Chantilly High School

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Chantilly High School
"Finish the fight"
Address
4201 Stringfellow Road Chantilly, Virginia 20151
Information
School district	Fairfax County Public Schools
Principal	James Kacur
Assistant principals	7
Staff	approximately 311
Enrollment	2,874 (2007)
School type	Public high school
Grades	9–12
Language	English
Campus	Suburban
Mascot	Chargers
Color(s)	Purple, black, and white ███
Founded	1972
Feeder schools	Franklin Middle School Rocky Run Middle School Rachel Carson Middle School
Rival schools	Centreville High School Westfield High School
Athletic conferences	Concorde District Northern Region
Homepage	http://www.fcps.edu/ChantillyHS

Chantilly High School (CHS) of Chantilly, Virginia is located in Fairfax County, Virginia and is part of the Fairfax County Public Schools system. Most of the graduates attend two or four year colleges.

[edit] Overview

Chantilly High School is home to four years of study, 9th-12th grade. It is organized into five different "subschools" which each provide administration for a different group of students. Subschools 1-4 are divided by student surnames. Subschool 5 consists of the Chantilly Center, a special-education co-facility which serves students from a wider geographical area than the rest of Chantilly High School. The school uses a block scheduling system. Recently, the block scheduling system was modified to accommodate the addition of two 38-minute "Learning Seminar" periods, where students go to teachers in order to review material or make up missed assignments and tests due to absences, and a 40-minute "PLC" period each Friday, in which teachers in each respective subject department meet to confer.

Chantilly was listed in Newsweek in 2003 as the 72nd^[1] best public high school in America. Chantilly has a high percentage of students enrolled in advanced placement (AP) and honors classes. Chantilly is also a member of the largest public school bus system in the nation, recently overcoming New York City and Los Angeles, with currently over 45+ buses servicing the school daily.

Chantilly is partners with Northrop Grumman Corporation, a global defense company based in California.

Chantilly High School offers many foreign languages as part of their curriculum, including Spanish, French, Latin, and German.

[edit] History

Chantilly High School was built in 1973 as part of the "Superschool" or "consolidated high school" idea. It was also built as a temporary school, made to last for only five years or so. As such, it was built with modules (similar to the modular additions currently being constructed at other FCPS schools), and the school was built in only three months. Parts of the school were brought to the site on flatbed trucks and placed together with several cranes. As such, many of the rooms fell into disrepair because they were designed to be temporary, and so Chantilly received a renovation in the early 1990s. Initially, Chantilly was a "Secondary School" with students ranging from grades 7 through 12, with four sub schools (Red, Blue, Orange and Yellow), each having color coordinated lockers. The first graduating class was the class of 1976.

The original school colors, as assigned by the Fairfax County School Board, were to be orange and brown with the team name of the Chantilly Conquistadors. These colors and team name were rejected by the student body and prior to the opening day of the new school, a special vote was held to change the colors and team name. Out of the three options provided by the Fairfax County School Board the purple and white Chantilly Chargers were selected.

[edit] Demographics

In 2007-2008, Chantilly's student body was 64% White, 22% Asian, 6% Black; 7% Hispanic, and 1% Native American/Pacific Islander.

[edit] Arts & activities

Many of the sports teams have qualified for district, regional, and/or state competitions. Chantilly has an award-winning newspaper, The Purple Tide, which has won numerous pacemaker awards from the Journalism Education Association. Its staff members have won numerous individual awards from JEA conventions as well. In addition, the school produces a nationally-renowned yearbook, The Odyssey, and has an award-winning Debate and Forensics team. The Debate team will compete in the National Debate Tournament in Appleton, Wisconsin in May 2008. Various clubs and honor societies are active throughout the school year. In December of 2007, The Odyssey's adviser/teacher, Mary Kay Downes, won the National Yearbook Adviser of the Year award for her work for yearbooks all over the county. Downes was presented her award at a JEA convention in Anaheim, California in April 2008, with members and advisers of the "Odyssey" and "Purple Tide" present.^{[citation needed]} The string orchestra has won and placed highly in competitions among some of the top high school orchestras of North America. Each March the school hosts the Chantilly Invitational Jazz Festival which showcases middle and high school bands from across the region as well as distinguished guest performers. Anthony "Tony" Aversano was the school's first music director. Mr. Aversano brought much acclaim to the music program, in particular the Jazz band. Chantilly Jazz won the Downbeat Magazine award for Best High School Jazz Band for 1985 that included groups from across the entire United States. Chantilly Jazz placed 2nd in the Downbeat Magazine competition in 1986.

The Chantilly High School Fine Arts department has received many awards over the years. The CHS Mighty Marching Chargers have received many awards, including Grand Champion at the Virginia Showcase of Bands and Grand Champion between 2003 and 2006 at the JMU Parade of Champions. The Mighty Marching Chargers were undefeated in the state of Virginia from 2000 - 2005. Chantilly's indoor drumline is one of the most successful organizations in the school, having won the Atlantic Indoor Association championships six times (2001 - 2005, 2007). The indoor drumline has also won four Winter Guard International regionals (Nashville 2003 in PSA class; Coatesville 2006, Richmond 2007, and Dayton 2008 in PSO), and was ranked 15th in the world at the 2006 WGI Championships (in PSO class). Chantilly is also noted for having an excellent show choir program, including the award winning Touch of Class. In 2006, the choir won 2nd place at a national show choir competition in San Antonio, TX. Also, Touch of Class and Jazz Band join together every Memorial day weekend for their hit show "Jazz and Pizazz".

[edit] Chantilly awards

Chantilly is also renowned for its achievement in inter-scholastic competitions. In 2006, Chantilly won the VHSL AAA division's Wachovia Cup in academics, beating out rivals Westfield High School and Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology. The cup has competitions in 8 different areas, including Newspaper, Newsmagazine, Yearbook, Scholastic Bowl, Debate, Forensics, Literary Magazine, and Theater. This will have been the 8th time Chantilly has won the Wachovia Cup in 12 years.

The varsity golf team has been successful. Led by Jake An, Gabe Lainez, Victor Monte, Jonathan Battaglia and Ji Soo Park, they were Concorde District Champions in 2005, 2006 and 2007, Northern Region Champions in 2005 and 2007, and finished 4th, 6th and 2nd in the state tournament in 2005, 2006 and 2007, respectively. In 2005, Chantilly golfer Joe Monte was the Virginia AAA State Individual Champion, Gabe Lainez was the Northern Region Individual Champion and Jake An was the Concorde District Individual Champion. An went on to win the 2006 District, 2006 Region, 2007 District and 2007 Region Individual Championships as well.

Recently, the Chantilly HS football team won the VHSL Division 6 AAA Northern Region Finals against rival Westfield High School only two years after having a winless regular season. They moved on to the VHSL AAA State semifinals where they were up against opponent Varina High School, winning 17-7. They then moved on to the State Championship against Osbourn High School. The Chargers fell short of the championship with a 42-20 loss to Osbourn. Brandon Hogan was later ruled ineligible for the game. Ongoing investigation ensues. The 2006 team was led by All-Met defensive end Zach Hally, Patrick Madaj, Nate Worek, Danny Simms and Austin Morris. The team is coached by Michael Lalli. Chantilly was also the 1996 VHSL AAA State Football Champions led by 2 future NFL players.

The Theater department in Chantilly was founded by Elaine Wilson in 1978. Ed Monk is now the director of the department and is the playwright of many of the productions at Chantilly. In 2006 the theater department took second place in the One-Act play: Regionals, winning a number of first and second place awards in the VHSL competition, including best duo, monologue, and readers theater. In 2007, the theater sports team won first place. Over the years, the department has won Cappies for Best actor/actress, best set, best lighting, and best cameo actor/actress.

[edit] Test scores

Chantilly High School is a fully accredited high school based on the Standards of Learning tests in Virginia. The average SAT score in 2006 for Chantilly was 1628 (535 in Critical Reading, 565 in Math, and 528 in Writing).

[edit] Notable alumni

• Mike Kohn ('90), Bronze Medal winner in Bobsled in the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympic Games^{[citation needed]}
• Nicholas Kohn ('93), Broadway singer & actor. Starred in Tony Award Winning musical Avenue Q and the Buddy Holly Story.^{[citation needed]}
• Bhawoh Jue ('97), NFL football player for the St. Louis Rams^[2]
• Colin Vint ('02), soccer player for SV Henstedt-Rhen [1]
• Joe Koshansky ('00), First Basemen Colorado Rockies[2]
• Jon Link ('02), pitcher, Chicago White Sox^{[citation needed]}
• Karen Montague Reyes ('86), syndicated cartoonist and creator, "Clear Blue Water".^{[citation needed]}
• Scott Secules ('84), National Football League (NFL) football player for the Miami Dolphins^{[citation needed]}
• Yusef Najafi ('99), Staff Writer at Metro Weekly News Magazine^{[citation needed]}
• Chip Johnson ('01), bassist for rock band The Alternate Routes^{[citation needed]}
• Jimmy Martin ('01), NFL player for the New England Patriots in 2008
• Eric Post ('97), Long Distance Runner
• Yoochun Park (Micky Yoochun), singer of TVXQ
• Michael Carpentar Scott ('04), Host of "Good Morning Minneapolis"
• Mark Umansky ('07), Photographer for the Collegiate Times, Virginia Tech's student run newspaper

[edit] References

1. ^ http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6362098/site/newsweek/ Newsweek: 2003 List: The Top High Schools
2. ^ St. Louis Rams Transactions. Retrieved on 2008-06-02.

[edit] External links

• http://www.fcps.edu/ChantillyHS/
• http://www.fcps.k12.va.us/ChantillyCenter/
• http://www.fcps.k12.va.us/ChantillyAcademy/
• http://www.chantillyband.org/
• http://www.chantillyrobotics.com/
• VHSL-Reference website

• Chantilly High School is at coordinates 38°52′49″N 77°24′23″W / 38.880300, -77.406500 (Chantilly High School)Coordinates: 38°52′49″N 77°24′23″W / 38.880300, -77.406500 (Chantilly High School)