Henry Ford II High School

Henry Ford II High School is a secondary public school located in northern Sterling Heights, Michigan. It is part of Utica Community Schools and has a population of about 2,000 students. Prior to July 1, 2008, Mr. Robert Monroe was head principle. Beginning on July 1, however, he was named Executive Director of Schools for UCS and Mr. Steven Beyer from Stevenson High School took over the position.

Facilities and History

Two new district high schools became possible with successful voter approval of a $29.5 million bond issue in November 1969. Site development began in the Spring of 1971, immediately as structural designs emerged from the drawing board. The bid on structural steel began before the interior designs were even complete. The actual building contract was signed just 12 months after the day the Bond issue was approved. Building cost was $24.79 per square foot and total original square footage was 247,500.

The floor plan of the building is a unique shape, it is a series of curved exterior walls straddled by 3 structural identical ceilings, and the athletic area. These ceilings are completely independent of interior walls so that changes are easily possible. This unique design produces many wedge-shaped classrooms and curved hallways. The 4 main pods of the school house the athletic facilities, the English/social studies/foreign language (also known as “The Forum”), Math and Science, and Industrial Technology. 2 smaller pods house the Main office, and the band and music facilities.

The original "open space" building design, with many half-walls and open classrooms proved to be insufficient to learning. Years after the building opened, the district added many walls and extensions to walls. The result is an uneven and completely unbalanced HVAC system and many noticeable blemishes and pron in walls.

The summer of 2008, demolition took place in the school to fix the walls and outdated classrooms to better the learning experience.

Many of these same modifications have taken place at the school’s sister school, Dwight D. Eisenhower high school, which was dedicated in 1972 and has the same floor plan. The buildings are so alike, in fact, that in the early 70s, the same lockers in both buildings had interchangeable combinations.

The school has a large main gym with a balcony, originally intended for an auxiliary gym. The main auxiliary gym is however an addition, and was completed in 1990. As of February 2007, a second auxiliary gym was opened to implement and meet the needs of the MHSAA changes to the girls basketball season regulations. The athletic facility also features a weight room, a fitness room, and a competitive 25-yard pool, an advantage that many other schools have not, most namely Adlai E. Stevenson high school, who calls Henry Ford II’s pool home.

The outdoor athletic facilities are named after “James P. King”, who was a former board member in the district. The school has a regulation track, 2 baseball diamonds, 2 practice football fields, and 2 soccer fields. The football field is sufficient for freshmen and JV football games, but was never converted into a standard stadium. One of the several reasons for this is because it is located near the M53 Van Dyke Expressway and that stadium lights would interfere with traffic. Thus, Henry Ford II’s varsity football team calls Runkel Field home, which is located at Adlai E. Stevenson high school.

The school's "little theatre" was demolished in 2005 along with the media center to make way for the new “Lillian Demas Media Center” and a “Distance Learning Center” renamed the “ECC” or Electronic Collaboration Classroom in 2006. The ECC and the Media Center opened in the 2005-2006 school year. The ECC features state of the art projection and lighting systems and is used for presentations and small to medium-sized gatherings.

In 2004, the school’s locally-famous circle drive was modified to make way for construction on the new Performing arts center on the Clinton River Road front of the school. The performing arts center dramatically modifies the aesthetic front of the school. It officially opened in the Fall of the 2007-2008 school year and holds 800 patrons featuring modern touches and state of the art lighting and sound systems. The new center debuted officially with the musical, Into the Woods, in the December 2007.

The school has 5 parking lots arranged in a concentric pattern around the building: a main student lot, athletic lot, auxiliary student lot, limited access industrial tech lot, and staff/visitors lot. Juniors, Seniors, and those participating in varsity sports are permitted to drive.

Falcon Sports

Freshman, JV, and Varsity DanceFreshman, JV, and Varsity CheerJV, And Varsity BowlingVarsity Swim (boys and girls)JV and Varsity Tennis (boys and girls)

Freshman Football 2007 Record 8-1Jv Football 2007 Record 7-2Varsity Football 2007 5-4 ( did not make playoffs)

And lets not forget the Varsity, JV, and Frosh baseball teams.

=Extra Curricular Activities

Notable Alumni

Kevin R. Grazier, Ph.D. Planetary scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, author, and Science Advisor forthe Sci-Fi Channel series "Battlestar Galactica" and "Eureka", as wellas the animated series "The Zula Patrol".

Craig Krenzel, All-state Falcon quarterback and All-American Ohio State Buckeye. Played professional football for boththe Chicago Bears and Cincinnati Bengals.

Dennis Blunden, Head writer on the sitcom According to Jim.

Statistics

Student/Teacher ratio: 21:1

Nicknames

Henry Ford II High School was known locally as "Suicide High". Although the name is fading, October 22nd 2007 marked the 10th anniversary of a series of 5 suicides that took place between June and October of 1997. on October 22nd 1997, A 15 year old freshman was the last to take her life. [http://www.pub.umich.edu/daily/1997/oct/10-22-97/news/news14.html 1]

Henry Ford II High School also has many novelty nicknames, such as "H.F. Two" and "H.F. Deuce", which are variations of namesake Henry Ford II

Feeder Schools

Henry Ford II High School has only one of the district's 7 junior high schools as a feeder school,Bemis Junior High school. Bemis Junior High contains grades 7 and 8,and produces freshman classes that range from 550-700 students.

External links

* [http://www.macomb.k12.mi.us/utica/ford/HFIILMC.HTM Henry Ford II High School]
* [https://www.astihosted.com/UCSDCP/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabid=333 District Website]
* [https://www.astihosted.com/ucsdcp/DesktopDefault.aspx Utica Community Schools]