The C-2 View Newsletter

March 2025

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🚨 IMPORTANT | 📒 Calendar Updates

Calendar updates!

No School: March 21, 2025
No early release: April 9, 2025
No early release: April 16, 2025
No early release: April 23, 2025
No early release: April 30, 2025
No early release: May 7, 2025.

To view the revised district calendar, visit our website here.

🏆 District Award Winners 🏆

Congrats to our 2025-26 District Award Winners!

The 2025-26 Teacher of the Year is Ellie Lilly. Ellie is the Business Innovation and Creation Teacher at Herndon Career Center.

The 2025-26 Support Staff Employee of the Year is DJ Pittel. DJ is an Interventionist at Raytown South High School.
The 2025 Distinguished Leadership awardee is Raytown High School Principal, Dr. Andrew McCarthy.

The 2025 Brian Blankenship Heart of the Matter award was presented to two individuals who truly embody the heart of education. Vivian McKinney, Special Education Teacher at Life University and Lamond Southall, a teacher at Raytown Central Middle. Read more about each person on our website here.

Graphic that shares information about Summer School. pictures of students .

Summer School Enrollment Now Open!

The Raytown C-2 School District provides a summer program for every student free of charge. This program is designed to give all students a strong start to the fall semester.

Things to know:

Enrollment is now open!
Options for grades K-12 as of Fall 2025

Dates: May 30 - June 27 (No School June 19 - Juneteenth)
Enroll via FOCUS. You can also use the app to enroll. Search ‘RQS FOCUS’ App in your preferred app store
Complete info & FAQ's available on our website

Our Schools

Read Across America Week

Read Across America Week, held in early March, is an annual event that promotes reading and literacy. Schools, libraries, and communities celebrate with activities like read-alouds, book fairs, and reading challenges, encouraging a love of books and diverse literature. Schools welcomed guest readers from across the district and community in class to read and helped showcase that reading is an important life-long activity. This photo was taken at Southwood and features Dr. Martin-Knox as the guest reader.

Guest Readers at Blue Ridge Elementary

During Read Across America Week, Blue Ridge welcomed football players from Ray High and South High. No competition here when it comes to Raytown and Raytown South High School football players reading to our elementary Blue Jays. Smiles all around. The students loved it, the teachers were impressed, and all the players said they would be back next year for more reading! After reading, the players also shared some words of wisdom with the classes. Thank you to these players and their coaches for being leaders in our community. See more photos of the players on the Blue Ridge Elementary Facebook Page here.

Northwood Focus Group

At RQS, student voices matter! Recently, students at Northwood School had the opportunity to meet with Dr. Martin-Knox and school administrators to share their thoughts on what’s important to them and their learning experience. Insights from these focus groups will help shape our strategic plans, ensuring student perspectives play a key role in future decisions.

Arts & Activities

South High Mock Trial

Raytown South faced off in a mock trial against a highly talented St. Theresa’s squad. Each team competed in a courtroom before three attorneys who volunteered as mentors. One lawyer served as the judge, while the other two acted as the jury. Although this was the Cardinal team’s first time participating in a mock trial, RSHS secured the victory! Congratulations to these students for their dedication and hard work. Go Cards!

United in Song - Tickets now on sale!

Tickets are now on sale for United in Song: The Music of Raytown. The combined music programs of Raytown High School and Raytown South High School will perform on Wednesday, April 16, 2025 at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. With the support of many generous sponsors, our band, orchestra, and choir students will have the opportunity to perform in one of the finest concert venues in the world: Helzberg Hall at the Kauffman Center. Buy tickets online now for this once -in-a-lifetime performance. If you are interested in sponsoring this concert, please contact Alex Kolster, RQS Secondary Fine Arts Coordinator, at alex.kolster@raytownschools.org

Career Academies Exploration

As RQS continues to explore bringing career academies to the high schools, freshmen and sophomores from RHS and RSHS got a chance to see how academies work in person during a visit to Belton High School. The Academies of Belton include Freshman Academy, Business and Technology, Human Services and Science and Industry. RQS students visited a variety of "pathways" or classrooms such as fashion and design, construction and engineering. Belton students shared their experience about how being part of an academy has helped them grow academically.

Our Staff

March Ray of Hope 💫

We are proud to recognize Joanne Rose, registered nurse, and Dalton DuPaul, security officer, as our March Ray of Hope Awardees. Joanne and Dalton's quick thinking and teamwork helped save a student’s life at Raytown South High School, where they performed life-saving measures during a medical emergency. Their actions are a true testament to the power of compassion, skill, and courage. Thank you for your dedication to the Raytown Quality Schools Community. Your work truly saves lives.

Robotics Team Awarded Grant

The Raytown C-2 School District Robotics team was recently awarded a $2,000 grant from the Gene Haas Foundation. The Gene Haas foundation's primary goal is to build skills in the machining industry by providing scholarships for Computer Numerical Control (CNC) machine technology students. These grant funds will be used to help pay for the costs incurred in building your robot and participating in competitions. Congrats to the Robotics Team, Fire & Ice and their sponsor, Vern Larson.

Happening Throughout the District

March is School Board Appreciation Month

School Board Recognition Month, observed in March 2025 in Missouri, honors the dedicated service of over 3,600 local school board members who volunteer their time to support public education. Communities across the state are encouraged to acknowledge these individuals' contributions to the education of Missouri's children. During the March 10 meeting, RQS board members were honored with gifts and artwork from students as well as a video thanking them for their service. You can watch the video on YouTube here. For more about the RQS Board of Education, visit our website here.

FREE Gun Locks

Raytown Quality Schools is passionate about safety. We are offering FREE cable gun locks for our community. If you would like gun locks, please stop by our Facility Operations Building at 5911 Blue Ridge Blvd., Raytown, MO 64133 between 7am-2pm. They will be provided to you for free and no personal information is required. If you have questions about this effort, please email Leslie.keys@raytownschools.org. For more information on the Be SMART program for safe gun storage, visit https://besmartforkids.org/

Important Dates & Observances

March 2025 Observances and Calendar Updates

March: Women's History Month
March: Dance in Schools Month
March: Youth Art Month
March: National Music in Schools Month
March: National Theatre in Schools Month
March: Middle Level Education Month
March: School Board Appreciation Month
March 3-7: Read Across America Week
March 3-7: National Social Workers Week
March 4: Maintenance Worker Appreciation Day