965 to 1978 in the National Football League. He was a four-time Pro Bowler in 1968, 1970, 1971 and 1974. He was...

 (Class of '61) with the All-Pro Baltimore Colts & James David Riggleman
Jim Riggleman
James David Riggleman is a former Major League Baseball manager and coach. Riggleman was an infielder and outfielder in the Los Angeles Dodgers and St. Louis Cardinals minor league systems from 1974–1981...

 (Class of '71) Manager of the Washington Nationals
Washington Nationals
The Washington Nationals are a professional baseball team based in Washington, D.C. The Nationals are a member of the Eastern Division of the National League of Major League Baseball . The team moved into the newly built Nationals Park in 2008, after playing their first three seasons in RFK Stadium...

.

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.

In the 2007-2008 school year the Golf team went undefeated for the first time in RM history. Two of their players also won the Athlete of the Month award for their performance. In the 2009-2010 year they placed second in the Kyle (Middle) Division in the MCPS rankings.

Cross country, Indoor and Outdoor Track & Field are three of Richard Montgomery's accomplished sports programs. They have won four Maryland State Cross Country Boys team championships in 1975, 1980, 1990 & 1995 and were runners-up in 1979 & 1981. The 1975 & 1980 teams were coached by Lowell Fritts, the coach from 1971-1986. The 1990 & 1995 teams were coached by Scott Spear, the current coach since 1988. Additionally, the school has won numerous team and individual Track & Field state championships.

Richard Montgomery's girls tennis team was at the top of Division I in 2006. However, in 2007 the team was taken on by a new coach, and it dropped back down to Division II. Fall of 2008 the team has gone back up to Division I. Richard Montgomery's boys tennis team after placing second overall in Division II twice within the span of three years, finished as best in Division II Spring of 2010 and will move up to Division I.

Richard Montgomery's Robotics Team competed in the Pennsylvania FIRST Tech Challenge
FIRST Tech Challenge
The FIRST Tech Challenge , formerly the FIRST Vex Challenge , is a mid-level robotics competition targeted toward high-school aged students. It offers the traditional challenge of a FIRST Robotics competition but with a more accessible and affordable robotics kit...

 in February 2011, winning the Innovate Award at the York Qualifier and proceeding to the State Championship.

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
Quizbowl
Quiz bowl is a family of games of questions and answers on all topics of human knowledge that is commonly played by students enrolled in high school or college, although some participants begin in middle or even elementary school...

 team (known as It's Academic
It's Academic
It's Academic is a televised academic quiz competition for high school students, currently airing on two NBC affiliates in Washington, D.C. and Central Virginia and one CBS affiliate Baltimore, Maryland . The show has been on the air since October 7, 1961, making it the longest...

) has won numerous awards and honors, including a victory at the National Scholastics Championship
Partnership for Academic Competition Excellence
The Partnership for Academic Competition Excellence is a nonprofit organization which runs the National Scholastics Championship , an end-of-year championship for North American high school quizbowl teams...

 in 2002. They are reigning state champions and finished 5th in the nation at the 2011 NAQT High School National Championship Tournament
National Academic Quiz Tournaments
National Academic Quiz Tournaments, LLC is a question-writing and quizbowl organizing company founded by former players in 1996. It is unique among U.S. quiz organizations for supplying questions and hosting championships at the middle school, high school, and college levels.The format is a set...

. In 2006, they won the NAQT High School National Championship Tournament
National Academic Quiz Tournaments
National Academic Quiz Tournaments, LLC is a question-writing and quizbowl organizing company founded by former players in 1996. It is unique among U.S. quiz organizations for supplying questions and hosting championships at the middle school, high school, and college levels.The format is a set...

, defeating State College Area High School
State College Area High School
State College Area High School is the only public high school in the State College Area School District. Located within walking distance of Penn State University, the school offers a wide and diverse selection of electives, and is known for its academic, athletic, and musical prominence.State High...

 in the final at Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

.

Richard Montgomery's International Space Settlement Design Competition
International Space Settlement Design Competition
The International Space Settlement Design Competition, more commonly known as "Spaceset" or "ISSDC", is an annual competition founded by Anita Gale and Dick Edwards, and is supported by NASA...

 team won the 2008 cycle at Houston, Texas.

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. In recent years, Frezzo has begun holding an 8th period Lunch Chorus for those who cannot fit chorus into their class schedules.
The most skilled ensembles such as the Madrigals, Richard Montgomery's chamber choir, often travel off campus to perform at various venues. The Madrigals have been invited to 9 out of the 10 past High School Choir Invitationals (as of 2011) held by University of Maryland.

The school also has a long tradition of student led a capella groups which rehearse on their own and perform both at official venues such as the choral concerts and unofficial venues such as the coffeehouses hosted by Fine Lines, the school's award-winning literary magazine.

Ronald Frezzo also teaches AP Music Theory and IB Music classes, where students can gain college credit and complete their IB sixth subject in Music and where students often compose original pieces and perform, either for the class or for larger audiences.

Peter Perry, besides just conducting the instrumental ensembles,, teaches a Music Technology class, where students bring music into the context of the modern age, compose original pieces, create their own instruments, and learn about the recording process.

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
International Thespian Society
The International Thespian Society is an honorary organization for high-school and middle-school theatre students located at more than 3,600 affiliated secondary schools across the United States, Canada, and abroad. The International Thespian Society was founded in Fairmont, West Virginia...

 Troupe #1748. Richard Montgomery usually produces one play in the fall and a musical in the spring. The Drama Club is led by Emily Davis, Eric Rodney, and Denise Saladyga and music for the spring musicals is directed by Peter Perry. Ron Frezzo returned in the 2009-2010 school year to direct non-instrumental music after a several year hiatus. Starting in 2009, the club also performs yearly a festival of one-act plays that is completely student-produced and directed each spring.

Associated with, but not under the Drama Club is the Shakespeare Club which meets regularly but in a more informal setting.

Honor Societies

The school also has seven honors societies. These include the National Honors Society, the Alejo Carpentier
Alejo Carpentier
Alejo Carpentier y Valmont was a Cuban novelist, essayist, and musicologist who greatly influenced Latin American literature during its famous "boom" period. Born in Lausanne, Switzerland, Carpentier grew up in Havana, Cuba; and despite his European birthplace, Carpentier strongly self-identified...

 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. In fall 2008, a chapter of the Mu Alpha Theta
Mu Alpha Theta
Mu Alpha Theta is a United States mathematics honor society for high schools and two-year colleges. It has over 89,000 student members in more than 1,800 schools worldwide. Its main goals are to inspire keen interest in mathematics, develop strong scholarship in the subject, and promote the...

 Math National Honors Society was added, and in fall 2009 an "Art Honors Society" was formed.

Student Government and Politics

RM's student body is represented through the Student Government
Students' union
A students' union, student government, student senate, students' association, guild of students or government of student body is a student organization present in many colleges and universities, and has started appearing in some high schools...

 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 events. Additionally, each grade elects four officers every April. RM also has politically oriented clubs such as Young Democrats
Young Democrats of America
The Young Democrats of America , founded in 1932, is the official youth arm of the Democratic Party of the United States, although it severed official ties with the Democratic National Committee following passage of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 and became an independent 527 group...

, Young Republicans
Young Republicans
The Young Republicans is an organization for members of the Republican Party of the United States between the ages of 18 and 40. It has both a national organization and chapters in individual states....

, and Junior State of America.

Notable alumni

  • Will Allen, retired basketball player, urban farmer
  • Tori Amos
    Tori Amos
    Tori Amos is an American pianist, singer-songwriter and composer. She was at the forefront of a number of female singer-songwriters in the early 1990s and was noteworthy early in her career as one of the few alternative rock performers to use a piano as her primary instrument...

    , singer
  • Ginger D. Anders
    Ginger D. Anders
    Ginger D. Anders is an American lawyer who is an Assistant to the Solicitor General of the United States. She also is an accomplished violinist.- Early life and education :...

    , Assistant to the Solicitor General of the United States
  • Norman Bellingham
    Norman Bellingham
    Norman Bellingham is an American sprint canoer and Olympic champion who competed from the mid 1980s to the early 1990s. Competing in three Summer Olympics, he won gold in the K-2 1000 m event at Seoul in 1988....

    , Olympic gold medalist
  • Wolfgang Bodison
    Wolfgang Bodison
    Wolfgang Bodison is an American actor, best known for playing Lance Cpl. Harold W. Dawson in the drama A Few Good Men....

    , actor, writer
  • Gordy Coleman
    Gordy Coleman
    Gordon Calvin Coleman was a Major League first baseman with the Cleveland Indians and the Cincinnati Reds ....

    , former Major League Baseball
    Major League Baseball
    Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...

     player for the Cincinnati Reds
    Cincinnati Reds
    The Cincinnati Reds are a Major League Baseball team based in Cincinnati, Ohio. They are members of the National League Central Division. The club was established in 1882 as a charter member of the American Association and joined the National League in 1890....

     and member of the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame
  • Mike Curtis
    Mike Curtis (American football)
    James Michael "Mike" Curtis is a former professional American football player for the Baltimore Colts, the Seattle Seahawks and the Washington Redskins, who played 14 seasons from 1965 to 1978 in the National Football League. He was a four-time Pro Bowler in 1968, 1970, 1971 and 1974. He was...

    , former NFL Pro Bowl
    Pro Bowl
    In professional American football, the Pro Bowl is the all-star game of the National Football League . Since the merger with the rival American Football League in 1970, it has been officially called the AFC–NFC Pro Bowl, matching the top players in the American Football Conference against those...

     linebacker for the Baltimore Colts
    History of the Indianapolis Colts
    The Indianapolis Colts are a professional football team based in Indianapolis, Indiana. They play in the AFC South division of the National Football League. They have won 3 NFL championships and 2 Super Bowls....

     and Washington Redskins
    Washington Redskins
    The Washington Redskins are a professional American football team and members of the East Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . The team plays at FedExField in Landover, Maryland, while its headquarters and training facility are at Redskin Park in Ashburn,...

  • Jim Riggleman
    Jim Riggleman
    James David Riggleman is a former Major League Baseball manager and coach. Riggleman was an infielder and outfielder in the Los Angeles Dodgers and St. Louis Cardinals minor league systems from 1974–1981...

    , Major League Baseball
    Major League Baseball
    Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...

     former manager of the Washington Nationals
    Washington Nationals
    The Washington Nationals are a professional baseball team based in Washington, D.C. The Nationals are a member of the Eastern Division of the National League of Major League Baseball . The team moved into the newly built Nationals Park in 2008, after playing their first three seasons in RFK Stadium...



External links

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