- East Chapel Hill High School is a public high school in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. It is the second high school of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools district which contains two other high schools, Chapel Hill High School and Carrboro High School. The school's principal is Eileen Tully, and the mascot is the Wildcat. East holds multiple 3A and 4A championships and is home to many award-winning extracurricular groups, particularly the two student-run a cappella groups, the Chiefs of Staff and the Alley Cats, and the East Chapel Hill Speech and Debate team. Many of its students take Advanced Placement (AP) courses. East Chapel Hill High School is currently the 77th ranked public high school according to US News and World Report, the highest ranked standard public high school in North Carolina.
- Academics
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This is a highly competitive school in which the students typically score above the national average on standardized tests. In the 2002 school year the median weighted GPA was 3.56, and the median SAT score was 1181 compared to the state average of 1001. Also, 313 students participated in Advanced Placement (AP) examinations with 53% of all scores above a 3. [1] There are typically 15-25 National Merit Scholar Semi-Finalists in a graduating class at East. Negative effects of the intense academic atmosphere include considerable student stress and grade inflation.
- Demographics
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According to 2002-2004 school statistics, 63% of the school's student body is white, 18% is African American, 5% is Hispanic, and 14% is Asian. 52% of the student body is male and 48％ is female. For this time period, out of a total of 1706 students 30% (513 students) was in the 9th grade, 24.6% (421 students) was in the 10th grade, 25% (426) was in the 11th grade and 20.3% (346 students) was in the 12th grade. There were a total of 69 teachers making for a 1:25 ratio of teachers to students. [2]
- Athletics
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Athletic programs make up a large part of student life at East, and East's teams have been highly competitive and successful every year since the school's inception in 1996. East fields teams in sports across the board. Fall sports include: football, men's soccer, women's tennis, field hockey, volleyball, cheerleading, women's golf, and men's and women's cross country. Winter sports include: men's and women's swimming and diving, men's and women's basketball, wrestling, cheerleading, and Men's and Women's Indoor Track and Field. Spring sports include men's tennis, baseball, softball, men's and women's track & field, men's golf, women's soccer, and men's and women's lacrosse. Since 1996, East teams have won many NC state, regional, conference, and individual championships.In the spring of 2008 the men's tennis team won the 4A state championships. The rugby team, though a club, has won 4 straight State High School Championships. They won the 2009 USA Southern High School Championship. They also made an appearance at the National High School Championships in 2005, and 2009. They are currently ranked 7th in the nation (2009). The general consensus is that East is particularly skilled in Tennis, Track and Field, Cross-Country, Lacrosse, Rugby, Swimming and Diving, and Field Hockey, although many teams at East have been quite successful.
- Traditions and Icons
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East's fight song was composed by current Band and Orchestra teacher, Ryan Ellefsen. To the tune of Northwestern University's fight song, the lyrics are :
Go, go you Wildcats,
Go East Chapel Hill!
We, your loyal sons and daughters
proudly do your will
U-Rah-Rah!!
Go, go you Wildcats,
Fight on for her fame!
We shall not yield as we take the field,
We will fight to win this game! - For the first 13 years of East Chapel Hill High School's existence, Dave Thaden was the principal. He was known for his likeable personality, great leadership, and unique connection with the school community. Dave Thaden retired on June 30, 2009. He was replaced by Eileen Tully. [3]
- Also notable is the school's rivalry to nearby Chapel Hill High School. [4] Students on both sides of this rivalry feel adamantly about the strength of their school, triggering "Beat CHHS" t-shirts sported by many members of the student body.
- An unofficial tradition of East Chapel Hill High is to throw around a balloon at the graduation ceremony. Traditionally, a balloon in the shape of some fruit or animal is kept in the air by the taps of the graduating students while they are seated, listening to various speeches. This tradition is less warmly endorsed by faculty and staff than it is by the student body.
- An event known as SpringFest is held every spring on East's campus. It consists of three short, nontraditional classes in the morning given by parents, students, teachers, and community members with special interests (wheel-throwing, song-writing, improv comedy, dodgeball, etc), and an outdoor festival in the afternoon, during which most students relax on The Hill, enjoying student bands, and eating food such as freshly-made pasta, Chinese, and Dippin Dots. The date is traditionally meant to be kept a secret by the faculty and staff in order to prevent students skipping, but the date is usually leaked to the student body as a result of test dates being moved because of it.
- Alumni Association
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Proposals for the creation of an alumni association for East began in Fall of 2007. These efforts took off in 2009 with the drafting of organizational bylaws, the creation of a Board of Directors, and the launching of a new website. [5]
- Notable Events
- On April 24, 2006, eighteen-year-old student W.B. Foster held both teacher Lisa Kukla, and a student hostage with a shotgun, a hunting knife, and a pistol. After more than an hour, Lisa Kukla was able to talk Foster out of harming her or the student. Instead, Foster fired a shot through the window and fled, but was later turned in to the police. It's unknown why Foster held those two hostage, since he was never taught by Kukla, and didn't seem to know the student. In June 2007, Foster was sentenced to five years of probation, because his attorneys claimed he had schizophrenia. [6]
- In July 2006, a junior at East Chapel Hill High School, Arnavv Tripathy, won a gold medal at the International Mathematical Olympiad in Slovenia. He was one of the two members on the U.S. squad that won gold medals. Competing in a field of 498 students from 90 countries, Tripathy helped the U.S. team finish fifth overall. Tripathy also has been enrolled in undergraduate level math courses at UNC since 9th grade, and has been enrolled in graduate level math courses at UNC since 11th grade. During the qualification for the IMO, Arnav Tripathy scored 150/150 on the AMC 12. He then scored a 14/15 on the AIME examination. He then won the USAMO, qualifying for the IMO. He then returned to the IMO in 2007, where he won a silver medal, one of three Americans to do so.
- In November 2007, an investigation began after the Orange County Department of Social Services reported that an East Chapel Hill High School teacher may have been having sexual relations with a student at the school.
- In February 2009, assistant principal, Gloria Woods-Weeks was named the 2009 North Carolina Assistant Principal of the Year by the N.C. Principals and Assistant Principals Association. Ms. Woods-Weeks left at the end of the 2008-2009 school year to become the principal of the Holton Career Center in Durham Public Schools.
- Notable alumni
- Anoop Desai - An American Idol top 6 finalist. (Class of 2004)
- David Gura - A producer and reporter for National Public Radio.
- Arnav Tripathy - One of two members on US squad that won gold medals at the International Mathematical Olympiad in Slovenia. (Class of 2007)
- External links
- School website
- Athletics
- East Chapel Hill High on "Public School Review"
- Alumni Association webpage
- Alley Cats
- 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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