Henderson County High School

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**Henderson County High School**
Established	1954
School type	High School
Principal	Bruce Swanson
Students	2,200
Location	Henderson County, Kentucky
Website	http://www.hchs.hendersonschools.net

Henderson County High School is the only high school in Henderson County, Kentucky and is divided into three units, red, green and blue, which act as separately functioning high schools. Each unit has its own set of principals and guidance councillors equipped to meet each student's needs. All the units also share a coordinating principal with overall control for the school. There is also a technology education unit in the school.

The school was established in 1954 and relocated to its current premises in 1969. North Middle School is located on the old grounds on the High School.

1 Policies
2 Administration
3 Arts and Humanities
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Policies

Grading Scale

The grading scale is considered very lenient based on some standards, and many of the teachers are complaining. Students are also given an excessive amount of opportunities to complete the required classes, even after failing several times.

Weighted grades ensure that a student who takes an Advanced Placement or Honors class gets extra credit for doing extra amounts of work. Honors and AP Classes provide more challenging curriculum to help challenge advanced students while allowing them to work at their own pace. The chances of a student graduating as a valedictorian when little or no honors classes are taken is slim to none.

Scheduling

The 2004-2005 school year used Block scheduling consisting of four periods a day with each class being roughly ninety minutes in length with each course lasting for a semester. The 2005-2006 school year used an 8-period schedule. Many teachers and students complained of being overworked, so in the 2006-2007 school year, the high school has adopted a 6-period schedule. Periods one through three are about fifty minutes in length. Fourth period is a block lasting 2 hours and 11 minutes. The amount of credits needed to graduate varies from class to class (i.e. Freshmen, Sophomores, Juniors, and Seniors) due to the recent schedule changes. If a student a student fails a class, then they are forced to retake that class the next year in addition to the next class. This constant change in scheduling from year-to-year has caused many students to have to forfeit certain elective classes to get their required credits. Supporters of the changes say that they are just trying to find the right amount of periods and blocks to accommodate the new addition of the freshman class to the high school. Freshmen previously attended their middle school until they became sophomores until they were moved to the Henderson County High School the 2005-2006 school year. The 2006-2007 school year was changed to include a 90 minute or so block class in fourth period, students will switch classes each semester, and shorted the schedule to six periods.

[edit] Administration

Coordinating Principal: Bruce Swanson
Assistant Coord. Principal: Kim Marshall
Blue Unit Principal: Darrell Daigle
Green Unit Principal: Vacant
Red Unit Principal: Rick Hopf
Career Tech Ed Principal: Vacant
Curriculum Specialist: Kim White
Youth Service Center Director: Shawna Evans

[edit] Arts and Humanities

The Band program at Henderson County High School is under the direction of Mr. Steven Page who is in his seventh year of educating instrumentalists. During marching season Mr. Page is assisted by the local middle school band directors, Paul Metzger and Keith Vincent, as well as others. The percussion staff at HCHS contains Zack Stewart, James Powell, Jason Rager, and Nathaniel Evans. Mr. Page received a Bachelors of Music in Music Education degree at Murray State University and a Masters degree in trombone performance from the University of Louisville. He marched baritone with Phantom Regiment, a Drum and Bugle Corps, and was an instructor for Pioneer Drum and Bugle Corps for three years. In 2006 Steven Page replaced Brandon Stinnet as the Director of Bands at the High School. Page was originally the band director at West Jessimine High School outside of Lexington, Kentucky. Steven page is currently serving as the Kentucky Band Chair.

The members of the program are divided into three sub-groups, the Concert Band, Symphonic Band and the Wind Ensemble. The latter consists mostly of Juniors and Seniors with a small percentage of Sophomores while the Symphonic Band is a mix of all grades. The Concert band contains all freshmen band members. All concert bands at HCHS have a reputation, according to consistent scoring over past years, for being extremely mature sounding and consistently score high at district band festivals, as reported on the band site. The marching band, dubbed the Henderson County Colonel's Brigade and Guard, in the 2005 season was an all volunteer organization. Consisting of approximately ninety musicians and color guard the band performed at many competitions including the KYPAA State Finals, there they finished fifth over-all, playing "Reflections" by Richard Saucedo. In 2006, the Brigade and Guard competed in the KMEA state competition for the first time in three years. The band placed thirteenth at KMEA semi-finals with the show "The Promise", the music of Aaron Copland. The Pep Band consists of the members of the Brigade and Guard who perform during the basketball and football games. There are also jazz and percussion ensembles at HCHS. The jazz ensemble consists of a small group of musicians who perform jazz pieces at concerts throughout the year. The percussion ensemble, under the direction of James Powell, is a group of percussionists who learn different concert percussion pieces to perform on various concerts.