Chaska High School
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| Established | 1905 |
|---|---|
| Type | Public high school |
| Principal | Paul McMahan |
| Faculty | 180 |
| Students | approx. 2,000 |
| Grades | 10-12 |
| Location | 545 Pioneer Trail, Chaska, Minnesota,, USA |
| Colors | Purple, White, Gold |
| Mascot | Hawk |
| Newspaper | 'Hawk Herald' |
| Website | www.district112.org/chs |
Chaska High School (CHS) is a public high school located in Chaska, Minnesota, a southwestern suburb of the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. CHS is a 10th-12 grade school; freshmen attend the nearby Pioneer Ridge Freshman Center. Nearly 2000 students attend CHS. Its mascot is the Hawk, and the colors are purple, white, and gold.
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[edit] History
Chaska High School first opened in the early 1900s with its first graduating class in 1906. Over the course of time Chaska High School has moved to newer facilities three times. Currently, Chaska High School resides in a facility that opened in 1996 at 545 Pioneer Trail.
[edit] The Mission
"All Youth ready for post-secondary education, careers, and active civic participation"
The core principles of the school are:
- Personalized Learning Environments
- Academic Engagement of All Students
- Accountable Leadership
- Empowered Educators
- Engaged Community and Youth
- Integrated System of High Standards, Curriculum, Instruction, Assessments, and Supports
| “ | In Accordance with Our Mission and Philosophy, the Goals of Chaska High School are:
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[edit] Current Facilities
Chaska's Current facilities feature auditorium, several gymnasiums, a cafeteria, tech-ed labs, computer labs, a media center, a stadium, and several athletic fields. Originally designed for 1,200 students, the school received a substantial addition in 2004.
[edit] Houses
Chaska High School is organized into four main houses:
- East Union House
- Victoria House
- Chanhassen House
- Carver House
Each has an individual title based upon a city within the district; Purple is the East Union House, Blue is the Victoria House, Red is the Chanhassen House, and Green is the Carver House. Each house has two stories and similar design. They are connected by one large hallway. This main hallway is a little less than one quarter mile long. Then there's the South Wing of the high school just south of the main hallway which holds the cafeteria and leads to the activities section of the school.
[edit] Media Center
The Chaska High School media center is the school's library and technology center. It has four separate labs; two of which use Dell Optiplex PCs and two which use Apple computers (Cost the school approximately 13 million). The first floor consists of the library proper, as well as all PCs. Second floor houses the Apple computer labs, as well as Jumpstart studios, the semi-weekly school news program. The media center area also holds the copy room, tech support and all other IT services for the school.
[edit] The South Wing
This takes up about half the school's area. It consists of the band room, choir room, cafeteria, the auditorium, the large gymnasium, the two small gymnasiums, two regular sized gymnasiums, two weight rooms, a few classrooms, the activities office, athletic locker rooms, gym locker rooms, and other athletic related areas. It is connected through the blue house and the media center. The cafeteria is one story with a high cone glass roof, but the athletic area is two stories.
[edit] Curriculum
Chaska High School employs 'block scheduling,' a method that allows for four classes per day of 90 minutes per block.
Chaska High School offers many tracks and plans for students of each and every learning situation. Post Secondary Education Option, Advance Placement (AP) courses, Mankato State English, Spanish, and Psychology 101, English Language Learners, Special Education, and of course the basic core and advanced/honors classes.
[edit] Activities
Chaska High School has many extracurricular activities such as: Academic Teams (Knowledge Bowl and Quiz Bowl), Art Club, Athletics, DECA, Drama, FFA, General Assembly, Honors Society, International Club, Intramurals, Jumpstart, Key Club, Music,Ultra Snacks Club " A club about nutrition and south beach diet", POWZA, Prom Committee, Speech, Student Council, Yearbook, MSHSL, Ping Pong Club, and others.
[edit] Drama
From longtime director Mr. Jim Lund, every year the CHS Drama Department stages a fall musical, a spring play, and a collection of student-directed one act plays in the winter. Recent plays/musicals include: Godspell, The Twelfth Night, Seussical, The Matchmaker, A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum, The Hollow,and The Pajama Game.
CHS Drama has won numerous awards, including the recently formed Hennepin Theater Trust's Spotlight Awards. Recent recipients include: Pajama Game: Best Overall Production of a Musical Outstanding Performance in a Leading Role: Kate Hamilton Outstanding Performance in a Leading Role: Tyler Ryan Outstanding Performance by an Orchestra
[edit] Music
Chaska High School students have many opportunities to be in music. Three choirs, three bands, and many extracurricular groups offer a wide range of music styles and levels. There are three in-school choirs: Varsity Choir, Treble Choir and Concert Choir, and three in-school bands: Concert Band, Symphonic Band and Wind Ensemble. The three choirs are directed by Mrs. Sarah Gilbertson, who became the choral director of Chaska High School after Mr. Chad Junker retired in 2003. Mrs. Miriam Junker, who retired in 2007, conducted the Concert Band and Wind Ensemble. Mr. Tim Beckler now fills that role, while Mr. Paul Swanson conducts the Symphonic Band, as well as the two freshman bands at Pioneer Ridge.To help the load on Mr. Paul Swanson they are looking at a new band teacher and the leading candidate is Shamim Mahboubi.
There are two extracurricular choral groups that meet outside of the school day. Bel Canto is an audition-only group for girls grades 10-12, and Chamber Singers is an audition-only group of mixed men and women grades 11 and 12. Students also have the opportunity to try out for a yearly musical, directed by Mr. Jim Lund.
The band offers a somewhat more diversified range of extracurriculars. There are four high school level jazz bands: Jazz I, Jazz II,Jazz III and Jazz IV. Jazz I is an audition-only group for 9-12 and Jazz IV is a free jazz only group specializing in world and middle-eastern pieces directed by Dr. Phil Gebauer, while Jazz II is open to grades 10-12, and Jazz III open to 9th graders. The Chaska High School Pep band plays at the schools hockey, basketball and volleyball games throughout the school year. There is also availability for students to be in the pit orchestra for the drama department's musicals. Jazz I, III and Pep band are led by Mr. Paul Swanson, (known affectionately as "Swanny"). While Jazz II is led by Mr. Tim Beckler. The school, and district, is home also to a newly formed orchestral program, which ranges across many grades.
[edit] Academic teams
[edit] Sports
Chaska High School is part of the Lake Conference in the Minnesota State High School League.
| State Championships | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season | Sport | Number of Championships | Year | |||
| Fall | Volleyball | 6 | 1991, 1993, 1994, 1996, 2005, 2006 | |||
| Winter | Debate | 2 | 1980, 1981 | |||
| Dance | 1 | 1999 | ||||
| Diving, Boys | 1 | 2008 | ||||
| Basketball | 1 | 2004 | ||||
| Bowling | 1 | 2008 | ||||
| Robotics | 1 | 2008 | ||||
| Spring | Golf | 1 | 1979 | Total | 10 | |
[edit] References
Relerford, Patrice. "No balancing act for Chaska, Chanhassen", Star Tribune, Chris Harte, 2008-05-17. Retrieved on 2008-06-11. (English)
