Rome Free Academy
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Rome Free Academy (commonly abbreviated as RFA) is a four-year
public high school A state school, public school, or government school is a primary school, primary or secondary school that educates all students without charge. They are funded in whole or in part by taxation and operated by the government of the state. State-f ...
in
Rome, New York Rome is a city in Oneida County, New York, United States, located in the central part of the state. The population was 32,127 at the 2020 census. Rome is one of two principal cities in the Utica–Rome Metropolitan Statistical Area, which lie ...
, United States. It is a part of the Rome City School District. As it is the sole comprehensive high school in its school district, it serves as the high school for the majority of the City of Rome as well as the
census-designated places A census-designated place (CDP) is a concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counterparts of incorporated places, such ...
of Lake Delta and Westernville.


History

There was an institution called "Rome Academy" established in 1848. It was a school which took both day and boarding students which required tuition fees. Over time it evolved into RFA. '' The Rome Daily Sentinel'' stated that "the R.F.A. surely reaches back to 1848 for its roots." By 1989 the Justice Building had occupied the original Rome Academy site. The initial portion of the previous campus was built in 1926.
Illustration
/ref> Subsequent additions were built. The school moved to the former site of
Griffiss Air Force Base Griffiss International Airport is a public airport in the northeastern United States, located east of the central business district of Rome, a city in Oneida County, New York. Publicly-owned by the county, the airport is located on the form ...
in September 2002, having previously been located at 500 Turin St. Classes no longer used the 1926 onward building. This former site is the current location of Rome Free Academy's athletic facilities. The 2002 campus had a cost of $45,400,000. The main school sign uses
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bold, differing from the previous school sign. There was a movement to preserve the original 1926 portion of the previous RFA building. A member of the board of trustees, Leonard H. Cross, proposed conducting a poll of district residents on whether the former building should be preserved. During the 2018–2019 academic year the school enrolled 1,482 students in grades nine through twelve.


Curriculum

Rome Free Academy offers a general high school education through a regular curriculum of mathematics, social studies, English, science, art, music, health, and a selected foreign language. Rome Free Academy also includes a multiple business classes.


Extracurricular activities

A black history club was first created by John Cavness (died circa 1999).


Athletics

Rome Free Academy's sports teams are called the Black Knights. The school colors are black and orange. Notable in history in the 2010s is the addition of a comprehensive Positive Behavior Initiatives and Support (PBIS) initiative, which includes a range of measures to help solve student behavioral problems. The original facility for home athletic games was the ex-Oneida County Fairgrounds, beginning in 1892. RFA began using Wright Field for home games instead in 1933, then Colonel's Park in 1940, Wright Field again in 1941, and then Colonel's Park again due to vandalism of Wright Field. In 1944 the school community began the process of trying to have a permanent stadium. In 1946 the process to turn Colonel's Park into housing meant that the school could no longer use it for athletic games, and it did not have a home facility. A permanent stadium facility opened in 1950. In 1990, Mark Mende of ''The Rome Daily Sentinel'' wrote that the stadium "is in need of some upgrading and repair."


Attendance boundary

The district (which is the high school attendance boundary) includes the majority of the City of Rome. It also includes portions of the following
towns A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...
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Annsville Annsville is a Administrative divisions of New York#Town, town in Oneida County, New York, United States. At the 2010 census the town population was 3,012. The town is named after Ann Bloomfield, wife of a founder. The Town of Annsville is in the ...
,
Lee Lee may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Lee'' (2007 film), Tamil-language sports action film * ''Lee'' (2017 film), Kannada-language action film * ''Lee'' (2023 film), biographical drama about Lee Miller, American photojournalist * ''L ...
,
Verona Verona ( ; ; or ) is a city on the Adige, River Adige in Veneto, Italy, with 255,131 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region, and is the largest city Comune, municipality in the region and in Northeast Italy, nor ...
, and
Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...
. The Rome school district includes the
census-designated places A census-designated place (CDP) is a concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counterparts of incorporated places, such ...
of Lake Delta and Westernville.


Notable alumni

* Ben Baldanza, former CEO of Spirit Airlines * Joseph H. Boardman, transportation executive * Don Healy, NFL player *
Rob Manfred Robert Dean Manfred Jr. (born September 28, 1958) is an American lawyer and business executive who is serving as the tenth commissioner of Major League Baseball (MLB). He previously served as MLB's chief operating officer. Manfred succeeded Bud S ...
, commissioner of
Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...
* Tom Myslinski, NFL player * Spencer Parrish, Musical composer * Steve Roser, professional baseball player * Tim Russ, actor * M. Woolsey Stryker, Presbyterian pastor and president of Hamilton College * Bonnie Thunders, roller derby player * Edyth Walker, opera singer with the Metropolitan Opera and Vienna State Opera


References

{{authority control Public high schools in New York (state) Rome, New York Schools in Oneida County, New York 1869 establishments in New York (state) Educational institutions established in 1869