Celebrating the return to school, Student Council and administrators collaborated to create a first day of school schedule that incorporated bonding activities for the student body. Students and teachers spent the first day back participating in relay races, games, and spending time with their community for the school year. 

Students and families received an email titled “Day 1 Fun at FHS” outlining the schedule for the first day and providing information about the special activities. During the summer, student council representatives and administrators put together a video to encourage members of the community to look forward to the first day of school. It is the first day fully together since the pandemic began in March 2020 with no option for virtual learning as COVID-19 restrictions continue to lift. 

 “The start of every school year is an important time to build relationships and set the course for a successful year ahead… The celebration on Day 1 highlights our value in community building, teamwork, service to others. There’s no doubt that the River Hawks are poised to take flight and soar into the 2021-2022 school year,” Principal Scott Hurwitz said. 

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The day began with a brief period of Hawk’s Nest, formerly known as Connect, followed by 22-minute blocks of all eight periods. Although the high school has adopted a four-by-four block schedule for the foreseeable future, all periods were scheduled for the first day in order to allow introductions before starting with the curriculum. Students then gathered outside in their classes to rotate through four “stations,” one station was the game of Rock, Paper, Scissors, Change, one was field games such as Spikeball and Corn Hole, one was a time to eat lunch as an entire class, and one was a station to play tennis and wiffleball.

Rock, Paper, Scissors, Change was introduced to students and faculty on the first day of school in August 2019. Every individual brings in a handful of spare change and faces each other for a game of Rock, Paper, Scissors. The winner collects the other player’s change and moves on to the next player, where the game repeats and as players continue to win, they grow their coin collection. 

Students started in a competition against their Hawk’s Nest period, and then against the entire grade, and then faced winner’s from other classes. Teachers and faculty had the opportunity to play against each other during professional development before school began. This year’s student winner sophomore Daniel Hawley faced faculty winner wellness teacher Ryan Leahy, taking home the win against Leahy for the student body.

“It was so great to feel the support of my peers and the spirit of the school. Facing off against Mr. Leahy was a little intimidating (he was my teacher after all) but it was cool because he and I were on equal standing. It was even cooler, though, because I beat him on behalf of all my fellow students! Sorry Mr. Leahy!,” Hawley said.