Manchester High School West

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Location
Manchester High School West

Manchester West's logo
9 Notre Dame Avenue Manchester, NH, USA
Information
School district	Manchester School District
Principal	Mary Ellen McGorry (Interim)
Grades	9–12
Mascot	Blue Knight
Color(s)	Blue and white
Information	(603) 624-6384
Homepage	http://www.westhighschool.org

Manchester High School West, known as West High or West, is a public high school located in Manchester, New Hampshire. According to the Blue Book: Manchester High School West Hand Book (1940), the school was officially opened in September 1923 as a grade school and high school, hosting the seventh and eighth grades. In 1924, with an upsurge in enrollment to 136 pupils, the school became a dedicated high school. The first graduating class was in June 1925.

According to the 1940 Blue Book, the mission of the school was to give "each pupil an opportunity to find a career to which he is best adapted and to establish its basis by diligent study in order to promote his progress in life and to give him confidence in facing the world." The courses of study originally offered by Manchester High School West were manual arts, home economics, the commercial course, the classical course (for those planning to go on to university) and the general course.

Students living in Hooksett and Manchester attend West High School, as do juniors and seniors from Bedford. West is one of three public high schools in Manchester. Over 2,000 students attend West.

After a generation of debate and several votes, the town of Bedford — an upper-middle class suburb of Manchester — eventually voted to build its own high school. The changing demographics of the West Side neighborhood the school is located in, between the old Squog (Granite Square) that once was the home of Peyton Place novelist Grace Metalious (an alumna of Manchester's Central High) and la petit Canada (site of the nation's first credit union, La Caisse Populaire Ste. Marie), helped encourage the secessionist vote. Manchester NH, a refugee resettlement center, has accepted many refugees since 1980. Many refugees from Bosnia and East Africa have settled in the neighborhood in which West High is situated, diversifying the student body of West High School. Like any growing city, there has been a large increase in crime, including murder, the latter transgression once being extremely rare on Manchester's West Side.

Bedford High School opened at the beginning of the 2007–2008 school year. With the opening of the Bedford High School, Bedford students are being phased out of West High School.

West High School's mascot is the Blue Knight.

1 Clubs and activities
2 Athletics
3 Notable alumni
4 References
5 Sources
6 External links

[edit] Clubs and activities

West High School has dozens of clubs and teams including an ultimate frisbee club started in the spring 2006, a rollerskating club, and a scuba club.

West has an active FIRST Robotics team. ^[1] The award-winning Powerknights won the BAE Systems Granite State Regional in 2004 and 2007, the Chairman's Award in 2005, the Spirit Award in the Southern California Regional 2006, the Engineering Inspiration Award in 2008, and have won several other notable awards. Each year they go on field trips to regional events across the country. Recently, the team traveled to Chicago and Atlanta. Most recent were the 2008 trips to Texas, where they came in second place, and the international championships in Atlanta.

West High School's acting company is known as the Theatre Knights.

The school's math team has won SMASH league championships for the past three years. Over a 23 year history, the school has won 15 championships, making them the state leaders.

West High School is home to a chapter of DECA, a marketing and entrepreneurship organization. This chapter is very active both within school and the community. The West chapter competes at the New Hampshire DECA state conference and the International Career Development Conference.

West High School is home to FBLA, a program that promotes business education and teamwork through meetings, activities, and statewide conferences. West is the only school within the Manchester school district with an FBLA chapter.

The school newspaper is the Blueprint. The school yearbook is the Thesaurus.

[edit] Athletics

West athletics have a particularly strong rivalry with another city high school, Manchester Central.

The girls soccer team has been consistently ranked as one of the top in the nation by national soccer publications. Long time coach Jack Amero (affectionately called "Captain") recently retired, leaving the program in a state of limbo.

The girls' cross country team is among the top teams in New Hampshire. The team has advanced to the New Englands meet for the past two years.

The Blue Knights football team made it to the playoffs in the 2007 season ranked third, but lost in the first round.[1] [2]