Richland High School (2023)
Richland High School serves 790 students from grades seven through twelve. The school is a Title I school with about a 65% free and reduced lunch ratio. Many of the students from Richland graduate and immediately enter the workforce. To prepare students for this transition, RHS has continually sought assistance from members of the community to have our students career or college ready. As a result the graduation rate has increased over the past years from 60% to nearly 98%. A key factor was the development of career interest surveys then develop curriculum that made a pathway for students to graduate in order to pursue the career of their choice. We work in conjunction with Hinds Community College with our vocational efforts as well as the establishment of our first academy, Business, taught locally at the school. Our second excursion into the implementation of another academy came to us through the Richland Fire Department. Chief Todd Sanford and Battalion Chief Micah Sanford indicated they was interested in developing potential candidates for the fire department and came to RHS with a plan to develop an internal pool of applicants who would be trained and ready after graduation. This coincided nicely with the students who had expressed an in the career cluster that an interest in becoming a fireman as a career choice. RHS is currently exploring ways to increase the scope of the program to include other careers in the law enforcement cluster and develop the program into a certified academy.