Montpelier High School

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Montpelier High School (MHS) is a public secondary school, comprised of grades 9-12, located in Montpelier, Vermont. MHS serves the Montpelier School District. Montpelier is located near the center of Vermont in Washington County. The school's sports teams are called the Solons and the school's colors are green and white. Enrollment in 2006 was 420. Schools in the district include Union Elementary School, Main Street Middle School, as well as MHS.

Contents 1 Recognition 2 History 3 Academics 3.1 Scholastic Aptitude Test 4 Clubs & Extra Curricula Activities 5 Athletics 6 Greenhouse and composting 7 Notable alumni 8 Footnotes 9 See also 10 External links

[edit] Recognition

U.S. News & World Report ranked Montpelier High School in the top 500 out of over 18,000 high schools in the United States in November 2007. They initially and incorrectly reported that the school ranked fifth.^[1] The school brought the error to the magazine's attention shortly thereafter, prompting a correction on December 10, 2007.^[2] The school's correct ranking still puts it in the top 2.8% of American high schools and best in Vermont (by U.S. News standards).

[edit] History

MHS is a successor to the Washington County Grammar School, incorporated in 1813. Montpelier High School first issued in diplomas in 1914, the year a new high school building opened on Main Street. That building was replaced by the current building, off Bailey Avenue, which opened in 1956. The old high school building was converted to a middle school, and continues to house grades 6, 7, and 8. The present high school building was enlarged in 1998.^[3]

[edit] Academics

As of 2006 MHS offers 5 AP classes: Biology, US history, English, Calculus, and Spanish language. MHS offers several foreign languages, French, Spanish, and Latin, at several levels. Students at Main Street Middle School are offered French I, Spanish I, and Algebra I. Upon successful completion of these courses students may earn high school credit. MHS is also a site for interning student teachers from the University of Vermont

As of February 2006, 17 students were attending the Barre Technical Center [1] in the neighboring town. Barre Technical Center is a technical and vocational school. Juniors and Seniors are eligible to attend.

MHS offers courses in the English department including, Journalism, Public Speaking, American Studies, American Literature, British Humanities, Irish Humanities, and Creative Writing. Some of the courses in mathematics include Applied Business Math; Functions, Statistics and Trigonometry; Statistics; and Calculus. Some of the science classes offered are, Astronomy, Geology, Environmental Application. Some of the social studies classes that are offered include World Geography, Economics, Women's Humanities, Psychology, and Sociology.

[edit] Scholastic Aptitude Test

Last year 74 seniors, 85% of the senior class, took the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT).

SAT Verbal	Montpelier Average All Students	Vermont Average All Students	National Average All Students
2001	550	511	506
2002	560	512	504
2003	547	513	507
2004	578	516	508
2005	557	521	508

SAT Math	Montpelier Average All students	Vermont Average All students	National Average All students
2001	538	506	514
2002	561	510	516
2003	547	510	519
2004	556	512	518
2005	541	517	520

[edit] Clubs & Extra Curricula Activities

MHS has 20 clubs open to all students including:

• AFS/Cultural diversity club- Students who participate in AFS/CDC get the chance to travel to another school in another state. Each student stays with a student from that school for three days and they get to experience what life is like in different communities.

• VTLSP (Vermont Teen Leadership Safety Program)- A club directed towards raising awareness of prevention and wellness issues including alcohol and other drug use, traffic safety and risk taking behaviors, and to provide students with the resources, skills and adult support with which to facilitate positive change among their peers.

• Outing Club- Outing club offers opportunities for students to participate in activities like backpacking, hiking, winter camping, canoeing, hiking, caving, rock climbing, and much more more.

• Amnesty International- Its members learn about and take action on such issues as freedom of speech, torture, the death penalty, economic organization, and the rights of refugees.

• Community service club - In this club, students respond to requests from the community for help in any areas.

• French Club - Students engage in French conversation and take part in exchanges and field trips in the French-speaking Canadian provice of Quebec.

• Solon Spectrum - The Solon spectrum is the school newspaper. It is published (almost) monthly.

• STAND - A Student Anti-Genocide Coalition (Originally Students Taking Action Now: Darfur). This club has three objectives: (1) Create awareness in the community of current ongoing genocides taking place in the world (2) Pressure government officials to take action in stopping genocide (3) Raise aid funds for genocide victims.^[4]

[edit] Athletics

Montpelier High School offers a wide variety of sports for students to participate in. Most sports have a varsity and a junior varsity team. Some sports that don't have many participants only have one team and some sports, like basketball, have an additional "Freshman Team" or Junior Varsity B. MHS is Division II in every sport except for football in which it participates in Division III. The most popular sports at MHS are probably soccer and basketball. The girls soccer team won the 2007 Division II Championship. The offered sports are as followed.

Fall season

• Soccer (Separate boys and girls)
• Football (Boys)
• Field Hockey (Girls)

Winter season

• Basketball (Separate boys and girls)
• Cross-country skiing (Single boys and girls)
• Hockey (separate boys and girls)

Spring season

• Baseball (Boys)
• Softball (Girls)
• Golf (single boys and girls)
• Lacrosse (separate boys and girls)
• Tennis (Boys and Girls)

In the spring students also have the opportunity to participate in track and field in connection with neighboring U-32 High School. There is also an ultimate club that competes.

Montpelier High School also participates in Unified sports, a program of Special Olympics. Unified sports teams consist of all types of students, including differently abled students. The unified sports that are offered are soccer, bowling, snowshoeing, basketball, and softball. They compete against other schools. Unified Sports

MHS has many sports facilities on campus, including the following:

• Baseball diamond with field hockey/soccer/lacrosse field in outfield and a scoreboard
• Soccer/football field surrounded with a dirt/fine gravel track with grandstand and scoreboard
• Softball diamond with scoreboard
• Field hockey/ lacrosse field
• Two outdoor tennis courts
• Basketball court in gym
• Weight room, recently renovated with new workout machines and repainted

Hockey is played at the Montpelier Civic Center. The ski team skis at a variety of locations, sometimes at the school but usually at U-32 or at the Morse Farm Touring Center nearby. The golf and tennis teams do not play on campus.

In some physical education classes students canoe in the Winooski river, which passes the school, as a regular part of PE class. Students also participate in archery outdoors.

[edit] Greenhouse and composting

MHS is home to a solar greenhouse. It was built in 2004 by students of MHS from lumber from fallen trees. The goal of the greenhouse was to reduce the ecological footprint of the school and to be an example of sustainability. The greenhouse also has a web cam that has operated seasonally.^[5] Students who take biology are responsible for planting, watering and harvesting their own section of the greenhouse.

Organic greens grown in the greenhouse were used in the school cafeteria. Food waste from the kitchen and cafeteria have been composted and used in the greenhouse's soil.^[6]

[edit] Notable alumni

• William Charles Fitzgerald, Class of 1956, Vietnam war hero.
• Marc Gilbertson, Olympic Nordic skier.^[7]
• F. Ray Keyser, Jr., Class of 1945, Governor of Vermont 1961–1963.
• Laura Wilson, Olympic Nordic skier.^[7]

[edit] Footnotes

[edit] See also

• List of high schools in Vermont

[edit] External links

• Montpelier High School
• Montpelier School District
• Montpelier STAND