The Highlands School

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The Highlands School
Semper Altius
Location
Irving, Texas, USA
Information
Religion	Roman Catholicism
Principal	Ms. Michelle Reiff
Pope	Benedict XVI
Enrollment	420
Type	College Preparatory School
Campus	35 Acres
Athletics	Football, Volleyball, Soccer, Basketball, Track and Field, Baseball, Softball, Tennis, Golf, Cheerleading, Rugby union
Athletics conference	TAPPS AAA-IV
Mascot	Blazers
Color(s)	Red, Navy
Established	1986
Homepage	www.thehighlandsschool.org

The Highlands School is a college preparatory school in Irving, Texas (USA) ranging from grades PK-12. It is a Catholic school headed by the Legionaries of Christ, founded in 1986 in the front room of the Hennesey family's house. In the last twenty years The Highlands School changed location twice, all the time staying in Irving. The school itself has seen many upgrades from the addition of a football field and lights to a gymnasium, weight room, and new technology in the classrooms. The Highlands School is a fully accredited Catholic school by the Texas Catholic Conference Education Department (TCCED) since 1999, and by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) since 2006.

[edit] Location

The Highlands School is located in the Las Colinas section of Irving, Texas on Northgate Drive between Texas State Highways 114 and 183. The campus is in between the University of Dallas and the University Hills neighborhood. Down the road from The Highlands School is Texas Stadium, where the Dallas Cowboys will play until 2009 when they move to Arlington. It is in close vicinity to both the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and Love Field Airport. DART bus lines run to The Highlands School with a stop at the entrance on Northgate Drive. The Highlands School is located in the metropolitan area of Dallas.

[edit] Students

The students range in age from three to eleventy-one. The Highlands School welcomes students of all ethnicities, religion, and economic backgrounds. Although The Highlands School is a Catholic school, it accepts students from all religious backgrounds, but these students are still required to attend Catholic theology classes. The total enrollment of The Highlands School stays around four hundred to four hundred fifty students for all grade levels. The students travel to The Highlands School from households all over the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex. Students of The Highlands School usually perform well before and after graduation. Alumni of the school have gone on to attend well-known private and public universities around the country from Midwestern State University, Georgetown, Notre Dame, and Vanderbilt to the University of Texas, Austin, Texas A&M University, Texas State University, and George Mason University.

[edit] Separate and Distinct Schools

The Highlands School has a unique setup of its students' classes. Both boys and girls are enrolled at The Highlands School, but only attend single gender classes from the fourth grade through highschool. Essentially, two separate, single gender schools exist on the campus. Although the boy and girl students come in contact, the two schools are in two different buildings separated by a quadrangle, but connected by the Fine Arts hallway.

Note: The two schools combined students from some classes during the 2006-2007 school year. Due to the enrollment dropping, it was more fiscally sensible to combine classes. This was labeled by the school as a "temporary solution" by The Highlands School, and in fact the single-sex classes were re-established at the beginning of the 2007-2008 school year.

[edit] Academics

The Highlands School follows a typical college preparatory curriculum along with a challenging Roman Catholic theology program. The class schedule includes seven fifty-minute different classes in the same order every day along with lunch. This schedule is planning on changing back to the schedule that The Highlands School traditionally used, a seven period rotating class schedule. The core curriculum include math, science, English, history/social studies, and theology. Electives offered are Introduction to Art, Drawing, Drama, Yearbook, Journalism, Medieval History, Music, and Art History.

[edit] Advanced or Honors Classes

Advanced classes are offered at The Highlands School and run through the College Board AP system. The advanced classes are Advanced Placement or AP classes. They are offered as AP English Literature, AP English Language, AP Biology, AP US History, AP Political Science, AP Latin, AP Spanish, AP Calculus, and AP Physics. Both AP Biology and AP US History are offered as dual-credit classes, where students earn college credit with the Dallas County Community College District while taking the classes during their normal school day.

[edit] Athletics

The Highlands School is in the 3A classification of the Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools (TAPPS). As TAPPS does not always have enough teams to fill the divisions, The Highlands School often has to play up a division. For example, the boys soccer team often plays in a 5A or a 4A district. The middle school sports are in the Dallas Parochial League (DPL), although the football team operates as an independent in order to use players from grades 5-8 for one team as opposed to two teams. The Highlands School varsity soccer team was state champions in 2000, 1999 and 1997. The girls varsity soccer and basketball teams also qualified for playoffs last season. The reigning girls state high jump champion is also a student at The Highlands School. Other varsity sports include football, cheerleading, volleyball, boys/girls basketball, boys/girls soccer, baseball, softball, boys/girls track and field, boys/girls tennis, and boys/girls golf. The junior high school sports include football, cheerleading, volleyball and basketball. Due to a recent donation by the supporters and families of The Highlands School, enough money has been raised to begin the building of a gymnasium. The 2006 football team was forced into a cancellation of their season due to the missing status of a coach, Joe Bieger. The team was 0-6 prior to the cancellation at the beginning of the district season.

[edit] Scholarships and Financial Aid

The Highlands School offers the Terrae Altae Scholarship to its students. The Terrae Altae Scholarship is a half-tuition scholarship for all four high school years. This scholarship award is available to incoming 9th grade students who have attended Catholic school and maintain a B average for their 7th and 8th grade year. Limited financial aid is offered to students, at the discretion of the admissions office.

[edit] Controversy

The Highlands School, which is the largest Legionaries of Christ school in the United States, has been known to suffer from many of the controversies that have plagued the Legionaries and the Regnum Christi movement. The school is highly influenced by an elite circle of wealthy Regnum Christi families and places a large emphasis on recruitment into the movement. The school is known for it's large number of rich, influencial mexican families and has been accused of favoritism to these families, the Legionaries of Christwas founded in Mexico. Several members of the faculty, particularly in the Theology department, have been asked to leave to school after refusing to become members of Regnum Christi. Young students are also frequently encouraged and often times pressured into joining ECYD, the Regnum Christi youth movement.

Despite the Catholic Church's teachings and focus on social justice, The Highlands School has been accused of presenting an alternate view of Catholicism for the wealthy.

[edit] Extracurricular activities

The Highlands School includes several clubs and activities for students to be a part of. Boys and girls are involved in the Model U.N. club and take trips to prestigious universities every year to debate students from other schools over various political issues both past and present. Other student organizations include chess club, yearbook, drama, Everest Club, Challenge and math club. The school also sports an annual Battle of the Bands.

Greatest Alumni Ever: Sean Evans

Battle of the Bands Champions:

• 2006: Stephen Escobar, Paul Stadleman, Anthony Brassil, and Gonzalo Hererra
• 2007: Matthew Ackels and Joey George

[edit] The Joe Bieger Story

During October 2006 The Highlands School assistant athletic director Joe Bieger went missing, spawning an area wide search worthy of local media coverage. Bieger was found on 30 October 2006 doing remarkably well for having spent a month on the streets. His disappearance and reappearance brought media coverage to The Highlands School including interviews with students, media vans on campus, and television reports being filmed on location at The Highlands School.^[1]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official school website
• TAPPS website