Virgil I. Grissom High School
| Virgil I. Grissom High School | |
|---|---|
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| Location | |
| Huntsville, Alabama, United States | |
| Information | |
| Type | Public |
| Motto | Id Facere Possumus |
| Established | 1969 |
| Principal | B. T. Drake |
| Grades | 9-12 |
| Enrollment | 1,992 |
| Color(s) | Orange, Brown & White |
| Nickname | Tigers |
| Accreditation(s) | Southern Association of Secondary Schools |
| Newspaper | 'The Imprint' |
| Website | GHS official website |
Virgil I. Grissom High School, more commonly referred to as Grissom High School, is a public high school in Huntsville, Alabama, United States with approximately 2000 students in grades 9-12 from Southeast Huntsville. The school was named a 2007 Blue Ribbon School by the U.S. Department of Education.[1] In the Newsweek ranking of schools throughout the nation for 2008, Grissom High School was ranked fifth best in the state and 708th nationally.[2] Grissom was the only high school in Huntsville to make the 2008 list.
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[edit] Location
The school is located in Southeast Huntsville and serves an area of largely middle to upper-middle class neighborhoods. The suburban middle schools within the area include: Mountain Gap Middle School, Challenger Middle School, and Whitesburg Middle School.
[edit] History
Grissom High School was founded in 1969 and is named for astronaut Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom, killed in the Apollo 1 fire at Cape Kennedy, Florida on January 27, 1967. Huntsville is home to NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center and has ties to the space program. At the same time, the Huntsville City Schools named Roger B. Chaffee Elementary and Ed White Middle School for Grissom's fallen Apollo 1 crewmates.[3]
[edit] Academic achievement
In 2007, Newsweek magazine ranked Grissom among the top 5% of all high schools in the United States. The school was ranked 531 among the top 1200 high schools in the nation based on the number of Advanced Placement, Cambridge tests, and/or International Baccalaureate tests taken by all students at a school and then dividing by the number of graduating seniors.[4]
Grissom produced 28 National Merit Semifinalists for 2007, the highest number in the state.[5] Grissom's math teams and academic team have also earned national recognition. Grissom's 2007 Science Olympiad state team placed 2nd at the state competition at Samford University. They participated in the National Science Olympiad competition in Kansas in May 2007, and in 2008 participated in the National competition in Augusta, Georgia. In 2008, Grissom's Debate and Speech Team qualified for, and competed in the NFL National Tournament in Las Vegas, NV.
[edit] Notable alumni
- Mo Brooks, class of 1973, is the current Congressman in the U.S. House of Representatives, representing Alabama's 5th congressional district.
- Michael E. Brown, class of 1983, is a professor of planetary astronomy at the California Institute of Technology. He is known for the discovery of several Kuiper belt objects that led to the demotion of Pluto.
- Spike McRoy, class of 1986, is a professional golfer on the PGA Tour and Nationwide Tour.
- Marvin Stone, class of 1999, was a professional basketball player.
- Tim Stowers, class of 1976, won the 1990 D-IAA National Championship as the Head Football Coach at Georgia Southern University and was named NCAA Kodak AFCA National Coach of the Year.
- Jayson Swain, class of 2003, formerly a wide receiver for the Chicago Bears.
[edit] Notable former faculty
Kay Cornelius, who taught in the English department at Grissom for the majority of her 30-year teaching career, is a published author with more than a dozen books to her credit.[6] She also wrote test units for the PSAT and College Board specialized-subject achievement tests, as well as reviewing the Board's English literature examination. Her first novel, Love's Gentle Journey was published in 1985. Cornelius retired from teaching to write full-time in 1990.[7]
Edward S. Dravecky Jr., the last teacher at Grissom to have taught there every year since it opened in 1969, retired in May, 2007, after 45 years of service in the Huntsville City Schools.[8][9] He founded the school's Advanced Placement U.S. History course in 1984.
[edit] Layout
The high school's building was designed to act as an emergency fallout shelter.[citation needed] Therefore classrooms contained no windows, save for a small one in room FF4, prior to the addition of a new science wing in 1997. This addition added several windows in H and HH pods. Grissom's roughly octagonal building is divided into "pods", lettered A-H on the first floor and AA-HH on the second. The main hallways are adjoined by a single story circular commons, which provides access to the gyms, lunchrooms, and a fine arts area including a band room, choral room, and an auditorium. Grissom has one main gym and one auxiliary gym. It also has one main lunchroom and one senior lunchroom.
[edit] Advanced Placement classes
Grissom High School offers the most Advanced Placement Program courses in the area[10], including, but not limited to:
Students from Grissom can participate in a dual enrollment program and take classes at the University of Alabama in Huntsville or at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa through correspondence.[11]
[edit] Extracurriculars
As of 2007, Grissom has football, boys/girls basketball, volleyball, baseball, cross country, track, golf, swim/dive, boys/girls soccer, boys/girls tennis, wrestling, and cheerleading teams, a dance program directed by Stephanie Braly-Beutjer, a choral program directed by Elizabeth Stephenson, a theatre program directed by Lydia Marsh,[12] as well as marching, symphonic, and jazz bands directed by Bill Connell and Theo Vernon. Other notable extracurricular activities include an academic team and an extremely competitive math team, that in addition to competing in contests, runs numerous mathematics programs, camps, and competitions. Rocket City Math League is an international mathematics competition run by Grissom math team students. A wide variety of extracurricular clubs are also present at Grissom.
Grissom's quiz bowl has won 8 Alabama UAB/Alabama Scholastic Competition Association (ASCA) state championships (1982 (4A), 1987 (5A-6A), 1991, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2003, & 2004) - the most of any Alabama high school - with a runner-up finish in 2005[13]. Grissom finished 5th in the 1992 Texaco Star National Academic Championship in Houston, Texas.
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Grissom Band 2006-2007
[edit] School publications
Grissom's bimonthly newspaper is The Imprint, which is recognized by the Alabama Scholastic Press Association. The annual literary magazine is called Seed, and the annual school yearbook is named Invictus.
[edit] JROTC
Grissom High School has an Army JROTC program.[14] The Army instructors are First Sergeant Lynn Vanzandt, and Sergeant First Class Randall Grady, both of whom are retired from the Armed Forces. During the 2007-2008 school year SFC Randall Grady was the Rifle Team Commander, 1SG Lynn Vanzandt was the Raider Team Commander, and COL Rodney Johnson was the Drill and Ceremonies Commander before he retired. The Rifle Team routinely attends the National Air Rifle Competition. The Cannon Battery maintains and fires the school's Civil War-era replica Mountain Howitzer at home football games.[15] The male and female Raider Teams are ranked second and first, respectively, in the nation.[citation needed]
[edit] External links
- Grissom High School official website
- Grissom Band website
- Grissom Basketball website
- Grissom Choral website
- Grissom Dance website
- Grissom Football website
- Grissom JROTC website
- Grissom Math Team website
[edit] References
- ^ "Selected 2007 Schools". No Child Left Behind-Blue Ribbon Schools Program. U.S. Department of Education. August 15, 2008. http://www.ed.gov/programs/nclbbrs/2007/2007-schools.html.
- ^ "The Top of the Class: The complete list of the 1,300 top U.S. high schools". Newsweek. http://www.newsweek.com/id/39380/?s=Alabama. Retrieved 2008-07-10.[dead link]
- ^ Jaques, Bob (June 6, 2002). "First spacewalk by American astronaut 37 years ago" (PDF). Marshall Star (NASA Marshall Space Flight Center): p. 5. http://marshallstar.msfc.nasa.gov/6-6-02.pdf.
- ^ DeButts, Jimmy (2007-05-21). "Irondale school among nation's best". Birmingham Business Journal. http://www.bizjournals.com/birmingham/stories/2007/05/21/daily1.html.
- ^ "Grissom puts 28 in Merit semifinals". Huntsville Times. http://www.al.com/news/huntsvilletimes/index.ssf?/base/news/1158139154164640.xml&coll=1.
- ^ "Authors: Kay Cornelius". Barbour Publishing. http://www.barbourbooks.com/author/detail/kay-cornelius/.
- ^ "Children's Author/Illustrator Kay Cornelius". Answers.com. http://www.answers.com/topic/kay-cornelius.
- ^ "He's an important part of Grissom history". Huntsville Times. 2007-04-16.
- ^ Zollar, Mary Anne (2007-05-20). "City Life: Huntsville City Schools honors retirees". Huntsville Times. http://blog.al.com/enjoy/2007/05/city_life_may_20_2007_huntsvil.html.
- ^ "Counselor's profile of Grissom High School". Grissom High official website. http://www.hsv.k12.al.us/schools/high/ghs/counselor/ghsprofile/ghs1.htm.
- ^ "UAH Dual Credit Program". University of Alabama in Huntsville. http://www.uah.edu/HTML/Admissions/AdmisInfo/dualCredit.html.
- ^ "Grissom High School sports directory". Grissom High official website. http://www.hsv.k12.al.us/schools/high/ghs/sports.htm.
- ^ "Alabama Scholastic Competition Association". Alabama Scholastic Competition Association HS Winners Archive. http://www.dbtech.net/asca/HSWinnersArchive.html.
- ^ US Army JROTC programs in Alabama
- ^ "Grissom's new gun now loudest fan of football program". Huntsville Times. 2006-09-07.
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