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* Austin Wintory, soundtrack composer for the game [[flOw]] and numerous movies
* Austin Wintory, soundtrack composer for the game [[flOw]] and numerous movies
* [[Eve Torres]], [[WWE Diva]] for the [[Smackdown! Brand]]
* [[Eve Torres]], [[WWE Diva]] for the [[Smackdown! Brand]]
* [[Tits McGee]], professional [[model]].


== References ==
== References ==

Revision as of 04:06, 14 May 2008

Cherry Creek High School
Location
Map
Greenwood Village, Colorado
Information
TypePublic
Established1955[1]
PrincipalDr. Kathleen Smith
Faculty348 (241 certified teachers)[2]
Grades9-12
Number of students3,727[3]
Campus size80 acres
Campus typeSuburban [4]
Color(s)Red, White, and Blue    
Athletics25 sports; 95 teams
Athletics conference5A - Centennial League
MascotBruin
Websitehttp://www.cchs.ccsd.k12.co.us/

Cherry Creek High School (CCHS) is one of six high schools in the Cherry Creek School District and sits on an eighty-acre campus that is home to four separate buildings. The most recent renovations have been in 1998, 2004 and 2006. The school is accredited by the North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools and by the Colorado Department of Education.

The Cherry Creek School district began as a one-room schoolhouse in 1874, and the original schoolhouse, which CCHS and the Cherry Creek School District originated from, was moved onto the current campus in 1969. It has been restored and now serves as a museum-classroom in the center of the campus.

History

Formal education in the Cherry Creek School District began in 1874 in a one-room schoolhouse with one teacher instructing various grades according to the needs of the students. This schoolhouse, located on Parker Road one-half mile northwest of the present Arapahoe Road-Parker Road intersection, constituted the entire Cherry Creek School District No. 19. The District, covering an area of about twenty-five square miles immediately north of the Douglas County line, was approximately bisected by Parker Road . In some years there were as few as seven or eight students; in 1898 the school operated the entire year with only four students. A former student remembers that as early as 1908 older students at Cherry Creek wishing to continue their education beyond eighth grade stayed at homes in Denver during the week to attend Denver schools. School Board records of 1936 showed that a monthly tuition of $7.00 per student was paid to several districts (Parker Consolidated, Englewood , Littleton , Denver ) to educate District No. 19's high school students, with the District being responsible for transporting these students by car pool or bus from their homes to schools in other districts.

In 1950, seven small school districts in Arapahoe County were consolidated to form Cherry Creek School District No. 5, eliminating original School District #19 and making its one-room schoolhouse obsolete. In 1953 the schoolhouse was sold at public auction; and for the next 16 years, it was used as a storage shed. The consolidation brought the eight schools of Ash Grove, Castlewood, Cherry Creek, Cherry Hills (Cherry Creek), Cunningham, Maple Grove, Mountain View, and Sullivan (Mountain View) together for educating elementary students, but Cherry Creek area high school students did not have their own school until 1955. Appropriately, it was named CHERRY CREEK HIGH SCHOOL . On September 6, 1955 , the school opened its doors to 364 high school students (grades 9-12) and an additional 349 younger students (grades 7-8) who had to wait until the following year for their own Cherry Creek Junior High School building to be completed.

The district bought land at the corner of South Holly Street and East Belleview Avenue in 1965, and built a second junior high school, Cherry Creek West Junior High, which opened its doors in September 1966 to 655 students, although construction was not complete until that November (for example, there was no cafeteria until November.) When Cherry Creek West Junior High was opened, both it and the original junior high, renamed Cherry Creek East Junior High (now known as Campus Middle School), housed grades 7-9, making the high school a three year high school (grades 10-12).

Four separate additions were made to the high school building before 1970, more than doubling its size. The Vocational-Practical Arts Center (1970), and the Performing Fine Arts Center (1974) were added to the campus unit between the West Building , which was the entire Cherry Creek High School in 1955, and the East Building . The latter reverted to the high school when Campus Middle School was built in 1971 (grades 7-8) and Cherry Creek became again a four-year high school. Additional major renovations occurred in 1997 when the Vocational Industrial Arts Building was transformed into the Information Center . Preparing to lead 21st century education, the facility now houses the national award winning library, a technology center, Activities and Registrar’s offices, the foreign language department, Post Graduate Center , Counseling Office, journalism and yearbook facilities, two community rooms, a school store and cafeteria. The state-of-the art facility commands a central place on the campus. Additions to East, Fine Arts and West were completed in 2005.

This beautiful campus was designed with functionality in mind. The college-like feel to the school is not an accident. The school posts over a 90% matriculation rate to a college/university. All aspects of the program, including the facilities, are created to promote successful academic endeavors in the future. The humble, $800, one-room original Cherry Creek Schoolhouse, found on a ranch North of Parker, was purchased and brought back to the high school campus in 1969. Restored and now serving as a museum-classroom, it rests south of the Information Center, just a few yards from Cherry Creek's multimillion dollar modern educational facility.

At the high school, there were thirty-five charter faculty members, and Richard Womack served as its first principal. Leonard Shillinglaw was principal for the following ten years (1956-66), followed by Dr. Ivan Muse (1966-68), Dr. Walter Armistead (1968-70), Dr. Donald K. Goe (1970-73), Henry F. Cotton (1973-88), and Dr. Mary Gill (1988-1993). Dr. Kathy Smith became principal on July 1, 1993 and continues in that position. The school’s history can be viewed in the Alumni Hall with memorabilia displayed from each graduating class. [1]

Academics

In 2005, 828 students took 1,887 Advanced Placement (AP) exams, and 87% of the students scored 3 or higher. The next year, 821 students took 1,867 AP exams. In 2007, Newsweek placed Cherry Creek at 310 of 1351 public high schools in the country for academics.[2] U.S. News and World Report gave Cherry Creek a silver medal in their 2008 public high school ratings.[3]

The class of 2006 had 21 National Merit finalists and 1 National Hispanic Scholars. There are 1,175 computers with Internet access across the campus. The class of 2007 had 3 National Hispanic Scholars and 2 National Achievement Scholars. Advanced Placement courses in 29 subject areas. 94.7% of the Class of 2007 attended college. Awarded Blue Ribbon School by US Dept of Education. 2005 Colorado High Performance Library Center Award. The library holds over 46,000 volumes, numerous online subscription databases. Computer/Internet access across campus, 1,300 computers. Cherry Creek originated the State Diversity Conference.

Faculty and Staff

335 staff members work with CCHS students each day, and of those, 235 are certified teachers. Over 65% of the faculty has eleven or more years of experience in education. Eleven members of the faculty possess doctorate degrees, and a total of 73% have earned at least a master’s degree. Five deans and twelve guidance counselors provide students with support services.

The student-to-teacher ratio in 2004 was 21.3 for the 9th grade, 19.2 for 10th grade, 18.7 for 11th grade, and 18.8 for the 12th grade.

The school's current principal is Dr. Kathy Smith, who has headed CCHS since 1993 and recently announced her retirement, in effect in June of 2009.

CCHS has many National Merit finalists and semi-finalists each year. Cherry Creek's class of 2006 had 21 National Merit finalists and 34 commended students. The school was also the winner of a John Irwin School of Excellence Award for the 2004-2005 school year and was designated a Blue Ribbon School by the U.S. Department of Education.

Athletics

Cherry Creek has 25 sports and 95 teams and has won 175 state championships. CCHS is part of the 8-team Centennial League that also includes Grandview, Smoky Hill, Boulder, Fairview, Eaglecrest, Mullen, and Overland.

In addition to the 175 State Championships, Cherry Creek won three Wells-Fargo Cups as the All-Sport Champion in the state of Colorado. In 2005, Sports Illustrated named it the 5th-best high school athletic program in the nation. It was also appointed the #1 high school in the state for sports in 2007 by Mile High Sports Magazine. It is also well-known for its successful tennis team. Critics point to the fact that the school has a student body of close to 4,000, making them larger than other competing schools, giving it a large body from which to pick athletic teams.

The high school's mascot is the Bruin. The current athletic director is Randy McCall.

In the 2007 football season, John Elway was the Quarterbacks' Coach for the varsity football team, for his son, Jack.

Extracurriculars

Cherry Creek High School offers more than 90 activity organizations, the majority of which are open to all students. Many are nationally recognized, including the Union Street Journal, Fine Print, the yearbook club, the Speech and Debate Team, Amnesty International, Key Club, Future Business Leaders of America, and DECA. The Speech and Debate Team is a “400 Member Club,” one of the top-twenty programs in the United States as noted by the National Forensics League. Cherry Creek also has a notable Model United Nations program, and the school is known for an annual Model U.N. competition hosted by its team.

The band, orchestra, and choral groups are recognized across the nation as representing the finest standards in high school performing arts.[citation needed] The Girls 21 choir recently returned from their tour to Europe, where they sang their 21 masterpieces. Meistersingers, a mixed gender choir will be going on tour to Italy on Thursday, March 27. The theater program performs in one of the premier facilities in the nation.[citation needed] In addition to three mainstage productions, the school offers numerous student-directed performances.

Union Street Journal

the Union Street Journal is Cherry Creek High School's student newspaper, a full-color monthly broadsheet of 16-20 pages.

The Union Street Journal will be launching a website in the next few months at http://www.unionstreetjournal.net/

Awards and Recognition

  • Rated "Excellent" by the Colorado School Accountability Report.
  • Designated as a Blue Ribbon School by the U.S. Department of Education.
  • Received 7 PRIDE awards from the North Central Association, the highest in history.
  • Fourteen CCHS students have won the National Council of English (NCTE) Writing Award in the last five years.
  • Fine Print, CCHS’s literary magazine, has received the Highest Award from the NCTE and the Columbia Scholastic Press Association’s Gold Crown or Silver Medalist for the past several years.
  • The Union Street Journal, Cherry Creek's student newspaper, consistently wins awards at the Annual Colorado High School Press Association Conference.
  • Numerous math students received many individual/team awards in state, regional and prestigious national competitions including the CSU Math Day, UNC Math Contest, the CO Math League, the Atlantic-Pacific Math League, the American Math Competition, the American Invitational Math Exam and the U.S. Math Olympiad.
  • Recognized as one of the top science schools in the state, science department faculty continue to do research. In addition, students have won numerous awards at the Denver Metro Science Fair, the Junior Academy of Science Symposium, and the American Chemical Society State Chemistry Olympiad every year. CCHS students have been Westinghouse semifinalists and finalists.
  • The Speech and Debate team, ranked top 10 in the nation, is a member of “The 400” society, the top half of 1% of the National Forensic League school speech programs for the third year in a row. The team also has won the National Forensic League District Competition for 23 years.
  • CCHS is the only school in Colorado to offer A.P. French Literature consistently as a regular course. Students do very well on national language exams and state competitions.
  • The CCHS Library Tech Center is the only high school library in the nation to receive the National School Library Media Program of the Year award twice and the John Cotton Dana Library Public Relations Award. The library is also a high performance library for the Colorado Power Libraries Project.
  • The Fine Arts faculty are performing and practicing artists. Girls’ 21 and Meistersingers musical groups perform both nationally and internationally.
  • CCHS students and faculty originated the Cherry Creek Diversity Conference, attended last year by over 900 students/sponsors from 79 Colorado high schools.
  • DECA, FBLA and FCLA students participate in many state and national competitive events accumulating honors yearly.
  • CCHS faculty members are frequently honored for their teaching and coaching excellence as A.P. readers, National Humanities Foundation Grant winners, Governor’s Award winners, and coaching awardees.
  • CCHS students receive many individual honors for their accomplishments, including being named Presidential Scholars, A.P. State Scholars, and A.P. National Scholars. In 2003-04, 31 students were named A.P. National Scholars, one A.P. State Scholar, 154 A.P. Scholars with Distinction, 88 as A.P. Scholars with Honors, and 131 were recognized as A.P. Scholars.
  • CCHS is a three-time winner of the Wells Fargo Cup presented for best overall athletics/activities programs by the Colorado High School Activities Association.
  • CCHS was the state champion or runner-up in 9 of the 25 sports competed in during the 2004-05 school year.
  • CCHS was placed 5th in a list of the top public and private high schools in Denver in an article in 5280.

Notable alumni

References

  1. ^ CCHS | History
  2. ^ http://www.newsweek.com/id/39380/?sort=Rank&count=1351&Search=&start=300&limit=100&year=2007& retrieved April 08, 2008.
  3. ^ http://www.usnews.com/listings/high-schools/colorado/cherry_creek_high_school retrieved April 08, 2008.
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