Roosevelt High School (Seattle, Washington)

Infobox School
name=Roosevelt High School

---

motto=What I am to be I am now becoming
mascot=Rough Riders
established=1922
grades=9–12
type=Public
enrollment=1,710cite web | url=http://reportcard.ospi.k12.wa.us/summary.aspx?schoolId=1060&OrgType=4&reportLevel=School&year=2006-07 | title=Washington State Report Card - Seattle Public Schools - Roosevelt High School | date=2007-08-31 | accessdate=2008-06-17 | publisher=Washington State Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction]
principal=Brian Vance
faculty=84
colors=color box|green Green color box|gold Gold
streetaddress=1410 NE 66th Street
city=Seattle
state=Washington
country=flagicon|USA USA
zipcode=98115
website=http://rhs.seattleschools.org/
information=[phone]

seealso|Roosevelt High School "for schools of the same name"

Roosevelt High School (RHS) is a public school in the Seattle Public Schools district of Seattle, Washington, USA. Founded in the 1920s, Roosevelt continues to be one of the largest schools in the greater Seattle area. The school offers a wide variety of academic courses as well as extracurricular activities. In a yearlong series of reports on RHS, NPR described it as "an above-average school in a below-average school district." [ [http://www.npr.org/news/specials/roosevelt/ NPR : One Year in the Life at Roosevelt High School, A Special Report ] ] The school is named after Theodore Roosevelt; the school's team, the Rough Riders, is named after Roosevelt's famous military regiment. It subsequently gave its name to the Roosevelt neighborhood and nearby Roosevelt Way N.E. [ [http://rooseveltneighborhoodseattle.org/roughriders.aspx Roosevelt High School Rough Riders ] ] The school was remodeled from 2004 to 2006, during which classes were held in Lincoln High School. The building was seismically retrofitted and modernized, and many of the school's original architectural elements were preserved.

Programs, groups, and clubs

Roosevelt High School has the only full-time drama program in the Seattle School DistrictFact|date=October 2007. Eight periods of drama are offered per day including directing, acting, technical theater, production, design, and a complete musical theater program. There are four private voice teachers, a vocal director, and a choreographer for the annual musical.

Roosevelt High School remains one of the last two public schools in the Seattle Metropolitan area that offers Latin. The Latin language club, one of the more popular organizations on campus, is affiliated with the National Junior Classical League, and remains one of the largest local chapters; headed by Nora Macdonald, the Latin Language teacher, who has been teaching at Roosevelt for over 25 years.

In the Hands for a Bridge program, members choose to travel to either South Africa or Northern Ireland, where they help foster dialogue about diversity, prejudice, and social change. This group was created in 2001 by teachers Tom Nolet, Francene Watson, and Danny Rock with assistance from the University of Washington's Comparative History of Ideas program and the Jackson School of International Studies. Each student accepted to this program is enrolled in the HFB class, where an intensive semester-long study of literature, history, and the arts focuses on cultures in conflict [ [http://www.handsforabridge.org/wordpress/?page_id=2 Hands For A Bridge » About ] ] . The Northern Ireland travelers visit Oakgrove Integrated College in Derry which is lead by Paul Elwood, while the South African travelers visit Isilimela Comprehensive School and Bellville High School (Hoërskool Bellville) in Cape Town [ [http://www.handsforabridge.org Hands For A Bridge ] ] .

In 2006, students and their teachers designed a robot to fly in a weightless environment. When a sensor on the spherical robot perceives a beam of infrared light, it stops its rotation and, with the force caused by a set of motors spinning heavy flywheels, rotates the "front" to face the source of light. [http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/241396_lcenter20.html]

Roosevelt High School was home of the first successful program in Seattle oriented around students with Asperger's syndrome, a form of high functioning autism. The program was headed by Ed Brannan, organizer of Edmonds Autism Connection. [http://www.edmondsautism.com/]

Music

Marching band

The marching band performs halftime shows at all home football games, basketball games, and occasionally volleyball games. Known as "The Pride of Seattle," this group of students also travels to and performs in multiple parades in the Northwest each year [ [http://riderband.org/travel.htm RHS Music Program ] ] .

Orchestras

The Roosevelt Orchestra program, conducted by Anna Edwards, includes the Concert Orchestra, the Symphony Orchestra, and the Chamber Orchestra. The orchestras perform annually at various concerts and competitions, including the annual competition in Gresham, Oregon. [ [http://www.rooseveltorchestra.org/ ::Welcome to RHS orchestra:: ] ] The group recently placed second in the 2007 festival, with first place going to crosstown rivals Garfield in a close decision.

Jazz band

The Roosevelt Jazz Band, conducted by Scott Brown, performs and competes all over the nation and has traveled internationally. The band has been a finalist many times in the prestigious Essentially Ellington Competition in New York, winning second place in 2005 and first place in 2002, 2007 and 2008( Cite web | title= EE Winners | url= http://www.jazzatlincolncenter.org/jazzED/ee/f_winners.html ). Every year, the jazz band groups travel to Moscow, Idaho to compete in the Lionel Hampton Jazz festival, one of the largest festivals for young people in the world. Besides its renowned jazz band, there is an excellent vocal jazz, as well as two after-school jazz bands: the Jazz Lab and Jazz Band III. Jazz Band III was introduced at the beginning of the 2006-07 school year because of an increased number of jazz musicians arriving at Roosevelt.

Concert bands

Besides the jazz bands and orchestras, student musicians have the option to be in one of two concert bands, both conducted by Scott Brown. One band is called the Cadet Band, and consists predominantly of freshmen. The second concert band is the award-winning Symphonic Band, which competes in several local competitionsFact|date=October 2007.

Drama

Roosevelt High School is well-known for its drama programFact|date=November 2007. Each year they do Dramafest (ten to fifteen student produced plays), the Winter Production, and the Spring Musical, as well as several smaller plays mainly done by the students from a single class.

ports

Girls' basketball

In the past six years, the girl's basketball team has won one state championship ( cite web |title = WIAA History |url =http://www.wiaa.com/history/champs.aspx ) and had a wide-release theatrical movie, "The Heart of the Game" based on their experiences. [imdb title|id=0478166|title=The Heart of the Game]

Languages

Roosevelt offers several languages, including: Latin, Spanish, Japanese, French, and American Sign Language [http://www.rhsseattle.org/rhs-courses.pdf] .

Newspaper

The Roosevelt News is a prestigious 28 to 32-page monthly production, made completely by students and overseen by a staff advisor. The paper won the Pacemaker Award a few years ago, which is the "Pulitzer Prize" of student publications.

Notable alumni

Alumni of Roosevelt High School include:
* Former U.S. Senator and Washington State Governor Daniel J. Evans
* Former King County Executive Randy Revelle
* Former City Councilwoman Sue Donaldson
* Musician Mike McCready (Pearl Jam)
* Musician Duff McKagan (Guns N' Roses)
* Musician Eldon Hoke (The Mentors)
* Musician Sara Gazarek
* Rapper Sir Mix-a-Lot
* Actor Richard Karn ("Home Improvement")
* Author Betty MacDonald
* Author David Guterson ("Snow Falling on Cedars", 1994, and "East of the Mountains", 1999)
* Former NBA star James Edwards
* Former NFL quarterback Hugh Millen
* Former NFL wide receiver Mark Pattison
* Nobel Prize Winner Linda Buck
* Nobel Prize Winner Robert Lucas, Jr.
* Former Seattle Mayor Gordon Clinton
* Basketball Player Marcus Williams
* Actress/Model Rose McGowan
* Astronomer James Whitney Young (Jet Propulsion Laboratory)
* Cartoonist/Author Lynda Barry
* Cartoonist Charles Burns (cartoonist)

References

External links

* [http://rhs.seattleschools.org/ Official website]
* [http://www.npr.org/news/specials/roosevelt/index.html "Roosevelt High School: One Year in the Life", NPR radio article]
* [http://www.rooseveltfoundation.org/index.php Roosevelt High School Foundation]
* [http://www.riderband.org Roosevelt High School Marching Band]
* [http://www.rooseveltjazz.org/index.shtml Roosevelt High School Jazz]
* [http://www.rooseveltdrama.org/index.php Roosevelt High School Drama]