Jasper High School (Plano, Texas)

T.C. Jasper High School
Location
Texas
United States
Information
Type Free public
Motto Jasper High School is dedicated to providing a unified, caring environment where each student will be prepared to succeed in a diverse and challenging world.
Established 1996
School district Plano Independent School District
Principal Matt Endsley
Faculty 142
Grades 9th and 10th
Enrollment 1,660
Campus size 104 acres (0.42 km2)s (0.4 km²) (shared)
Area Dallas
Campus type Suburban
Color(s) Green, Black, and White
Mascot Jaguar
Website k-12.pisd.edu/schools/jasper/
Main entrance to school from primary parking lot

T. C. Jasper High School (commonly Jasper or JHS) is a free co-educational secondary school in Plano, Texas (USA) serving grades nine and ten. Founded in 1996, the school is part of the Plano Independent School District. Robinson Middle School and Rice Middle School feed into Jasper. Students leaving Jasper will attend Plano West Senior High School. The school colors are green, black, and white, and the school mascot is the Jaguar.[1]

In 2009, the school was rated "exemplary" by the Texas Education Agency.[2]

History

Jasper High School is named in honor of Plano, Texas banker and businessman Thomas Chilton "T.C." Jasper.[3]

Jasper was the third school built on the 104-acre (0.42 km2) parcel of land shared with Gulledge Elementary School and Robinson Middle School. Jasper was constructed in time for the 1996–1997 school year; however, the completion of the 240,000-square-foot (22,000 m2), two-story building was not finished until July 1999. The company estimates that the construction cost was US$17,000,000.[4] Jasper was the newest of the five 9–10 high schools in the Plano Independent School District. Jasper opened with an enrollment of 1,172 students,[5] and a functional capacity of approximately 1,758 students.[6] Currently, Jasper has a student population of 1,660 students making it the third most populous high school in PISD.[7]

In 2002, the Professional Development center was vacated. The area was then renovated, creating 7 classrooms and two offices, along with the enclosure of the outdoor dining area to create a dance room. The project, with a contract price of $700,157, was designed by Corgan Associates, Inc. and built by Tywell Construction Corporation.[8] During the 2003 Bond Election held on August 23, 2003, a $3,500,000 addition of eight temporary classrooms was approved by a vote of 3,643 for to 1,499 against, in order to combat overcrowding in the school, which had reached 1,980. This was part of a $33,550,000 bond proposal of PISD.[6]

On March 25, 2004, Big Sky Construction was chosen out of eight contractors to build an orchestra/band/choir hall. The company's proposal of $1,999,900 was more than $30,000 less expensive than the next cheapest bid to the school district.[9] It was completed in that same year for a price of $2,000,000.[10]

On November 28, 2005, the Plano Independent School District announced the beginning of an addition of a science wing to assist in increasing Jasper's functional capacity, as the population of the school had already exceeded 2,000 students. The addition was approved in a 2004 Facility Program Bond vote by the citizens of Plano. It was a project given to the Cadence McShane Companies, and was built along with new additions to Williams High School. The addition to Jasper was completed in July 2006, costing the school district approximately $7,501,893.[11] Also added under the contract was a fourth cafeteria line and a multipurpose room. The wooden gym floors were redone during this same time.

Principals

Phil Saviano was the original principal from 1996 to 1998. Saviano left to become the first principal of Plano West Senior High School. In 1998, Sue Kirk became principal. Kirk left after the 99-00 school year to be the first principal of McKinney North High School. Bob Seei, was named principal beginning in the fall of 2000. Retiring three years later, he was replaced by Michael Novotny. On June 26, 2008, Michael Novotny left the principal position to become the superintendent of the Moulton Independent School District. During the 2008–2009 school year, Jeff Gasaway replaced Michael Novotny. Courtney Gober, assistant principal from Williams High School, took up the role as principal for the 2009-2010 and 2010–2011 school year. For the 2012-2013 and 2013-2014 school year, Kary Cooper, the previous principal of Otto and Robinson middle schools, became the principal of Jasper. For the 2014-2015 school year, Matt Endsley is becoming principal.

Students

The current enrollment at Jasper is 1660, which is the second largest of the six Plano high schools and fourth overall out of the 70 schools in PISD, & one of the biggest in Texas.

The ethnic makeup of Jasper High School is very diverse. The student-teacher ratio is 21:8, which is exactly on par with the state average. The foreign language classes have the highest ratio, with 23 students per teacher. The Special Education student subgroup consists of 7% of the student body, but students with IEPs that are in advanced classes have no honored accommodations. Only 4% of Jasper is economically disadvantaged, compared to a state average of 55%.

Jasper operates on a 9:00 am to 4:15 pm schedule, which includes seven periods and a 25 minute break for lunch in the on-campus cafeteria.[1]

Jasper now offers four Advanced Placement (AP) classes: Human Geography, European History (added 2009), Calculus BC (added 2012), and World History. In 2005, Jasper had the highest percentage of passing students in the world on the Advanced Placement Human Geography exam for schools of its size.[12] Out of the students taking the AP World History, 89% received college credit for passing the test. The majority of scores on both tests was a '5', the highest score possible. In 2006, Jasper once again had the highest percentage of passing students in the world of the Advanced Placement Human Geography exam for schools of its size, with a 100% passing rate of the 95 students taking the test. The passing rate for the World History test was 74%. The most frequent score was a '5'.

Spanish, French, German, Latin, Chinese, and American Sign Language are available to students attending Jasper.

JTV (Jasper Television) was a class offered from 1998–2007 that was available to both freshmen and sophomores. It offered an introduction to broadcast journalism, and 20-minute shows were televised to the student body every other Friday afternoon through closed-circuit television.

Approximately 78% of Jasper students are taking a career/technology education course.[13]

As of the 2009–2010 school year, the second year (10th grade year) of Humanities began to be counted as an Advanced Placement course, giving the World History AP credit to the students. As of June 2009, the Humanities course is planning to give incoming 9th graders the Honors English credit as an incentive for students who would have otherwise quit the Gifted and Talented Program, which Humanities is an extension of.

Extracurricular activities

The extracurricular activities offered at Jasper High School are many and varied due to the school's large size. There are chapters of national organizations such as the National Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps, (Leadership Education & Training); National Honor Society and clubs founded by Jasper students such as the Intellectual Board Games Club. Service organizations such as the Peer Tutoring Society coexist alongside clubs where students can have fun, such as G.O.A.M., Jasper's media club.[14]

Athletics

Jasper fields 13 teams in six different sports; 7 men's teams and 6 women's teams: football (9th and 10th grades), volleyball (9th and 10th grades), basketball (9th and 10th grades), tennis (9th and 10th grades), baseball, golf and track (9th and 10th grades).[14] Students in Marching Band receive athletic credit towards graduation, as do students in the JROTC program.

All Jasper athletes are considered part of a JV program and many Jasper students participate in varsity or junior varsity athletics at the Senior High School they will attend.

Music Program

In 1996, Jasper's first year, sophomore Jessica Ridings (Edwards) wrote the lyrics to the school song. She became the Drum Major of the TCU band.

Jasper's music program is one of the most decorated in Texas. The Legacy Orchestra is consistently listed among the best in the state, ranking as one of the top five string orchestras in Texas 10 times since 2001. In 2012-2013, the Jasper Symphony Orchestra (Legacy Orchestra and Wind Ensemble members) won the distinguished title of 2014 Texas Honor Full Orchestra, becoming the first non-varsity orchestra to ever be named Honor Orchestra in the state of Texas.[15]

All of the music programs (band, choir, and orchestra) have many qualifiers for the All-State honor each year. Each of them also routinely earns University Interscholastic League (UIL) Sweepstakes Awards, the highest rating awarded at the annual Texas UIL large group competition.[1]

Academics

In 2005, Jasper, won the Dallas/Fort Worth World Affairs Council Academic WorldQuest contest, winning an all-expenses paid trip to the national tournament in Washington, D.C.[16] The Jasper WorldQuest team won the competition once again in 2007. The MathCounts team was a second to last place winner in state and sixth place in nationals at the TrigStar Math Competition. In 2005, Jasper won the state HOSA competition, advanced to nationals and received tenth place in newsletter and sixth in HOSA Bowl. Also in that year, the Texas Computer Education Association awarded two first place medals to Jasper students for their work in desktop publishing. The Jasper Speech and Debate team (taken as a class) have sent several students to the district and state levels, as well as a select number of national qualifiers. A handful of former Jasper Debate members became significant national debaters after moving on to senior high school. In 2013 the Jasper Speech and Debate program was awarded by the National Forensic League the "Leading Chapter Award", which is awarded annually to 109 out of 3,000 schools. The Jasper Latin club participates at the area and state level. The 2008–2009 Certamen team (freshmen) was able to place 2nd at area competition but, due to a misunderstanding, was not allowed to compete at the state level for the event. The Jasper NHS (National Honor Society) is also renowned for its good service in its community.

Awards

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 "Jasper High School Campus Profile". Retrieved 2006-07-10.
  2. ↑ "2009 Accountability Rating System". Texas Education Agency.
  3. ↑ "Thomas Chilton Jasper". Retrieved 2006-07-05.
  4. ↑ "New Page 1". Retrieved 2006-09-21.
  5. ↑ "Plano ISD Secondary Enrollment". Retrieved 2006-10-23.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 "2003 Bond Election – PISD". Retrieved 2006-08-31.
  7. ↑ "Jasper High School". Retrieved 2006-10-23.
  8. ↑ "PISD Construction Final Report 2000-2003" (PDF). Retrieved 2006-09-21.
  9. ↑ "Jasper HS Fine Arts Addition". Archived from the original on 2006-09-11. Retrieved 2006-10-22.
  10. ↑ "Big Sky Construction". Archived from the original on 2006-07-22. Retrieved 2006-08-10.
  11. ↑ "2004 Bond Program Construction Status Report" (PDF). Retrieved 2006-06-30.
  12. ↑ Hacker, Holly K. (2006-02-07). "More students take, pass AP exams, report finds". Dallas Morning News.
  13. ↑ "2005 Campus AEIS Report". Retrieved 2006-10-01.
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 "Jasper High School". Retrieved 2006-07-10.
  15. ↑ http://jasperorchestra.com/?page_id=16
  16. ↑ "Dallas Academic WorldQuest Competition" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2006-09-03. Retrieved September 12, 2006.
  17. ↑ "TBEC Honor Roll Schools". Retrieved 2006-10-23.
  18. ↑ "PISD AP/IB Incentive Awards". Retrieved 2006-08-28.

External links

Coordinates: 33°04′01″N 96°46′59″W / 33.066927°N 96.782985°W