Welcome to Rouse high school

Welcome to Rouse high school

Written by Mark Collins Thursday, 07 February 2008

This fall, the Leander Independent School District will welcome a new member to its growing family of schools. Rouse High School, the fourth in LISD, will open to roughly 400 students for the 2008-09 school year.

Quick facts:

• Mascot — Raider
• Colors — Maroon, gold and black
• First day of school — Aug. 25
• Capacity — 2,400 students

Roadway update:

With Rouse High School’s opening in August and the Gateway at Leander development slated to open in March, the design process is underway to widen Crystal Falls Parkway. The road will expand to five lanes from US 183 to Horizon Park Boulevard and will be four divided lanes from Horizon Park Boulevard to Ronald Reagan Boulevard. The City of Leander recently received a $2.16 million Texas Department of Transportation grant to help cover the cost of improvements. Major construction will begin January 2009 with an expected completion date of December 2009. Two new stoplights will be installed to help manage traffic; one at CR 271 and Crystal Falls Parkway and another at Crystal Falls Parkway and Ronald Reagan Boulevard.

Q & A: Principal Nancy Scott

For RHS principal Nancy Scott, opening a new high school is nothing out of the ordinary. She was the lead counselor for Cedar Park High School when it opened in 1998 and held the same position at Vista Ridge High School when it opened in 2003. Scott began with LISD in 1982 as an English teacher at LHS and said she enjoyed being involved with the school district’s growth.

Q: What are you looking forward to most in your new position?

A: Establishing with the students and the faculty the culture, traditions, vision and the heart of the school. I’m a firm believer in that we need to capture a kid’s heart before we can capture his mind — trying to meet each student’s needs wherever they are — to fill the gap between where they are and where they need to be. I’m very service oriented; I want us to be a school that is known for community service and a school that honors students who complete community service hours and give back to their community.

Q: What do you foresee as the biggest challenge Rouse will face?

A: The first year is almost like a honeymoon. It’s this wonderful feeling. You learn all the student’s names, you recognize them and you shake their hands. It’s a very small school atmosphere. The challenge is holding onto that in the years to come. It has to be the faculty members that are the ambassadors for your culture. The graduating class of 2012 has to be the ones that brings the culture along for each new class as they come into the school.

Q: Do you have goals for the first year of Rouse High School?

A: I want us to excel in academics. I want us to develop a college-going culture. I want us to do well extracurricularly — and that doesn’t necessarily mean wins and losses. That means in improvement and in the discipline and quality of efforts that students are making.

Q: What does it mean to you to be a Rouse Raider?

A: It means that I’m going to have a heart to serve. When you look at the Spanish conquistador that the Raider concept comes from, it’s the pursuit of righting wrongs. It’s looking out for everyone in our Raider family.

Staff:

The teaching staff at RHS will be composed of both LISD employees and teachers from outside of the district. As with other LISD high schools, the teacher-to-student ratio will be close to 27:1. Staffing will continue throughout the spring.

Current staff:

• Nancy Scott, principal
• Diane Daycock, secretary
• Ann Blumrich, counselor
• Scott Robertson, technology facilitator
• Josh Mann, athletic director

Mascot origins:

In November, RHS principal Nancy Scott met with eighth grade representatives from the three RHS feeder schools to discuss the new mascot. The team developed criteria for the new mascot and came up with four options. When eighth graders zoned for RHS voted, the Rouse Raiders were born. According to Scott, the Raider will be fashioned after the Spanish conquistadors, similar to the Texas Tech mascot. A student competition will be held to decide on the design.

What’s in a name:

RHS is named after Charley Rouse, principal of Leander High School from 1981-1997.

Under his leadership, LHS was one of the first schools to grant college credit for courses taken in high school and initiate the International Baccalaureate program. For more information about Rouse, visit the archives at www.impactnews.com and click on the August 2006 Leander/Cedar Park paper.

Students:

When RHS opens to students in August, it will only be filled to a quarter of its capacity. The inaugural class will be composed entirely of freshman, an arrangement that allows students at Vista Ridge and Leander high schools to graduate from those schools. LISD had a similar policy with the openings of Vista Ridge and Cedar Park high schools. Students will not be allowed to transfer out of RHS unless they have a sibling at another school or wish to take part in the International Baccalaureate program at LHS.

Construction continues outside the school

Rouse High School, 1501 CR 271 • 435-8200