Theodore Roosevelt High School (Kent)

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Theodore Roosevelt High School

Name

Theodore Roosevelt High School

Address

1400 North Mantua Street Kent, Ohio 44240

Established

1868 (named Theodore Roosevelt in 1922)

Community

Suburban

Type

Public Secondary

Students

Coeducational

Grades

9 to 12

District

Kent City Schools

Accreditation

Ohio Department of Education & North Central Association of Schools and Colleges

Also known as

Kent Roosevelt, Roosevelt, RHS

Mascot

Rough Rider

Principal

Roger Sidoti

Colors

Red, White, and Black

Newspaper/Magazine

The Colonel

Yearbook

The Rough Rider

Distinctions

Presidential Excellence in Education- 1985
Ohio Dept. of Education Excellent rating- 2004, 2005, 2006

Website

Link

Theodore Roosevelt High School, known more commonly as Kent Roosevelt or just Roosevelt is located in Kent, Ohio. It is the only high school in Kent and the Kent City School District and serves students in Kent, Franklin Township, Brady Lake, and Sugar Bush Knolls as well as a small portion of southern Streetsboro. As of 2005, the enrollment is around 1,400.

Aerial of Roosevelt High School looking north.

The current school sits on a 50+ acre campus on North Mantua Street (SR 43) in northern Kent immediately south of the world headquarters complex for the Davey Tree Expert Company. The current campus also includes a football stadium with an all-weather 8-lane track and seating for over 5,000; a soccer stadium with a 9-lane all-weather track and seating for 500 that also includes a community weight room; a six lane indoor swimming pool; a baseball field; a softball field; a tennis complex with six tennis courts; and two additional football practice fields and two additional soccer fields. At the opposite end of the campus is Kent's Stanton Middle School, which houses the district's sixth, seventh, and eighth graders.

1 History
2 Academics
3 Athletics
- 3.1 Ohio High School Athletic Association State Championships
4 Alma Mater

[edit] History

Roosevelt High School traces its roots back to 1868 when the Kent Schools consolidated the various neighborhood schoolhouses and created a separate high school curriculum. As part of the consolidated effort, a new school was erected at the corner of Park Avenue and North Mantua Streets, on a hill overlooking the newly-named village of Kent. Because of construction delays, the building was not ready for classes in the fall of 1868, so the first classes of the new Kent High School were held in the Franklin Township Hall on what was then North River Street (now Gougler Ave.) while K-8 students remained at their old schoolhouses. The new building opened in the spring of 1869. It would serve as the home of all grades until 1922 when a new high school was built down the street at the intersection of Park Avenue and North Prospect Street. The original high school would remain in service as a K-8 school (known as Union School and Central School) until the 1953 when it was replaced by the former Central Elementary School located in front of it. The high school building on North Prospect Street was named Theodore Roosevelt High School and would serve as the high school until the fall of 1959. After Roosevelt moved to its current location on North Mantua Street, the North Prospect building would serve as Davey Junior High/Middle School from 1959-1999 and currently serves as Davey Elementary School since the fall of 2000 following a year-long renovation. Ironically enough, the former Central Elementary School now serves as an extension of Roosevelt High School, housing several vocational and community programs among other uses.

The current building was originally constructed in 1958-1959 to house grades 10-12. That same year it and the district welcomed students from Franklin Township and Brady Lake as both of those districts were officially absorbed by the Kent City School District (prior to that time students from Franklin Township and Brady Lake could attend Roosevelt, but only if tuition was paid or they could attend Kent State High School). The current building has had a series of additions and modifications made since it first opened in the fall of 1959. Additions were made beginning in the 1960's with the most notable additions occurring in 1971-1972 with the addition of a 1,243 seat auditorium and a vocational wing, which nearly doubled the size of the school; and in 1976-1977 with the addition of the swimming pool wing. In the early 1970's Roosevelt absorbed students from Kent State High School, which had been closed. Beginning in 1980, ninth graders began attending the high school again for the first time since 1959. The most recent additions were in 1997 when the cafeteria was expanded and a new art room was added along with several renovations and upgrades throughout the building.

Like the building, the overall campus has also evolved over the years as the community has grown. Roosevelt Stadium (football and track) was constructed and opened in the fall of 1970; Stanton Middle School, part of the same bond issue that funded the 1997 additions and renovations to Roosevelt, opened in the fall of 1999. As part of that project, several changes were made to the campus, which included the realignment of Roosevelt Drive; the realignment of the soccer practice field to allow for an additional field; the renovation of the former bus garage (which had moved to Kent State's former bus garage in southern Kent) to become a new community and student weight room; and the construction of a soccer and track stadium on the site of the former bus garage's parking lot. The soccer stadium (known as Stanton Stadium), which also now hosts lacrosse matches, opened in the fall of 2000.

[edit] Academics

Roosevelt prides itself on the academic accomplishments of its students. Roosevelt students qualify as National Merit Scholars at 5-8 times the national average. The school offers over 200 courses, eight AP classes, and 20 career/vocational programs. Roosevelt and the Kent City Schools are part of the Six District Educational Compact, which also includes the Cuyahoga Falls, Hudson, Stow-Munroe Falls, Tallmadge, and Woodridge school districts. This compact allows students at member schools to participate in various vocational and career programs that are offered at each of the schools even if that school is not their home high school. Many, if not most, of the vocational programs are housed at Roosevelt or at the Central School Annex, located at the former Central Elementary School at the corner of Park Avenue and North Mantua Street. Roosevelt also has a tradition of strong and vibrant arts programs, due in large part to strong community support of the arts and the presence of Kent State University. More than a third of the students participate in the vocal and instrumental music programs (orchestra, marching band, and symphonic bands), which consistently rank in national and state competitions. There are more than 60 extracurricular clubs, including state and nationally recognized debate, chess, and Future Problem Solving teams.

[edit] Athletics

Roosevelt's teams are known as the Rough Riders as one might expect from a school bearing the name of Theodore Roosevelt. As of 2006, Roosevelt fields 25 varisty athletic teams, the most recent additions being the Boys and Girls Bowling teams which received varsity status in September of 2006. All Rough Rider athletic teams play their home matches at Roosevelt High School with a few exceptions: the ice hockey team plays its home matches at the Kent State University Ice Arena (which it shares with Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy and Western Reserve Academy) and the bowling teams play their home matches at the Kent Lanes on South Water Street (SR 43).

Most athletic teams are members of the Portage Trail Conference Metro Division, which began play in the fall of 2005. Current Rough Rider varsity athletic teams include:

Roosevelt Stadium was built in 1970 and contains a natural grass playing surface and an eight-lane all-weather rubberized track with seating for over 5,000 fans. It currently hosts the football team and the track and field teams.

Baseball
Boys Basketball
Girls Basketball
Boys Bowling*
Girls Bowling*
Boys Cross Country
Girls Cross Country
Field Hockey
Football
Golf
Ice Hockey*
Boys Lacrosse*
Girls Lacrosse*
Boys Soccer
Girls Soccer
Softball
Boys Swimming and Diving*
Girls Swimming and Diving*
Boys Tennis
Girls Tennis
Boys Track and Field
Girls Track and Field
Boys Volleyball
Girls Volleyball
Wrestling

An asterisk (*) denotes a team which participates in a league other than the Portage Trail Conference (PTC). Ice Hockey plays in the Greater Cleveland High School Hockey League (GCHSHL) Blue Central Division. The Bowling Teams participate in the Ohio High School Bowling Conference.

From 1996-2005, the Rough Riders were members of the Western Reserve Conference South Division. Prior to 1996, Kent Roosevelt was a member of the now-defunct Metro League.