Back to School 2024

If you are an incoming student and have a question or concern about your schedule, please make sure that you have reviewed this letter that was sent on June 26th that has answers to frequently asked questions first.  If you still have a questions, please fill out this form, and I will respond as soon as I can.  

If you are a returning student, and have a question or concern about your schedule, please review this letter that was sent on June 26th first, and if you still have a question or concern, fill out this form, and I will get back to you as soon as possible.  

Transfer students and international boarding students who do not have schedules, someone will reach out to you in late July to create your schedule. 

If you have any questions, please contact Mr. Simon (nsimon@riordanhs.org) 

Laptop Requirement for Students:

All new and transferring students are required to have a full laptop to assist in productivity for their courses. Laptops may be a Macbook or Windows PC. Laptops may not be Chromebooks, iPads, or other tablet devices. The minimum recommended specifications are as follows:

• PC: Quad-core processor and 8GB of RAM, running Windows 11 or 10
• Macbook: 2020 (M1) or newer, able to run latest version of OSX

Engineering Students:

Student’s entering the Engineering program will require higher performance devices that are capable of running the Windows operating system for specific engineering software. The minimum system requirements are as follows:

• Operating System: 64-bit Windows® 11 or Windows 10
• CPU: Quad Core 2.5 GHz or greater
• Memory: 16 GB RAM or greater
• Disk Space: 128 GB or greater
• Graphics: Dedicated (non-integrated) 2GB or greater GPU, DirectX11 compliant

Why we Require laptops:

1. Students in all courses rely on many online sites such as Schoology, TurnItIn, and GoogleDrive, which have limited functionality on tablets. In addition, many arts and science courses require specific software packages which cannot be installed on Chromebooks or tablets at all.
2. A full laptop keyboard encourages more organized and powerful writing, research, and note-taking workflows.
3. As a school that prepares students for college and workplace experiences, we believe students should practice using professional devices they will encounter throughout their lives.

We encourage you to have a conversation with your student about your household’s expectations about responsible use of their educational device for school and home use.

Riordan’s online bookstore through e-Campus opens July 24, and free shipping is available July 24-30. Please note that some digital texts may take up to 5 to 7 days to arrive for download. If you have any questions, contact the e-Campus Customer Service Team by email, Live Chat, or by calling (844) 523-8980.

Students should use their Riordan email to order, and new students can use a regular email. As a reminder, all Fall semester schedules (Classes 1-4) can be viewed in PowerSchool beginning July 1.

Teachers will be giving instructions about other materials needed for courses during the first days of school. There is no pre-set supply list.

Please see below for all dress code guidelines and purchasing options. All students must be in complete dress code at the start of orientation. 

Please note that all Orientation days on August 12 and August 13 are mandatory attendance days for all students. Absences will be assigned to students who do not attend school these days.

The first day of classes is Wednesday, August 14.

Download the Calendar
If you have any questions, please contact info@riordanhs.org.

Riordan is a closed campus. All students are required to remain on campus from the time they arrive at school until they are released for the day. Students are not permitted to have food or other items delivered to school. Students are not allowed to have visitors on campus during the school day.

Forgotten devices and or school/athletic equipment may be dropped off to the safety team and it will be given to the front desk. Items will be picked up from the main office when the student is on a break. 

Medication cannot be administered by staff without a medical consent from a physician. Any student who needs medication delivered will need the parent to come into the front office to administer. 

All visitors must check in and receive a visitor badge from the front desk, located in the main lobby. Parents, guests and visitors must schedule an appointment prior to coming on campus. Teachers and Administrators are not available without an appointment.

Set up your new school meal account here:

https://mykidsspending.com/Logon

All excused tardies and absences must be communicated promptly and directly to our Attendance Manager, Mrs. Nora Birmingham.

Parents/Guardians should email or call to account for their child; it is not necessary to come to the main office.

• attendance@riordanhs.org
• 415-586-8200 ext. 250

Upper Body

• Any Riordan logoed Polo, T-Shirt, Sweatshirt, Jacket, or Outerwear (NO tank tops or cropped tops) currently owned or available for purchase online through: 
  BSN Sideline Store  

• Any Plain Solid White Polo or Plain Solid White Oxford Shirt purchased at any outside provider. Some examples (not limited to these) are as follows: 

  • Men’s Style White Polo: Amazon Essentials | Hanes
  • Men’s Style Oxford: Amazon Essentials | Van Heusen
  • Women’s Style White Polo: Hanes | Lands End
  • Women’s Style White Oxford: Amazon Essentials | Hotouch

NOT PERMITTED DURING SCHOOL HOURS:

• Hats, Beanies, Headwraps, or Visors.

• Non-Riordan gear/colors; no color variations of blue, red, green, orange, brown or plaid.

Lower Body

• Traditional cut, solid color (non-faded, not ripped, not cargo) Black, Gray, or Khaki pants (jeans in these colors are accepted) with a belt. 
  • All items can be purchased at any outside provider.
• Traditional cut, solid color (non-faded, not ripped, not cargo) Black, Gray, or Khaki Bermuda/Dress Shorts with a belt. 

  • All items can be purchased at any outside provider.

Some examples (not limited to these) are as follows: 

Mens

• Pants: Dockers  &  Amazon Essentials 
• Shorts: Dockers & Amazon Essentials

Womens 

• Pants: Dickies & Lee
• Shorts: Lands End & G Gradual

Men and Women:

Traditional cut, solid color (non-faded) Black, Gray, or Khaki pant or denim with a belt. All items can be purchased at any outside provider.

• No Sagging Pants
• No Rips or Tears in Pants
• No Blue Jeans
• No Cargo Pants
• No Athletic/Sweatpants (including Riordan branded)
• No Yoga Pants
• No Leggings 

Women:

Skirts (Women Only): Pleated, Khaki or Black ONLY purchased from the providers below. Tights or stockings may be worn under skirts (black or skin colored). 

• Simply Uniforms

• Amazon - "A Khaki" or Black ONLY

• Land's End

Footwear

Men and Women:

• Any Closed-toed and closed-back Sneaker, Casual and Dress Shoe allowed. If shoes have laces, they must be tied at all times.
• Visible socks are required at all times, with the exception of women's ballet flats.

You CANNOT Wear:

• Open toe shoes
• Open back shoes
• Flip-Flops
• Sandals
• Crocs

HAIR

Must be neat, clean, and presentable. Hair must not impede students vision and must be kept out of the students face, including cultural hairstyles (braids and cornrows).

Administration reserves the right to apply the Elastic Clause to all hairstyles.

NOT PERMITTED DURING SCHOOL HOURS:

• Facial hair at any time.
  • Students may be asked to shave at school; if a student refuses, he will be sent home.
• Shaved lines or designs (including on the eyebrow).
• Distracting, unnatural, extreme, or artificial hair coloring, bleaching, or dyeing is not permitted.
  • Students will be instructed to get a haircut if these rules are not followed.

ACCESSORIES, MAKEUP, PIERCINGS, TATTOOS AND NAILS

• Any hair, makeup, or accessories that are a distraction to the learning environment must be removed. 
  • Administration reserves the right to apply the Elastic Clause to the student dress code.

NOT PERMITTED DURING SCHOOL HOURS:

• Piercings to any part of the face or body (including nose, lip, eyebrow, mouth etc., regardless of material such as metal or plastic), with the exception of ear piercings.
  • Students will be asked to remove piercings; if a student refuses or is unable, he or she may be sent home until piercing is removed.
• All tattoos need to be covered during school hours or when representing Riordan in any capacity, including during sports.
• Unsafe, unclean or unnaturally kept nails. 
• Headphones and earbuds– unless a teacher gives explicit permission.
  • Students who fail to remove earphones or earbuds will be liable for disciplinary action. Headphones or earbuds may be confiscated for repeated failure to remove them.
• Dangling chains or hanging key chains.
• Excessive jewelry and/or makeup.
• Wearing hoods while indoors.
• Caps, bandanas, or any hair adornments/coverings worn indoors, with the exception of headbands for women. Elastic headbands and ties to keep hair out of the face are allowed. 
• Sunglasses worn indoors (unless they are transitional lenses with doctors note or prescription on file).
• Any accessories that could be considered dangerous or could be used as a weapon.

Elastic Clause: The Administration reserves the right to make any and all judgments and interpretations to all dress code rules and regulations stated within the handbook. The Administration is the final judge of what is neat, clean, and appropriate. Students who come to school out of dress code will not be allowed to attend class until the violation is remedied. Students may be sent home to remedy the violation. Any class missed will be treated as a class cut. If a student persists in violating the dress code, they will be suspended from school.

Below are the Dress Code Guidelines for all students during Formal Dress Days. For a direct link to our Formal Uniform partner, please click here.

All students are expected to wear formal uniform for all masses and when directed by the Administration. This is required uniform for all students and must be purchased prior to the start of school.   For the 2024 - 2025 School Year BOTH the Classic Gray Sweater and the NEW Dark Gray Quarter Zip are acceptable formal options.    20204–2025 Formal Dress Code Dark Gray Quarter Zip with ‘R’ available at SImply Uniforms AND/OR Dark Gray Formal Sweater with the Riordan Crest available at Simply Uniforms Black Pants  Black Pleated Skirt White collared shirt tucked in; button down or polo acceptable Dress Shoes  No tennis shoes or sneakers, no sandals, no crocs.  No faded black jeans or no tears or holes in the pants.   ONLY Alternative Formal Wear: Parliament Jacket, Sports Boathouse Jacket, Varsity Jacket when advised to do so with:   Black Pants (chino or dress pant) Black Pleated Skirt White collared shirt tucked in; button down or polo acceptable Dress Shoes Below are examples for Formal Attire, as well as links to purchase specific items.  Price List (Ordering Details are within the Document): Formal Attire Pricing & Ordering Elastic Clause: The Administration reserves the right to make any and all judgments and interpretations to all dress code rules and regulations stated within the handbook. The Administration is the final judge of what is neat, clean, and appropriate. Students who come to school out of dress code will not be allowed to attend class until the violation is remedied. Students may be sent home to remedy the violation. Any class missed will be treated as a class cut. If a student persists in violating the dress code, they will be suspended from school.

Fall semester schedules (Classes 1-5) can be viewed in PowerSchool beginning July 1.

Riordan’s online bookstore through e-Campus opens July 24, and free shipping is available July 24-30. Please note that some digital texts may take up to 5 to 7 days to arrive for download. If you have any questions, contact the e-Campus Customer Service Team by email, Live Chat, or by calling (844) 523-8980.

Students should use their Riordan email to order, and new students can use a regular email. As a reminder, all Fall semester schedules (Classes 1-4) can be viewed in PowerSchool beginning July 1.

Teachers will be giving instructions about other materials needed for courses during the first days of school. There is no pre-set supply list.

Our required Summer Reading book is "Turtles All the Way Down" by John Green. To purchase the book, you can use this link. 

The assignment associated with the text can be accessed here: Summer Reading Assignment. All students are required to complete both the reading and the assignment prior to the start of school. 

Laptop Requirement for Students:

All new and transferring students are required to have a full laptop to assist in productivity for their courses. Laptops may be a Macbook or Windows PC. Laptops may not be Chromebooks, iPads, or other tablet devices. The minimum recommended specifications are as follows:

• PC: Quad-core processor and 8GB of RAM, running Windows 11 or 10
• Macbook: 2020 (M1) or newer, able to run latest version of OSX

Engineering Students:

Student’s entering the Engineering program will require higher performance devices that are capable of running the Windows operating system for specific engineering software. The minimum system requirements are as follows:

• Operating System: 64-bit Windows® 11 or Windows 10
• CPU: Quad Core 2.5 GHz or greater
• Memory: 16 GB RAM or greater
• Disk Space: 128 GB or greater
• Graphics: Dedicated (non-integrated) 2GB or greater GPU, DirectX11 compliant

Why we Require laptops:

1. Students in all courses rely on many online sites such as Schoology, TurnItIn, and GoogleDrive, which have limited functionality on tablets. In addition, many arts and science courses require specific software packages which cannot be installed on Chromebooks or tablets at all.
2. A full laptop keyboard encourages more organized and powerful writing, research, and note-taking workflows.
3. As a school that prepares students for college and workplace experiences, we believe students should practice using professional devices they will encounter throughout their lives.

We encourage you to have a conversation with your student about your household’s expectations about responsible use of their educational device for school and home use.

All students will receive a Tech Letter before the school year begins with information reagrding how to log- in and use these systems.

PowerSchool–our Student Information System (SIS) which holds and maintains all school records, including student schedules, official current and historical grades, and standards mastery.  Teacher gradebooks are directly connected to and updated in this system.

Schoology–our Learning Management System (LMS) where you will access content, descriptions, assignments, and postings for each of your registered courses.  Here you will submit your work and receive raw scores and descriptive feedback on standards mastery.

For further information, please contact Michael O'Brien, PowerSchool/Schoology Manager at mobrien@riordanhs.org.

We use Minga, a campus management system and digital ID card for all of our students and staff. 

Minga is used for a variety of campus needs, including:

• Digital ID Card
• Check-In at Academic Resource Periods
• Activities and House Points
• Detention Notification and Management
• Hall Passes

Minga is an app system that can be accessed on any device. We ask that all students with phones add the app for ease of access in the cafeteria for lunch service. More information will be provided during Orientation. 

Please visit the main Athletics page to see all of the sports by season and their start dates. 

There will be two new sports added in the upcoming school year: Girls' Flag Football (Fall) and Boys' Volleyball (Spring).

 

 

 

 

Medical Clearance for Athletics

All students MUST obtain athletic clearance via SportsNet prior to participating in tryouts or other season practices. Each athlete is only required to register once per year. We encourage all students to register and complete the online registration packet at the beginning of the year, regardless of what season their sport of interest is in. 

Once you receive your student ID number on July 1, you can create an account on SportsNet. Instructions on how to create an account and complete the packet are here. 

Please note that the Athletic Preparticipation Physical Evaluation Form is different than the health and immunization forms. The Athletic Medical Clearance form must be uploaded to SportsNet as part of the online registration packet. 

Online registration through SportsNet, including an uploaded Athletic Preparticipation Physical Evaluation Form, must be processed on the following dates for each sports season.

• Fall Sports: August 5, 2024 
• ** August 1, 2024, for students playing football
• Winter Sports: October 28, 2024
• Spring Sports: January 27, 2025
• On-Campus Pre-Participation Exams

Summer Athletic Activities

During the summer, we will offer different athletic opportunities for incoming students to prepare for the upcoming seasons. These opportunities include weight room workouts and open gym/field sessions.  More information on what is offered will be communicated at the Welcome Night on May 2 for New Students. 

Questions: Please email sportsmedicine@riordanhs.org

Most families have uploaded psycho-educational reports or IEPs to the SchoolAdmin portal when they applied. 

If you have updated documentation, please email slundin@riordanhs.org as soon as possible so that we can have your student’s accommodation sheet ready by the beginning of fall semester. 

If you have any questions, please contact Stephanie Lundin, Director, Resource Specialist Program, slundin@riordanhs.org, 415-586-8200 ext 373.

Support Riordan through the Parent Pledge Program here.

Dear Parents and Guardians,

Congratulations on your child’s acceptance to Archbishop Riordan High School! We are pleased to welcome you and your family to the Riordan community.

Each year we ask new parents to participate in the Parent Pledge Program, a four-year commitment made by each family. Over the past few years, parent support has allowed the school to make a number of key improvements to both the curriculum and facilities, including the introduction of a biomedical sciences program, the recent student life center and courtyard renovations, and numerous classroom remodels.  

The Parent Pledge Program is critical to the school’s success because the true cost to educate your child is more than tuition alone. The benefit of making a Parent Pledge gift instead of paying higher tuition is that this gift is tax deductible.

In 2023–24, we received pledges ranging from $400 to $20,000 over four years. We hope that all parents will consider a pledge that falls somewhere in between. Some will do less and some will do more— what counts is that all families participate at a level that feels right and is within their means. Those who choose to pledge $12,000 or more over 4 years will be invited to our Annual President’s Reception in the fall.

Support Riordan through the Parent Pledge Program

Thank you for partnering with us to provide the best possible experience for your child, and helping us fulfill our mission to provide all of our students with a Catholic education in the Marianist tradition.

If you have any questions or would like to discuss the program in more depth please don’t hesitate to contact me. My phone number and email are listed below.

Sincerely,

Anne Seppi
Director of Annual Giving
aseppi@riordanhs.org
(415) 586-8200 ext. 217

The Riordan Parents Association welcomes all parents to get involved any way they can.

Volunteering is a great way to help the school and get involved. We understand that the ability to volunteer will vary with each family, and we simply ask that each family do whatever they can do to support school activities. 

Volunteer opportunities are sent out through your Class Representatives or in the weekly Parent Newsletter. 

To be added to our volunteer list, please fill out this form.

All Riordan families will receive the Family Newsletter sent every Friday at 6 p.m.

The school uses Constant Contact messaging system to deliver official messages from the school that include:

• President's Messages
• Family Newsletter
• School news and announcements
• School Events (Invitations and RSVPs)
• Parent Association

PLEASE NOTE: If you unsubscribe from one message, you remove yourself from all messaging. Please do not unsubscribe unless you want to receive no messages from Riordan regarding any school news and announcements.

If you accidentally unsubscribe, please contact info@riordanhs.org and a member of our communications team will help.