Raymore-Peculiar High School Senior Ava Kirkpatrick was selected for a $3,000 scholarship from the National Football League Players Association.
The award was a surprise for Ava, who was at school on May 17 for graduation rehearsal. Ray-Pec High School Head Golf Coach Paul Carvan nominated Ava for the scholarship. Pictured, from left: Ray-Pec School Board Member and former NFL Player Paul Coffman, Ava Kirkpatrick, Teacher and Coach Paul Carvan, and Ray-Pec graduate and former NFL Player Chase Coffman. Chase is currently president of the Kansas City area chapter of the NFL Players Association.
Ava plans to attend State Fair Community College in Sedalia, Mo., where she will study business and play golf. This will be the first year for State Fair CC to have a women's golf team.
The Kansas City chapter selected one female student-athlete and one male student-athlete to receive a scholarship.
Ray-Pec High School Sources of Strength hosted another campaign week May 8 to 12 with an 'Inside Out' theme! Focusing on the five emotions from the movie, each day represented one of the characters, and the Peer Leaders planned for activities each day using the funds from their most recent Ray-Pec Public School Foundation grant.
Congratulations to the Ray-Pec Bowling Team on their trip to the State Bowling Championships. The team competed against the best in the state and came home with an award for the highest score for a single game outside of finals with a 258. Senior Tallie Scott was previously selected to sing the National Anthem during the opening ceremonies, and then impressed the audience with her bowling skills and was given the All-Star Award, which includes a $100 deposit in her bowling account. Overall, the team took 11th place, which was only a difference of 198 pins across 23 games shy to advance to finals.
Coach Plankers will be seen around the district in a new role this year as the Head Girls and Boys Golf Coach. Coach Plankers has been leading the Boys Soccer program for the past 6 years and has also been the assistant girls 9th grade basketball coach and the assistant boys golf coach. In addition to working with athletes, Coach Plankers is the Assistant Sponsor of the Student Leadership Team simply known as SLT. Coach Plankers is proud to say he's enjoyed every minute of his time as a Panther and can't wait to take over for Coach Carvan who has put over 20 years into the Golf Program at Ray-Pec High School. Coach Plankers is going to continue to work hard, improve on the golfers skills and grow the awesome game of golf. In the classroom, Coach Plankers can be found teaching Spanish 1 and Spanish 2. School leadership has always been a passion of Coach Plankers and he has recently completed his masters in School Leadership from Baker University. Coach Plankers has been refining his leadership skills around the high school serving on the Building Leadership Team. We are lucky to have a teacher, coach, and sponsor like Coach Plankers to lead in our community. As a Kansas State grad Coach Plankers likes to wear purple but when he's not wearing K-State colors he shows his dedication and his Panther Pride to our students who also share in the love of the Panthers black and gold!
After Saturday's production of "Our Town," cast, crew, family members, and alumni took time to celebrate the accomplishments and career of Teacher Todd Schnake, who is retiring in June after 32 years with the Ray-Pec School District.
(Photos by Kay Connelly©2023)
Congratulations to the Ray-Pec High School boys golf team for a fine performance at the district tournament on Thursday in Springfield! The team tied for 5th place out of 15 schools and shot the best team score in RP boys golf in over 15 years. Senior Brayden Findley led the team with a 75, earning All-District honors and qualifying for the state golf tournament to be held May 15-16.
Congratulations to the May Students of the Month at Ray-Pec High School! From left: Aisha Yanez-Corea, Johney Makeen, Brady Dillon, and Lillian Horning.
Students in Machelle Enright's Life Skills Class at Ray-Pec High School helped prepare items for Teacher Appreciation Week treats, including "Salad Bar Thursday" and "Ice Cream Sundae Tuesday." The students had fun, and enjoyed being able to honor the teachers.
On Sunday, May 7, the Ray-Pec Disc Golf Club is sponsoring a free disc golf tournament for any high school student or faculty member interested in learning how to play the game.
Sign ups start at 8:15 a.m. near the baseball concession stands on the Ray-Pec High School campus. While practicing the new course last night, Andrew Brokaw got his 1st hole-in-one on hole #8, which is a 240 foot hole that is heavily guarded by trees. Congrats, Andrew!
Teacher Jamin Swift is the club sponsor.
Congratulations to Reagan Sheedy who auditioned and was selected for the Missouri Choral Directors Association All-State Show Choir to be held this July in Springfield. Reagan is a Sophomore at RPHS and has been a member of RPSINGS for 5 years as well as Dance Captain for the 2022-23 Ray-Pec RUSH Show Choir.
Attention parents of Seniors: We are looking for donations of individually packaged cookies/chips as well as bottles of water - for the Senior luncheon on Wednesday, May 17. Please drop them off in the high school front office. (*No homemade items please)
The Senior Awards Ceremony honoring the Graduating Class of 2023 will be held at 7 p.m. Wednesday, May 17, at the Raymore-Peculiar High School Gymnasium. Seniors being recognized will be sent an electronic invitation in their school email. Those Seniors will be recognized for achieving accomplishments such as earning a scholarship, a departmental award and/or other awards. In order to ensure that students are properly introduced, they must report to the main commons and check in no later than 6:45 p.m. Seniors: Please bring/wear your cap, gown, and stole.
Ray-Pec High School is proud to announce that Andrew Fletcher will be the Boys Varsity Soccer Coach beginning with the 2023-2024 season! Off of the soccer field, Coach Fletcher will be a teacher at Ray-Pec East Middle School. Coach Fletcher has been coaching high school soccer for 20 years with time at Fort Osage High School and the last four years at Grandview High School. Fletcher has been involved in the local youth soccer scene as a member of the Midwest Regional Championships Committee and as the State Youth Referee Administrator for Kansas.
Having been born in England, Fletcher grew up a Manchester City fan and spent time playing in college before coming to the United States in 1990 where he worked for a local soccer company as a facility manager, coach and referee, as well as a player.
In Coach Fletcher’s spare time, he enjoys visiting State Parks with his wife and playing with his grandchildren - two of whom have now begun their soccer careers with the Sporting Sprites. Welcome to Ray-Pec, Coach Fletcher!
Congratulations to the April Students of the Month at Ray-Pec High School! Bing Van Son and Peyton Koper were honored by the Ray-Pec Sunrise Optimist Club. Persephanies Wilson and Nigel Norvell were recognized by the Belton-Raymore Rotary Club. Seated in front: Bing Van Son. Back row: Persephanies Wilson, Nigel Norvell, and Peyton Koper.
The Raymore-Peculiar School Board on April 27 recognized students who were selected for the Missouri All-State Choir. Participation in the All-State Choir is the highest honor a singer can receive in the state of Missouri.
From left: Soprano Jilliam Collom, Bass Miles Sellami (All-State Honorable Mention), Alto Tallie Scott, Soprano Bailey Roe, Soprano Leticia Turner (All-State Honorable Mention), Soprano Brooklyn Burk, Tenor Xander Blackmon (2-year member), Tenor Dalton Ballinger, and Bass David Marin (All-State Honorable Mention).
They are pictured with Board Member Carol Barnes. Not pictured is Alto Hannah Moroney.
On Wednesday, April 19, the RPHS English 4 seniors participated in their annual Community DRIVE Night presentations. The evening began with their tri-fold displays in the dome, and then moved to their individual presentations. Teachers, admin, business owners, and community members are just some of the people who were evaluators for the presentations. The seniors were tasked with presenting on their Client-Connected Projects, along with explaining their team's Design Thinking Process and how they achieved the attributes based on our school's 'Portrait of a Ray-Pec Grad'.
What a weekend for Ray-Pec Theatre! State Champions in Readers Theatre, State Champions in Duet Acting (Sav Jordan and Devin Fisher), and State Runner-Up for the One Act Play!
In addition, five other events placed in the top 6 in the state, and Ray-Pec earned second place in the overall speech sweepstakes at the Missouri State High School Activities Association (MSHSAA), State Speech, Debate, & Theatre Championships on April 22 at Missouri State University.
Congratulations to:
Dramatic Interpretation--Andrew Burton--3rd Place
Nigel Norvell--Poetry Interpretation--4th Place
Humorous Interpretation--Corbin Williams--5th Place
Duo Interpretation--Irelynn Sloan and Elijah O'Brien--5th Place
Original Oratory--Sav Jordan--6th Place
Congratulations to the boys varsity panther tennis team, which won the 2023 Belton invitational tournament. Individual flight winners included Jr Grant Hornbeck, who won B flight singles. And sophomores Will Day and Landan Moots, who won B flight doubles.
You are invited to attend the fifth annual Senior Project DRIVE Community Night on Wednesday, April 19, at Raymore-Peculiar High School. Refreshments will be available for purchase from 4 to 8 p.m. at Chewy’s Snacks. You may view projects from 4:30 to 6 p.m. in the Dome Gym. Students will give presentations to assigned evaluators from 6 to 8 p.m. The DRIVE projects have four major components: working with a client, gathering relevant materials, proposing solutions, and presenting to the community.
Ray-Pec High School Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD) conducted its annual Stay Safe Spring Campaign on April 14, the day before Prom. SADD members tagged about 713 cars with letters from elementary students encouraging them to make good decisions during prom and graduation. This year's participating elementary schools were Raymore Elementary, Stonegate Elementary, Eagle Glen Elementary and Timber Creek Elementary. The project includes coordination between counselors,elementary students and SADD.
