School Profile

Working Together to Achieve Educational Excellence

Riffenburgh Elementary School is located in the south central/east area of Fort Collins on the Front Range of the beautiful Rocky Mountains. It was named in honor of Waldo Riffenburgh, who served as a member and president of the Fort Collins Board of Education for eighteen years.

Our school site is beautiful. The school occupies what was once part of Ed and Cora Johnson's farm. It adjoins Edora Park, which was named to honor Ed and Dora. Our close proximity to the park gives children additional opportunities for supervised activities.

Riffenburgh is the "choice" traditional neighborhood school that accommodates children from all over Larimer County. It is recognized throughout the community as a rich learning environment where parents want their children to be. We have a strong history of sound academic excellence and strive to continue that excellence through staff development and designing/implementing curriculum reflective of local, state, and national standards.

Our Riffenburgh staff is well-trained and recognized for their dedication and expertise. Many of our staff members have master's degrees and two of them have doctorates. The staff work together with each other and community resource people in providing both in and out-of-school activities for our students. We have numerous student activities both within the context of the regular school day and as after-school activities. Running Club, Chess Club, Art Club, Choir, Scouts, Student Council, Odyssey of the Mind, and Science Enhancers are examples of the variety of activities available.

Riffenburgh's stability rate (rate at which we keep students over time) is currently at 90%. Attendance is excellent at 96.3%. One of our all-school goals is to encourage regular, prompt school attendance. We monitor tardies and communicate daily with parents of tardy/absent students.

Another of our goals is to keep class size low at the primary grades. Currently our teacher:student ratio at the primary level is 1:18. In the intermediate grades the ratio is 1:20. Our enrollment numbers have been stable over the last few years and predictions indicate that with the building of Rigden Farms subdivision we will see a gradual increase in our student numbers over the next five years.

Decision-making at Riffenburgh has several components. Staff, parents, and community members are involved either through our Leadership Team or our School Improvement Team. Both entities meet at least monthly, and more often as the need indicates. We are fortunate to have parents and community members, as well as teachers, who are eager and excited to be an integral part of planning and implementing curriculum and school business.

Riffenburgh has a history of strong parental involvement through our PTO. Although PTO is not part of the decision-making process, we appreciate their interest, input and support. They provide many family activities such as a back-to-school ice cream social, a safety fair, holiday parties for children, book fairs, and a community dinner. PTO has one large fund raiser each year that raises thousands of dollars for our school. That money comes back to the school and our teachers in the form of mini-grants that support student needs and activities. Last year, $10,000 was contributed by PTO to help fund new computers and equipment.

One of PTO's greatest services to us is coordinating volunteers in our school. VIPS (Volunteers in Poudre Schools) is an integral part of our school and provides volunteers that include students from our high schools and CSU (Colorado State University), retired folks and, of course, parent. Volunteers work with our children in numerous ways. Some of them listen to children read, while others work with individuals and small groups wherever the neeed exists.

Last year, our school was one of 252 schools out of 1208 statewide that met the eligibility requirements to submit an application for the John J. Irwin Colorado School of Excellence Awards. This award was establised in 1999 through legislation to recognize Colorado schools for academic excellence resulting in high levels of student achievement. Riffenburgh was one of 40 schools to win one of the "Excellence" awards. We also received an "A" on the Independence Institute's Colorado Report Card. In addition, Kaili Young, one of our special education teachers, was the recipient of the Mary Hull Award for outstanding teaching. We're proud of our accomplishments and our teachers.

"The Riffenburgh Community...working together to achieve educational excellence." We invite you to visit our school and watch as we put our words into action. We hope this is the place you 'll want your children to be.