Rocky River Schools

RRHS Students Place 2nd at Hyland Software Innovation Showdown

Four Rocky River High School (RRHS) students recently competed at the Hyland Software High School Innovation Showdown and took second place at the event.

Juniors Jason Gronn, Keegan Kovach and Matthew Stueber, and Freshman Hugo Stickney represented RRHS at the event. The team was selected for the program among a number of teams in the Greater Cleveland area because of its initial proposal and was one of just six teams to advance to the final round.

The Hyland High School Innovation Showdown is a team competition that tasks students to use their creativity to come up with an innovative concept that could solve a real-world problem. Team conduct brainstorming sessions, develop project plans, and work together to showcase their idea effectively.

The RRHS team designed the PlugShine lightbulb as a way to reduce the 7 million tons of glass waste produced every year. The students discovered a way to reuse the glass cover of a lightbulb and just replace the lighting element inside.

Hyland Software employees serve as mentors for the teams throughout the competition, giving students direct access to industry professionals for guidance and insight.

RRMS Students Spreading Kindness One Cup – and Sleeve – at a Time

Students at Rocky River Middle School (RRMS) are working to spread kindness throughout the community during the holiday season by teaming up with Rocky River Starbucks on Detroit Road.

Students are working to create art and designs on more than 1,000 coffee sleeves with a message promoting kindness and words of encouragement. It is part of the continued theme at RRMS where “Kindness Matters”. Debbie Wodzisz, a secretary in the RRMS counseling department, and her daughter, Sara, a 2018 RRHS graduate, initiated the efforts and volunteered RRMS students to decorate the sleeves for Starbucks.

Every sleeve is original as students use markers to give the sleeves a splash of color with hand-written messages to spread kindness. Students pick from a list of phrases, including “Always Choose Kind,” “Spread Kindness,” “Smile & Laugh Often,” or come up with their own phrase to include on the sleeve.

RRMS Holds Spelling Bees

Rocky River Middle School held its eighth annual Spelling Bee for all grade levels on Monday, November 25. After taking spelling tests in classes, a semifinal oral spelling test was the next step for the top spellers in each grade level. Finalists then came together today for the final part of the Spelling Bee.

Seventh and eighth grade students competed against each other for a chance to represent the District at the Scripps Regional Cuyahoga County Spelling Bee on March 7 at Cuyahoga Community College. Seventh grader Trang Ngo was the overall winner, while eighth grader Melanie Harmath was the overall runner-up.

A total of 15 seventh and eighth grade students competed in the Spelling Bee.

Alex Ganzer, Sydney Kolpien, and Ela Niemojewska were declared the winners of the sixth grade competition that featured 14 students.

The competition was extremely competitive at both events as students completed the entire list of school spelling bee words that are published by the Scripps National Spelling Bee before moving to a second list of words

Congratulations to all the winners and everyone who participated.

Goldwood Hosts Spelling Bees for Grades 1 & 2

Goldwood Primary School hosted its Grade 1 and Grade 2 Spelling Bees on Monday morning in the Goldwood Room.

A total of 15 first graders competed in the day’s first Spelling Bee with Evelyn Ganzer winning the first grade event and Thea Zehnder finishing in second place. At the second grade level, 15 students took part in the Spelling Bee with Oliver Church claiming first place and Nikolas Kola finishing as the runner-up. Church also won the first grade Spelling Bee at Goldwood last year.

Congratulations to all Grade 1 and 2 students who competed in today’s Spelling Bees!