Mount Rainier High School

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Mount Rainier High School
Location
Des Moines, Washington
United States
Coordinates 47°24′01″N 122°18′29″W / 47.400125, -122.307916Coordinates: 47°24′01″N 122°18′29″W / 47.400125, -122.307916
Information
School district Highline Public Schools
Principal Toni Pace
Staff ~72
Students 1314
Type High School
Grades 9-12
Athletics conference Seamount League
Mascot Ram
Color(s)           Columbia Blue and White
Established 1957
Homepage http://www.hsd401.org/mtrainier/

Mount Rainier High School is a secondary school in Des Moines, Washington; named for Mount Rainier which can be seen quite well from the school. Mount Rainier serves approximately 1350 students and has been active since 1957[citation needed]. It was created to handle the overflow from nearby Highline High School[citation needed], the district's first High School located in Burien, Washington. A new facility was recently completed and opened in the fall of 2007. During the two year building process, students are attended school at the Olympic Interim Site, a former Junior High School.

Mount Rainier supports the IB Diploma Programme.

Contents

[edit] New facility

Highline School District's "Capital Facilities Improvement Bond" which passed in March of 2002 included allocation of funds to rebuild the aging Mount Rainier[1]. The old building complex was demolished in the summer of 2005, with new construction appearing in the late fall of 2005. The project was completed in time for the beginning of the 2007-08 school year (September, 5 2007). The Port of Seattle (operators of Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, near the school) the Federal Aviation Administration and the State of Washington provided funding for noise insulation, generally regarded as a virtual necessity[2] for an efficient learning environment so near to a major airport.

[edit] Interim site

For the two years that the new site was under construction, students attended classes Olympic Interim Site; this created capacity issues, as Olympic was designed as a Junior High/Middle School and didn't have enough classrooms to serve all students. The northwest and south portions of the site were therefore bulldozed, and covered with small portable classrooms, in order to create a high School sized facility. As the new facility was completed in August of 2007, in preparation for the 2007/2008 school year, the portable classrooms were removed from the interim site as it prepared to house Aviation High School

[edit] Demographics

Ethnicity White Asian/Pacific Islander Black Hispanic American Indian or Alaskan Native
Mount Rainier 63% 15% 13% 8% 2%
Washington State Average[3] 71% 8% 6% 13% 3%

[edit] Athletics

Mount Rainier has been recently successful in boys' basketball, boys and girls soccer, girls volleyball, baseball, drill team, and most notably boys swimming.[4]

The boys' swim team has won 6 state AAA titles since 1991, most recently with three straight from 2003-05.

The drill team has won four 1st place state championship titles, consecutively in 1998, 1999 and 2004 and 2005, in the 2007-08 season they placed 1st as LW Champs, Sonics Pac West Drill Champions, Kentridge Champions, 1st Place 3A District Champs.

The boys' soccer team won 3 straight AAA titles from 1987-89 and again in 1991, winning 13 straight games in that stretch. Most recently the team finished second in 2004, and made the state tourney 5 straight years, 2001-05. The girls' team finished second in 1984 and 1999. The team made the state tourney seven of eight years from 1997-2004, finishing 4th the last year.

The baseball team has made the state AAA tourney four of the last five years, finishing 4th in 2006. The softball team finished 4th in the state in 2004.

In addition, its track and field team has excelled in the past, winning eight straight North Puget Sound League boys' championships in the 1970s and a state AAA (large schools) championship in 1972 under coach Jim Kennett, and lead by record-setting high jumper Lee Braach. There is a current plan to name a new track for Coach Kennett.

The boys' basketball team finished third in the state AAA (large school) championship in 1971, losing to Pasco in a record quadruple overtime semi-final. The team has regained a measure of success, returning to the state tourney in 2004, 2006 and 2007.

The volleyball team made the state tournament four times from 1997 to 2002.

The football team made the state AAA championship in 1990, losing to Tumwater. It made the state tournament last in 1996, and the playoffs in 2005.

[edit] Notable Alumni

  • Tom Broznowski - 1981 US National Road Cycling Champion, and two-time Olympic team member (1978)
  • Lee Braach - Late President of the ILWU 23 (Tacoma) (1972)
  • Rusty Humphries - Nationally syndicated radio talk show host (1983)
  • Bobby Odegard - Drafted by MLB Chicago Cubs in 6th round (1997)
  • Dick Fain - 950 KJR (AM) Sportscaster (1993)

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ Highline Public Schools: Completed Projects
  2. ^ Construction Projects: Mount Rainier High School
  3. ^ Source: WA OSPI, 2005-2006
  4. ^ http://www.wiaa.com/history/school.aspx , http://www.wiaa.com/history/champs.aspx
v • d • e
WIAA West Central District 3, 2-3A Conferences
South Puget Sound 3A
Auburn • Auburn-Riverside • Auburn Mountainview • Bonney Lake • Enumclaw • Franklin Pierce • Sumner • White River
Western Cascade Con. 3A
Seamount 3A
Evergreen • Hazen • Highline • Kennedy • Lindbergh • Mt. Rainier • Renton • Tyee
Olympic 2A/3A
Bremerton (3A) • Klahowya (2A) • North Mason (2A) • Olympic (3A) • Peninsula (3A) • Port Angeles (3A) • Port Townsend (2A) • Sequim (2A)
Nisqually 2A
Eatonville • Foster • Fife • Steilacoom • Washington