RADFORD – The first week of school for Radford City Public Schools is in the books.
School started on Monday and Tuesday this past week, and students, teachers, and administrators spent
the week getting acclimated to their classrooms, to new procedures, and to each other.
At both campuses – McHarg/Belle Heth and Dalton Intermediate/ Radford High School – time was spent
not only on learning but also on fostering strong relationships between students and traversing the nitty
gritty of transportation, mask mandates, and the like.
At the secondary level, the schools started a new program called FROG.
“Today kicked off our FROG (Forging Relationships for Ongoing Growth) week,” RHS posted.
“Students spent the day connecting with classmates and building relationships. Playing rock, paper,
scissors and creating skits were just a couple of the activities. We are focusing on building relationships
and community.”
In an email to the school community, Superintendent Rob Graham thanked all who contributed to the
successful start of the school year and asked for patience as the kinks get worked out.
“Thanks to all who helped make the two days of the first day of school welcoming, inviting, and
successful for all. We look forward to an exciting and beneficial 2021-2022 school year,” he wrote.
“Please continue to provide us with your grace and patience as we work through issues like school
transportation, arrival/dismissal procedures, and schedules that are especially challenging during the first
two to three weeks of school.”
One area of school procedures that is not favored by some families in the system is the decision to have
all levels of students ride the same buses instead of being separated by elementary and secondary levels as
in the past. The school division offered the following explanation for the change:
“Radford City Public Schools will be running transportation for elementary and secondary students
simultaneously for the 2021-2022 school year. RCPS considered the following when creating the 2021-
2022 bus routes: instructional time, the school’s daily schedules, the increase in ridership, the impact on
families regarding start and end times, the impact start and end times have on extracurricular events, the
amount of time students would have to wait for their bus in the afternoon, the time of day students would
board the bus in the morning, the time of day students would get home in the afternoon, bus route travel
times, and the influence that COVID-19 has placed on the division regarding physical distancing and
large crowd holding areas.”
After considering multiple factors, RCPS investigated a variety of ways to meet the goal of delivering and
returning students to school and home in the safest way possible while at the same time operating the
most efficient transportation system the division could. RCPS has added two additional routes to the
schedule to help achieve the goals above. The division will take data on this transportation initiative for
the 2021-2022 school year to determine its value. Bus routes have been posted on https://www.rcps.org/.
For questions about school bus transportation, call Transportation
