Chaska High School
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Chaska High School | |
 |
|
| Established | |
|---|---|
| School type | Public |
| Principal | Paul McMahan |
| Location | Chaska, Minnesota, United States of America |
| Students | approx. 1,800 |
| Mascot | Hawk |
| Colors | Purple, White, Gold |
| Website | www.district112.org/chs |
Chaska High School is a public high school located in Chaska, Minnesota, a southwestern suburb of the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. CHS, as it is nicknamed, is a 10th-12 grade school, the freshmen attending Pioneer Ridge Freshman Center. Nearly 1800 students attend CHS. Its mascot is the Hawk, and the colors are purple, white, and gold.
Contents |
[edit] History
Chaska High School has been a public school since 1906. The building that it is in now was opened in 1997.
[edit] The Mission
Our Mission
“All Youth ready for post-secondary education, careers, and active civic participation”
Core Principles
Personalized Learning Environments
Academic Engagement of All Students
Accountable Leadership
Empowered Educators
Engaged Community and Youth
Integrated System of High Standards, Curriculum, Instruction, Assessments, and Supports
In Accordance with Our Mission and Philosophy, the Goals of Chaska High School are:
To foster self-awareness, self-worth, and responsibility. To provide opportunities for development of social, ethical, emotional, intellectual, aesthetic, and physical elements that shape the total person. To design learning experiences that accommodate physical and intellectual differences, allowing development of each individual to fullest potential. To establish a system whereby each staff member and student regularly evaluate the educational program and individual performance. To maintain a diverse, comprehensive curriculum which meets the needs of a changing society. To facilitate open communication and cooperation among all participants in the educational process. To promote-flexibility, personal tolerance, and ability to cope with change. To develop competence in the three C's (creativity, communication and computing). To stimulate growth in the life skills of problem solving.
[edit] Design
Chaska High School is organized into four main houses. They are color coordinated, from East to West in the building, as Purple, Blue, Red, and Green. Each have an individual title based upon a city within the district; Purple is the East Union House, Blue is the Victoria House, Red is the Chanhassen House, and Green is the Carver House. Each house has two stories and simular design. They are connected by one large hallway. Then theres the South Glob of the high school just south of the main hallway.
[edit] House Layout
All houses at Chaska High are set up the same. The room number corresponds to were the room is within the school. The numbers are all four(rarely five) digits. The first digit always corresponds to which house the room is located in. The second digit designates which the floor; 1=first floor, 2= second floor. The second digit corresponds to the location of the room starting with 3 at the front and moving towards the back of the house ending in 5. And the final digit corresponds to the left or right side of the house. Even numbers is the right side facing the house and odd is the left side as you are facing the house from the hallway. An example of this would be room R235. This room would be located in the red house, second floor, close to the hallway, and on the left side.
All of the houses consist of four lab classrooms. This means these classrooms have lab tables, tile flooring, and heat detectors instead of smoke detectors. These are where typical science classses take place; like chemistry, physics, biology, etc. These classrooms are located on the 2nd floor, closest to the hallway.
All houses have their own computer labs as well. These consists of about thirty Dell Optiplex PC computers. Combining the computer labs' and the media center labs' computers, there are about 210 computers. Along with that, each teacher with an office has an individual computer and then 1-2 computers per classroom. This would make out to be a lot of computers through out the school.
Each house as two bathrooms accessible to students; one on each floor. The purple house bathrooms are far nicer than the other house bathroom due to being the newest house. The bathrooms are located on the right side of the house, as you are looking at it, and between the two sections within the house.
[edit] East Union House
Well known as the purple house, due to its purple scheme. That means that the hallway trimming, carpet, classrooms, and desks are the color purple. The purple house office is located on the southwestern corner of the purple house office. This is the newest section of the school, functional during the 2005-2006 school year. It has a small forum under the stairs consisting of a few large steps. The East Union house differs the most from the other houses, and has more classrooms. It is connected to the Band/Choir area.
[edit] Victoria House
Known as the blue house. The blue house has always been known to house to most students during passing time. It is connected to the cafeteria and the smaller auditorium (the blue forum). Also, between blue and purple house, is the schools CRC (Career Resource Center). Victoria House is one of the 3 original houses, along with Chanhassen and Carver. They are very simular in core design. The house office is located on the first floor, in the middle of the house. On the 2nd floor in the same area is a conference area. The stairs are located just outside of the central rooms, in the north and south part of the house.
[edit] Chanhassen House
Known as the red house. It is connected to the school's media center. It has a forum which is a half circle of a few large steps.
[edit] Carver House
Known as the green house by students and staff. Like the other houses, it has a green color scheme to it. It is located in the very eastern part of the school and is connected to the red house. It holds a forum, just like the one in the chanhassen house, and the main school office. It is adjacent to the east parking lot, known as the green lot to many staff and students.
[edit] Media Center
The Chaska High School media center is the school's library and technology center. It has four separate labs; two of which use Dell Optiplex PCs and two which use Apple computers. The first floor consists of the library proper, as well as all PCs. Second floor houses the Aplle computer labs, as well as Jumpstart studios, the biweekly school news program. The media center area also holds the copy room, tech support and all other IT services for the school.
[edit] The South Glob
This takes up about half the school's area. It consists of the band room, chior room, cafeteria, the auditorium, the large gymnasium, the two small gymnasiumms, a few classrooms, the activities office, athletic locker rooms, gym locker rooms, and other athletic related areas. It is connected through the blue house and the media center. The cafeteria is one story with a high cone glass roof, but the athletic area is two stories.
[edit] School Day
Chaska High School employs 'block scheduling,' a method that allows for four classes per day of 90 minutes per block. It has benefits insofar as there is twice as much education in one class as there normally would be, so work such as long labs and long tests can be administered in one day. Also, students have only four classes to monitor at one time, rather than seven in the traditional day. Downsides include the length of time between subjects, such as taking AP Calculus AB first semester junior year, and taking AP Calculus BC second semester senior year, almost a year without any math. Also on days without any class long activities, lectures or lessons may seem boring if the student is not interested in that particular subject. This problem can be solved by having half the class the teacher talking, and the other half doing an activity of some sort.
[edit] Classes
Chaska High School offers many tracks and plans for students of each and every learning situation. Post Secondary Education Option, Advance Placement (AP) courses, Mankato State English, Spanish, and Psychology 101, English As A Second Language, Special Education, and of course the basic core and advanced/honors classes. Most schedules are flexible enough to allow a student to take any class or elective they want, such as one of three choirs and bands, art classes, physical education, elective English and social sciences, and all manner of other classes.
[edit] The Chaska High School Podcast
The podcast was started in the fall of 2005. It was started by Matt Petty and Shawn Woodland. These two were the directors, writers, and anchors to the podcast. The show ran throughout the school year. After the 8th episode, the majority of the school was listening to the cast.
They talked about many things; such as school events (activities and sports), the lunch menu, as well as school gossip. They played two songs each session, one in the beginning and one in the end. Along with those, they answered questions and comments and conducted interviews.
[edit] Activities
Chaska High School has many extracurricular activities such as: Academic Teams, Art Club, Athletics, DECA, Drama, FFA, General Assembly, Honors Society, International Club, Intramurals, Jumpstart, Key Club, Music, POWZA, Prom Committee, Speech, Student Council, Yearbook, MSHSL, and others.
[edit] Drama
From longtime director Mr. Jim Lund, every year the CHS Drama Department stages a fall musical, a spring play, and a collection of student-directed one act plays in the winter. For the 2005-2006 school year, it was a year of unparalled success for the department.
Seussical, a whimsical satire and send-up of a collection of Dr. Seuss books, received large audiences including three full houses in nine performances. The show also received critical acclaim, receiving two awards at the Spotlight Awards, a review group for metro area productions. Seussical won three major awards, including Best Overall Production, Best Performance by a Chorus, and Best Costuming.
One-Act Plays are held in January, and are totally student-run, directed, and performed. In 2006, six plays were performed, with one state competition one act also on display. The Nerd was the competiton one act during 2006, directed by Nicholas Leeman, and starring Tyler O'Tremba, Dani Hans, Morgan Johnson, Elohim Pena, and Tyler Ryan. Other shows included Philosophy, Schmilosophy directed and performed by Sam Kronick and Ali Mills, The Monkey's Paw directed by Andrew Guyton and starring Nikki Bowman and Scott Kerns, and many others.
The Matchmaker, written by Thornton Wilder, was a precursor to the modern musical Hello, Dolly! It was performed at CHS in the spring of 2006. Starring Klair Hans, Brendan Veerman, Tyler Ryan, and Kevin Schultz, and again directed by Mr. Lund, it was performed three times in the spring. A hilarious farce, it involved mistaken identity, men dressed as women, and confusing love triangles.
[edit] Music
Chaska High School students have many opportunities to be in music. Four choirs, three bands, and many extracurricular groups offer a range of music styles and levels.
The Choral Department is run by Mrs. Sarah Gilbertson. She directs three in-school choirs(Treble, Varsity, and Concert) and two extracurricular choirs (Bel Canto, Chamber) as well as rehearsing the vocal aspects of the fall musical. In the 2006-2007 school year, the choirs will be going to Arizona for a musical excursion.
The Band Department is run by Mrs. Miriam Junker and Mr. Paul Swanson (Swanny to the students). Mrs. Junker directs the Concert Band (a 10th grade group) as well as the Wind Ensemble, the premeire band at CHS. Mr. Swanson directs the Symphonic Band and the pit orchestra for the musical, as well as both jazz bands at CHS.
[edit] Academic Teams
Chaska High School is active participates in several academic leagues, including Quiz Bowl, Knowledge Bowl, Science Bowl, Math League, and the American Mathematics Contest. In 2005-2006 school year, Chaska Knowledge Bowl placed 2nd in the state competition.
[edit] Sports
Chaska High School is part of the Lake Conference in the Minnesota State High School League.
| State Championships | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Season | Sport | Number of Championships | Year |
| Fall | Volleyball, Girls | 6 | 1991, 1993, 1994, 1996, 2005, 2006 |
| Winter | Debate | 2 | 1980, 1981 |
| Dance, Girls | 1 | 1999 | |
| Basketball, Boys | 1 | 2004 | |
| Spring | Golf, Girls | 1 | 1979 |
| Total | 10 | ||
