Shorewood High School (Washington)

Shorewood High School
Location
17300 Fremont Avenue North Shoreline, WA 98133 USA
Coordinates	47°45′17″N 122°21′00″W / 47.754795°N 122.350084°W / 47.754795; -122.350084Coordinates: 47°45′17″N 122°21′00″W / 47.754795°N 122.350084°W / 47.754795; -122.350084
Information
Type	Public
Established	1975
Principal	Bill Dunbar
Enrollment	approximately 1,480 (May 2014)
Color(s)	Blue, Green, White.
Mascot	Thunderbird
Information	(206) 393-4372
Website	Shorewood High School

Shorewood High School is the one of two public high schools in the Shoreline School District in Shoreline, Washington, United States. The school originally opened in 1975 and is the largest high school in the district. It serves students in grades nine through twelve. Shorewood accepts students west of Interstate 5 (I-5), and is fed students from Einstein Middle School and local private schools. As of 2014, approximately 53% of students are White and 47% are visible minorities.^[1] The school Mascot is the Thunderbird, commonly called the T-Bird.

Facility and history

The historic Ronald Grade School wing

The newly added 2013 entry

Panoramic view of the newly added 2013 south courtyard

1950s-era classroom wing (demolished 2012)

Shorewood High School's original facility built in 1975, was a large high school that used to span 5 city blocks. It had eight single floor buildings with open outdoor corridors. The 1975 building was built in sections: the 100’s building, closest to N. 175th Street was originally the Ronald Grade School built in 1906 and closed in 1971 due to a failed levy.^[2][3] The building was then used as a museum until 2010.

Along with the elementary school being closed, five other schools were closed, including Butler Junior High School, an older school originally built in 1953 and closed in 1973 to be rebuilt and become the main campus for the new High School named Shorewood. The students still in 7th or 8th grade at the time of the closure were sent to either Einstein Junior High School, or Cordell Hull Junior High School, with a few going to Kellogg Junior High School.^[2] None of these schools were "middle" schools at that time. Shorewood was to be the first 4-year high school. Upon its opening, only the 9th and 10th graders were brought in. That 10th grade class remained the eldest class at Shorewood until their graduation in the summer of 1978. It was a unique situation for that one class of students as they never had to face upperclassmen. During this transition period for the district, all of the remaining junior high schools became middle schools. Many of the last class of 7th grade students to enter Butler Junior High School were in the very first graduating class of Shorewood High School in 1978.

Shorewood High School underwent a 6.5 million dollar renovation in 1997.^[4]

In 2011 the school district approved plans to replace the school building with a new facility on the same site. The renovation and incorporation of the historic Ronald School building was approved by the Association of King County Historical Organizations.^[5] The ground-breaking ceremony for the new construction was held on October 17, 2011. The historic building was incorporated into the design as part of the new school's performing arts department and the remainder of the existing buildings were demolished.^[6] Architects for the new school were Bassetti Architects.^[7] The new 220,000 square foot facility opened on time in September 2013 for the 2013-14 school year.^[8][9]

Academics and programs

Shorewood High School offers advanced placement (AP) classes, along with Running Start, a program that allows juniors and seniors a chance to receive high school and college credit for classes at the Shoreline Community College during the school day. Shorewood has 17 AP classes, covering 9 different subjects. With an 86% on time gradation date Shorewood academics are well above the state WASL average, scoring an 89% on reading, 91% on writing, 66% on math and 45% on science, with at least 60% of students passing the three state standards (Math, Writing and Reading) in the 2006 school year.^[10]

Eight Shorewood seniors were named National Merit finalists in the 2005-2006 academic year, two were named in the 2006-2007 academic year, and seven were named in the 2007-2008 academic year. In 2006, an Intel Science Talent Search Finalist, Jolene Mork, was from Shorewood. Approximately 12% of students took one or more AP exams in 2003. On average 59% of Shorewood graduates enrolled in 4-year colleges, and 28% enrolled in 2-year colleges, based on the graduating class of 2004-2005.^[10]

Shorewood participates in a school iPad program, which allows students the use of an Apple iPad for the completion of school work. The program is run by the school district.^[11]

Fine arts

Shorewood offers a wide range of music-based classes including but not limited to: Jazz Band, Steel Drums, Stage Band, Marching Band, Aeolian Choir, Concert Choir, Men’s Chorus, Jazz Ensemble, Chamber Ensemble, Symphony Orchestra, and Concert Orchestra. Shorewood’s Jazz Band wins awards regularly and is highly acclaimed. The orchestra program regularly wins local and state competitions, and has performed at Carnegie Hall thrice since the year 2000. Shorewood's Aeolian Choir has been chosen to perform at Carnegie Hall in March 2009. Daniel Wing conducts the orchestra. In 2004, the Shorewood Jazz Band won 1st place in Boston at the Berklee College of Music Jazz Festival, and in 2005, the Shorewood Jazz Band won honorable mention (fourth place) in the Essentially Ellington competition in New York.^[12] Also in January 2007, the Jazz Band performed at the International Association of Jazz Educators Conference in New York. In 2008, the Jazz Band successfully repeated their performance at the Essentially Ellington competition by winning the Honorable Mention award for the second time in four years. Recently, the Shorewood High School Marching Band won second place in the KZOK Battle of the Bands competition and was awarded $5,000.

Some of the other fine arts featured at Shorewood are drama, culinary arts, photography, and other art classes.^[10]

In March 2009, the Shorewood Aeolian Choir performed at Carnegie Hall and the Apollo Theatre in New York City as part of the National High School Choral Arts Program under the direction of Crag Jessop, famously known for his work with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. They performed two songs of their own ( The Conversion of Saul by Z. Randall Stroope and John the Revelator by Moses Hogan ) as well as the oritoral of Sir Michael Tippit's masterwork, A Child of Our Time with the St. Luke's Orchestra and the three other high school choirs in the festival (North Jersey Homeschool Association from Hawthorne, New Jersey; Pebblebrook High School Chamber Choir from Atlanta, Georgia; and Songs of Solomon: An Inspirational Ensemble from New York City).

The Aeolian choir was again selected to go to Carnegie Hall in April 2015, as was the entire Shorewood Orchestra Program. In 2015, Shorewood Symphony Orchestra once again won 1st place in the Northwest Orchestra Festival, performing the St. Paul's Suite.

In December, 2009, Shorewood students, under the direction of teacher Marty Ballew, created a video of You Make My Dreams Come True recorded backwards.^[13] The video was in response to a video made by Shorecrest High School. Recently, the Shorewood Video reached over 2 million views on YouTube. In 2015, Shorewood released another lip dub, again going backwards, to the tune of On Top of the World by Imagine Dragons.

Sports

• Football
• Swimming
• Water polo
• Baseball
• Softball
• Cross-country
• Track & field
• Wrestling
• Basketball
• Soccer
• Gymnastics
• Golf
• Tennis
• Volleyball

Clubs

Shorewood has 38 clubs contained within its halls, each advised by a teacher who has some expertise relating to the club.^[14]

Student media

Shorewood students participate in a variety of media projects and publications:

• Imprints, a literary magazine of student art and writing,
• Kolus, a student-run newspaper,
• Horizon, the annual yearbook.

Freshman class names

A historic tradition at Shorewood High is the naming of the freshman class every year by the seniors. According to the November 9, 2011 publication of the 'Kolus', the tradition started in 1986.

Notable alumni

• David Bazan (1994), Songwriter
• Sig Hansen (1984), Captain, F/V Northwestern (featured on Deadliest Catch).^[16]
• Amy Holmes (1990), Columnist, Commentator
• David Raleigh: (1978), Singer, songwriter, piano player
• Damien Jurado, Songwriter
• Garth Stein (1983), Author, film producer ^[17]
• Kelly Stephens (2001), Member of the U.S. Olympic Ice Hockey team, 2006^[18]
• Chris Cornell: Grunge pioneer, Soundgarden, Audioslave and Temple of the Dog vocalist. Also has a successful solo artist career.
• James Bergstrom: (1987) (Drummer for Alice N' Chains and Second Coming)
• Johnny Bacolas: (1987) (Bassist for Alice N' Chains and Second Coming)
• George John: (2005), MLS Soccer Player (FC Dallas)
• Blake Snell (Baseball)
• Class of 2015

Faculty

As of 2006, there are more than 100 full and part-time faculty members at Shorewood High School. Faculty have on average approximately twenty eight years of teaching experience,^[19] and 72% of faculty have graduate degrees.^[20] Biology teacher Paul Witt was awarded State Biology Teacher of the year for 2004-2005. Teachers Jill Owen, Paul Villanueva, and Damon Oliveto have each been awarded as Symmetra/Seahawks Heroes in the Classroom. Through the program Shorewood won an additional prize one of three schools to be awarded the Symmetra/Seahawks Heroes in the Classroom MVP school winning a $10,000 grant toward geometry manipulatives. For 2008–Present Shorewood has been recognized by Newsweek magazine as one of America's Best High School ranking in the top 5% of all schools in America. In 2011 The school's music director is a member of the state's Music Educators Hall of Fame in 2011.^[21]

References

External links

• Shorewood High School official site
• Shoreline School District official site
• Thunderbird radio
• Shorewood Clubs Official Website/List
• Shorewood Athletics Official Website/List
• Shorline School District Laptop Initiatives
• OSPI school report card 2013-14