Richland High School, opening in August 2025, will be Prosper ISD’s 4th high school. Richland hosted a ‘Sign the Beam’ event on Nov. 13 from 6:00 p.m. to 7:30pm. Students attending Richland next year were at the event participating in giveaways, activities, and signing their name on the beam. In August of 2025 the beam will be Richland for students to see.

Richland High School’s Principal, Dr. Croy attended the Sign the Beam event at Children’s Health Stadium. Dr. Croy did this event for the Richland community to come together for the first time.

“The beam signing was an incredible event for our community. It was the first time Raider Nation has gotten to come together, and the turnout was amazing. Everyone was excited to be there, and they couldn’t wait to get their hands on their first Richland Raider T-shirts. My goal for the event was to bring our community together and give everyone something to get excited about.” Dr. Croy said. “Since everything is so new, a lot of our future Raiders don’t know who their classmates are going to be. The beam signing was a great opportunity for everyone to look around and see which of their current classmates are also going to be making the move to Richland in August.”

Dr. Croy is hard at work with the development of Richland by hiring teachers and staff. He wants to connect with families and students of Richland by hosting events and visting schools.

“The next big ‘project’ is hiring our staff. We will be interviewing head football coaching candidates in a few weeks. There are a lot of exceptional football coaches all over the state of Texas that have already shown an interested in leading our athletic program, so this is a really exciting time for us. I’ll also be hiring our lead counselor and our associate principal in the next few weeks as well. Once January comes around, I’ll begin hiring the rest of our staff. That will be the bulk of my work in the spring.” Dr. Croy said. “I’ll be hosting some ‘meet the principal’ events for the parents, and I’ll be meeting with our Richland students at PHS and Rushing Middle School starting in January as well. I’ll work with our students to identify our core values, and we’ll start building the culture of Richland as quickly as possible. We aren’t going to wait until August to make Richland great. That work starts now.”

Freshman Pranav Mareddi shares his thoughts on the transition from Prosper High School to Richland.

“Richland is a new and upcoming school, so I would assume that it would be better than PHS.” Mareddi said. “But obviously PHS is a flagship school, so nothing can beat it, but the transition, I think would be cool.”

Mareddi is excited for the new people he will meet and new courses he can take at Richland.

“I’m excited for meeting all the new people and seeing what extracurriculars I can do at Richland next year. I might switch my endorsement to law, I’m exited to do principles of law.” Mareddi said. “I am not planning on starting any clubs or organizations at Richland.”

Freshman Oliver Schaub will be taking computer science and culinary arts at Richland High School.

“I am excited for the new modern equipment and lunch options at Richland. I will be learning how to code in computer science and taking Culinary Arts.” Oliver Schaub said. “I’m planning on doing off-campus P.E. and playing hockey outside of school.”

Sophomore Patrick Corbett is stoked about the new opening of Richland High School. He is looking forward to how nice and new the campus will look.

“While the campus itself will be beautiful and state of the art, I’m looking forward to the excitement that will come with a new school.” Corbett said. “I mean, look at all the media attention Walnut Grove got when it opened. It’s going to be a lot like that, and Richland students will be right at the heart of it.”

Corbett is currently in the PHS Orchestra and plays the violin. He plans to take his musical talents to Richland.

“Right now, I’m planning on continuing to be in Orchestra.” Corbett said. “I’m also looking forward to seeing what other exciting elective opportunities Richland has to offer.”

With Corbett transitioning schools halfway into his high school career, he will both be an eagle and a raider. Most of his friends will be going to Richland just like him.

“The transition is exactly halfway through my high school career, so I’ll start there as a junior. It’ll be interesting, because when I graduate I will have spent equal time as an Eagle and as a Raider.” Corbett said. “I know a lot of my friends that are also going to be transferring over there. I’m happy that they are, because that will make the transition a lot easier for all of us.”

Corbett is a co-founder of the Catholic Students Association at PHS. He plans to continue the organization at Richland that and other students can start their own organizations or clubs at Richland too.

“I am a Co-Founder of Prosper High School’s Catholic Students Association and plan to also start a similar program at Richland.” Corbett said. “The fun part is that there isn’t really going to be anything already established like there was when I came to PHS, so this inaugural group of students will have the unique opportunity to form the organizations and extracurriculars they want to participate in.”

Freshman Roman Schaub is looking forward to the new transition from Prosper to Richland. He hopes to play of the Richland hockey team.

“I’m excited to see all my friends, and have a new experience at Richland, there will be lots of new classes to take.” Roman Schaub said. “I’m probably going to be taking engineering computer science, and play for the hockey team if they have one at Richland. I’m a goalie and I want to try to save as many shots as possible.”

Roman Schaub plays the guitar hopes to start a guitar club at Richland where he can teach others how to play and start a band.

“I want to try to start a Guitar club because I like playing the guitar.” Roman Schaub said. “Hopefully I will be able to teach others how to play the guitar, and probably play the guitar as a band with each other.”

This story was originally published on Eagle Nation Online on November 21, 2024.