Pius XI High School

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Pius XI High School
Motto	Possibilities, Preparation, Purpose
Established	1929
Type	Private co-educational secondary
Affiliation	Catholic
Principal	Melinda Skrade, Ph.D.
Students	1,250
Grades	9–12
Location	Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
Oversight	Archdiocese of Milwaukee
Accreditation	North Central Association
Mascot	Popes
Newspaper	Scope
Website	www.piusxi.org
Pius XI High School in 2002

Pius XI High School is a private, Catholic high school located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee, enrolling approximately 1,250 students.

1 History
2 Academics
3 Schedules
4 Student Government
5 Athletics
6 Notable alumni
7 References

[edit] History

Pius XI High School—named in honor of Pope Pius XI—was founded in 1929; however, it did not graduate a senior class until 1937. Prior to 1937, only the first three years of High School were offered.^[1] Enrollment grew from a class of eight in 1937 to over 2,000 students throughout the 1960s and 1970s. Currently enrollment is approximately thirteen hundred students, making it the largest private school in Wisconsin.^[2]

The original four-story school building was constructed in 1930, with a two-story addition for 6 stories total completed in 1957. Additional classroom space, library space, science laboratories and general renovations were completed in 1998, and a Field House was annexed in 2004. Currently the original gymnasium is being remodeled into an auditorium which will hopefully be completed in the next three to four years.^[3]

[edit] Academics

In recent years, Pius XI High School has twice earned the distinction of being a National Blue Ribbon School.^[4] Pius is known for its challenging and engaging academics, as evidenced by exceptional student test scores on Advanced Placement exams, a nationally recognized journalism program, a World Languages Program whose students regularly receive college credit for their high school course work, and a state-of-the-art Fitness and Wellness Program. Graduates of Pius have been admitted to many prestigious post-secondary schools, including Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Brown, Georgetown, Northwestern, Marquette and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Pius has more National Board Certified teachers than any other private school in Wisconsin.

In addition, Pius has a nationally-recognized Fine Arts Department, whose students regularly receive local, regional and national awards.^[5] In 2007, several Fine Arts and English students were awarded 24 Gold and 16 Silver Key awards some for entire portfolios on the National level from the National Scholastic Art & Writing Competition. In addition, several students have recently won awards and scholarships from the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts, and the Wisconsin Regional ARTS Competition. The Theater and English departments co-produced the Metro Milwaukee Young Playwrights Competition in 2005 and 2006 before the project was tabled. Pius also has a well-recognized Dance Department.

The Social Sciences Department's Mock Trial team has recently begun hosting annual workshops for other schools with students interested in learning about the activity. This year, Pius will begin to explore competition through Academic Decathlon. Pius offers almost two hundred courses, more than any other school in the state of Wisconsin, including almost twenty Advanced Placement, Honors and Accelerated courses.

The newest academic department is Engineering, which offers a program called Project Lead the Way that prepares students for college engineering programs and allows them to earn college credit while in high school. Pius' Project Lead the Way is certified as of the end of 2006-2007 School year.

[edit] Schedules

Pius has a unique scheduling system called the Modular system.^[6] Instead of referring to days of the week, Pius courses are scheduled around cycles, with each five-day cycle containing an A, B, C, D and E day. Because of holidays, each letter will fall on different days of the calendar week throughout the school year.

B- through E-days each contain 14 numbered "mods" plus a 15th period, known as "TAC" ("Teacher-Advisor-Counselor"), which is at the beginning of the day and is reserved for homeroom activities and assemblies. Starting in with the 2008-2009 school year A-days will be 14 mods. For the first time since 1974(when the Modular Schedule was established) Pius will have a shortened day on a day other then A-day. Each mod is 24 minutes( mods will be shortened on the "half day" every week) with a four-minute pass period between mods. Most classes are two mods long, making them 52 minutes in length, and meet three times per cycle. ^[7] Some classes (such as labs and some art classes) will meet for three mods at a time twice per cycle. Many classes also have an accompanying P-mod, short for "permanent mod." A P-mod is a single 24 minute period in which the teacher can meet with a smaller section of the class, similar to a college discussion section. Some courses assign additional work to be completed during P-mods; others simply use the time as a sort of required-attendance office hours where the teacher is available as a resource. A particular class will usually have several available P-mods scheduled throughout the five-day cycle, but each student in the class will be assigned to attend only one. One benefit of modular scheduling is that there are no assigned study halls or lunch periods; rather, whenever students don't have a class or a P-mod, they are free to go to a discipline-specific study hall (called a resource room), the Union (cafeteria), the library, or a computer lab.

[edit] Student Government

This is an organization known as Pius XI High School Student Forum responsible for bringing student concerns to the administrative level, bringing administrative opinions, decisions, views and ideas to the student body, to solve or assist in the solving of school-wide problems and to act in the interest of the Pius XI community. Forum is guided by a Constitution that is renewed with each new set of Representatives, Board Representatives and Officers. The President of Forum is elected to the position by the Representatives at-large and the Vice-President is nominated by the President and Moderator, subject to approval of Student Forum. For the 2007-08 school year, Forum was led by President Megan Czajka and Vice President Michael Soriano. The moderator of Forum is Ms. Mary Talsky, a Social Science instructor.

[edit] Athletics

"Milwaukee Pius," to which it is generally referred, is a member of the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association and participates in the Classic 8 Athletic Conference.^[8] The summer prior to the 2009-2010 school year Pius will consider moving to the Greater Metro Conference. The male athletic teams play under the name "Popes," while the females are referred to as the "Lady Popes." For one season the Pius XI football team was renamed the "Storm" due to a questionable coach hiring. This change only lasted for one season, after that the name "Popes" was brought back permanently. Despite the papal nickname, no visual imagery that alludes to the Pope is used at sporting events. The team had an unofficial mascot of the "Sugar Bear," alluding to an advertisement scheme from the 1960's. The "Sugar Bear" lasted from the 1960's to 2004 because the bear suit was taken.

The Popes and the Lady Popes Basketball Team's were the last two teams to win the Wisconsin Independent Schools Athletic Association (WISAA) Boys' and Girls' State Basketball Championships. The Boys' Basketball Team finished with a school record of 24-1 and #1 in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinal's State and Area Polls. The girls were coached by Hall of Fame coach, Joel Classen who lead the girls to 18 conference championships in as many years and won 12 state titles with the Lady Popes. The boys were coached by recently inducted Pius XI Hall of Fame member, Gary Pieske. Pieske coached Former Wisconsin star, Mike Kelly, who lead the Badgers to a surprise Final Four appeareance in the 2000 NCAA Mens Basketball Tournament.

[edit] Notable alumni

Alan Kulwicki, 1993 NASCAR Winston Cup Champion^[9]
Pat White, Former Professional Soccer Player
Grace Weber, Broadway performer and professional singer^{[citation needed]}
Mike Kelley, Lead the University of Wisconsin to the 2000 Final Four and is a current sports analyst on CBS.^{[citation needed]}