Corona del Sol High School

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Corona del Sol High School
Location
1001 E Knox Road
Tempe, AZ
USA
Information
School district Tempe Union High School District
Principal Susan Jilek Edwards
Staff approx. 200
Enrollment

2900+
Type Public
Grades 9-12
Athletics conference AIA 5A[1]
Mascot Aztec
Color(s) Burnt Orange and Yellow
Established 1977
Information (480) 752-8888
Homepage Official Website

Corona del Sol High School located in Tempe, Arizona, United States, was established in 1977 and is a part of the Tempe Union High School District.

Contents

[edit] Campus

Corona is a closed boundary school that does not permit any outside students to attend.[2] In addition to this, Corona enforces a closed-campus policy. Students attending through grades 9, 10 and 11 may not leave campus without an adult checking them out for the day. Seniors are only permitted to leave campus with a special ID which can only be obtained with a signed and notarized parent permission form.

[edit] Academics

Corona's AIMS and Terra Nova test scores as well as student pass rates are consistently above its district and state averages, as is its graduation rate (99%). Corona is also among the top schools in the state in the number of National Merit Semifinalists produced each year (16 in 2006). Only University High School in Tucson, a small selective-admissions school, had more National Merit Semifinalists in 2006 (20). These and other achievements are recognized by the school's NCLB rating of "Excellent" for the past three years.[3]

[edit] Arts

Corona del Sol has a large music and fine arts program, boasting four concert bands, an award winning marching band, a concert orchestra and a chamber orchestra, as well as five choir classes, and a percussion program. Piano, Guitar, Darts, Percussion, and World Music (Steel Drums) are also offered. Other fine arts that students may take part include Photography, 3 Levels of Drama, Film Study, Stagecraft, Ceramics, Basic Art and Design, Drawing and Painting.

[edit] Choir Program

The Choir Program has about 300 students involved in the program. There are 5 choirs: Jaztecs (the highest-20 Members), followed by A Capella (Co-ed-70 Members), Encore (Girls-70 Members), Voce (Co-ed-30 members), and Women's Ensemble (Girls-70 members) (Lowest Choir). There is also a group of students called the "choir council" who help the director and perform choir related tasks. About 20-30 students are selected by an application process.

[edit] Band Program

The band program is one of the most highly honored programs at Corona. With over 200 students enrolled, each year shows signs of progress and success. There are 4 concert bands (listed from least to most advanced): Junior Varsity, Symphonic II, Symphonic I, and Wind Ensemble. There are also 4 different classes of Percussion with similar performance skill classifications. The Marching Band, which as of 2007 has 149 members, is one of the most prestigious Marching Bands in the region as well as in the state of Arizona. The Marching Band rehearses every morning at 6:00am. Recent competitions include the Bands of America Regional Championships which took place in Flagstaff, Arizona where they took 8th place in Finals, and Trabuco Hills Tournament in the Hills, where they scored 1st in their division and took all captions in their division, and scored 2nd place overall. The band is currently preparing for their next and final competition in Tucson, Arizona, University of Arizona Band Day.

[edit] Activities

The school has over 100 clubs and activities including a school newspaper and yearbook, various sports teams, speech and debate, and a plethora of community service organizations. Along with these typical high school clubs, Corona del Sol has some atypical clubs, such as Monday Mythology Madness, the Random Acts of Kindness Society, an outstanding ping pong and chess team.

[edit] Clubs

  • Acatecs — CdS "gifted" club (open to all students), runs the AcaTutoring academic help program.
  • Animal Rights Club
  • Anime Club — Holds weekly meetings on Thursdays to watch anime (Japanese animation) movies and TV shows.
  • Aztec TV — A defunct off-spin of the old TV production/multimedia ed. class. Students, taking on the roles of videographers, editors, or reporters, would parade about the campus searching for hard-hitting stories. Such great lengths were went to as ambush, chase, and scheduling.
  • Best Buddies
  • Chess Club — This club is a place where people can play chess without being judged. All skill levels and all grades can come. In, addition , the first semester. This club goes to chess tournaments every other Saturday and, along with China Club, hosts the annual Chinese Chess Tournament.
  • China Club — Experimental organization to raise awareness of Chinese and other Asian culture and runs the annual CdS Chinese Chess Tournament along with the Chess Club. Recently changed to the Asian Student Union (ASU).
  • Computer Club[1]
  • Language clubs — the French Club is the extracurricular counterpart to French classes, explores French culture, holds an annual cheese tasting event. The is also a German analogue of French Club. The Spanish Honor Society is similar to the other language clubs, but with community service requirements, where the volunteering must be Spanish related.
  • Math Club — This is a club where people who enjoy doing math come and socialize with each other. There are weekly problems and several contests throughout the year, most prominently the AMC (the entry stage of the USA Math Olympiad.
  • National Art Honor Society
  • National Honor Society — The CdS chapter of the national organization. Members must have GPA > 3.7 and complete 24 hours of community service per year. Officer selection process is the fairest of any club at Corona, using written applications which are blind-read by the sponsor (vice principal Duplissis) and other faculty.
  • Mythology Club — Holds weekly meetings to talk about myths and legends, and watches videos on the subject.
  • Philosophy Club — A discussion group where people can talk and debate each other about almost anything.
  • Ping Pong Club
  • Random Acts of Kindness Society
  • Robotics Club — Formerly the Future Engineers Club; advanced to the FIRST FRC Robotics national competition as the 1st place rookie team in 2007. Placed 2nd seed at the Arizona Regional in 2008.
  • Speech and Debate — The CdS forensics team which meets frequently and participates in both speech and debate competitions in the area, occasionally traveling out of state. The debate division is one of the best in Arizona and its members have won many of the local tournaments in the past two years.[2]
  • Style Club
  • TheaterWorks — Affiliated with the Drama program at CdS, performs several stage plays in the CdS auditorium each year.
  • Trivia Club — The successor organization to the CdS Brainstorm[3] team, which participates in the Arizona Cox Communications quiz show, now in its second season. Corona won the first season of the show. The team appeared twice this season, defeating opposing teams from Notre Dame Preparatory and Buena Vista High School (episode airdate: Nov. 28, 2007 6:30pm) and Fountain Hills and Desert Hills High Schools (episode airdate: May 14, 2007 6:30pm).[4][5]
  • Video Game Club
  • Youth In Government — A discussion group with a focus on politics and government related issues. This group discusses current issues, different kinds of government, as well as controversial issues that are represented from different sides that effect the student's everyday lives.

[edit] Community service clubs

  • Aztecs for Soldiers — community service which raises money for military families
  • Cancer Community — community service club focusing on cancer causes such as Race for the Cure
  • Interact Club' — community service plus an annual trip to the Model U.N. program at New York
  • Key Club — community service club; CdS chapter of Key Club International
  • March of Dimes — community service club affiliated with, and focusing on fundraising for, March of Dimes/WalkAmerica
  • Red Cross Club — community service club affiliated with the American Red Cross

[edit] Controversies

[edit] Air quality problems

A parent, student and teacher coalition has been formed to more fully understand indoor air quality and building remediation issues, and give parent input to the district. The purpose of the committee is to help ensure that all students and staff have a healthy and safe environment at Corona del Sol.[6]

The air quality issues at Corona del Sol revolve around several separate issues that when combined have developed into an unhealthy environment at the school. The original facility was built in the 1970s using techniques designed to build as an energy efficient building as possible. The HVAC system was state of the art at that time, and is believed to have met the indoor air quality requirements of the day. The facility was later expanded to roughly double the student capacity. Apparently, no expansion of the HVAC system occurred at that time.[citation needed]

The result is a facility no longer meets the indoor air quality requirements and cannot be made to do so without significant modification. An offshoot to this problem is the development of mold contamination in several part of the school over the years, which have been mitigated as they have arisen.[citation needed]

The district has already exhausted all available funds to try to perform as many upgrades as possible, however there is a shortfall of some $11-13 million to complete the project. In doing so, the district has taken repair and maintenance funds from the other schools in the district. This means that maintenance in the other schools is at a minimum. Funding for these upgrades, which should rightly come from the Arizona School Facilities Board, are most likely going to have to be funded via a local bond issue.[citation needed]

[edit] 2007 Columbine anniversary week

In April 2007, threats were issued for Corona over supposed violence to take place on the 20th, the anniversary of the Columbine shootings. The first message was found on a boys' bathroom stall on April 10; an olive tree was burned down and a message on the ground nearby found on April 13. Subsequent messages were found later on April 13 and on April 16 in bathroom stalls.[7][8] On April 19, 2007 the school was evacuated to the stadium due to a suspicious package found in a bathroom. The box turned out to be harmless, believed to be a student's project in a shoebox.

Despite high tensions, April 20 passed without incident, exactly as the administration predicted. Still, the false alarm from April 19 as well as the coincidental Virginia Tech shootings earlier in the week served to magnify fears that had already been raised by the unprecedented repetition of the graffiti threats. Although Corona has been threatened every April for the past several years, this is the first year that 4 messages have been found in succession making the same threat. Few classes had over 50% attendance, and it is estimated that over 2000 of the school's 2900 students took Friday off.[citation needed]

The administration and faculty were unfazed by the threats, but troubled by the exaggerated rumors that the threats spawned and occasionally inaccurate media reporting.[citation needed] Only four messages were found during the two weeks before April 20, although some media reports claimed up to six. The threats were taken seriously, and extra police were deployed to Corona pending completion of the investigation. A monetary reward for information leading to an arrest has since been increased to $5,000. Tips may be directed to the Tempe Police. The school and Tempe Union District are soliciting donations to increase the reward further.[citation needed]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Corona del Sol High School
  2. ^ http://www.tempehighschools.org/student/enrollment.htm
  3. ^ http://www.tuhsd.k12.az.us/ourschools/reportcards/reportcard_CDS2007.pdf
  4. ^ Anouncements
  5. ^ Brainstorm
  6. ^ Information is on the Corona del Sol PTO website - http://coronapto.org, and additional information can be found at http://coronacleanair.org
  7. ^ http://www.tuhsd.k12.az.us/cds/CdSAdminLetter17April.pdf
  8. ^ http://www.tuhsd.k12.az.us/cds/TempePoliceStatemet.pdf

[edit] External links

News articles on Corona Mold and Unsafe conditions