Hialeah High School
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hialeah High School is a secondary school located at 251 E 47th Street in Hialeah, Florida; its current principal is Mr. Lorenzo Ladaga.
| Hialeah High School |
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| Established | September 1954 |
| Type | Public secondary |
| Principal | Lorenzo Ladaga |
| Students | 3,932 |
| Grades | 9–12 |
| Location | Hialeah, Florida USA |
| District | Miami-Dade County Public Schools |
| Campus | Suburban |
| Colors | Scarlet and royal blue |
| Mascot | Thoroughbreds |
| School hours | 7:30–2:30 |
| Average class size | 35 |
| Website | hhs.dadeschools.net |
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[edit] History
Hialeah High School was built in 1953 and opened its doors to students and staff in 1954 to serve the ever growing communities of Northwestern Miami-Dade County. It is one of the oldest secondary schools in the county, having celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2004.
Hialeah's growing pains began in the early 1960s when a population boom in the area began due to a large migration of ex-patriate Cubans from the Cuban Revolution of 1959, causing housing developments to boom in the then mostly rural Northwestern Dade County which was largely served by Hialeah. As a response to this, Miami Springs High School, which opened in September 1962, was built to relieve this overcrowding problem, but the initiative failed as the student population growth in the area was larger than the capacity of both high schools. Because of this, Hialeah-Miami Lakes High School was also built, opening in 1971, to relieve both schools from their growing population problems, dividing the city of Hialeah into three school zones still in effect today, Hialeah High School mostly serving the Eastern and Central portions of the city.
During Construction of both reliever high schools, students were placed on three separate shifts to relieve the overcrowding, with seniors generally attending from 7:30 AM to 2:30 PM, juniors starting at 8:30 AM to 3:30 PM and sophomores starting at 9:30 AM to 4:30 PM. Ninth grade students were removed from the school in an attempt to relieve overcrowding by being placed at the local middle schools, and sixth grade was moved to the local elementary schools remaining this way until 1997, when Hialeah High School regained 9th grade students. The school also experience a district milestone due to this overcrowding as the class of 1965 graduated approximately 1190 students, the largest in the district's history, this was mostly due to the fact that despite being open and operating, Miami Springs High School only took in students starting from the class of 1966, so many 1965 seniors were from the Miami Springs area and were forced to continue attending Hialeah High School despite having an operative high school in their own neighborhood.
Up until the early 1970s, Hialeah High School (as well as the surrounding area), was predominantly white; due to a large influx of immigrants, primarily of Cuban descent, the majority of the school's population became Hispanic over the 1980s and 1990s. Currently, the school is 95% percent Hispanic.
Hialeah High's campus was greatly expanded between 1999 and 2003 adding an entirely new building, expanding and renovating its auditorium and classrooms, and adding extra parking space. Due to a population increase in the city of Hialeah in the early 2000s, the school was fast becoming one of the most populated in the area and a proposal to build another high school in the city of Hialeah has been put before the school board, though due to its recent expansion, a new high school is unlikely in the near future.
Between 2006 and 2010, all high schools in the Miami-Dade County Public School System will shift over to the Collegiate-Honors System at which time the Valedictorian, Salutatorian, and Top 10 system will be abolished. Instead, Cum Laude, Magna Cum Laude and Summa Cum Laude honors will be awarded to the top members of each class, beginning with the Class of 2008. The Class of 2007 will be the last Hialeah High School class who will be designated a Valedictorian, Salutatorian, and Top 10 students list. The change came about as a complete overhaul of the high school curriculum system modelled after the New York Public School System and implemented by the school board and superintendent. The system is already in place at the newly built John A. Ferguson High School as well as the newly opened Ronald W. Reagan Doral High School. The system will be gradually applied to every high school in the system over the next four years.
Hialeah has a long, notable, athletic rivalry with nearby Hialeah-Miami Lakes High School which began in the 1970s. It also has a less formal rivalry with Miami Springs High School leftover from the 1960s, and a historical rivalry with Miami Jackson High School which is no longer in effect.
[edit] Notable Alumni
- Harry Casey, member of KC and the Sunshine Band.
- Bucky Dent, former professional baseball player.
- Ted Hendricks, former professional football player.
- Angel Hernandez, professional baseball umpire.
- Charlie Hough, former professional baseball player.
- Ricardo "Rock" Preston, former football standout at Florida State University.
- Rick Sanchez, CNN correspondent.
- Jon Secada, Grammy Award-winning musician.
- Pedro Zamora, MTV's The Real World personality.
- Betty Cortina, editorial director of Latina Magazine, one of the founding editors of O, The Oprah Magazine, associate editor of People en Español and other positions with People Weekly & Entertainment Weekly; has also appeared as a commentator on Good Morning America, E!, Extra!, MTV, VH1, and CNN.
