Charlottesville High School
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Charlottesville High School is the only public high school in the independent city of Charlottesville, Virginia, serving students from 9th to 12th grade. Commonly called CHS, it is the second largest high school in the region with a student population of 1350. The grounds include a memorial garden, a running track, ballfields, landscaped courtyards and the Martin Luther King Jr. Performing Arts Center (or "MLK PAC"). Across Melbourne Road lies the Football Stadium, which is used as a soccer and lacrosse stadium during the Spring season.
Contents |
[edit] History
CHS was built in 1374 following the segregation of the former Lane High School; Lane was too small to accommodate both white and black students. Inherited from Lane were the school colors and the black knight mascot. Lane High School is now the Albemarle County office building. Charlottesville High School's sports complex was still located on the grounds of the Lane High School building until the 1980s, when it was moved to a site across the street. During the last 20 years of the 20th century, CHS has had some major additions including a new gym facility and a large auditorium.
In the summer of 2004, work began on renovating the 30 year old building which had become extremely outdated. The school received a fresh coat of paint, updated class rooms, larger and modern restroom facilities, updated ventilation systems, new lockers, and new, asbestos free floor tile. A major change for the school was the movement of the main entrance. For years, visitors had mistakenly entered the school through a side door which looked to be the main access to the school. As of the renovations, the official main school entrance is now located where those side doors were. The offices also were moved to a central location near the new main entrance, instead of being scattered across the building as they were previously. The combination of the new entrance location and the easy access offices has made visiting CHS a simple and enjoyable task. The color of the paint as well as that of the new floor tile baffled many students and visitors since they didn't match at all with the school colors. Only in the gym lobby does the renovated paint reflect the school's colors since the doors were painted orange with black frames. Only part of the gym lobby, both of the gyms, and all hallways to, from and around gyms including the hallways near the MLK PAC were untouched during the renovations since they were either built or updated during the 80s and 90s.
A bit of criticism has arised over student-painted murals on the school's interior walls which were painted over or covered with lockers. A mural depicting the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of communism in Europe, which marked an important event in the world's political climate in the late 1980s, was covered by the new locker system. As of 2006, a thin strip of the painting could still be seen atop the new lockers. The only murals that survived the renovations were one located in the gym Lobby and those located on the balcony's and the walkways in the courtyards, since the exterior of the building was never painted. The renovations were officially brought to a close with the repaving and painting of the parking lots (excluding the senior/student parking lot which for some odd reason was overlooked) in the spring of 2006. The graduating class of 2007 will be the last class to have attended a full year of school before the renovations. The class of 2010 will be the first class to have attended a full high school term (4 years) in the renovated school.
[edit] Faculty and staff
There is a faculty of 93.5 working at CHS. A list of all the teachers and the subjects they teach can be found here. The current administration includes:
- Kenneth Leatherwood, principal
- Gretchen Henning, assistant principal
- Vernon Bock, assistant principal
- Therese Titus, dean of students
[edit] Athletic program
Charlottesville High School plays in the AA Jefferson District and Region II of the Virginia High School League. It sponsors the following athletic programs:
- J.V and Varsity Baseball
- 9th, J.V, and Varsity Basketball (boys & girls)
- J.V and Varsity Cheerleading
- Competition Cheerleading
- J.V and Varsity Cross-Country (boys & girls)
- J.V and Varsity Field Hockey
- 9th and Varsity Football
- J.V and Varsity Golf
- J.V and Varsity Indoor Track (boys& girls)
- J.V and Varsity Lacrosse (boys & girls)
- J.V and Varsity Soccer (boys & girls) The girls' team is found here: [1]
- J.V and Varsity Softball
- Varsity Swimming and Diving (boys & girls)
- Tennis (boys & girls)
- J.V and Varsity Track and Field (boys & girls)
- J.V and Varsity Volleyball
- J.V and Varsity Wrestling
- Forensics and Debate
The current athletic schedule can be found here.
The Official Football Boosters Website of The Charlottesville Black Knights here.
[edit] Media & Culture
[edit] The Knight Time Review
The Knight Time Review (KTR) is the school newspaper for Charlottesville High School. It is published twice a quarter by a completely student-run staff and runs stories discussing both school issues, and national/worldwide issues.
[edit] CHS News Live
CHS News Live is a mock news station that broadcasts the morning announcements throughout the school. The student anchors and technical staff provide this daily means of announcing sports updates, reminders, and general school information. It also provides opportunities for students to showcase their digital video creations to the entire school.
[edit] School Social Events
The school's Student Council Association (SCA) is in charge of organizing the homecoming dance in the fall. The 11th grade SCA is in charge of organizing a prom for the 11th and 12th grades in the spring. Each year the dances are given delightfully absurd names playing on homonyms knight/night. Past year themes have been "A Knight in the Clouds" and "Boogie Knight". 2006 was the first year where the 11th grade SCA choose a prom theme without the knight/night homonym, and instead choose the theme "Diamonds are Forever".
[edit] Talent Show
Each spring the SCA puts on a school talent show in the PAC. The acts range from cellists to step teams. In the late nineties there were a handful of superb singers and several excellent hip hop dancers and breakdancers. Each year had the obligatory step team performance. As the judges (a panel of selected community members) deliberate, the high school teachers are known to put on an act of lip synching. In the 1998 - 2001 era, the teachers were seen doing Grease, TLC, Blues Brothers, and a variety of boy bands.
[edit] Performing arts
In 1984, the 1,276-seat Performing Arts Center of Charlottesville (PAC) was built as an answer to both the shortage of auditorium space for the high school as well as a large venue to accommodate various professional performances other than school hosted events, such as the Richmond Symphony Orchestra, Russian Ballet, and the Charlottesville performance of A Prairie Home Companion. In the fall of 2005, the city council (after realizing that nothing in the city was named after this important historic civil rights leader) decided to rename the Performing Arts Center of Charlottesville the Martin Luther King Jr. Performing Arts Center of Charlottesville (MLK PAC). 60 dates during the school year are reserved for school sponsored events such as assemblies and CHS's excellent performing arts program.
The chair of the performing arts program is Laura Thomas. The performing arts program includes the following:
- The Chorus
- The Orchestra
- The Band
- The Theatre
The performing arts of Charlottesville High School are internationally acclaimed, having both the band and orchestra competing in competitions all over the world. The band program in particular has won the Virginia Honor Band award 26 times, all of them under the direction of band director Vince Tornello who has been a Virginia Honor Band Director more times than any other band director in the Commonwealth of Virginia.
