Written by
Beth Farrah, SMT Writer
Essex, Missouri – The Richland Rebels celebrated the end of the 2012-2013 school year on Friday, May 18th. The school day ended with an early release, sending the students home at noon. It was a busy day for all students and faculty members, but it was especially busy for the high school seniors and the kindergartners, who were both preparing for graduation.
Both graduations took place in the gymnasium, but the kindergartners were the first to start their first graduation program after many successful practices earlier on Thursday and Friday. The program began at 6pm and there was a great turnout for the soon-to-be first graders. All of the kindergartners had a great first year of school and are excited to continue their elementary education at Richland with their new teachers in the fall.
While the kindergartners were celebrated the end to their first year of school, the seniors were graduating the end to their last year of high school. The senior graduation took place two hours later, at 8pm on the stage in the gymnasium, where senior classmate, Jesse Barnes, welcomed all of the visitors and began the ceremony. Mr. Nathan Rice from the Harvest Assembly Church of God in Essex, began the invocation and welcomed the salutatorian and valedictorian, Jessica Shidler and Kelly Motta.
During the presentation of scholarships, Richland’s counselor, Mrs. Michelle Chism, had quite a long list to give to the graduates. The students worked very hard and competed for multiple scholarships. A majority of the senior class is planning on going to college or pursuing a secondary education after high school.
Superintendent, Mr. Frank Killian, and high school and junior high principal, Mrs. Cindy Rhodes, were honored to present the class with their diplomas. Mr. Loyd Odum, President of the Richland R-1 Board of Education also congratulated the class and helped confer their diplomas. The junior class escorts included Tyler Maddox and Kayla Uhles, who were both chosen by the seniors to help guide them onto the stage and represent the upcoming class.
Tears began to pour during the special recognition, where the seniors passed out flowers to their family members, friends, and other important members that helped them get to this point in their life. The recognition was followed by the senior slideshow titled “Thirteen Years of Memories”, which many of the twelfth grade classmates worked very hard on most of the year to gather enough baby pictures, group pictures, and songs to create a timeline of their lives and all of the fun they had growing up year after year together.
When it came to the time to throw up their caps, the class song, “We All Roll Along” by The Maine played through the speakers. The class of 2013 was a joy to have at Richland and they were always a spirited and lively bunch, but even more than that, they were great role models for the underclassmen and always took great pride in helping others.
Their class motto was a quote from Mac Miller, “People change and things go wrong, but just remember life goes on”. Their class flower was the daisy and their class colors were lime green and turquoise. The seniors had a long and busy year with the help of their three class sponsors, Mrs. Lisa Taylor, Mrs. Samantha Jones, and Mr. Matt Cline.
The class had multiple successful years at Richland High School and ended with a successful graduation. The students will go on to do many great things and will continue to learn, grow, and thrive wherever they choose to go for the next chapter of their life.
Congratulations, Class of 2013!
Written by
Dee Loflin SMT Manager/Writer
Dexter, Missouri - Three Dexter Bearcat baseball players recently received recognition on the SEMO Conference all-conference baseball team.
Brad Potts, a senior at DHS was selected First Team-All Conference as an infielder. He has played for the Dexter Bearcats as a shortstop and a pitcher. Cody Neldon a junior was selected as an outfielder and has played as a center fielder for DHS.
Jordan Miller received an Honorable Mention as an infielder. He has been on the mound many times as pitcher for the ‘Cats and is a senior.
Congratulations to Potts, Neldon, and Miller! Brad Potts and Jordan Miller just graduation on Friday from Dexter Senior High School and we wish them well on their future endeavors. Neldon will return next year as a senior for the Dexter Bearcats.
Dee Loflin SMT Manager/Writer
Mr. Ryan Joyner is Salutatorian and Miss Jessica Loflin is Valedictorian.
Jessica Loflin has a GPA of 4.267 and is the daughter of Dee Loflin. She has received many honors throughout her life as well as taking several college credit hours from Missouri State University, Three Rivers College and Southeast Missouri State University while attending high school.
Her academic honors from high school include the Faculty Foreign Language Award her junior year, Faculty English Award, Faculty Mathematics Award, Dexter Honor's Society, Top 10%, the National Society for High School Scholars, and Missouri Girls' State.
She is involved in many clubs, both in school and in the community. They include the Foreign Language Club, Future Business Leaders of America, the National Wild Turkey Federation, DHS marching and concert band, JAKES, Student Council, Crowley's Ridge Blackpowder Club, and Dexter Rotary Interact.
Jessica will be attending Southeast Missouri State University where she has been accepted into the Pre-Veterinary Program and the Jane Stephens Honors Program. Once she has completed the 60-hour program she will apply to the University Missouri Veterinary College in Columbia, Missouri to obtain her doctorate degree in Veterinary Medicine.
"I am very honored and excited to be Valedictorian of the Graduating Class of 2013," stated Loflin. "I finally wrote my speech and I am going to be really nervous tonight. I congratulate all of my classmates and wish them great success in the future. "
Jessica said, "To sum it all up for us tonight, in the great words of Reese Witherspoon's character Elle Woods in the movie Legally Blonde, "WE DID IT!."
Our DHS Salutatorian is Ryan Joyner with a grade point average of 4.213 and is the son of Stan and Anita Joyner.
His accolades include Dexter Honor Society, Top 10%, Trig Team, United States Navel Academy Summer Seminar, Faculty Science Award, and the Faculty History Award.
Joyner has been very active in the community as well as in sports. He played DHS Football all four years, DHS Basketball three years, DHS Golf three years, Student Council, FCA-President, Dexter Rotary Interact-Vice President, Freshman Class President, Sophomore Class President, Senior Class Vice President, 4-H, and he is a member of the Sacred Heart Catholic Church.
Ryan's plans after high school include the United States Naval Academy where he will pursue a career and major in Mechanical Engineering and attend flight training.
When asked about his future career, Joyner said, "It's been the plan my entire life. I am nervous, but excited!"
We congratulate both students and wish them great success in their future endeavors. These two have worked very hard to get to the top of their class and the Dexter community is extremely proud of them.
Congratulations Jessica and Ryan!
Written by
Beth Farrah, SMT Writer
Essex, Missouri - When the school year gets close to the end and finals are officially over and lockers are being cleaned out, there are a lot of bittersweet emotions that fill hallways, classrooms, and homes. The current eighth graders are looking forward to becoming freshmen and the current juniors are going on and on about how they only have to survive one more year of high school before moving on to bigger and better things at college.
But while all the underclassmen are making plans for summer vacation, the current seniors are planning for other things. The stress of college applications, ACT scores, and scholarship information is overwhelming all by itself, but on top of that is the realization that twelve years of high school are completely over.
The senior class of 2013 at Richland High School, are about to complete their final week of school. Tomorrow, Friday, May 17th, the students will end the year with an early release at noon and will return to the school one more time for graduation that will take place at 8:00pm in the gymnasium.
The seniors bonded and celebrated the end of their high school career by planning events for ‘Senior Week’ and spending the last week of school together as a time to reminisce and make a few more memories together as a class.
They started their busy week on Monday, where they dedicated their morning to community service around the campus, where they washed windows and helped pick up the school grounds. On Tuesday, they travelled to the Cape Girardeau movie theater and enjoyed a bucket of popcorn and the brand new film “The Great Gatsby” starring Leonardo DiCaprio. On Wednesday, they spent their school day having fun with the elementary students at their annual Fun Day event on the playground and even challenged the teachers and faculty members to a game of softball that the whole student body attended that afternoon. On Thursday, they ventured up to St. Louis to Busch Stadium to watch the Cardinals take on the New York Mets.
Tomorrow will be their last day at Richland and it will definitely be bittersweet for everyone. Even though many classmates may be going in different directions after high school, they will still have many memories together as Richland Rebels. The teachers and students will definitely miss having the Class of 2013 roaming the hallways, but we all know they are currently taking baby steps towards their successful future.
Written by
Beth Farrah, SMT Writer
Essex, Missouri – With summer break just days away, the elementary students at Richland have prepared themselves for the summer fun by attending many of the MAP testing award pizza and movie parties. But yesterday (Wednesday, May 15th), the students found themselves outside on the playground for most of the day while they celebrated the end to their school year at their annual Play Day celebration.
Play Day has been an annual event at Richland Elementary for many, many years. Each year, the Richland PTO hosts a day of fun activities, both indoors and outdoors, many snacks and treats, and even barbeque sandwiches for lunch.
This year, the students got to play Minute to Win It games from the hit television show outside. The weather was great for the classes to go outside and enjoy the day. When they weren’t playing basketball or jumping in the bounce house, they could cool off by playing a new game in the small swimming pools or eat a snow cone.
The students also got to enjoy arts and crafts indoors, where the younger kids created necklaces, bracelets, and key chains out of string and beads and the older kids learned how to weave paracord bracelets. They also got to enjoy a small science experiment, where they learned about density and buoyancy. The staff members also helped them create homemade ‘Moon Sand’ that stayed fresh like Play-Dough so the students could take it home.
The students enjoyed freshly made cotton candy, a variety of different snow cone flavors, and hamburgers fresh off the grill made by their superintendent, Frank Killian. When their busy schedule of activities was finished, they settled down and watched a new movie to end their day.
The Richland PTO did a fantastic job and they worked very hard to make it run as smoothly as it did. The teachers and students are both very thankful to have parents as dedicated as they are. The organization has been holding fundraisers all year long to help fund their many activities at both the high school and elementary school.
A large number of the high school Beta Club members also participated and helped manage the large number of kids that participated in Play Day. The members helped run each station and had a busy day just like the elementary students.
At the end of the day, it seemed like everyone had fun, including the students, helpers, parents, teachers, and PTO members.
