Jump to content

Highland Park High School (Highland Park, Illinois)

Add links
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Omtay38 (talk | contribs) at 01:53, 1 July 2006 (changed infobox to Infobox School2, please see talk page). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Highland Park High School
File:Hplogo2.jpg
Location
Map
Highland Park
,
Illinois

USA
Information
TypePublic
MottoDream, Believe, Achieve
Established1889
PrincipalJack Lorenz
Faculty~120
Grades9-12
Number of students1860
Color(s)Blue and white
MascotThe Giant
Websitehttp://www.dist113.org/hphs/

Highland Park High School (HPHS) is a public high school located in the northern Chicago suburb of Highland Park. The school holds an excellent academic reputation, ranking 341st on Newsweek's list of the United States' 1000 best high schools in 2005 [1]. Together with its sister schoolDeerfield High School, it constitutes Township High School District 113. It primarily serves residents of Highland Park and the neighboring village of Highwood, although some Deefield residents are able to choose between Deerfield High School and Highland Park High School, depending on the location of their property.

History

For a period of approximately fourteen years following Highland Park High School's establishment in 1886, classes were held in the rooms over the Brand Brothers paint shop in downtown Highland Park. It has occupied the present site on Vine Avenue since 1900. Over the course of time, however, several additions have been constructed. In 2000, HPHS and its sister school, Deerfield High School underwent a two year, $75 million renovation and expansion project. HPHS received several new additions and renovations with 130,000 square feet renovated and 77,000 square feet added.

File:Hphsfront.jpg
The Vine Avenue entrance

Students

The student population is 80% white, 15% Hispanic, 3% Asian and 2% African American, [2] making Highland Park High School more racially diverse than many of its North Shore counterparts. Highland Park High School maintains very high standardized test scores, even with its percentage of ESL students, (which is relatively high for the North Shore). Children of military parents from Fort Sheridan also have a presence on campus.

Fine Arts Department

Highland Park High School takes great pride in its fine arts department. The repertoire of the drama department includes two plays and one musical each year in addition to an all original student musical and festival of "one-acts" directed entirely by students. Past performances include renditions of Metamorphoses, The Scarlet Pimpernel, Laramie Project, Les Misèrables, Fiddler on the Roof, and Beauty and the Beast. During the 2005-2006 school year, their version of the play On Stars Not Falling was selected to perform at the Illinois High School Theatre Festival.

Focus on the Arts is a biannual event thatbrings artists to Highland Park High School to share their passion with its students. Over three days, world-renowned artists come to the high school to showcase their talents and encourage students to explore the arts themselves. The mediums of music, visual arts, dance, creative writing, media, and theater are represented. Presentations on sports media, improvisation theater, and creative writing are particularly popular. Students at Highland Park High School program their own schedule so they attend activities they wish to attend. Three regularly scheduled academic classes occur for each day that is missed for Focus events. Focus is funded from a variety of resources including but not limited to grants, private donations, and allowances. All events are free to the students, faculty, staff, and the community at large. Focus occurs on odd-numbered years.

In 2005, Focus celebrated its 20th biennial. In celebration, the Highland Park High School Chorus and Orchestra collaborated with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus to perform opera choruses for the opening night celebration, which was conducted by Duain Wolfe, Director of the Chicago Symphony Chorus. The opening night celebration, which took place April 17, 2005, drew over 1,000 people.

American High

During the 1999-2000 school year, Fox Television crews "invaded" the high school after it was selected by documentary filmmaker R.J. Cutler to be the setting for his new reality television series. His intent was to accurately portray the intricacies of the lives of a handful of typical high school students. Two crews covered up to eight students each. From August to June, they shot three weeks out of every month, wherever the "cast" led them. That included their homes, on dates, and to parties. Cutler recalls:

There were plenty of situations where it was necessary to exercise our discretion as grown-ups and human beings, but our principal objective was to observe and tell the truth as much as possible. I think we did that...but you always develop a personal relationship with your subjects. You do try to keep on a certain side of the line.

When the cameras stopped rolling, R.J. and the production team had logged literally thousands of hours of tape. The end product was American High, the critically acclaimed but poorly rated television that lasted only four episodes on the Fox Network. The show was subsequently picked up by PBS, and the remaining ten episodes were finally aired. Stars included former students Morgan Moss, Brad Krefman, Robby Nathan, Sarah Mages, Anna Santiago, Mike "Kiwi" Langford, Allie Komessar, Pablo Otavalo, Kaytee Bodle, Scott Hinden, and a variety of faculty members. The show went on to win an Emmy Award in 2001 for Outstanding Nonfiction Program.

Notable alumni

Most of the notable alumni pictured above are profiled on the "HPHS Distinguished Alumni" [8] page

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Highland_Park_High_School_(Highland_Park,_Illinois)&oldid=61476966"