Centennial High School (Ellicott City, Maryland)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Location
Centennial High School
4300 Centennial Lane, Ellicott City, MD, 21042
Information
Principal	Robert Scott Pfeifer
Enrollment	1502[2]
Faculty	71
Type	Public high school
Motto	Commitment to Excellence
Mascot	Eagle
Color(s)	Red, White, and Blue
Established	1977
Information	410 313 6600
Homepage	http://centennialeagles.org/

Centennial High School is a secondary school located in Ellicott City, Maryland, that opened in 1977. The school is based in Howard County and is part of the Howard County Public Schools system. As of 2006, the school principal is R. Scott Pfeifer. In 1984-85, the school was recognized as one of the top 100 high schools in the country through the USDE Secondary School Recognition Program. In 1996, Centennial High School was the first high school within the state of Maryland to achieve the excellence standard in all categories of the MSPAP's report card. It attained these standards again in 2000 and 2001. In 2008, the school was nominated by US News & World Report as a "silver medal" school, placing in the top 505 High Schools nationwide.[3]

The school has a maximum capacity of 1,332 students, but through the addition of four portable classrooms currently (as of 2005) enrolls over 1,469 students. Of those in attendance, 65.1% are White, 26.1% are Asian, 6.2% are African American, 2.3% are Hispanic, 0.1% are Native American, and 0.2% are unidentified. The high school dropout rate is 0.79%.

1 Accomplishments
2 Athletics
3 Students
4 Notable alumni
5 Spirit Week and Color Day
6 Color Day Controversy
7 References and notes
8 External links

[edit] Accomplishments

Staff:

Milken Outstanding Educator Award
Washington Post Educator Leadership Award
Intel Award for Excellence in Teaching in the Sciences
Instructional Assistant of the Year
Presidential Scholars (2)
Tandy Scholars (2)
Christa McAuliffe Award
Maryland Earth Science Teacher of the Year
Howard County Chamber of Commerce Educator of the Year
National Board for Professional Teaching Standards Certification

Athletics:

14 People Tree Awards
120 County Championships
101 Regional Championships
39 State Championships

Academics:

2007

Howard County Mock Trial Champions

2006

Howard County Mock Trial Champions
First Place HC Math League
Intel Talent Search Semi-finalist

2005

Howard County Math League Champions
It’s Academic Baltimore Champions

2004

Lemenson-MIT InvenTeam Grant
AP State Scholar Award

2003

It’s Academic Finalists

[edit] Athletics

Centennial High School has won the following state championships:

[edit] Volleyball

2006 - Girls' Volleyball ^[1]
2005 - Girls' Volleyball
2004 - Girls' Volleyball
2000 - Girls' Volleyball
1999 - Girls' Volleyball
1998 - Girls' Volleyball
1996 - Girls' Volleyball
1994 - Girls' Volleyball
1993 - Girls' Volleyball
1992 - Girls' Volleyball
1991 - Girls' Volleyball
1989 - Girls' Volleyball

[edit] Lacrosse

2005 - Boys' Lacrosse ^[2]
2004 - Boys' Lacrosse
2002 - Boys' Lacrosse
1998 - Boys' Lacrosse
1981 - Boys' Lacrosse
1980 - Boys' Lacrosse

[edit] Baseball

2004 - Baseball ^[3]
2001 - Baseball

[edit] Soccer

2001 - Girls' Soccer ^[4]
1998 - Girls' Soccer
1995 - Boys' Soccer ^[5]
1995 - Girls' Soccer
1994 - Boys' Soccer
1994 - Girls' Soccer
1992 - Boys' Soccer
1992 - Girls' Soccer
1991 - Boys' Soccer
1991 - Girls' Soccer
1987 - Boys' Soccer
1984 - Boys' Soccer
1983 - Boys' Soccer

[edit] Tennis

1998 - Tennis Mixed Doubles ^[6]
1997 - Tennis Girls' Singles
1996 - Tennis Girls' Doubles
1994 - Tennis Girls' Doubles
1988 - Tennis Mixed Doubles ^[7]

[edit] Field Hockey

1995 - Field Hockey ^[8]

[edit] Cross Country

1993 - Boys' Cross Country ^[9]
1990 - Girls' Cross Country ^[10]
1980 - Boys' Cross Country
1978 - Boys' Cross Country

[edit] Basketball

1981 - Girls' Basketball ^[11]

[edit] Wrestling

1981 - Wrestling ^[12]

[edit] Students

Student population^[13]
2007	1,460
2006	1,498
2005	1,614
2004	1,527
2003	1,403
2002	1,276
2001	1,213
2000	1,157
1999	1,146
1998	1,120
1997	1,113
1996	1,196
1995	1,231
1994	1,296
1993	1,262

[edit] Notable alumni

Suzanne Malveaux, television news reporter for CNN
Lauren Molinaro, '97(?) (WSOCCER): UConn Women's soccer,National Team Member, Member of the women's soccer professional league - WUSA Bay Area Cyber Rays Lauren Molinaro bio
Hayley Siegel, '05 (WSOCCER): Two-Time Parade All-American, U-19 National Team, Santa Clara University Women's Soccer Hayley Siegel bio
Brian West (MSOCCER): Member of Men's National Team, HS All-American, Member of the MLS Columbus Crew, Currently playing in Norway. Brian West bio

[edit] Spirit Week and Color Day

"Spirit Week" is an annual tradition set to occur a week before homecoming, near the end of October. Each day during the week has a theme pre-determined by the Student Government; past themes have included Costume Day, Pajama Day, and Wacky Tacky Day. The fifth day of the week was traditionally reserved for Color Day, in which each class would dress up in their class colors, which correspond to the school's official colors. Freshman wore black as they technically have no color and were given that color as an insult to neighboring rival Mount Hebron High School, whose seniors wear black as their class color; sophomores are blue, juniors are white, and seniors are red. It was tradition for members of one class to "tag" a student of another class with paint that corresponded to their class color. Some students complained of un-washable color on their clothes or vandalized cars. As of 2002, this practice was made against the rules to avoid possible clothing damage if staining substances were used as well as property damage to the school. As of 2006, Color Day has been canceled due to damages to school property and possible assault charges.

In the beginning of the 2007-2008 school year, a color day was sanctioned by the administration on the last day of the traditional Spirit Week. To avoid the problems faced the year before, class t-shirts bearing the wearer's class year and (traditionally) class color (red for seniors, white for juniors, blue for sophomores, and black for freshmen) were replaced with t-shirts bearing a tye-dye mix of class colors (noticeably absent, however, was black) to boost school unity, in an effort to reduce "tagging." Although many students still elected to wear shirts depicting a solid class color, there was no repeat of the incident, and the day went smoothly. The administration also allowed for a school sponsored Battle of the Classes to be run, although turnout was lower than expected.

[edit] Color Day Controversy

During the 2006 Color Day, tagging reached critical mass when the brand-new track was tagged with house paint during the outdoors Pep Rally. Students also damaged the bleachers. All Centennial sports teams were required to stay after school to help clean up the mess. There was no permanent damage. As a direct result of this incident, Principal Scott Pfeifer canceled Color Day for all future Spirit Weeks and also did away with other spirit-related activities for the next year. These activities include the Pep Rally and the Battle of the Classes, an event centered around class competition, which has traditionally been plagued with the same problems as Color Day, including an incident in 2005 when the freshman class was hit with hundreds of pies thrown by the senior class. There was no ensuing reaction from the student body. Rumored student-run Battle of the Classes and Color Day have been scheduled by way of social networking website Facebook.