Dear Lions Parents,
As many of you are aware, last week was our kick-off with the Boosterthon/Fun Run Program. From the feedback I received, the students in years’ past absolute love the Fun Run (and Color Run for the middle and high school students). The actual run takes place this Friday.
With the Boosterthon kick-off, a few questions have come up about last year’s Fun Run goal of building a recreation field. Therefore, I’d like to address these questions and answers with everyone.
I joined Riverwalk Academy last year, a few weeks after the Fun Run took place. Last year, the goal was to raise $30,000 for a sports/recreation field. Shortly after my arrival, I learned that the space identified for the location of the field was already spoken for as a future parking lot as part of the original strategic plan. Since that parking lot is expected to be developed in two years, I asked everyone to hold off on the recreational field project until we found another location for the field.
As you can see from the attached map, the original vision for the recreation field is located in the back of our land.
Please know that the funds for this project are still there and waiting to be used for the recreation field project. Over the next few months, our Board and others will be working on strategic planning, and part of that process will be our updating the land plans for our next phase of growth.
Looking ahead to this year’s goal, we’re going to do things a little differently. Our goal is to create some sort of outdoor space for our students. After the Fun Run, we will distribute a “request for proposals” to Riverwalk Academy Students for them to submit their project ideas. From the submissions, a panel of judges will narrow it down to a group of students who will present their ideas to a panel of stakeholders and experts. From there, depending on the amount raised and project costs, one or multiple students will have their ideas funded and we’ll work to turn their ideas into a reality. We are expecting to have the project(s) selected by October and work will begin shortly after that. To keep everyone updated on this process, we will create a website that our families and community members can follow along with.
Thank you for your continued support of our school, our staff, and our students. Because of you, our Pride is Powerful.
