Columbia High School (New York)

Columbia High School (or CHS) is a public high school located on Luther Road in East Greenbush, New York, USA. It is the only high school for the East Greenbush Central School District and educates around 1,501 students in grades 9-12.^[3] The school has a thirteen to one student to teacher ratio that is below the state average.^[4] Columbia High School, commonly called CHS, is home to the "Blue Devils" athletic department and Edward Nestler.

The principal is John P. Sawchuk and the assistant principals are Timothy Malloy, Edward Kilmartin, and Martin Mahar

Academics

The school offers eleven Advanced Placement classes in: Biology, Calculus AB, Calculus BC, Economics: Micro, English Literature & Composition, Environmental Science, European History, Physics c, Chemistry, U.S. History, and World History.^[5]

Clubs

Many clubs and programs are available to students enrolled in Columbia. They are the following: Amnesty International, Art Club, Chamber Singers, Chamber Orchestra, Chorus, Columbia Audio Visual, Columbia Dramatic Play (Fall), Columbia Players (Spring), Columbian Yearbook, Community Action Club, Concert Band, Culinary Arts Club, Dance Team, Devils Advocate, Ethnic Student Coalition, Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA), Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA), German Club, National Honor Society, Interact, Jazz Ensemble, Key Club, Labyrinth, Mock Trial Team, Model Congress, Orchestra, Outdoors Club, Peer Leadership, Ping Pong Club, Science Olympiad, Shakespeare Celebration, Sting Quintet, Student Council, Students Against Driving Drunk and Wind Ensemble/Symphonic Band.^[6]

Notable alumni

• Rich Romer, professional football player, Cincinnati Bengals^[7]
• Craig Forth, college basketball player, Syracuse University. Forth graduated from Columbia High in 2001, and attended Syracuse on scholarship, majoring in Education, until graduating in 2005. In 2007, Forth began coaching the girls' Junior Varsity basketball team at none other than Columbia High School; he was promoted to head coach of girls' Varsity basketball in 2011. He is a first grade teacher at Green Meadow Elementary School.^[8][9][10]
• Jennifer Farley, television personality, MTV's Jersey Shore.^{[11][12][13][14]}

Notable achievements

In 1992 the girls' softball team won the State Championship title.

In 2004 the men's baseball team won the state title.

In 2015, Columbia's Science Olympiad team won 1st place in New York State.^[15]

Notable incidents

On February 9, 2004, Jon W. Romano, then 16 and a student at the school, fired three rounds with a 12-gauge shotgun. One teacher, Michael Bennett, was injured in the leg when Romano fired the gun when he was rushed and tackled by Bennett and then assistant principal John Sawchuck.^[16] He was sentenced to 20 years in prison, and the sentence was upheld on appeal in 2007.^[17]

Kirk Hellwig, then a social studies teacher, was sentenced to a year in jail for having oral sex with a 16-year-old male student in a classroom during hours of the 2006-2007 school year. He was sentenced in August 2007.^[18][19]

Outbreak of flu and flu-like symptoms occurred in October, 2009. It was confirmed that over 500 students, roughly one-third of the student body, were out of school on a single day. It is believed by many people around East Greenbush that the outbreak began at Columbia's Homecoming Dance that occurred the weekend before. The school district claimed that these were not H1N1 symptoms, but health experts stated that it is hard to differentiate between seasonal and swine flu. It was later confirmed that the Novel H1N1 flu was circulating. A letter was sent home to students and to parents e-mails.^[20]

On November 7, 2011, a small fire out broke at the school. The fire started in the technology rooms' vacuum that powers all of the indoor vacuums. This vacuum is located outside of the North Tower of the school. The fire started from unknown causes; however, a likely possibility is that the large buckets that hold all of the vacuumed waste were not properly emptied on schedule. Most of the waste happens to be wood scraps. All students were required to leave the premises without reentering the building.^[21][22]

References

External links

• East Greenbush Central School District website
• Columbia High School website