Fred J. Page High School

Fred J. Page High School
Address
6281 Arno Road
Franklin, Tennessee 37064
United States
Coordinates 35°50′50″N 86°45′02″W / 35.847233°N 86.750667°W / 35.847233; -86.750667Coordinates: 35°50′50″N 86°45′02″W / 35.847233°N 86.750667°W / 35.847233; -86.750667
Information
Type Public
Motto United in the Pursuit of Excellence
Established 1975
Principal Dr. Shane Pantall
Staff 70+
Faculty 60+
Grades 9–12
Enrollment 1070 (2015)[1][2]
Student to teacher ratio 16:1[3]
Color(s) Red, white, and blue
Mascot Patriots
Rivals Academics:
Brentwood High School
Football:
Marshall County High School
Volleyball:
Goodpasture Christian School
Soccer and Basketball:
Christ Presbyterian Academy
Track & Field:
Lipscomb Academy
Baseball:
Spring Hill High School
Average SAT scores 2130 (2013)[4]
Average ACT scores 23.1 (2014)[5]
Newspaper The Page Turner
Website www.wcs.edu/phs

Fred J. Page High School (commonly referred to as Page High or PHS) is a senior high school in Franklin, Tennessee in the prestigious Williamson County School District nationally recognized for superior academic achievement.[6] The school opened in August 1975 along Arno Road in the unincorporated town of Rudderville bearing the name of former Williamson County Superintendent Frederick Jackson Page. The school is consistently ranked among America's top 500 high schools and the best school zone in Tennessee by Newsweek magazine and U.S. News & World Report.[7][8] Page High School has also produced a remarkable number of scholars, athletes and entertainers given its small size and relatively rural location.

During the 2014-15 school year, The Daily Beast website ranked Page High School the top school in Williamson County, the second best school in Tennessee, and 59th best in America (based on college acceptance rates, AP course enrollment, college entrance exam scores and college preparedness among other criteria).[9][10] In 2015, U.S. News & World Report named Page High School Tennessee's top-ranked public school zone in both mathematics and English proficiency for the fifth consecutive year, Tennessee's only school zone to surpass 90% proficiency in mathematics (93%), and the only school zone to surpass 90% proficiency in English (95%).[11] The website Schooldigger.com named Page High the top secondary school in the state[12] while Newsweek named the school zone the second best academically in Tennessee with the 7th highest average SAT score in the United States.[13] An independent study ranked the AP Calculus program the strongest in the state of Tennessee among zoned public schools.[14]

During the 2013-14 school year, Page High School in Williamson County and Farragut High School in Knox County were the only two high schools in Tennessee that ranked among the top 5% in academic performance and the top 5% in academic progress.[15] At the conclusion of the 2013–14 school year, Page High was awarded Platinum High Achievement status for the fourth consecutive year through the National High Schools That Work initiative of the Southern Regional Education Board.[16] The school is among only a few schools in Tennessee consistently bestowed National Blue Ribbon status[17] and was one of three high school finalists for the 2011 SCORE prize[18] after demonstrating tremendous academic gains. In 2013, Dr. Andrea Anthony was named the Tennessee High School Principal of the Year by the National Association of Secondary School Principals.[19]

Frederick Jackson Page

Page High School was named after Frederick Jackson Page (1863–1944), the first Superintendent of Williamson County Schools.[20] He served in that position for 42 years (1899–1941) retiring at the age of 77.[21] Superintendent Page gained a reputation nationally as a revolutionary educator, scholar and author. He was instrumental in the county's expansion from 8 grades to 12 grades in the early 1900s, lengthened the school year from five months to nine months, and introduced the ideas of summer school for remediation purposes and increased rigor in elementary school. Page revolutionized the teacher certification process and introduced the idea of uniform textbooks to replace teacher-made materials, additionally consolidating hundreds of tiny schoolhouses into larger, centralized institutions.[22]

Frederick Page was born in Triune, Tennessee on October 7, 1863 at a time when Civil War battles were prevalent in the area.[22] The Page homestead was located just five miles east of what would become the Page High School campus a century later.[21] Page's ancestors had arrived in Williamson County in the early 1800s, his grandparents marrying there on February 5, 1817. Page's grandmother Nancy Armstrong is buried in Franklin, TN.[23]

Page received his master's degree at the age of 18 from Peabody College, now part of Vanderbilt University. He was named principal of Clarksville High School in Clarksville, Tennessee at the age of 19. Page later worked in West Tennessee as a teacher in Overton County and as president of Obion College in the town of Troy.[21] He eventually returned to Williamson County becoming the principal of College Grove Preparatory School in College Grove, Tennessee prior to his tenure as superintendent.[24] Page retired in 1941 and died on April 9, 1944, at the age of 80, buried in Mount Hope Cemetery.[21][22] Years after his death, the home in which he lived was torn down and the property became what is now Williamson County Animal Hospital at 1126 Murfreesboro Road.

Fred J. Page High School campus

Fred J. Page School was completed in 1975 on 40 acres of Tennessee farmland at a cost of US$3 million. Built in the unincorporated town of Rudderville, TN and serving grades 7-12, the school was posthumously named for Frederick Page 31 years after his death.[24] The building was designed by architect Earl Swensson whose award-winning firm would later serve as architect of record on the Schermerhorn Symphony Center in Nashville, TN.[25] L.L. Poe Construction Company served as contractor on the project just seven years after completing the Keathley University Center on the campus of Middle Tennessee State University.[26] The new school was constructed to remove and consolidate the upper grades of Bethesda and College Grove, two K-12 schools that were bitter rivals.[2][22] Bethesda, College Grove and Nolensville subsequently became K-6 schools while Page would serve grades 7-12.

Page High School became Williamson County's fourth public high school joining Fairview, Franklin and Hillsboro. It was the largest and most modern school in the county upon completion, the first new public high school opened since the completion of West Williamson High in 1956 (later renamed Fairview High School). In 1957 Franklin High School was completed at its present Hillsboro Road location but only to replace the building that had burned on Columbia Avenue the previous year.[22] While Page, Fairview and Franklin still stand, Hillsboro High School no longer exists (the building now housing a community center in historic Leiper's Fork, Tennessee).[27]

Built to serve the eastern sector of Williamson County with a capacity of 1000 students, Page High School's initial enrollment was around 850. The inaugural faculty included principal Bob Greathouse, assistant principal Mayes Waters, two guidance counselors, one librarian and 36 teachers. In 2000, Page High School marked its 25th anniversary with nine of the original 36 teachers still employed. As of 2014-15, Jimmy Baker is the only active teacher from the original faculty. The original school building included 34 classrooms, but an expansion in the 1990s increased that number to current total of 54 classrooms with an expanded capacity for 1215 students.[22]

In 1981, Fred J. Page Middle School opened across the street at which point the original Fred J. Page became a high school exclusively serving grades 9-12.[28]

In 1985, several scenes of the critically acclaimed movie At Close Range were filmed on location at the entrance of Fred J. Page High School. The movie was released in 1986 boasting an all-star cast including Sean Penn and Christopher Walken and Page High students were used as extras. The football stadium is named after legendary musician Waylon Jennings but the new scoreboard installed in 2013 no longer bears his name.

Williamson County population explosion

Until 2004, the Page High School zone included the towns of Thompson's Station and the northern half of Spring Hill. However throughout that decade the area became the fastest growing population in the United States[29] swelling to over 276% growth.[30] The initial population explosion was attributed to the opening of the Saturn Corporation automobile plant in Spring Hill. At one point 20% of the students at Page High School were Michigan natives, most of whom were families relocated from the Midwest by Saturn's parent company General Motors. The subsequent affordable neighborhoods that now dominate southern Williamson County have allowed more families to reside within Tennessee's top school district. This has contributed to continued population growth as has a thriving local economy and an abundance of job opportunities in the area.[31] The families of executives transplanted by corporations headquartered in Middle Tennessee have had a direct impact on the population of Page High School including Amazon, Nissan, O'Charley's and Shoney's.

Having the smallest capacity of the seven high schools in this expanse of Williamson County has allowed Page High School to maintain an annual enrollment of around 850 students throughout most of its 40-year existence despite this enormous population boom.[32] Page has also been the only of these high schools (except newly opened Summit) to neither suffer from the recent overcrowding issues nor face overcrowding projections in upcoming years. This is a direct result of the staggered construction of five new high schools within a ten-mile radius of Page High's campus over two decades; Centennial High School opening in 1996, Ravenwood High School in 2002, Independence High School in 2004, Summit High School in 2011 and Northeast High School projected to open in 2016.[33]

Principals

List of notable alumni

David Ian Howe,
anthropologist and archaeologist
Kate Maguigan
Kate Maguigan,
national top 10 goal scorer
Denise Monteath
Denise Monteath,
former professional cheerleader
Emily Perilli
Emily Perilli,
3-time Tennessee volleyball MVP
Nicole Smith
Nicole Smith,
former national volleyball MVP
Kirstin Tucker
Kirstin Tucker,
Broadway dancer


Sara Bowen – Softball standout at Page High School (2003-2007), Rhodes College softball standout (2007-2011), set the all-time NCAA Division III record for most strikeouts in a single game on April 4, 2008.[34]

Jared Elliott – Football standout at Page High School (2000-2004), backup quarterback at Miami University behind future Super Bowl champion Ben Roethlisberger, assistant football coach at Missouri Southern, former assistant football coach at Miami University and Western Illinois University.[35][36][37]

Randy Evans – High School All-American soccer player at Page High School (1981-1985), member of the Olympic Development Under-23 South Regional Team, head women's soccer coach at the University of Oklahoma 1999–2007.[38]

Jay Foster – First state champion in Page High School history winning the 300-meter hurdles event in 1989[39] and the #2-ranked hurdler in the nation at 18 years of age.[40]

Les Gilbert – Page High School track & field standout (2005-2009). All-American and Junior Olympic decathlete in 2009, Atlantic Sun Conference javelin champion in 2010 who joined The University of Tennessee track team in the 2011 season. On May 23, 2008, Gilbert became the only pole vaulter in A–AA public school history to vault 14' 0" at the state tournament. Gilbert was the 2009 state champion and 2008 runner-up in the decathlon as well as the state runner-up in pole vault in both 2008 and 2009.[41]

Chelsea Gunn – Chef and graduate of prestigious Le Cordon Bleu's original cooking institute in Paris, France.[42]

George Hatcher – The first national merit finalist in school history in 1996, current NASA scientist at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, GNC engineer for the Space Shuttle program until its retirement in 2011.[43]

David Ian Howe – Anthropologist and Archaeologist at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, NY, and curation technician at the Department of Anthropology at the University of Wyoming.[44]

Brandon Jackson – Yale University graduate and co-developer of the iPhone app SeeClickFix.[45]

Daniel Keedy – Duke University PhD scientist who serves as a consultant for many government agencies, lauded for his work in protein folding and molecular biophysical fusing.[46][47]

Mike Keith – Radio play-by-play announcer for the NFL's Tennessee Titans.

Don Lee – Football standout in the 1980s and college football coach.

Kaylan Loyd – Recording artist[48] and contestant on the television program American Idol (season 8).[49]

Kate Maguigan – Girls soccer standout at Page High School (2007–2010) who broke every school record, recognized by ESPN as one of the national prep scoring leaders in 2009,[50] signed with the University of Michigan in 2011. Finished career as the 6th-leading scorer in Tennessee history.[51]

Denise Monteath – Page High dance team captain and former NFL cheerleader with the Tennessee Titans Cheerleaders.[52]

Emily Perilli – Girls volleyball standout at Page High School (1999–2002) who led Page High School to 3 consecutive volleyball state championships and became the only high school athlete in Tennessee history to earn state MVP three consecutive years. Emily played collegiate volleyball at University of Virginia 2003–2006.

Juhi Pathak – Recording artist and 2013 contestant on the television program The Voice (Season 5) who was selected for Team Cee Lo Green. After her second performance of the season she was stolen by Team Adam Levine.

Nick Ramsey – Video production student (1996-1999), producer with MSNBC assisting with the launch of ''The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell''.[53]

Cory Robison – Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu 2009 world champion, one of only eight Americans with this honor.[54]

Jared Schaumann – World champion on the prestigious American Mathematics Competitions 2012 grade 10 exam and 2014 member of the esteemed U.S. National Physics Team.[55][56]

Nicole Smith – Girls volleyball and track & field standout at Page High School (2006–2009) who led volleyball team to four consecutive state tournaments and was named national high school MVP.[57] As a member of the girls track & field team (2007–2008) she was the 2008 long jump and high jump state champion. She still holds the Class A–AA freshman record in Tennessee by long jumping 17' 7" in 2007. Nicole played collegiate volleyball at Notre Dame University 2010–2013.

Madison Stremler – Track & field standout who broke nine school records and qualified for the TSSAA state championships three consecutive years in hurdling events (2012-2014).[58] Madison signed with Tennessee Tech in 2014.[59][60]

Kirstin Tucker – Broadway dancer 2009–present.[61][62]

James Vaughn – Boys track & field sprinter (2005–2006) who was the 2005 state champion in the 100m dash with the second fastest time in Class A–AA history at 10.72 seconds. Vaughn was also state runner-up in the 200m dash in 2005 and anchored the 4 × 200 m relay team that placed third in the state championships in 2006.

Abbi Waldrup – Video production student (2000-2004), producer with Fox Sports Net.[63]

Celica Westbrook – Recording artist and 2012 contestant on the television program The Voice (Season 3) who was selected for Team Christina Aguilera.[64]

Chris Wharton – Filmmaker based in Orlando, Florida.[65]

Kelsey Wilkes – Girls soccer standout at Page High School (2009–2012) who broke Kate Maguigan's school scoring record, was one of the national prep scoring leaders in 2009,[50] and signed with the Union University in 2013. Finished career as the 8th-leading scorer in Tennessee history with 154 career goals.[51][66]

Andrew Wittenberg – Television play-by-play announcer for Page High's football team (1998-2001) and award-winning television news anchor for KSL 5 in Salt Lake City (formerly with WTVM in Columbus, Georgia).[67] "Tanner Saban Brown" - Allstar football player for the University of Alabama

List of notable staff members

Mark Baker – Former Page High English teacher, author, Hollywood actor, and expert in 18th century firearms who trained Daniel Day-Lewis in the Academy Award-winning film The Last of the Mohicans and Mel Gibson and Heath Ledger in the Academy Award-nominated film The Patriot.[68]

Matt Granstrand – Former Page High soccer coach, current head coach of women's soccer at Northern Michigan University.[69]

Dennis Harrison – Former Page High football coach and teacher, NFL veteran 1978–1987 who spent most of his career with the Philadelphia Eagles.

Patriot Idol

Beginning in 2008, Page High School began hosting an annual singing competition known as Patriot Idol modeled after the popular television program American Idol. One of the winners of Patriot Idol, Kaylan Loyd, became a contestant on American Idol. Music industry professionals, abundant in the Nashville area, serve as judges on the Patriot Idol panel each year including Joel Smallbone of the band for KING & COUNTRY, legendary musicians Tim Akers and Nathan DiGesare, and frequent celebrity judge Tiffany Lee.

Lip dub film shoot

In an effort to showcase the talent and school spirit of Page High, students and teachers organized a lip dub featuring the entire student body and staff. Filming began in Room 201 at approximately 9:45 am on April 3, 2013. The video features a number of talents including the singing of juniors Celica Westbrook and Juhi Pathak, both contestants on The Voice in 2012 and 2013 respectively. The video also featured the singing of senior Delaney Amatrudo, daughter of actor Ed Amatrudo, weeks before she was accepted into the notable drama program at New York University.[70] The lip dub featured partial choreography by senior Katie Lee who became a student at prestigious Cal Arts and was directed by independent filmmaker Pete Wade, the school's calculus teacher.

The video was debuted to the student body in their auditorium on April 25, 2013 at 9:15 am. Later that day, at 18 seconds past 10:30 am, the video was released on wcstube[71] (a county-operated video website) under the name Fred J Page High LipDub 2013. Within three days, the video had garnered 20,000 hits and quickly became one of the most watched videos in the website's history.[72]

A portion of the video featured lip synching by senior Matt Jacobs whose older brother had appeared in the BYU-Idaho lip dub. A song selection committee at Page High chose five songs to incorporate in the video. Ironically they included the popular song "Blow" performed by American recording artist Kesha who attended Brentwood High School, a local rival of Page High School. In the fall of 2013, Brentwood High School countered with their second lip dub video containing at least one indirect reference to Page High.

Athletics

The athletic department at Page High School features 18 varsity sports. Most notably, the boys track & field team has competed in ten consecutive state championship meets and the volleyball team has competed in nine consecutive state tournaments.

Fall

Winter

Spring

Individual champions[73]

Cross Country

Girls Track & Field

Boys Track & Field

Regional champions and state qualifiers[73]

Rugby

Swimming

Volleyball

Marching Band

School songs

Page High School's official song, known as the Alma Mater, was written by the school's first choir director Jackie Hatcher to the tune of "Annie Lisle", a ballad written in 1857 by Henry Thompson. The song was first adapted as a school song by students at Cornell University in 1870. Another adaptation of the tune can be heard in the 1953 film Titanic and the 1987 film Dirty Dancing.

One of Page High School's two official hymns, "A Thousand Mighty Patriots", was written by Hatcher to the tune of the Harvard University fight song Ten Thousand Men of Harvard. The tune was originally written in 1914 by two Harvard freshman Alfred Putnam and Murray Taylor.[74]

The official fight Song was written and arranged by band director Gary Weaver in 1977. Originally football games were held at nearby College Grove school because Page High lacked a football field. The marching band practiced shows in a neighboring field.

References

  1. ↑ "Enrollment". Retrieved 2012-12-21.
  2. 1 2 "AdvancEd". Retrieved 2013-06-09.
  3. ↑ "PHS Ratio". Retrieved 2013-05-21.
  4. ↑ "SAT 2013". Retrieved 2013-05-21.
  5. ↑ "ACT 2013". Retrieved 2013-05-21.
  6. ↑ "Williamson County". Retrieved 2012-06-05.
  7. ↑ "Newsweek Top 500". Retrieved 2012-02-18.
  8. ↑ "Newsweek Top 500 2015-16". Retrieved 2015-08-20.
  9. ↑ "Daily Beast article in Tennessean". Retrieved 2014-08-31.
  10. ↑ "Daily Beast 2014 rankings". Retrieved 2014-09-01.
  11. ↑ "U.S. News Education report 2015". Retrieved 2015-05-14.
  12. ↑ "Top 10 Tennessee High Schools". Retrieved 2014-05-05.
  13. ↑ "'13 America's Best High Schools". Retrieved 2013-05-11.
  14. ↑ "Franklin Home Page article". Retrieved 2013-05-29.
  15. ↑ "Performance and Progress". Retrieved 2013-09-20.
  16. ↑ "NSTW". Retrieved 2013-06-09.
  17. ↑ "National Blue Ribbon Schools". Retrieved 2013-05-29.
  18. ↑ "SCORE Prize finalist". Retrieved 2013-05-29.
  19. ↑ "Page High principal named best in state". Retrieved 2013-06-09.
  20. ↑ "Frederick Page". Retrieved 2012-06-05.
  21. 1 2 3 4 Deborah Collins (1975-11-09). "New school named for Page, county superintendent 42 years". The Williamson Leader.
  22. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Greathouse tells philosophy, programs of new Page School". The Review Appeal. 1975-08-14.
  23. ↑ "Nancy Armstrong". Retrieved 2012-06-05.
  24. 1 2 "Fred J. Page history". Retrieved 2012-06-05.
  25. ↑ "Earl Swensson Associates Inc". Retrieved 2012-06-05.
  26. ↑ "MTSU buildings". Retrieved 2013-10-15.
  27. ↑ "Leiper's Fork community center". Retrieved 2013-10-16.
  28. ↑ "Page Middle School history". Retrieved 2013-10-16.
  29. ↑ "America's Fastest Growing Cities 2010". Retrieved 2013-10-16.
  30. ↑ "Spring Hill City History". Retrieved 2013-10-16.
  31. ↑ "Spring Hill Comprehensive Plan". Retrieved 2013-11-08.
  32. ↑ "Williamson County Schools capacity". Retrieved 2013-11-08.
  33. ↑ "Centennial High School history". Retrieved 2013-10-16.
  34. ↑ "Sara Bowen - 2010 Softball". Retrieved 2014-09-05.
  35. ↑ "Jared Elliott". Retrieved 2012-02-18.
  36. ↑ "On the Brink of Football". Retrieved 2013-09-27.
  37. ↑ "MSSU Profile". Retrieved 2013-09-27.
  38. ↑ "Randy Evans". Retrieved 2012-06-05.
  39. ↑ "State Champion 1989". Retrieved 2012-11-19.
  40. ↑ "AAU 1989" (PDF). Retrieved 2012-11-19.
  41. ↑ "Les Gilbert". Retrieved 2012-02-18.
  42. ↑ "Chelsea Gunn, Culinary Consultant". Retrieved 2014-05-29.
  43. ↑ "George Hatcher". Retrieved 2013-09-27.
  44. ↑ davidianhowe.com
  45. ↑ "SeeClickFix". Retrieved 2013-09-27.
  46. ↑ "Daniel Keedy". Retrieved 2012-02-18.
  47. ↑ "Alternate States of Protein Revealed". Retrieved 2013-09-27.
  48. ↑ "Kaylan Loyd". Retrieved 2012-12-21.
  49. ↑ "Kaylan Loyd Idol". Retrieved 2012-12-21.
  50. 1 2 "ESPN". Retrieved 2012-02-18.
  51. 1 2 "TSSAA Soccer Records". Retrieved 2012-02-18.
  52. ↑ "Titans Cheerleaders". Retrieved 2012-02-18.
  53. ↑ "Alumni Achiever". Retrieved 2015-04-10.
  54. ↑ "Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu". Retrieved 2012-02-18.
  55. ↑ "World Champion" (PDF). Retrieved 2012-06-05.
  56. ↑ "2014 U.S. Physics Team". Retrieved 2014-05-29.
  57. ↑ "Notre Dame Volleyball". Retrieved 2012-02-18.
  58. ↑ "Madison Stremler, Fred J. Page High School Class of 2014". Retrieved 2014-05-29.
  59. ↑ "Brentwood Academy girls lead county, finish 2nd in state". Retrieved 2014-05-29.
  60. ↑ "Indy's Kroeger gets 3-peat; BGA relay wins state". Retrieved 2014-05-29.
  61. ↑ "Kirstin Tucker". Retrieved 2012-02-18.
  62. ↑ "Broadway". Retrieved 2013-09-27.
  63. ↑ "Abbi Waldrup Sherry". Retrieved 2015-04-10.
  64. ↑ "Celica Westbrook". Retrieved 2012-12-21.
  65. ↑ "Chris Wharton". Retrieved 2012-06-05.
  66. ↑ "Soccer Record". Retrieved 2012-11-19.
  67. ↑ "Andrew Wittenberg". Retrieved 2013-12-10.
  68. ↑ "Fortblog". Retrieved 2013-06-06.
  69. ↑ "Matt Granstrand". Retrieved 2012-02-18.
  70. ↑ "Ed Amatrudo". Retrieved 2013-05-19.
  71. ↑ "Fred J Page High LipDub 2013". Retrieved 2013-05-19.
  72. ↑ "wcstube most watched". Retrieved 2013-05-19.
  73. 1 2 "TSSAA Tennessee State Champions". Retrieved 2010-09-04.
  74. ↑ "Illegitimi non-carborundum "Don't let the bastards grind you down"". Retrieved 2013-01-23.

External links

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