Superintendent's Message

Dear River Grove School Community,

Welcome to the 2025-26 school year! I hope you had a wonderful summer and spent time having fun with family and friends.

 

We are happy to see many of our familiar staff members back at RGS, and I know you join me in welcoming new faces. Please take a look at the carousel pictures at the top of our website to meet our new staff additions. They are all so happy and excited to join the RGS family!

 

The River Grove School District 85.5 Board of Education is committed to continuous improvement. River Grove School District is always striving to improve the building and opportunities for students. Here are some accomplishments:

• Building and Grounds- Over the summer the blacktop and parking lots were sealcoated and striped to look new. The basketball backboards, scratched due to use, are being replaced. All bathrooms in the school received new dispensers for soap, paper towels and toilet paper creating a neat and clean environment. The entire property has new mulch and additional landscaping. The school and property look fresh for our Royals!
• Teaching and Learning- This year teachers will be implementing a new Math program with students. They will be working together to learn the new program during Institute Days. We are in year 2 of the new Reading program and will continue to support that for students, teachers and families. We will continue our focus on standards based instruction and elevating our work together in teams to analyze student performance data. And, you will continue to see a focus on building students’ writing skills in every subject this year at RGS.
• Technology-We continue to support a 1:1 environment where every student has an iPad or Chromebook to use at school and at home. And, many classrooms have Promethean Boards, large interactive boards that students and teachers can write on and manipulate content on, similar to a room sized iPad.
• Safety-The Board, Administration and Staff are committed to the safety of our students. This summer, thanks to a generous grant from the Rivers Casino Foundation, the door cameras and monitors at Doors 1 and 3 were replaced in order to have a clear view of the visitor and updated digital experience for our offices. We added some internal and external safety cameras as well. We have a detailed Evacuation Plan in case we need to evacuate the building and we work with our Police and Fire partners to conduct safety drills, so our staff and students are prepared in a variety of situations.

 

The Board of Education accomplished these improvements and updates without overspending and ending the fiscal year in the black.  Because we are a small district receiving limited state and local resources, a balanced budget is not an easy accomplishment. I congratulate the Board on their fiscal responsibility and dedication to the students, families and tax payers of River Grove.

 

Finally, communication with families and our community is very important to us. The school calendar, school updates, student and staff celebrations, lunch menus and a warehouse of all of our important documents are found on our website. It is regularly updated, so please bookmark www.rivergroveschool.org and visit it often! Please follow us on instagram with the handle rgs.855 and on facebook by searching “River Grove School District 85.5”. Our twitter/X feed is easily viewed from the main page of the website. Please follow us @rivergrove85_5, #rgroyals, #WeAreRG. The Royal Revolution newspaper, written by students and staff, is delivered to all River Grove addresses each December and May. It is also linked on our website, so please take a look! Finally, ParentSquare, our communication app, as well as Teacherease are used by staff and families to message, call or email each other. As you can see there are many ways to communicate and keep up with RGS.

 

River Grove is a wonderful place to live and work because of the kindness and respect we show each other and model for our children. I look forward to seeing you at one of our fall family, fine arts or sporting events!! I am looking forward to a wonderful 2025-26 school year!

 

All my best,

Dr. Rashid

#WeAreRG!