Columbia Public Schools Serving Boone County, MO - Real Estate, Homes For Sale, School & Area Information

In September 1973, Rock Bridge first opened with a class of 583 students. Sitting on 42 acres, located at the corner of Providence and Southhampton in southwest Columbia, the name Rock Bridge was chosen because of the schools proximity to the natural rock bridge of Rock Bridge State Park. The original portion of RBHS had 20 classrooms which was expanded in 1978. The design of the school at this point won a national award in school design. In 1992, 2000 and through 2013, additions and improvements were made to include a performing arts center, planetarium, science, English, Social Studies, foreign language classrooms, media center and computer labs. The entire building has Wi-Fi, is air-conditioned and additional weight rooms were added for the incoming class of freshmen attending high school following the secondary redistricting in 2013.

Rock Bridge runs on a block scheduling format so that students have four 95-minute-long classes each day (86 minutes on Wednesday and Thursday). However, most of these classes meet every other day for a total of eight classes for the year.

AUT, short for Alternating Unassigned Time, is an unassigned time, like a study hall in the fact that students have no class that block and can use it for academic purposes. However, unlike a study hall, students do not have to report to nor work in a specific location. Rather, students on AUT are allowed to roam the building to access tutoring, use the computers in the Media Center, visit with friends, or anything else they wish to do. The school offers 18 Advanced Placement courses and a multitude of honors classes available to students. However, RBHS does not weight grade point averages.

Rock Bridge houses around fifty-five clubs and organizations, including, but not limited to, Intramural Table Tennis League, Chess Club, Global Issues Club, Dumbledore's Army, the Zombie Defense League, Guitar Club, National Honor Society, Student Environmental Coalition, Future Doctors of America, Future Lawyers of America, Astronomy Club, National Art Honors Society, Weight Lifting Club, and the language Honors Societies. Rock Bridge High School has a planetarium where the school conducts star shows for all ages as well as students at RBHS and other schools.

Rock Bridge High offers a variety of sports, including the traditional football, basketball, wrestling and track, and is a perennial powerhouse in both boys and girls tennis, having won the Girls State Title in 1999, 2002, 2003, 2011 and 2014, as well as the Boys State Title in 2008, 2010, 2011, and 2012. At the club level, Rock Bridge fields a Boys Varsity Lacrosse team in the spring.