Forest Hills High School

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Forest Hills High School

Established	1937
Type	Public secondary
Principal	Stephen J. Frey
Students	approx. 3600
Grades	9-12
Location	67-01 110th St., Forest Hills, Queens, New York, New York, USA
Colors	Red, blue and gold
Mascot	Rangers
Yearbook	'Forester'
Newspaper	'The Beacon'
Website	www.fhhsweb.org

Forest Hills High School (FHHS) is a public secondary school in Queens, New York City.

FHHS was dedicated in 1937^[1]. It educates students in grades 9-12 and is operated by the New York City Department of Education. FHHS is located near Flushing Meadow Park, site of two World's Fairs.

1 Location
2 Academics
3 Extracurricular activity
4 Notable alumni
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Location

Forest Hills High School

Forest Hills High School is in the Forest Hills neighborhood in Queens. The school is near Rego Park.

Additionally, there is a Forest Hills High School in Sidman, Pennsylvania.

The School serves the Forest Hills and Rego Park sections of Queens. However, many students come from nearby neighborhoods such as Kew Gardens, Woodside, and parts of Jamaica.

FHHS frequently has been extremely overcrowded throughout its history, sometimes running three overlapping sessions. In past years, administration has found that many prospective students often present false information regarding their permanent residence in order to fall within zoning boundaries and successfully gain admission into the school. Traditionally, a very large fraction of FHHS graduates have gone on to attend college^[2].

[edit] Academics

Special programs offered in the school include Intel Science Talent Search, Law and Humanities Honor Program, Medical Biology (year-long program where students intern at a local hospital for one semester), Part Time Co-op (Business), Pace (Business), Academicy of Public Service, Carl Sagan Advancement of Science and Math (where students also compete in Westinghouse), Richard A. Brown Law Program, Gilder Lehrman Academy, College Now, and the Performing Arts Academy.

In the 2006-2007 school year, FHHS offered Advanced Placement classes in Art History, Biology, Calculus AB, Calculus BC, Chemistry, Computer Science AB, English Literature and Composition, Environmental Science, European History, French Language, Government and Politics: United States, Macroeconomics, Microeconomics, Physics B, Physics C: Electricity and Magnetism, Physics C: Mechanics, Psychology, Spanish Language, Statistics, United States History, and World History. As a general rule, FHHS administrators require students to take the appropriate AP exam in the course in which they've enrolled during the month of May.

[edit] Extracurricular activity

The annual theater competition known as SING! pits seniors, juniors, and "sophmen" (freshmen and sophomores working together) against each other in a race to put on the best performance. Started in 1947 at Midwood High School in Brooklyn, SING! is a tradition at many New York City high schools.

At Forest Hills, SING! was well-established by the end of the 1960s: Leslie Urdang, who went on to become a Hollywood producer (see below) was Chairman of Senior Sing 1972. It is now a huge school-wide event — in 2005, nearly 500 students participated. The entire production is written, produced, directed and funded by students.

Watch a video reviewing its 2007-2008 season.

Forest Hills has a wide range of clubs and activities students can participate in. Everything from a Model UN club to Key Club is offered within the school. In the new 2007-2008 school year, a new COSA (Coordinator of Student Affairs) and new student body president have been working together with objective of improving student life and giving Forest Hills a new aura. However, Forest Hills does not have a wide variety of sports (i.e. there is no swim team).

[edit] Notable alumni

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Many of FHHS's most famous students have gained recognition in entertainment fields. These include childhood-TV veteran Captain Kangaroo (Bob Keeshan), perennial TV-serial star Michael Landon, TV freak-show host and one-time mayor of Cincinnati Jerry Springer, Dave_Rubinstein deceased singer of Reagan Youth, "easy listening" songwriter Burt Bacharach (Class of 1946), folk-rockers Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel; rock guitarist Leslie West (the band Mountain), and punk-rock pioneers The Ramones. Graduates who went on to become prominent entertainment producers include network-TV's Fred Silverman, Hollywood's Leslie Urdang [1] Graduate and TV producer Neil Moreno [2] was nominated for a 2004 New York Emmy.

Mark Gompertz, class of 1972,also a SING executive, is publisher of the Touchstone Fireside division of Simon & Schuster. Court of Appeals judge Robert Katzmann is a member of the Class of 1970. Former NBA player and current Washington Wizards' General Manager Ernie Grunfeld also attended FHHS. Novelist Katharine Weber attended FHHS.

War-time dropout^[3], the late Art Buchwald, Class of 1943, won the Pulitzer Prize twice. Key organizer and executive of NASA, George Low, Class of 1943, served as chief of manned space flight. After retiring from NASA, he served as president of RPI until his demise in 1984. The first space tourist, ex-NASA engineer and millionaire investment fund manager Dennis Tito, graduated FHHS in 1958.

In June 1998, US President Bill Clinton cited FHHS's "academic and extracurricular excellence" and it became one of only 124 "Blue Ribbon" schools nationwide.^[4] In 2000, US First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton delivered the commencement address.. Jacob J. ("Jack") Lew, a 1972 graduate of FHHS, was then the Clinton administration's Director of the Office of Management and Budget, having been elevated to the post two years earlier.

An elusive billionaire whose 'Cinderella-midnight' pardon by outgoing President Clinton caused a furor, commodity trader Marc Rich, attended FHHS for a while in the 1950s, until he was enrolled in an exclusive prep academy, Rhodes Preparatory School. The crimes for which Rich was forgiven by Clinton include the largest tax-evasion case ($48 million) in history.