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Greenwich High School

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Greenwich High School
Location
Map
10 Hillside Road
Greenwich, CT
Information
TypePublic
School districtGreenwich Public Schools
PrincipalAlan J. Capasso
Grades9-12
Enrollment2,715 [1]
Color(s)Red and white
MascotCardinals
Information(203) 625-8000
Websitewww.greenwichschools.org/ghs

Greenwich High School is a four-year public high school in Greenwich, Connecticut. The school is part of the Greenwich Public Schools system and serves roughly 2,800 students from the five "areas" of town: Byram, Cos Cob, Greenwich, Old Greenwich and Riverside. Although the student body is predominantly white, the percentage of students from other ethnicities exceeds that of the other high-performing Fairfield County high schools. The school is the third largest public high school in Connecticut, after New Britain and Danbury.

The school's philosophy of "Freedom With Responsibility" encourages students to make decisions affecting their study and choice of activities. A distinct feature of this philosophy is that students are allowed "opens" in which one-hour blocks of free time are allotted to academically responsible students. However, there are some teachers, parents and students who believe that the large number of students not in class at any given time gives the school an atmosphere that undermines the rigorous and scholarly intentions of a fine educational institution.

Greenwich High School is the only public high school in Greenwich, Connecticut, a town of over 60,000 residents. This is due to the fact that many school-age residents attend either boarding schools or local private schools. Although the town of Greenwich is 85% Caucasian, minorities make up roughly 35% of the student body.

The school day is composed of six blocks of just under one hour. There are eight class periods but two drop each day. The order of the blocks rotates each day.

The exorbitantly high cost of housing in Greenwich results in a teaching force that has difficulty living in the town in which they teach. Many teachers commute from locations up to an hour away. The long commutes are a primary reason teacher turnover in Greenwich is high. Compounding the problem is the fact that school districts in neighboring Westchester County (NY) pay teachers significantly higher salaries.

Greenwich High School

Greenwich High School has consistently been rated one of the best public high schools in Connecticut due to its high test scores and high graduation rate. It is designated a "DRG B" school in Connecticut's organizational chart of school districts based on socio-economic factors. However, Greenwich High School regularly compares itself to the state's highest-achieving high schools from "DRG A". Some examples of DRG A schools are Darien High School, New Canaan High School, Staples High School (Westport), and Wilton High School

School Organization

Designed by a Californian architect and completed in the early 1970's, the sprawling campus is divided into several physical areas. The main building contains 5 houses (see below), the Student Center, the Media Center, a television studio and theater arts department. The main building is connected to other areas via the "glass corridor". Originally an open-air passageway, the corridor was enclosed in the 1970's. At the opposite end of the glass corridor from the main building is the fine arts wing, housing all of the art and music classes, and an 875-seat auditorium. The large gym is adjacent to the music department and is designed to be partitioned into 3 smaller gyms (A, B, & C) all of which contain a number of reduced-size basketball courts. The school also includes a natatorium (pool), a dance studio, and extensive locker room and workout facilities. The two-story science wing was added in 1997 and contains all of the classrooms necessary for chemistry, biology, and physics.

Before the addition to the science wing, science classrooms were located where the Media Center now resides. The old library occupied what is now the upper floor of Cantor House. After the completion of the science wing, but before the establishment of Cantor House in 2003, the space was known as the "International Wing", housing all the foreign language classes and the foreign language computer lab.

Incoming 9th-grade students are randomly assigned to one of five houses: Bella, Cantor, Clark, Folsom, and Sheldon. Those with older siblings concurrently attending the school have the option to join their sibling's house or enter the randomized lottery. Each house has its own housemaster, as well as its own guidance counselors and other support services for students. Each house is considered, for the purposes of College Board testing (SAT, AP) and other standardized testing, a separate school and carries a unique CEEB school code. Each house, with the exception of Cantor, is one floor and contains three secretaries, three guidance counselors, classrooms, teachers' offices, a housemaster, a learning center aide, a resource room, and a teachers' room. Cantor House has all of these, but consists of two smaller floors.

The houses adjoin a one-acre enclosed area called the Student Center, which serves as the cafeteria and is also the place students congregate between classes and during opens. According to school officials, the student center is the second-largest "room" in Connecticut after the main ballroom at the Connecticut Convention Center in Hartford. The large Media Center supports all of the school's learning programs and contains over 40,000 books and over 5,000 videos, all of which students can check out and use for research. The Media Center faculty includes experts on all major academic subjects the school offers.

Numerous computer labs are available throughout GHS for teacher and student use. Labs are located in the houses; in the science, foreign language and art wings (shared with music); and in the Media Center. Additional computers are available in learning centers, the Media Center and other departments throughout the building.

GHS offers over 295 courses and a wide variety of co-curricular activities.

Extracurricular Activities

GHS has a number of student activities designed to promote a broad spectrum of interests. The school's student newspaper is The Beak. The yearbook is The Compass. Greenwitch is the school's student literary magazine. Student activities include student government, as well as academic, music, drama, international, language, service, sports, and special-interest clubs.

Examples of Student Activities at GHS:[citation needed]

Interscholastic Athletics

There are 50 GHS varsity sports teams. The Greenwich High School mascot is the Cardinal. GHS is a member of the Fairfield County Interscholastic Athletic Conference (FCIAC)and the Interscholastic Sailing Association. GHS competes in the Class LL league in CT, which is the league for the largest schools. Its biggest rivals are Staples High School and Darien High School. The Greenwich High school boys soccer, boys water polo, boys swimming, girls water polo, girls swimming, girls ski team, football, girls lacrosse, boys tennis, and field hockey teams compete in the FCIAC and state playoffs most years[citation needed]. The girls soccer, boys soccer and football teams all won the FCIAC championships in 2007. The boys water polo team is the only public school water polo team in the state. The boys football program has produced NFL Hall of Famer Steve Young and Notre Dame Center John Sullivan (Soon to be drafted into the NFL)[citation needed]. GHS was the first public school in the northeast to have a rugby program[citation needed]. The rugby team has been very successful, making it to the National Tournament three years in a row (2005, 2006, 2007). The boys football team also won the 2007 class LL state championship against Shelton by a score of 28-14.

Greenwich High School was the 2006-2007 state champion Class LL for field hockey, swimming, Girls Ski Team, and Boys and Girls Tennis.

Greenwich High School has won the 2006-2007 and 2007-2008 Class LL FCIAC championship and state champions in Football.

In 2006, the boys tennis team broke the state record for number of points in the state tournement with 30 points, a record they broke again in 2007 with 31 points.

In 2007, the field hockey, girls volleyball, and boys and girls soccer teams all made it to the FCIAC finals to face Darien and Ridgefield, with the soccer teams emerging victorious.[citation needed].

In 2004, 2005 and 2006 the girls field hockey competed and won the FCIAC Championship title, and in 2005 and 2006, were both FCIAC and State Champions

Music Department

The Greenwich High School Music Department is the largest of its kind in Connecticut in terms of number of courses offered and total number of participants. Each year, Greenwich has more than twice as many students accepted for the Western Region and All-State groups as any other high school in the state. The Grammy Foundation recognized the department as a "Signature School" in 2005. Daily course offerings include extensive electronic music classes, three bands, two orchestras, five choirs, Introductory and Advanced Placement Music Theory classes, beginning guitar class, beginning band class and an interdisciplinary (with art and social studies) course entitles Shapers of the World. The music groups travel every year. In 2007, the band travelled to China and in 2008 the choirs are going to Florida.

Additional Information

The architect's original plans also included outdoor lockers which were quickly nixed on account of New England's inclement weather. The flat-roof design of the school has also been a bone of contention as snow and heavy rains are not conducive to flat roof structure.

In 1998, a $40 million science and technology wing was constructed.

Planning is well underway for a $24 million addition for new music rehearsal rooms and a 1,350 seat auditorium with a proposed completion date of March, 2012. The project has been approved by the Board of Education and awaits approval from the other town bodies.

Greenwich High School was featured in a segment by Rob Corddry for The Daily Show called "Greenwich or Bussed". Some students have been on the popular TV show "The Challenge" and have succeeded.

Notable alumni

  1. ^ http://www.greenwichschools.org/page.cfm?p=109
  2. ^ Hagey, Keach, "A familiar face to speak at Greenwich High graduation", article in The Advocate of Stamford, Connecticut, p A3, Stamford edition, June 8, 2007
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