Thrive: to grow, develop, succeed. To prosper, flourish, be your best self.

“This summer, [we] read a book together by Jon Gordon called “One-Word Challenge”, which talks about having a one-word focus on what you want to be about,” principal Rick Rivera said. “So each one of us came up with a different word, and together we came up with a word we wanted for this school, and that was that we would thrive.”

With the help of assistant principal TJ Meyer, sports director Josh Ybarra and student resource officer Mat Meckel, Rivera introduced the motto “Thrive” for the school year to have something for students and staff to focus on. He feels this year is finally what normal is like at the school.

“We’re coming out of a pandemic, and we don’t want to be in survival mode anymore,” Rivera said. “We want to thrive, and we want school to be fun. We want kids to learn, and we want it to be engaging.”

Rivera hopes to be able to motivate students and the staff so the learning environment is better than it has been before.

“We want our students to be successful both in the classroom and out of the classroom, as well as our teachers,” Rivera said. “We want to focus on education and instruction as well as making high school a good experience for all of our students.”

Rivera wants students to be able to be successful both in high school and in their future lives.

“We want kids to prosper and flourish, and we want them to be the best versions of themselves,” Rivera said. “We want to make sure they are given the opportunities to really thrive during their time here.”

Some teachers around the building also support this new motto. History teacher Joan Reichardt feels having a motto to motivate students and staff is important for school.

“I like the motto, and I hope that people pay attention to it,” Reichardt said. “It’s got one of the key ideas that we need to promote at the high school, and I hope it has an impact.”

Reichardt is not the only teacher who likes the idea of a motto to focus on.

“I think it’s a great motto since we’re trying to get students to work beyond where they are and thrive to be more than they are,” math teacher Margaret Gonzales said.

Rivera does not plan on having this be the last motto to happen at this school.

“Every year we’re going to look and reflect back on the year and then say, alright, where do we need to go from here?” Rivera said. “Then we will plan out next year’s motto.”