Service High School
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Coordinates: Robert Service High School is a public high school serving grades 9-12 in Anchorage, Alaska, named for poet Robert Service. The school, part of the Anchorage School District, opened in 1971. The school completed partial renovation in 2005. Its school colors are green and gold and its mascot is the cougar. Service High School's principal is Lou Pondolfino.
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[edit] General information
Service High serves approximately 2000 students with about 90 teachers, with students feeding in largely from Hanshew Middle School and Goldenview Middle School. Each day is divided into 6 periods each 53 minutes long with seven-minute passing periods and a 42-minute lunch. The class schedule does not change throughout the week, except on school assembly days, where periods are shorter in order to allow time for the assembly. The school news paper is the Cougarosity, and the yearbook is the Silhouette.
[edit] Academic offerings
Service offers honors (for grades 9-10) and Advanced Placement (for grades 10-12) courses. Service also includes a unique school-within-a-school program, The Seminar School (TSS). A socratic-style learning program, TSS operates within 2-period block classes, with regular readings on philosophy, science, and literature. Beginning in the fall of 2005, Service High has started another school-within-a-school program, Freshman Academy, which caters exclusively to freshmen. The program is intended to curb high rates of failing among freshman by giving ninth-graders more explicit instruction on study skills and basic knowledge. This program showed marked improvement during their freshman year. However, the during the first cycle of the program the students performed lower than expectations during their sophomore year, indicating that the only reason the program had any success was because it made the curriculum easier.[1]
[edit] Alumni
- Mark Schlereth, NFL player and ESPN analyst (1984 graduate)
- Larry Sanger, Wikipedia co-founder (1986 graduate)[2]
- Matthew Burtner, Musician, composer, and inventor of the Metasaxophone (1988 graduate)
- Nathan West, actor in movies including Miracle and Bring It On
- Brandon Dubinsky, forward with the New York Rangers of the National Hockey League (2004 graduate)
[edit] Accredation
Service High School is accredited by the Northwest Association of Schools and Colleges and participates in sports and extramural activities sponsored by the Alaska School Activities Association.
