Thomas Jefferson High School (Rockford, Illinois)
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[edit] 1969-1978
Jefferson's change to senior high school, including ninth, tenth, eleventh and twelfth grades was gradual to allow those who graduated in 1974 to attend a potential total of six years. They were the last class to start at Jefferson as junior high school students. With the elevation of the school to senior high school status, a Junior ROTC battalion was added and the school joined the BIG-9 Conference (now called the Northern Illinois Conference or NIC-10) for sports. Though there were two upperclass and three underclass cheerleading squads and a large Pom-pon squad, the only athletic venue for girls was the Girls Athletic Association (GAA) and boys' sport team management.
In the 1969-70 school year traditions for a new high school were created with elections for school rings, mottos, mascot (keeping the beloved J-Hawk) and school colors (just red and white, then). Because of the manner Jefferson was created, there has always been a Post-modernist feeling connected to "Old" (Ohio Pkwy. location) Jefferson memories. The school started with a population of 2400 high school students crowded into a building built for 1800 junior high students. The schedule was a ten hour split day. Upperclassmen were encouraged to start school at 7:00 a.m. and underclassmen at noon until 5:00 p.m. Because of lunchroom crowding there were three lunch hours and open campus was allowed, with students leaving campus and returning at will. There was no study hall and little hallway oversight. Students commonly milled around or sat in the floor of the hallways waiting for class, eating lunch or studying. The first three classes, 1972, 1973, and 1974 shared the building exclusively until the 1971-72and became very close.
During the 1973 year, Superintendent Robert Salisbury announced District 205's need for a new High School in light of the overcrowding that Jefferson and the other schools were facing. In 1974, Bernard Flinn died leaving the Rockford School District $10 Million for the building of a new school for the district. The will also stipulated that the new building was not to be named after Mr. Flinn. In 1976, a separate referendum was passed to allow funds for a new high school to be built in southeast Rockford.
This referendum passed despite the defeat of a second referendum on the same ballot that was offered to the voters at the same time to increase much needed revenues for the general fund. The school board had asked votes for desperately needed raises in the general funds in the past in order to make up for past shortfalls. Because of the rejection of several past efforts, the school board cut as much as they felt they could and made the announcement that if the referendum did not pass that extra curricular activities at all school were to be cut. Because of the defeat of this referendum most extra curricular activities, including all sporting competition at all levels in the district, were cut or cancelled, and all school district building closed after 5:00 p.m. as well as on the weekends. An attempt from private sources to sponsor after school sporting events was soundly defeated by the school board. Some of these extra curricular activities were reinstated, as monies were found, however the sports were not reinstated until the 1977-78 school year after another referendum for the general fund was passed in that summer. Some middle school sports teams were not reinstated for several decades. Football was partially reinstated in the fall 2002. Girls' volleyball and boys' and girls' basketball were reinstated since the mid 1990s with assistance from Rockford Boys and Girls Clubs.
[edit] Construction and naming of the new high school
Construction of the new high school started in the fall of 1976 next to the Rockford Vocational Technical Center, which was on the corner of Samuelson Road and 35th Street. The construction took on its own flair as administrators felt that the need for fewer windows in the building would enhance the study time for students in the area. This was actually the opposite case and this decision ultimately lead to the creation of an urban myth that the new high school was originally built to be a prison or a bomb shelter for southeast Rockford.
Tradition of the school district in naming high schools for the area they were located - Guilford High School is in Guilford Township, Auburn High School is located on the far west side of Rockford off Auburn Road, East and West High Schools, built before Auburn and Guilford, were located on the east and west sides of the Rock River separating the city of Rockford. There was also a tradition of naming new Junior High Schools and Middle Schools after US Presidents, such as Lincoln, Kennedy, Eisenhower, Theodore Roosevelt and Wilson Middle Schools. However there was a push by many in the area, especially the students and alumnus of Jefferson, to transfer the name of the school from Old Jefferson (the nick name the old building is called by alumni now) to the new building. In the spring of 1977 the school board approved the name transfer and decided to rename the older building Bernard W. Flinn Middle School. The staff of Jefferson would be completely transferred to the new campus and the staff of Morris Kennedy would be transferred to the renamed Flinn Middle School, with the Morris Kennedy building being closed and put up for sale. That building was sold to the Ken Rock Community Center a few years later.
[edit] 1978-Present
During the IHSA state final tournament hosted at St. Clair Bowl in O'Fallon, IL, the Jefferson men's bowling team won first place, making them the 2003 men's bowling champions.
In March 2005, Jefferson's men's basketball team advanced to the IHSA State Finals in Peoria on the campus of Bradley University. The team defeated Lincoln High School in the Elite Eight, but fell to eventual champion Glenbrook North, who had that year's Mr. Basketball Jon Scheyer at guard.
In 2007, Jefferson High School's journalism team, led by advisor Barbara Erickson, qualified at the Huntley sectional to go to state for the IHSA journalism final which was to be held at Eastern Illinois University. With an overall score of 30 pts. at the state final, Jefferson captured the team championship. Individual state champions included Allison Hogshead, who won first place in both of her categories of copy editing and headline writing, Somchai Phasouk, who won first place in yearbook layout and a combined first place with Jill Scheidt in the category of yearbook theme development, and Antoine Denis who won first place in the category of feature photography despite his being a last minute substitution. [1]
