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Eight RU juniors and seniors spent a week in Cuxhaven Germany living with host families and attending school.  This exchange has been in place for 15 years and the students are very excited to host German students here next fall!  

Our exchange coordinator brought us to the emigration museum.  In this picture we are on the ramp to the boat simulation section of the museum.

Dear OSSD Community,

We hope that your spring vacation is going well.  We wanted to share more good news about the Orange Southwest School District.  A short while ago, our High School joined our middle school and Braintree Elementary by being recognized in the national rankings.  RUHS (grades 9-12) is ranked as the 13^th highest performing high school in the state of Vermont.  We are also ranked above 77% of the approximately 23,500 public high schools in the United States.

I want to personally thank our leadership team and all the staff that have contributed their hard work to making this possible for our students.

“Randolph Union High School earned high National and metro-area rankings in 2024 Best High Schools, which U.S. News released yesterday. Here is your school’s updated U.S. News profile page, with details about its rankings: https://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/vermont/districts/orange-southwest-unified-school-district/randolph-union-high-school-201657.”

Most Sincerely,

Layne W. Millington

OSSD Superintendent

On February 13, 11 Randolph Union students and three chaperones embarked on a nine-day service learning trip to Cusco, Peru.  After 26 hours of travel—by bus, airplane, and car—students and chaperones arrived in Cusco, one of the South American nation’s most populous cities, high in the Andes Mountains. They were greeted by local Ubelong team leader, Martina Käser. That organization was responsible for organizing student homestays and coordinating day-to-day activities.  During the trip, the students and chaperones lived with host families in Tambillo, completed service learning in a local community center, visited the Sacred Valley, and toured Machu Picchu. 

The RUHS varsity bowling team just finished a season for the record books. The Galloping Ghosts finished the regular season undefeated winning the inaugural central division championship. The success didn’t stop there for the Ghosts. They looked to continue their winning ways as they headed to the team bowling state championship. The Ghosts made it all the way to the finals where they finished off the season in emphatic fashion with a dominant 4-0 win in a best of 7 series against South Burlington. This win brought home the Ghosts first team bowling state championship in program history!

Click here to see the news clip and article from NBC5.

Congratulations Ethan Davignon for reaching the 1000 point milestone. Ethan finished his high school basketball career with a total of 1017 points. He joins a very select group of athletes at Randolph as he is just the 10th Galloping Ghost to reach this mark and the first to do it since 2016.

On February 3, 2024, the 3 RU robotics teams put all their skills to the test when they competed in the Vermont New Hampshire Region Robotics Tournament at the Coe-Brown Academy in Northwood, New Hampshire. Over 50 teams from 11 schools were there hoping to qualify for the state finals. 

Thanks to their strong performance in the skills portion of the competition on Saturday, the RU  “U” and “H” teams qualified for the NH/ VT Vex Robotics State Championships that will be held at Manchester Community College in New Hampshire on February 17th.  Everyone at RU wishes them the best of luck. May the best team – and robot– win!

Click Here for the full article about the competition from Michelle Holder.

On January 6th, while Vermonters were bracing for a winter storm, a dozen Randolph high
school students and their chaperones took off for the Exuma Cays, in the Bahamas, for a
seven-day scuba-diving adventure at sea. Their mission: to help save the coral.

Read More about their trip here in an article with Michelle Holder.

On November 13th,  RU's Racial Justice PBL traveled to Lamoille North Supervisory Union in Hyde Park, to provide training on addressing microaggressions to the Middle School and Technical Career Center staff and administration.

Over the past two years, RJ students developed the training in response to a student climate survey indicating that the issue of unaddressed microaggressions was negatively impacting student learning and safety.

Microaggressions refer to the common everyday statements, behaviors, or actions that are discriminatory toward stigmatized or marginalized groups. They can be intentional or unintentional and are often subtle or can be disguised as jokes. 

According to senior class member Sierra Bond, “Microaggressions are the most common form of oppression I see in the school. These small things are really harmful, and I tend to see them a lot more as a student.” 

RU junior Connor Deyette noted that the subject of microaggressions isn’t usually addressed during staff training, and teachers sometimes don’t know the right way to intervene. The class agreed that offering professional development on the topic would be a good step in addressing larger systemic issues of discrimination. 

Impressed by RU's RJ students' presentation at last year's student-led equity conference in South Royalton, Maria Davies, the DEI coordinator for LNSU, reached out to RU's RJ students to ask if they would be willing to present their powerful training to her staff. 

 The hour-and-a-half-long training led entirely by the students consisted of an overview of microaggressions in school settings, strategies for responding, and breakout groups with staff tackling a variety of real-world scenarios. 

Adrian Clement, an RU senior, felt the training was useful to staff.  “Microaggressions can go under the radar. Not everyone can pick up on it and not everyone knows where the line is.” 

Tevye Kelman, the lead teacher for the Racial Justice PBL class, affirmed the students’ success. “I’m really proud of the ownership they took over. Students did a good job explaining impact versus intent,” he said. “I heard [them] sending the message that, yes, you do need to consider and be curious about a student doing a microaggression.”

By Beverly Taft and Michelle Holder