Cherry Creek High School

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Cherry Creek High School
Established 1955[1]
Type Public
Principal Kathleen Smith
Faculty 335[2]
Location Greenwood Village, Colorado
Campus Suburban, 80 acres[3]
Colors Red and blue
Mascot Bruin
Website http://www.cchs.ccsd.k12.co.us/

Contents

[edit] School

Cherry Creek High School (CCHS) is the oldest of six high schools in the Cherry Creek School District and sits on an eighty-acre campus that is home to four separate buildings. CCHS has the largest campus of any public or private high school in Colorado. The most recent renovations have been in 1998 and 2004. The school is accredited by the North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools and by the Colorado Department of Education.

The Cherry Creek School district began as a one-room schoolhouse in 1874, and the original schoolhouse, which CCHS and the Cherry Creek School District originated from, was moved onto the current campus in 1969. It has been restored and now serves as a museum-classroom in the center of the campus.

[edit] Student Body

Student enrollment at CCHS is typically about 3,700 and includes grades 9 through 12. As of 2004, 86.4% of students were Caucasian, 6.6% were Asian American, 4.8% were Hispanic-American, 2.1% were African-American, and 0.2% were Native-American. Approximately 4% of students qualified for free or price-reduced meals.

[edit] Faculty and Staff

335 staff members work with CCHS students each day, and of those, 235 are certified teachers. Over 65% of the faculty has eleven or more years of experience in education. Eleven members of the faculty possess doctorate degrees, and a total of 73% have earned at least a master’s degree. Five deans and twelve guidance counselors provide students with support services.

The student-to-teacher ratio in 2004 was 21.3 for the 9th grade, 19.2 for 10th grade, 18.7 for 11th grade, and 18.8 for the 12th grade.

The school's current principal is Dr. Kathleen Smith, who has headed CCHS since 1993.

In 2005, 828 students took 1,887 Advanced Placement (AP) exams, and 87% of the students scored 3 or higher.

CCHS has many National Merit finalists and semi-finalists each year. Cherry Creek's class of 2006 had 21 National Merit finalists and 34 commended students. The school was also the winner of a John Irwin School of Excellence Award for the 2004-2005 school year and was designated a Blue Ribbon School by the U.S. Department of Education.

[edit] Athletics

Athletically, CCHS is part of the 8-team Centennial League that also includes Grandview, Smoky Hill, Boulder, Fairview, Eaglecrest, Mullen, and Overland.

Cherry Creek has won 171 state championships in 22 different sports and three Wells-Fargo Cups as the All-Sport Champion in the state of Colorado. In 2005, Sports Illustrated named it the 5th-best high school athletic program in the nation. It was also appointed the #1 high school in the state for sports in 2007 by Mile High Sports Magazine. It is also well-known for its successful tennis team.

The high school's mascot is the bruin. The current athletic director is Randy McCall.

[edit] The Union Street Journal

Cherry Creek High School's student-run newspaper is the Union Street Journal, a monthly, color broadsheet published on the third Thursday of each month. The paper has been published since 1973, and it has won several awards from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association and the Colorado High School Press Association. English teacher Loreen Hughes is the current faculty advisor, and juniors Taylor Freitas and Nahrek Hartoonian are the Editors in Chief. They were preceded by Sara Hudner and Arsalan Rizvi, who also received several commendations and awards from the Colorado High School Press Association and graduated from Cherry Creek in 2006. Currently, the News Editor is Alyssa Kutner, the Features Editor is Jake Fallon, the Sports Editor is Adwai Eswaran, the Arts & Entertainment Editor is Zach Eastman, and the Photo Editor is Hunter Helmstaedter, a student who is creating his own business called "PhotoHunter" and is under contract with the Denver Post.

[edit] Extracurriculars

Cherry Creek High School offers more than 90 activity organizations, the majority of which are open to all students. Many are nationally recognized, including the Union Street Journal, Fine Print, the yearbook club, the Speech and Debate Team, Amnesty International, Key Club, Future Business Leaders of America, and DECA. The Speech and Debate Team is a “400 Club Member,” one of the top-twenty programs in the United States as noted by the National Forensics League. Cherry Creek also has a notable Model United Nations program, and the school is known for an annual Model U.N. competition hosted by its team.

The band, orchestra, and choral groups are recognized across the nation as representing the finest standards in high school performing arts.[citation needed] The theater program performs in one of the premier facilities in the nation.[citation needed] In addition to three mainstage productions, the school offers numerous student-directed performances.

The Ultimate Frisbee team has played tournaments nationwide and is ranked in the top 10.[citation needed]

[edit] Awards and Recognition

[citation needed]

  • Rated "Excellent" by the Colorado School Accountability Report.
  • Designated as a Blue Ribbon School by the U.S. Department of Education.
  • Received 7 PRIDE awards from the North Central Association, the highest in history.
  • Fourteen CCHS students have won the National Council of English (NCTE) Writing Award in the last five years.
  • Fine Print, CCHS’s literary magazine, has received the Highest Award from the NCTE and the Columbia Scholastic Press Association’s Gold Crown or Silver Medalist for the past several years.
  • The Union Street Journal, Cherry Creek's student newspaper, consistently wins awards at the Annual Colorado High School Press Association Conference.
  • Numerous math students received many individual/team awards in state, regional and prestigious national competitions including the CSU Math Day, UNC Math Contest, the CO Math League, the Atlantic-Pacific Math League, the American Math Competition, the American Invitational Math Exam and the U.S. Math Olympiad.
  • Recognized as one of the top science schools in the state, science department faculty continue to do research. In addition, students have won numerous awards at the Denver Metro Science Fair, the Junior Academy of Science Symposium, and the American Chemical Society State Chemistry Olympiad every year. CCHS students have been Westinghouse semifinalists and finalists.
  • The Speech and Debate team, ranked top 10 in the nation, is a member of “The 400” society, the top half of 1% of the National Forensic League school speech programs for the third year in a row. The team also has won the National Forensic League District Competition for 23 years.
  • CCHS is the only school in Colorado to offer A.P. French Literature consistently as a regular course. Students do very well on national language exams and state competitions.
  • The CCHS Library Tech Center is the only high school library in the nation to receive the National School Library Media Program of the Year award twice and the John Cotton Dana Library Public Relations Award. The library is also a high performance library for the Colorado Power Libraries Project.
  • The Fine Arts faculty are performing and practicing artists. Girls’ 21 and Meistersingers musical groups perform both nationally and internationally.
  • CCHS students and faculty originated the Cherry Creek Diversity Conference, attended last year by over 900 students/sponsors from 79 Colorado high schools.
  • DECA, FBLA and FCLA students participate in many state and national competitive events accumulating honors yearly.
  • CCHS faculty members are frequently honored for their teaching and coaching excellence as A.P. readers, National Humanities Foundation Grant winners, Governor’s Award winners, and coaching awardees.
  • CCHS students receive many individual honors for their accomplishments, including being named Presidential Scholars, A.P. State Scholars, and A.P. National Scholars. In 2003-04, 31 students were named A.P. National Scholars, one A.P. State Scholar, 154 A.P. Scholars with Distinction, 88 as A.P. Scholars with Honors, and 131 were recognized as A.P. Scholars.
  • CCHS is a three-time winner of the Wells Fargo Cup presented for best overall athletics/activities programs by the Colorado High School Activities Association.
  • CCHS was the state champion or runner-up in 9 of the 25 sports competed in during the 2004-05 school year.

[edit] Notable alumni

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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