Harriton High School

Infobox school | name = Harriton High School
name2=Harriton High School, Rosemont, Pennsylvania


motto= Corpori Menti Moribus
established=1957
type=High School| address= 600 N. Ithan Ave.
location = Rosemont in Lower Merion Township, Pennsylvania, 19010
faculty = 85
enrollment = 889
free_label = Mascot
free_text = Ram
free_label = Colors
free_text = Red, White, Black
information = [phone]
fax_label = Fax
fax_text = [phone]
principal = Mr. Steven R. Kline
website = [http://www.lmsd.org/schools/harriton/default.php LMSD.org]
write up= [http://www.lmsd.org/schools/harriton/profile.pdf Fact Sheet] Correct as of August 2006.

Harriton High School is a public secondary school located in Rosemont, a community in Lower Merion Township, Pennsylvania.

Harriton is one of two high schools in Lower Merion School District; the other is Lower Merion High School. It is a comparatively small high school, containing 889 students in 9th through 12th grades. The student teacher ratio is 16:1, and the average class size is 25 students. Harriton also offers the IB, or International Baccalaureate, program.

History

In 1697, William Penn sold a 700 acre (2.8 km²) tract of land to Rowland Ellis. Years later, Ellis sold his home to Richard Harrison who had married a local woman named Hannah Norris. Some of the land holdings of her family were known as Norriton. Thus the combination of the names of Harrison and Norriton became known as Harriton. The daughter of Richard and Hannah Harrison married Charles Thomson.

In 1957, a new "campus-style" school was designed by architect Vincent Kling. It situated on a portion of the plantation grounds belonging to Charles Thomson, which gave Harriton High School its name. Harriton High School opened its doors for the first time in 1958.

* "Source:" [http://www.lmhalum.org/lmhweb/html/hhs.htm Harriton High School History]

Clubs and Activities

Academic Decathlon Team

The Harriton Academic Decathlon Team under renowned coach Howard Kritzer, have dominated the decathlon circuit under his tenure. They have qualified for the state championship event five years running and are currently in the process of putting together a national championship caliber team.

cience Olympiad

The Harriton Science Olympiad team, under head coach Brian Gauvin, is one of the most followed teams at the school. Harriton has placed first in the Pennsylvania state Science Olympiad competition for the last decade and has won the national Science Olympiad title in 1995, 2001, and 2005. It is considered one of the best teams in Pennsylvania and the nation. The Harriton team consistently scores in the top ten at the national competition. Most recently, Harriton placed fifth at the 2008 Science Olympiad National Championship at The George Washington University.

Politics, international affairs, & forensics

Harriton is also noted to have an excellent Speech and Debate Team. Most recently, the Harriton Public Forum debate team took 2nd at the PA state tournament, and all members of the Speach and Debate delegation qualified for the upper tier of competition. In the recent past, interest in politics and world affairs has risen at Harriton, due mainly to the advent of a formal Model United Nations delegation in 2006.

Athletics

Harriton's girls tennis team has held the PIAA State Class AA Tennis Title for the past four years, a championship streak believed to be the longest among any high school athletic program in District history. The team is also noted for winning the District 1 title since 1999, an eight year streak. The Rams finished their 2007-2008 season with a record of 26-0. They have won 46 straight team matches in the past two years.

[http://www.harritonathletics.com Harriton Athletics]

Harriton Theater Company

[http://www.harritontheater.com Harriton Theater Company]

The Harriton Theater Company is one of Harriton's most prized clubs, most noted for being a completely student-run organization. The shows are chosen by a student director, who then, with the guidance of a sponsor, directs the show. All of the set construction and lighting is done by students as well.In the 2007-2008 school year, Kevin Ginsberg, a teacher who had once directed the musicals at Welsh Valley Middle School, came to Harriton High School to direct the shows. This was accompanied with less formal student leadership positions.

Past Productions:

*2003-2004: Plaza Suite and Guys and Dolls
*2004-2005: A Devil Inside and The Pajama Game
*2005-2006: Absurd Person Singular and Kiss Me Kate
*2006-2007: Smile and Once Upon a Mattress
*2007-2008: The Who's Tommy and The Visit
*2008-2009: The Bad Seed and

Harriton Student Council

[http://www.hhscouncil.com Harriton Student Council]

Harriton Student Council works to improve the quality of student life at Harriton by creating programming for the student body, advocating on behalf of the student body, and working to recognize student accomplishments. It has produced events such as Snow Ball and the Mr. Harriton competition, as well as numerous smaller events. It has also worked with school administration on issues such as alcohol at school dances, student parking, and the master schedule. Student Council consists of elected officers and appointed committee co-chairs and members. It is organized into five committees: Students' Rights, Events, Communications, Finance, and Internal Planning. The president, always a senior, is the face of the Harriton student body. Past presidents have included:

*2004-2005: Eli Klein
*2005-2006:Abe Roisman
*2006-2007:Sammie Madway
*2007-2008: Ben Goldberg
*2008-2009: Blake Bergen

The current 2008-2009 officers include:

*President - Blake Bergen
*Vice President - Jessica Rothstein
*Secretary - Anna Denis-Rohr
*Treasurer - Steven Ellis
*Sergeant at Arms - Rebecca Rutenberg
*Sponsor - Ms. Marie Ochiogrosso (Longtime sponsor Heidi Cooke stepped down in 2008)

Harriton Music

Harriton features a full symphonic band and orchestra, currently under the direction James M. Joseph, formerly of Conestoga High School, who also teaches IB Music and Music Theory. The freshman chorus and concert choir are directed by Mr. Jason Bizich, a nationally recognized choir conductor. Mr. Bizich is also the AP Music Theory teacher. Harriton also features a performance jazz band, led by James Joseph. Every fall and spring Harriton has a music concert featuring all the ensembles as well as the occasional string quartet or percussion ensemble.

Every year Harriton musicians audition for positions in the PMEA district band and/or orchestra. Dozens of Harriton students attend the try-out, competing against hundreds of other students. Some succeed, and a few even go on to perform in the regional band/orchestra and all-state band/orchestra.

Harriton also has a number of musical opportunities for students who do not want to study music. There is a music forum, where students get together and critique each other's taste in music. Also hosted at Harriton are a number of open mics, well attended events that always show off Harriton's musical talent and variety.

The Harriton Banner

[http://www.hhbanner.com Harriton Banner Online]

Since the opening of Harriton High School in 1957, the school newspaper has been called either the "Harriton Forum" or the "Harriton Free Forum" but as of October, 2006 it was renamed to "The Harriton Banner". As of 2008, the Harriton Banner had a serious web presence, launching their website: [http://www.hhbanner.com Harriton Banner Online]

The IB Program

Harriton's IB Program for juniors and seniors is coordinated by Tom O'Brien, who also teaches Theory of Knowledge and is the Extended Essay coordinator. The Creativity, Action, and Service coordinator is Lisa Celebre. The program has been offered since 2000 with anywhere from 15 to 40 students in any given grade. However, in the 2008-09 year, about 80 students total are expected to participate. Course offering vary by year but include Economics, Psychology, Art, Music, Chemistry, Biology, Physics, English, History of the Americas(focusing on the US 1870-1970), French B, Spanish B, Latin, Math Studies, and Mathematics. The school tests in May.The program brings an international flavor to the school, as many foreigners move to Lower Merion to partcipate in Harriton's IB program. Students have come to Harriton's program from France, Switzerland, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, the UK and Russia. Due to the size of the program, a strong community feel develops among IB students. Harriton IB students frequently are leaders in school organizations and are regularly admitted into the nation's (and the world's) top universities.

More information: [http://www.lmsd.org/district_info/curriculum/ib.php IB @ Harriton]

High School Modernization

Currently, Lower Merion School District is undergoing a High School Modernization program. Construction of a new school will begin on Harriton's athletic fields, starting in January 2007. The new school is set to open in time for the 2009-2010 school year, with the original building being demolished the same year.

The new school is planned to house approximately 1250 students and cover about 330,000 square feet (30,000 m²) as opposed to its current area of 176,825 square feet (16,000 m²).

Notes

* Harriton is built in a unique way for a Philadelphia-area public school because it is built with a California-style campus, with its buildings surrounding a main quad known as the Tombs. The new Harriton High School, currently being built, will not feature this style.
* Harriton is also one of only 426 high schools in the United States to offer the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program.
* Notable Harriton graduate include former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury and former President of Harvard University Lawrence Summers, Barry Shils, an independent filmmaker, Vampire's Kiss among the films he produced, sports agent Arn Tellem, members of the Macintosh design team, Andy Hertzfeld and Susan Kare.
* Harriton is considered to be among the best public schools in the nation. It is a two-time recipient of the Department of Education's Blue Ribbon School Award, and consistently ranks high in Newsweek's lists of the top 1000 high schools in the country. In a 2005 Newsweek list of the top high schools in the United States, Harriton ranked 427. On a similar Newsweek list from 2003, it ranked 384.
* In Philadelphia Magazine's September 2006 issue, it ranked Harriton the 33rd best school in Pennsylvania, 6th best public school in Pennsylvania and, 2nd best school in Montgomery County (just behind its sister school).
* Harriton is known to many other schools in the area as the "rich school" due to the fact that many of the kids that attend the school are very wealthy. This is because Gladwyne, Pennsylvania, Penn Valley, Rosemont, Villanova, and North Bryn Mawr, five of the Main Line's richest suburbs are zoned to it.

External links

* [http://www.lmsd.org Lower Merion School District]
* [http://www.lmsd.org/schools/harriton Harriton High School]

Alumni Groups.
* [http://www.lmhalum.org/lmhweb/html/hhs.htm Harriton High School Alumni Site]
* [http://www.fhzal.com/harriton Harriton High School, Class of 1989]

Misc.
* [http://www.lmsd.org/schools/harriton/images/aerial.jpgAn Aerial View of the School]
* [http://lmsd.org/hsmodernization/ Highschool Modernization Page]