Highland Park High School (Highland Park, Illinois)

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Highland Park High School
Image:Hplogo2.jpg
Motto Dream, Believe, Achieve
Established 1889
Type Public secondary
Principal John Scornavacco
Jim Swanson
(co-principals)
Faculty 120
Students 1,860
Grades 9–12
Location 433 Vine Av.
Highland Park, Illinois, USA
Campus Suburban
Colors Blue, White
Mascot Giants
Newspaper Shoreline
Website www.dist113.org/hphs

Highland Park High School, or HPHS, is a public four-year high school located in Highland Park, Illinois, a North Shore suburb of Chicago, Illinois, in the United States. It is part of Township High School District 113, which also includes Deerfield High School.

Contents

[edit] History

For a period of approximately fourteen years following Highland Park High School's establishment in 1886, classes were held in the rooms over the Brand Brothers paint shop in downtown Highland Park. It has occupied the present site on Vine Avenue since 1900. Over the course of time, however, several additions have been constructed. In 2000, HPHS and its sister school, Deerfield High School underwent a two year, $75 million renovation and expansion project. HPHS received several new additions and renovations with 130,000 square feet renovated and 77,000 square feet added. The additions and renovations were designed by Legat Architects and executed by VACALA Construction, Inc.[1]

During the 1999-2000 school year, Fox Television crews "invaded" the high school after it was selected by documentary filmmaker R. J. Cutler to be the setting for his new reality television series. His intent was to accurately portray the intricacies of the lives of a handful of typical high school students. Two crews covered up to eight students each. From August to June, they shot three weeks out of every month, wherever the "cast" led them. That included their homes, on dates, and to parties. Cutler recalls:

There were plenty of situations where it was necessary to exercise our discretion as grown-ups and human beings, but our principal objective was to observe and tell the truth as much as possible. I think we did that...but you always develop a personal relationship with your subjects. You do try to keep on a certain side of the line.

When the cameras stopped rolling, R.J. and the production team had logged literally thousands of hours of tape. The end product was American High, the critically acclaimed but poorly rated television series that lasted only four episodes on the Fox Network. The show was subsequently picked up by PBS, and the remaining ten episodes were finally aired. Stars included former students Morgan Moss, Brad Krefman, Robby Nathan, Sarah Mages, Anna Santiago, Mike "Kiwi" Langford, Allie Komessar, Pablo Otavalo, Kaytee Bodle, Scott Hinden, and a variety of faculty members. The show went on to win an Emmy Award in 2001 for Outstanding Nonfiction Program.

[edit] Academics

In 2005, Highland Park had an average composite ACT score of 24.8, and graduated 94.2% of its senior class. The average class size is 18.6. Highland Park has made Adequate Yearly Progress on the Prairie State Achievement Examination, a state test part of the No Child Left Behind Act.[2]

The school holds an excellent academic reputation, ranking 341st on Newsweek's list of the United States' 1000 best high schools in 2005 The Complete List of the 1,000 Top U.S. Schools.

Highland Park High School has a number of non native-English speaking students and a relatively diverse student population of 80% white, 15% Hispanic, 3% Asian and 2% African American.[3] Students of military parents from Fort Sheridan also have a presence on campus.

[edit] Athletics

Highland Park competes in the Central Suburban League and Illinois High School Association. Its mascot is the Giant.

[edit] Activities

Highland Park High School takes great pride in its fine arts department. The repertoire of the drama department includes two plays and one musical each year in addition to an all original student musical called Stunts, which is entirely directed, choreographed, produced by students, and a "Short Play" festival, directed entirely by students. Past performances include renditions of Metamorphoses, Cats, The Scarlet Pimpernel, Laramie Project, Les Misèrables, Fiddler on the Roof, Urinetown and Beauty and the Beast. During the 2005-2006 school year, the play On Stars Not Falling - written by Scott Shallenbarger, one of Highland Park's acting teachers - was selected to be performed at the Illinois High School Theatre Festival.

Focus on the Arts is a biannual event that brings artists to Highland Park High School to share their passion with its students. Over three days, world-renowned artists come to the high school to showcase their talents and encourage students to explore the arts themselves. The mediums of music, visual arts, dance, creative writing, media, and theater are represented. Presentations on sports media, improvisation theater, and creative writing are particularly popular. Students at Highland Park High School program their own schedule so they attend activities they wish to attend. Three regularly scheduled academic classes occur for each day that is missed for Focus events. Focus is funded from a variety of resources including but not limited to grants, private donations, and allowances. All events are free to the students, faculty, staff, and the community at large. Focus occurs on odd-numbered years.

In 2005, Focus celebrated its 20th biennial. In celebration, the Highland Park High School Chorus and Orchestra collaborated with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus to perform opera choruses for the opening night celebration, which was conducted by Duain Wolfe, Director of the Chicago Symphony Chorus. The opening night celebration, which took place April 17, 2005, drew over 1,000 people.

Each year students at HPHS mobilize to support a charity that they vote to support for all of February. This monthlong event is known as "Charity Drive" and is orchestrated by the Charity Drive Committee, one of the subdivisions of the school-wide political Student Senate. In 2006, HPHS students presented a check of $162,000 to the Children's Neuroblastoma Cancer Foundation. This donation was one of if not the largest amounts of money students have raised. In 2007, Charity drive raised $175,000 for Hope for Huntingtons. In 2008 HPHS raised $247,000 (also matched by an anonymous donor) for CURED. The Highland Park Track and Field team in the 24 Hour run raised over 10% of the money raised for Charity Drive. Charity Drive is organized by the HPHS Student Senate.

[edit] Notable alumni

Most of the notable alumni listed below are profiled on the HPHS Distinguished Alumni page.

Military

The Arts

Journalism

  • Eric Engberg—(Class of 1959)—investigative journalist, CBS correspondent
  • Stephen Glass—(Class of 1990)—former reporter at The New Republic who has become notorious for his journalistic fraud, actor Hayden Christensen portrayed him in his fall from grace in the 2003 film Shattered Glass
  • Brian Ross—(Class of 1966)—investigative journalist, ABC chief investigative correspondent — Peabody Award (1974), the Columbia Award (three times), Sigma Delta Chi Award, Robert F. Kennedy Award (1979), National Emmy Award (twice), Overseas Press Club of America Award(s), National Headliner Awards, Peabody Award(s), George W. Polk National Television Reporting Award.

Academia

Public Service

  • Karen Nussbaum—(Class of 1968)—political activist, director of Women's Bureau [3] of the US Department of Labor
  • David Crane— (Class of 1968)—former Under-Secretary General of the United Nations and Chief Prosecutor of the Special Court for Sierra Leone. Currently a Law Professor at Syracuse University.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Renovation improves circulation
  2. ^ Illinois School Report Card
  3. ^ Student Ethnicity
  4. ^ Lauren Tom Photos - Lauren Tom News - Lauren Tom Information
  5. ^ http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4155/is_20040401/ai_n12545904 "I'll tell you how 'Sesame' got to Highland Park", Chicago Sun-Times, Apr 1, 2004

[edit] External links

http://www.chambersandpartners.com/USA/resultseditorial.aspx?cid=562&pid=16&solbar=1&grouptype=2

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Central Suburban League
North Division: Highland Park • Deerfield • Glenbrook North • Maine East • Maine West • Niles North
South Division: New Trier • Evanston • Waukegan • Maine South • Niles West • Glenbrook South