- Manchester Central High School
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This article is about the secondary school in New Hampshire, United States. For the former school of the same name in Manchester, England, see Manchester Academy (Moss Side). For other schools of a similar name, see Central High School (disambiguation).
Manchester Central High School 
Respice, Adspice, Prospice
(Look Towards the Past, Present, and Future)Location Manchester, NH, 
United StatesInformation Type Public high school Established March 30, 1846 Staff 159 Number of students 2,500 Campus Urban Nickname Little Green (unofficial) Website www.mansd.org/central Coordinates: 42°59′36″N 71°27′17″W / 42.99333°N 71.45472°W
Bronze statue of Abraham Lincoln by John Rogers in front of the Burns Building at Central High School.
Manchester High School Central is the oldest public high school in the state of New Hampshire. Located in the heart of Manchester, New Hampshire, over 2,400 students attend from communities such as Auburn, Candia, Hooksett, and Manchester. The name was changed from Manchester High School in 1922 when Manchester West High School opened. Including Central, Manchester has a total of three public high schools.
Its athletics teams are nicknamed the Little Green (after Dartmouth's Big Green), and predictably, the school colors are green and white. Sports Illustrated named the school's athletic department as the best in the state of New Hampshire in 2005.[1]
The school originally had crimson red as its school color, but Concord High School had taken the color soon after. After the turn of the century, the two schools decided that the winner of a league championship would keep its colors; Concord won, and Manchester Central chose forest green as its new color.
John Rist, the school's most recent principal, retired in June, 2011. As of July, 2011, a replacement principal had not been hired.
Central High School's student newspaper The Little Green is a highly respected publication. The Little Green was commended by Columbia Scholastic Press and featured in the Manchester Daily Express as well as the New Hampshire Union Leader.[2]
Contents
Diversity at Central
Manchester Central High School prides itself on its diverse student population. On a daily basis, Central's faculty teaches students from sixty different countries who speak thirty different languages.[3] New Hampshire Public Radio was so intrigued by the wide array of student backgrounds at Central that it decided to compose a project entitled "Culture Lessons" in 2006. The project's objective was to dive into the core of "a school with a very diverse population in a very homogeneous state".[4]
Notable alumni
- Jane Badler, actress, star of the 1983 TV miniseries V and its sequels
- Rogers Blood (1922–1944), a United States Marine Corps Reserve officer and posthumous recipient of the Silver Star for his actions during World War II
- James Broderick,[citation needed] actor and father of actor Matthew Broderick
- James O. Freedman,[citation needed] former president of Dartmouth College
- Rene Gagnon, United States Marine, one of the raisers of the American flag at Iwo Jima
- Chip Kelly, University of Oregon head football coach
- Grace Metalious, author of Peyton Place
- Bob Montana, creator of Archie
- Adam Sandler, comedian and actor
- Joseph Jedrysik, assistant chaplain at Pearl Harbor, fought and was killed at the base of the American flag.
Departments
The school is rich in academics. There are fifteen departments, all of which boast a multitude of classes. The departments are:
- Art
- Business
- Family and Consumer Science
- English
- English Language Learners
- Extended Learning Opportunities
- Mathematics
- Music
- Physical-Health Education
- Science
- Social Studies
- Special Education
- World Languages
Unfortunately, recent legislation has been enacted to make the three Manchester high schools the same. This would rob Central of some of its academic diversity. Central stands the most to lose, as it offers some classes which the other Manchester schools do not offer.
References
- ^ "2005 Best Sports High Schools By State". Sports Illustrated. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2005/magazine/05/11/top.high.map0516/1.html. Retrieved 2009-03-15.
- ^ "High School Journalism Awards". New Hampshire Union Leader. http://www.unionleader.com/article.aspx?articleId=f983bb6a-37bf-4b16-b7b0-ab7f83ed6ee8. Retrieved 2009-03-15.
- ^ "A Crew Team Like No Other". ESPN. http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=barone/060126. Retrieved 2009-03-15.
- ^ "Culture Lessons: Stories of Students at Manchester Central High School". New Hampshire Public Radio. http://www.nhpr.org/node/11473. Retrieved 2009-03-15.
External links
Categories:- Educational institutions established in 1846
- Buildings and structures in Manchester, New Hampshire
- Schools in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire
- Public high schools in New Hampshire
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