- Reading Memorial High School (RMHS) is a four year public high school located in Reading, Massachusetts, USA. Reading Memorial is managed by Reading Public Schools. The school has a student body of over 1,294 (2005-06) drawn from Parker Middle School and Coolidge Middle School. A new building for RMHS has just recently been completed.
- General Information
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Reading Memorial High School is located at 62 Oakland Road in Reading, Massachusetts. This single public high school serves all of Reading. The school is known for strong academics and athletics. RMHS has many athletic facilities, including a field house (with an indoor track and basketball courts), turf field, an outdoor track, practice fields, and tennis courts. As of 2007, RMHS received extensive renovations to all of its facilities. The $60 million renovation was completed in the fall of 2007.
- School History
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Reading Memorial High School was founded back in the 1950s in the town of Reading. It consisted of one building with a single cafeteria, an auditorium, a gymnasium later known as the "Girl's Gym", and basic classrooms. This building would come to be known as the A-Building. Later on, as the town's population grew, the school saw a need for expansion, and in 1969, had a massive addition to the school. An art wing and boiler room was added onto the A-Building, connected by Echo Hall on the first floor. Also added was a second cafeteria known as the Commons. The two cafeterias would serve as a means of having separate areas to eat for the upper and underclassmen. Also added to A-Building was a wing for Foreign Language classrooms and some History classrooms.
Separately, B-Building was built facing North of A-Building as a source for many different things. The B-Building served as a Lecture Hall and classrooms, as well as a two story Library, connected floor to floor by a seemingly unstable staircase in the middle of the library. Also added north of the B-Building, was the C-Building which held all of the Science and Math classrooms as well as the Superintendent's Office. A-Building connected to B-Building with a link on the second floor, and both A-Building and B-Building connected to C-Building via a long hallway with rows upon rows of orange lockers.
The Walter Hawkes Field House was also built down by the football field, in order to give the town a new place to hold Gym classes, and also a place to hold most indoor sporting events.
Decades passed, and with it came age. The overall condition of the school had deteriorated because of the town not taking proper measures to take care of the school. So in 2002, the town finally voted on a plan to renovate the high school. The renovation and building of the new RMHS would turn out to be a long and tedious project.
In 2004, the construction of a new Math and Science building began on the East side of the buildings, nearest to the Field House. It would be referred to as the "New Building", and would hold the Math and Science rooms along with a Cafeteria and Boiler Room, since the C-Building would be completely stripped and renovated for new classrooms. Over the Summer of 2005, the links connecting B-Building and C-Building to A-Building were demolished, along with the Language wing of the A-Building. This began the renovating of B-Building and C-Building.
In Fall 2005, the "New Building" opened, connecting to the A-Building via an airport terminal that always had more than twice the alloted amount of weight on it... The old cafeterias were used for some Humanities classes and the temporary spot for the Library. Over the course of the next two years, B-Building and C-Building were renovated, along with the addition of a new Auditorium on the West side of B-Building.
In 2006, an addition of a lobby and link to the Field House from the New Building was made. Also, during the winter of 2006, the construction would finish with renovating the B and C Buildings. The two renovated buildings were then connected via a hallway which would become known as "Main Street", which also led the way down to the New Building.
In 2007, a process that became known as "The Great Move" began. This was a process of moving everything from the A-Building over to the renovated B and C-Buildings. The renovated C-Building would now be home to English, History, Foreign Language, and Art classrooms. The renovated B-Building would once again be home to the Library in its original place, though no longer connected to an upper level. Instead the upper level was created for distance learning and TV studio usage. Meanwhile, the area that used to be the Lecture Hall was now known as the "Music and Drama Suite". It now consisted of a brand new Band Room, Chorus Room, and a Drama Room and Wood shop.
Once the "Great Move" era was finished, probably within a month, the demolition of the A-Building began. It started with the Art wing and the old Commons areas, and worked its way to the central tower, which for so long stood as a symbol and dedication to the fallen soldiers of war. The tower was knocked down on April 18, 2007. Footage can be found here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NwJjdk2Dtk&feature=related
The new building was completed in 2008.
- Academics
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RMHS offers a wide variety of Practical andPerforming Arts, English, Foreign Language, Health, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies, and Special Education courses.
''' MCAS Scores'''
[MA State Avg] [RMHS]
- Math
Advanced 42 57
Proficient 27 30
Needs Imp. 22 11
Warning 9 2
- English
Advanced 22 34
Proficient 49 50
Needs Imp. 24 14
Warning 6 2
- Athletics
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In 2008, the Reading Memorial High School boys ice hockey team became the first public high school to win the Super 8 tournament since its inception and the first public team to win the Division 1A title since RMHS won in 1978. They did this by defeating Malden Catholic High School 3-0 in the championship game at the TD Banknorth Garden.The Reading Memorial High School boys basketball team won the Division II North Championship on Saturday March 8,2008.This was the first time the high school has ever won Division II North.The girls volleyball team won the Division I North Championship against Lawrence High School in the 2008 season. It was the farthest the volleyball team has ever gone in the tournament, and the first time winning the Division I North Championship title. It was a close game, but the Lady Rockets pulled out the win during the last and deciding 5th game, with a score of 15-8.RMHS competes in the Middlesex League. Its most notable sport is boys' outdoor track, which, as of 2001, holds the national record for most consecutive seasons without a defeat (29 years unbeaten, 263 dual meets without a loss, and 248 consecutive wins). See National High School Sports Record Book; Jeff Sullivan, Woburn Sends Croft's Reading Track Team to First Loss in 30 Years, Boston Globe, April 25, 2001, at F1. Their long-time rivals are Stoneham and every year, the two varsity football teams meet on Thanksgiving Day.
- In 1996 under the Coaching of Peter Moscariello, the Reading High School baseball team won the Division II state Championship, beating Mike Paradis (who would later be drafted) and the Auburn High School baseball team 9-0 at Holy Cross. Its only state championship ever in baseball to date, despite some great teams after that year. The team consisted of several great players, and everyone on the roster contributed in someway during all the games to win. Steve Langone was the most notable player on the team, who would go on to play at Boston College for their baseball team, and would later be drafted by the LA Dodgers. He would get all the way up to AAA before injuries shortened his career. Peter Moscariello was named Divion II baseball coach of the Year. The team would be inducted into the RMHS Hall of Fame in 2003 along with Steve Langone as an individual.
- Extracurricular
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RMHS has an award-winning Marching Band, that consists of ~100 students from Band and Color Guard. After marching band season, most of these students go on to participate in Concert Band or Winter Guard. There are two jazz bands (Jazz Ensemble and Jazz Combo) that are also award-winning bands. They are highly competitive and often receive gold medals. The Jazz Ensemble received a Gold Medal at the IAJE State Finals, and will be performing at the Hatch Shell in Boston on May 17 along with other gold medal-winning bands. The Marching Band, Concert Band, and Jazz Ensemble perform under the direction of Dave Bunten, who has 25+ years of dedicated service at RMHS. In 2009, he was inducted into the Massachusetts Drum Corps and Music Educators Hall of Fame. Joe Mulligan is the Assistant Director. Gil Lapointe is the Director of the Jazz Combo.
- RMHS has an award winning Drama Club which sells out many of its performances. The 2007 Fall Musical was Beauty and The Beast. The 2008 Fall Musical was Peter Pan. The Winter plays were The Laramie Project and The Scarlet Letter.In the Spring, they put on Shakespeare's Hamlet. The Drama Club is under the excellent leadership of their director, Mr. Endslow and Miss Killian who is also the Chorus Director. For their musical performances, they have a wonderful choreographer Mrs. Katz-Stone, who has previously choreographed for companies such as North Shore Theatre. While the Drama Club puts on many professional level shows each year, they also have a great deal of fun.
- One of the newest extracurricular groups at Reading Memorial High School is Project Challenge. This group was formed after a presentation of Rachel's Challenge at RMHS in October, 2008. Rachel's Challenge is a program developed by Rachel Scott's family after her death; Rachel Joy Scott was the first student killed at Columbine High School in 1999. Her father and brother began visiting other schools to spread Rachel's message, which was based on her strong commitment to kindness, fairness and good deeds. Project Challenge is a group of RMHS students and faculty who want to create an atmosphere of kindness at the highschool.
- Other Extracurricular activities include:
- Amnesty International
Anime Club
Art Club
Badminton Club
Chess Club
Community Service Club
Contemporary Film and Arts Society
Drama Club
Gay Straight Alliance
Ichthyo-Botany Socialist Club
Impressions Literary Magazine
Improvosaurus: The RMHS Improv Troupe
International Club
Jazz Band
Leo Club
Marching Band
Math Team
National Honor Society
The Orbit Newspaper
Project Challenge
The Right Club
SADD (Students Against Drunk Driving)
Science Team
Student Council
Vernal Pool Club
Web Team
Yearbook
The Young Democrats
The Young Engineers Club
The Pickles Club - Notable Facts
- Jeff Ryan was 2003 Massachusetts Teacher of the Year
- Notable Alumni
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Notable alumni include:
- Danny McBride (RMHS '63), guitarist for Shanana
- Brad Whitford (RMHS '70), guitarist for Aerosmith
- LCDR Kevin J. Davis, 1992 Graduate, was an Opposing Soloist with the U.S. Navy's Blue Angels. Died April 21, 2007 in a crash during a demonstration show.
- Mark Erelli, folk musician.
- Stephen Langone - 1996 - Minor League baseball player in LA Dodgers organization - now working for the Boston Red Sox.
- Chris Pizotti (RMHS '04) was signed as an undrafted free agent for the New York Jets in 2009.
- External links
- Reading Memorial High School website
- Massachusetts Department of Education Profile of Reading Memorial High School
- Source: Wikipedia; it is used under the GNU Free Documentation License. You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the GFDL.
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