| Bear Creek High School | |
|---|---|
| Address | |
| 3490 South Kipling Street Lakewood, Colorado, 80227 United States |
|
| Information | |
| Established | 1920 |
| School district | Jefferson County Public Schools |
| CEEB Code | 061043 |
| Principal | Kevin Carroll |
| Staff | 141 (as of 2006-07)[1] |
| Grades | 9-12 |
| Enrollment | 1855 (as of 2007-08) |
| School Color(s) | Forest green, gold, and white |
| Athletics | CHSAA 5A |
| Athletics conference | Jefferson Country League |
| Mascot | Bear |
| Publication | BCTN |
| Newspaper | 'Bear Facts' |
| Website | http://bchs-web.jeffco.k12.co.us/bchs/index.html |
Bear Creek High School is located in the southwest corner of the greater Denver Metro area, it is one of 18 high schools in Jefferson County, Colorado. The school colors are forest green, gold, and white. The mascot is a bear. The principal is Kevin Carroll. There are approximately 1900 students and 105 certified staff. It is in Class 5A Athletic Program and has over 34 clubs and activities. In 2009, an entirely new campus was completed across the street from the original location, replacing the nearly 89-year old previous building. Students moved into the new location after spring break in March 2009.
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Bear Creek High has suffered several fires over its eighty year history, the first causing the construction of the former building in 1960-1961. Two fires have occurred in recent years, an April 2007 probable electrical fire that damaged three classrooms[2] and an April 2008 arson set by a freshman-student who was convicted of arson and other felonies. A second student was a witness to the fire and testified accordingly. This fire caused extensive smoke damage to the building as well as structural damage to the small gym.[3]
The Bear Creek High School Community Foundation was established in 2008 as an all-volunteer fundraising entity to help BCHS offset escalating costs to maintain a beautiful, safe, educationally sound, academically diverse, and challenging 21st century learning facility. It is headed by Joe Gomez, Principal Maridith Lauer, Sharon Lubieniecki, Kay Newcomer, Scott Schnell, and Vice Principal Lynn Torr. BCHSCF is sponsored the First Annual Bear Creek High School 5k Fun Run on Friday, August 22, 2008.
Bear Creek has also experienced some other issues in the recent years. A minor electrical issue, in the L-hall; caused a fire alarm to go off. Also, the water source, went off, due to construction. Tanks of water had to be hauled in. Last, there was a flood in the Bio prep room, where chemicals spilled, and caused all the science rooms to be cut off. At the new Bear Creek campus, the auditorium flooded and areas lost power because of a water line bursting.
Bear Creek offers many after-school activities. Every year the Bear Creek Bear's varsity sport teams are some of the best in the state. During the 2007-2008 school year, the football team made it to the semifinals, the girl's softball team ended up second in the state and the girls' gymnastics team was the State Champion. Some of the other sports available at Bear Creek include: tennis, baseball, volleyball, boys' and girls' soccer, golf, wrestling, boys' and girls' swimming and diving, cheerleading, basketball, marching band, and several more. But for the non-athletes there are even more variety of things to do at Bear Creek including: theater, video game club, snowboarding club, National Honor Society, DECA, FCCLA, Pro Start foreign language clubs, astronomy club, peer mentors, Frisbee club, newspaper, yearbook, student government and much more. A very interesting club that Bear Creek has that most other Jeffco schools don't, would be Bear creek dance crew, a variety of hip hop and breakdancing.
One of the more prosperous programs in the school is the instrumental music program. Since 2002, the Bear Creek Instrumental Music Department has been under the direction of Tammy Ahmed. The program includes a concert band, a marching band, a jazz band, string orchestra, winter percussion, and a winterguard, among other various small ensembles.
The Bear Creek High School Winter Percussion ensemble is noted to be one of the best in the state and the nation. Competing in Percussion Scholastic Concert Open since 2006, the ensemble has been the State Champion twice, State Silver Medalist once, and in 2008 was named the Winter Guard International Concert Open Silver Medalist.
The marching band has also been competitive in the state, being named a Semi Finalist in 2002, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and Finalists in 2010 after appearing as a finalist numerous times in the 1990s and the year 2000. In 2006 and 2007, the Marching Band was named the Most Improved Band for those seasons. The marching band has a history of strong Drum Majors, the director-chosen students who conduct the band. Recent Drum Majors include: Jason Davis (2003 & 2004)~Flight of the Griffin, Nick Martinez (2004 & 2005)~Fanfare for a Golden Sky, Kyle Jones (2005 & 2006)~River of the Ancients(Jones also won first place in the March-Off of over 600 students at the George N. Parks Drum Major Academy), Dylan Ford (2006 & 2007)~A Dream to Fly, Steven Woods (2007 & 2008)~Gloria, and Trey Tafoya (2008–2010)~Reflections of the Orient & "Africa: Ceremony, Song & Dance." In 2010 Trey Tafoya conducted the marching band to state finals placing them in eighth over all in the state of Colorado. This was the first time in ten years that Bear Creek had made the state championship finals. In the following season (2011) Leisel Feth took the podium as drum major from 2009 to 2011; following her place will be Kristen Romano. The Bear Creek High School Drum Majors attend each year the Bands of America/Music for All Summer Symposium, where they attend the George N. Parks Drum Major Academy. At this camp, they learn valuable leadership skills, conducting skills, and teaching techniques.
In the spring of 2008, the Concert Band was selected to perform at Colorado State University at a showcase of bands that performed very well earlier in the year. This is the first time the Concert Band has been selected to do this since the 1990s.
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