Birmingham Groves High School

Groves High School
A Tradition of Excellence
Address
20500 West Thirteen Mile Road Beverly Hills, Michigan, 48025 United States
Coordinates	42°31′04″N 83°14′42″W / 42.5177°N 83.2449°W / 42.5177; -83.2449Coordinates: 42°31′04″N 83°14′42″W / 42.5177°N 83.2449°W / 42.5177; -83.2449
Information
School type	Public high school
Established	1959
Founder	Wylie E. Groves
School district	Birmingham Public School District
Superintendent	Dr. Daniel Nerad
Principal	Cathy Hurley
Asst. Principal	Darin Wilcox
Faculty	89.9 (on FTE basis)
Grades	9-12
Age range	13–21
Enrollment	1,306 (as of 2009-10)
Student to teacher ratio	15:9
Campus size	7 acres (2.8 ha)
Campus type	Suburban
Color(s)
Fight song	"Rise Up, All Falcons"
Athletics	OAA Blue Division, MHSAA Class A
Mascot	Falcon
Rival	Seaholm High School
National ranking	646[1]
Newspaper	The Scriptor
Website	School website

Groves High School (Wylie E. Groves High School or Groves) is a high school in Beverly Hills, Michigan, in the Birmingham Public School District. Groves' colors are green, white, and yellow and its mascot is Freddy the Falcon. Groves' intra-district rival is Seaholm High School. The current principal is Cathy Hurley, the assistant principal is Darin Wilcox, and the athletic director is Tom Flynn. The school consistently ranks as one of the best schools in the state of Michigan as a result of high test scores on the SAT, ACT, AP, and MEAP exams.

History

Name

In 1951, a new high school in Birmingham opened under the name Birmingham High (which is now known as Seaholm High School). At the time, the Board of Education president was Ernest W. Seaholm and the treasurer was Wylie E. Groves. When Birmingham had to build another school to accommodate the incoming baby boomers, these men's names would become the source of the modern names of Birmingham's two main high schools: Seaholm High School and Groves High School.

Building history

Completed in 1959, the building was an example of the International Style applied to ordinary school design, resulting in a modernistic exterior look similar to much subsequent school construction. The building's original architectural "signature" was a scalloped circular white roof over the circular library; now painted black, it is visible but no longer prominent. The building has a grid-like floor plan, with three main hallways intersected by six shorter ones. Liberal use was made of glass walls and interior courtyards, with energy costs not yet a major concern in 1959. Since the school's opening, the building has undergone periodic renovations, the most extensive occurring from 1999–2001 when the school was completely remodeled. The school features state of the art technology, including seven computer labs (including one for modern languages) and a large media center; state of the art science labs for biology, chemistry, physics, CAD, and robotics; a little theatre that seats approximately 300; an auditorium that seats approximately 1200; art studios for drawing, photography, jewelry, ceramics, and graphic design; a TV studio; and a large, open commons area where students gather for lunch, dances, and other activities. In 2005, construction began to renovate the athletic wing of the school, as well as to build a new competitive size swimming pool. The former swimming pool will be converted into classrooms, a fitness center, and a dance studio. The school was one of the first schools in Michigan to use artificial "FieldTurf" for its football/soccer field.

Early years

The school opened in the fall of 1959 with 1,052 students in grades seven through ten. Intended eventually to be Birmingham's second high school, it was named after a local civic leader and school board member. In the first year, students selected the school colors (green and white), team nickname (Falcons), fight song ("Rise Up, All Falcons," music and lyrics composed by Mr. Burton Bronson, Groves Band Director), names of the yearbook ("Talon") and newspaper ("Scriptor"), etc. The original tenth graders became the first class of graduating seniors in 1962. For a brief period the school was a junior and senior high school, and the classes of 1965, 1966 and 1967 spent grades seven through twelve there. Beginning with the 1963-64 school year, grades seven and eight were moved from Groves to Berkshire Middle School, which today serves grades six through eight in the Birmingham City School District.^[2] The lower grades were eliminated as new junior high schools were built. This pattern enabled the school district to accommodate, with phased construction, the demographic wave of babyboomers emerging from elementary schools in the late 1950s and 1960s.

Trivia

A Groves letter jacket appears in the film Ferris Bueller's Day Off in the scene where students are on a pay phone at the high school. Ferris is on the other end of the line, simulating coughs with his keyboard.

Groves is the filming location of a 2013 Hansons Commercial and Mike Posner's music video.

Academics

The school offers numerous Honors and Advanced Placement courses for students to elect. Advanced Placement is offered for Chemistry, Physics, Calculus AB, Calculus BC, Computer Science, Economics, English Language, English Literature, Environmental Science, European History, French, Music Theory, Psychology, Spanish, Statistics, US History, and US Government. Additionally, AP Biology and AP Human Geography may be taken at Seaholm High School. The school has a variety of academic elective options for students who do not wish to take Honors or AP courses. The school also offers many courses in journalism, with the newspaper- "The Scriptor", the yearbook- "The Talon", and the television production- "The Fann (Falcon Action News Network)"

Band

The band director is Jaafar Ansari.

Athletics and activities

The school offers over thirty varsity sports for both men and women. Most sports are broken down into varsity, junior varsity, and freshmen teams. Groves is a member of the Oakland Activities Association and has won league championships in nearly every sport since the league's inception in 1994. Groves also offers a variety of activities for students to participate in, including instrumental music (both band and orchestra), forensics team, eco club, interact club, fashion club, Amnesty and Animal Rights club, Gay-Straight Alliance club, Japanese club, Spanish club, French club, debate team, theatre, quiz bowl, bowling club, photography club, and the National Honor Society. Both the forensics and debate teams have enjoyed success in recent years. The forensics team finished second in the state in 2007, while the debate team finished first in 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010.

Groves Student Congress (GSC) is responsible for planning school-wide activities and events such as Spirit Week, Field Day, Extreme Dodgeball, Operation Volleyball, Sadie Hawkins Dance, Wylie's Winter Week, and two blood drives. Members of GSC are elected in school-wide elections. In addition, each class elects its own government, which is responsible for planning class-wide events. Groves students also run their own events independent of the school, including the seniors-only "Water Wars" tournament at the end of the year.

State Championships

• Birmingham Unified is a combined team of Groves and Seaholm students

Rankings

U.S. News and World Report

Groves received a "Gold Medal" on U.S. News & World Report's rankings of Best High Schools in America in 2007. This means that the school was one of the top schools in the country based on the "College Readiness Index" used by the magazine. Groves was one of thirteen schools in Michigan in 2007 to receive this award . Its index score of 39.3 was the fourth highest in the state. This school is behind private schools such as Cranbrook, U of D Jesuit, University Liggett School, and Detroit Country Day School.^[3]

Groves is absent from U.S. News & World Report's 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011 rankings.

Newsweek

In 2005 Groves was ranked #800^[4] on Newsweek's Best High Schools in America, which is based on the percentage of seniors who take advanced placement exams. In 2006 Groves' rank dropped slightly to #854.^[5] Groves saw its highest ranking yet in 2007 when it was ranked #774.^[6] Later, in 2008, Groves gained 148 spots above 2007's ranking to #643^[1] on Newsweek's Best High Schools in America. Inexplicably in 2009, Groves dropped an astounding 160 spots, to #803^[7] in the nation. As of 2012, Groves was rated #479 in the nation.

Notable alumni

• Meryl Davis, 2005, American Ice Dancer. Dancing With the Stars Champion 2014. 2014 Olympic Gold Medalist, 2010 Olympic Silver Medalist, 2009 U.S. national champion, the 2009 Four Continents champion, the 2009 Grand Prix Final champion and the 2008 Grand Prix Final bronze medalist
• Benjamin Agosto, 2000, Olympic Silver Medalist in Ice Dancing 2006
• Bruce Campbell, 1976, actor in The Evil Dead franchise and now co-star of the TV series Burn Notice
• Sam Raimi, 1977, movie director of Spider-Man franchise, childhood friend of Bruce Campbell
• Rajiv Shah, 1992, Chief Administrator, US Agency for International Development
• Leigh Taylor-Young, 1962, the first graduating class at the new Groves High School, actress and short-time wife of Ryan O'Neal
• Jennifer Laura Thompson, 1987, Tony Award nominated Broadway actress for Urinetown
• Erin Dilly, 1990, Tony Award nominated Broadway actress for Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
• Josh Becker, 1976, director of Xena television show and feature films
• Randall Woolf, 1976, composer
• Pat Caputo, 1977, a sports columnist for the Oakland Press and on-air host for WXYT-FM radio
• Bruce Ableson, 1981, inventor of Open Diary, the first online blogging community
• Anita Barone, 1982, actress in The War at Home
• James Chanos, 1976, Wall Street short seller; founder of Kynikos Associates,
• Ellen Sandweiss, 1976, actress in The Evil Dead
• Drew Neumann, 1977, Film and Television Composer, Sound Designer
• Mike Posner, 2006, Singer and Songwriter
• Evan Kasprzak, 2006, placed 3rd on season 5 of So You Think You Can Dance
• Hilary Scratch, 1988, Film and Television Editor, four time Emmy Award nominated editor for Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, ACE Award winner for "If You Really Knew Me"

See also

• Birmingham City School District

References