Communications High School

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Communications High School (CHS) is a four-year magnet public high school and career academy as part of the Monmouth County Vocational School District in New Jersey. CHS is located in Wall Township next to Wall High School. The school opened in 2000 with its first freshman class. Each year about 80 students enter the school. The first class graduated in 2004. The school currently has about 300 students.

The school has approximately 30 teachers. As of 2006, the principal is James R. Gleason. There are two guidance counselors and two school secretaries.

Some popular student activities include the CHS drama club, National Honor Society, Mock Trial club and the newspaper club, which produces the school newspaper Inkblot. CHS has no sports teams or official mascot. Instead, students are encouraged to participate in their home high school's sports.

Communications High School in Wall Township, New Jersey

1 Mission Statement
2 Academics
- 2.1 Freshman and sophomore year
- 2.2 Junior and senior year
3 Other career academies
4 External links

[edit] Mission Statement

Communications High School, a small, personalized academy with a career focus, provides a theme-based integrated curriculum in conjunction with community and industry partnerships. Monmouth County students interested in the field of communications acquire knowledge, skills, and ethics in a unique and challenging educational environment[1].

[edit] Academics

Classes operate on block scheduling. Each day is divided into 4 class periods and a lunch/activity period. The classes run for approximately 90 minutes each. The lunch/activity period is placed between periods 2 and 3, and lasts for approximately 1 hour. Students eat lunch and participate in school clubs during that time period.

The school year is divided into two semesters. Students will attend a 5 credit class 5 times a week for one semester. Classes worth 2.5 credits will be attended every other day in one semester, or they will be attended every day for half the semester and then swapped with another class. Classes are rarely given for only one quarter of the year. Students who pass every class will acquire 40 credits each school year. Students must have 160 credits in order to graduate.

CHS requires that students explore many options during their first two years at the school. The only language offered at CHS is Spanish, and students must take at least 3 courses of the language. Students are required to take 4 years of math, English, history, and science. Gym and Health classes are required every year, but seniors must fulfill class requirements outside of the school setting.

[edit] Freshman and sophomore year

As freshman, students must take the communications classes Cisco Networking, Computer Applications, Digital Video Production, Intro TV/Radio Production, in addition to the school's "core classes."

As sophomores, students must take Journalism, TV/Audio Broadcasting and Visual Communications.

[edit] Junior and senior year

Junior year students must take the Enterprise Publishing class and can choose 2 electives. Electives include Animation, Intermediate Digital Video, Intermediate TV/Audio Broadcasting, Photojournalism, Programming in Java, Visual Communications II, and Web Design. Seniors can pick 3 electives. They may pick any of the junior year electives. They can also take advanced courses if they completed their junior-year counterparts. Senior year electives include Statistics, Spanish IV, Historical Issues in Film, Advanced Graphic Design, Character Animation, Advanced Journalism, E-Commerce, Game Programming, Electronic Field Production, or Talk Radio. Seniors must also pick between the Broadcast News class or the Advanced Digital Image Prep class. The senior year science requirement can be fulfilled by either an Advanced Biology or Advanced Physics course.

Seniors are also required to take a mentorship class. For one quarter of the school year, students spend periods 3 and 4 at the mentorship site of their choice. Mentorship sites in the past have included the Asbury Park Press, Lab Volt, architectural firms, graphic design firms, and schools.