Photos and article by Bridget Manley, publisher
In these last days before Rocktown High School officially opens to students, the school’s teachers and staff are putting the finishing touches on classrooms and preparing for the first day of school.
More than 1,000 students will descend on the campus on Tuesday, completing a massive project that began in 2019 — and starting a new chapter in Harrisonburg’s history.
New seats are tucked neatly into new tables. Fresh new musical instruments are beautifully organized against the walls in the brand-new band room. The media rooms for student journalists are neatly lined with studio lighting. Bags are still on the plugs of the drill presses in the Career and Technical education rooms.
The teachers and staff seem thrilled with their new classrooms. One teacher, who came to Rocktown High from another district, told the all-too-common story about teachers who continue to fix up or cobble together old school materials. He was happy he wouldn’t need to address that concern for a while.
Over the summer, staff worked to lay the foundation for extracurricular activities, like the marching band and the football team.
The marching band will be unique—a merged two-school band with more than 100 Harrisonburg and Rocktown High students performing as one. Rocktown Band Director and ESL Music Teacher Claire Leeper said that the uniforms for the marching show this year will be thematic: black pants with metallic tops.
After forming a student-led committee, the new two-school band settled on its new name: The Rock City Regiment. This year’s show theme is “Forged Together.”
Each school will have its own spirit band for football games. Harrisonburg High will continue to wear existing uniforms, and Rocktown will wear a more “low-key” version of zip-up jackets this year.
“We are coming up against challenges and then soaring above the expectations,” Leeper said.
The Rocktown Raptors football team is also gearing up for its first season of the year. Its first game is Friday, Aug. 30, against Hedgesville.
Rocktown Principal Tamara Mines said they are working on merchandise for fans but want to deliberate about how they allow their logo to be used. Mines said she hopes to sell school merchandise onsite to raise money for school activities.
The school has multiple trophy cabinets built into walls in the hallways for the eventual wins each team brings back – all brightly lit but empty for now.
The school is massive, built to hold 1,100 students and addresses the overcrowding that Harrisonburg High School faced the day it opened.
Multiple wings lead into gathering spaces with surrounding classrooms—a very deliberate choice, Mines said. Mines said the school was built to encourage collaboration between teachers and students and build community.
The lunchroom is expansive and feels like the set of “High School Musical.” What can be described as a grand staircase leads students from the cafeteria to the library, a welcoming space with study areas and “collaboration labs,” small rooms seating four that are enclosed for conversation.
Just off the cafeteria sits a small-sized auditorium with retractable seating. The space has multiple uses, including small theater, music and dance performances, and lectures. Harrisonburg High School will lead yearly musicals, and students from both schools can audition and perform.
One thing the high school does not have: lockers. School Superintendent Michael Richards said they decided to phase lockers out because students at Harrisonburg High have not used their assigned lockers for school in years.
Rosanna Johnson, creative writing teacher at Rocktown, agreed.
“I was at HHS for eight years, I saw one kid use his locker,” Johnson said. “I thought, ‘Oh, it’s a rare sighting that a locker is being used!’”
There are still a few details to iron out. The library shelves are still bare as librarians wait for the books to arrive. Some teacher badges still need to be reprinted from the Blue Streaks to the Raptors, but overall, teachers and staff are ready to open the doors.
Mines said about 70% of the teachers and staff are new hires to the system, with about 30% of the teacher population transitioning from HHS.
School starts for Harrisonburg City School students on Tuesday, Sept. 20.
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