Grossmont High School

Infobox Secondary school
name = Grossmont High School
native_name =

motto =
established = 1922
city = El Cajon
state = California
province =
country = USA
campus = Urban
type = Public comprehensive secondary
affiliation =
affiliations =
president =
principal = Theresa Kemper
headmaster =
rector =
dean =
founder =
chaplain =
chairman =
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head =
faculty =
students = Approximately 2,400
enrollment =
enrolment =
grades = 9-12
address = 1100 Murray Drive
district = Grossmont Union High School District
oversight =
accreditation =
mascot = Gus the Foothiller
colors = Blue and Gold
colours =
newspaper = "Foothill Echoes"
yearbook = El Recuerdo
free_label_1 = Nickname
free_1 = Foothillers
free_label_2 =
free_2 = No
free_label_3 =
free_3 =
website = [http://grossmont.guhsd.net/ Grossmont High School] [http://grossmonths.blogspot.com/ Grossmont High School Blog]
footnotes =
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Grossmont High School is the oldest high schoolFact|date=June 2007 in San Diego’s East County. Its mascot is the Foothiller, so chosen because, at the time of the school’s construction, East County was much more isolated from the rest of San Diego than it is today and was often referred to as “the boondocks” or “the foothills.” Grossmont is one of ten regular high schools in the Grossmont Union High School District, which also oversees a charter high school and a continuation high school. The school has an approximate enrollment of 2,400 students.

Grossmont High School has been accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) since 1962. The current accreditation is valid through 2008.

Grossmont is listed as being in El Cajon but is actually right on the border of La Mesa and El Cajon. The majority of the student body is from the La Mesa area. Grossmont High School's rival is Helix High School. Helix High School and Grossmont High School play for the coveted "musket" trophy in football. A lot of the students at Grossmont High School went to the same junior high school as students from Helix High School. That is what makes the rivalry so unique as all the students coming out of junior high got divided to go to two different high schools that split the city of La Mesa, Ca.

Campus

The school’s “Old Main” building was constructed in 1922 and was used for decades as a teaching space before being converted to district offices. The campus has slowly expanded over the past 80+ years to include thirteen additional permanent instructional, athletic, and administrative buildings. Notable among these is the “Old Gym” which was built in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps. Recent plans to demolish this gymnasium were tabled after considerable negative community response.Prop H Construction on the Grossmont High School campus began summer of 2005. The corridors are in the process of being re-modeled. So far buildings 800 and 700 have been re-modeled and the construction crews are going in reverse order by the building number, 800 first and 100 last. 600 will not be re-modeled as it was re-modeled in 1995, along with the Old Gym. The 400 building or the Old Main building was shut down. Whether the district will re-model this building or demolish it is yet to be decided.

Future Science Building & Locker Rooms
The scope of the Science Building Project encompasses designing a two-story science classroom building on the site of the current boy's locker room, shower facilities and weight room. The design is approximately 17,033 GSF for the Science Building comprising ten (10) classrooms (3 Chemistry; 5 Biology; 2 Physics) and New Restrooms. The building will be designed to the current District Standards as to performance capabilities, and per Education Code and building codes (ADA compliance, Fire Life Safety, Structural). Separately, construct a new 9,250 GSF Boys Locker, Showers, Weight Room. The underground utility infrastructure (wet & dry) utilities will removed, rerouted, installed (as required or requested) consistent with the underground utilities infrastructure plan. Construct a new 9,250 GSF Boys & Girls Locker, Showers, Team Room, to replace the existing Carl Perkins Building being demolished to make way for the new science building.

Curriculum

Commentary on the Founders
To select some alumni as especially “notable” would require several pages in small type. Graduates of Grossmont High School have excelled in all of the arts, sciences, professions, trades, public service, and, most important, in maintaining famiIies long resident in the area and energizing and maintaining new ones. A tradition of excellence began with Grossmont’s founding faculty and its closely-fol­lowing successors. It is surprising that no space on the grounds recognizes these educators, particularly an early principal and superintendent who oversaw explosive development of the District following World War II. Perhaps, one day, the most historic building on campus, instead of the dreary “Old Main,” (or any later structure that may replace it) will be identified as the Lewis F. Smith Memorial Administrative Center.

Other prominent faculty from the founding, and other early teachers, were, as examples: Miriam Anderson (Latin); Mary Atkinson (Women’s P.E.); John Crippin and Walter Barnett (Tennis); Merle Donohue (Choral Music); Harold Hughes (Physics); Winifred King (Biology); Jack Mashin (P.E., later, The Grand Old Coach); Raymond Reed (History); Harold G. Lutz (Instrumental Music); Eva McCarthy Quicksall and Dorothy Smith (English); Lazelle Andrew Smith and Beulah Shriver (Speech); Eugene Vinson (Foreign Languages); Ross Wallis (Art); and Hazel Eldridge (the model for all future principals’ secretaries, wherever they might be).

"Source: Richard S. Dunlop, Ed.D., Class of 1949, Grossmont District Faculty 1957–‘64," "Professor Emeritus, Division of Counseling Psychology, School of Education, University of Missouri-Kansas City" "10924 Oak Street, Kansas City, MO 64114""rsdunlop@ everestkc.net."

Extracurricular activities

Athletics

Grossmont's athletic teams, the Foothillers, compete in the North League of the Grossmont Conference and the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) San Diego Section.

The school fields teams in the following sports: baseball, boys basketball, girls basketball, boys cross country, girls cross country, football, boys golf, girls golf, gymnastics, boys lacrosse, girls lacrosse, boys soccer, girls soccer, softball, boys swimming & diving, girls swimming & diving, boys tennis, girls tennis, boys track & field, girls track & field, boys volleyball, girls volleyball, boys water polo, girls water polo, and wrestling.

Grossmont's varsity baseball team have captured the division II CIF title in the past 4 seasons ('05, '06, '07, '08) and ranks amongst the most competitive high schools in California.

Performing Arts

Among outstanding programs at Grossmont High, it is imperative to include instrumental music. The Marching Band, in particular, was a model for performing groups that followed its leadership in quality of production which began under Maestro Harold G. Lutz and continued with his successors at Grossmont and well beyond it.

Theatre arts are likely to have begun with pastor-friendly amusements typical for high schools early on. It was Raymond Kniss who introduced the higher quality of Broadway initiation of shows in 1948–1950 with Arsenic and Old Lace, You Can’t Take it With You, Our Town, and George Washington Slept Here. The first foreign-origin play at Grossmont was from 1917 Ireland. This was Robert Halvorsen’s production in 1957 of J. M. Synge’s hauntingly beautiful but dark The Playboy of the Western World–in brogue and with keening, and in-the round on the Gym floor. Plays by other American authors came along in time, these including Maxwell Anderson (Bad Seed), Arthur Miller (The Crucible) and Tennessee Williams (The Glass Menagerie). Edgier productions, for the time, included The Fourposter and Inherit the Wind. An innovation introduced around 1960 seems likely to be unique for the Little Theater at Grossmont, premiere productions of three one-acts, now long resident in the Samuel French Catalog, with cast lists of debut performers and crews. These were An Overpraised Season (1959); Four Bells Means Glory! (1960); and The Salvation of Lonnie McCain (1961), by Richard S. Dunlop. No head of the theatre program introduced classical drama at Grossmont until 2004 and 2007: Amity Ecker’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Hamlet.

Achievements in theatre arts were compromised, across time, by unsatisfactory production and performance circumstances. On the original campus, some distance north of the main building, a structure contained a cafeteria on its second floor. It is likely that platforms were arranged at one end of this space, perhaps with curtains fashioned in some manner. Circumstances were complicated in 1937 when a north wing was added to the main building, between it and the cafeteria structure. On the second floor, in Room 31, space identified as a Little Theater was created. This space was adequate for larger classes, speech contests, and the like, but was impossible as a functioning theater (had normal stage lighting been used there, performers would have been blinded or fried). Also in 1937, an architect’s glad idea of combining a gym floor and functioning auditorium arrived. These well intentioned horrors were not corrected for over 20 years. During the 1957–‘58 year, Dr. John T. Warburton, then principal, was able to secure funding from the District so that electrical supply to the Auditorium’s backstage was, for the first time, very good. “Patching” capabilities, for the first time, allowed remarkable flexibility, particularly in lighting, and a good deal of money was spent on acquiring new lighting apparatus. Dr. Warburton was, also, able to acquire, for other use, what had been the Band room. It was converted for theatrical use and Grossmont had, in 1958, a real, functioning Little Theater, seating perhaps 70 if managed conventionally. Fifty years later this space was scheduled for replacement by an excellently designed and equipped theater seating 200.

The oldest and best loved tradition at Grossmont High, in its history, extended from 1926 to 1988. This was its Christmas Pageant, given annually by students and faculty as a gift to the community. The Pageant began with one performance in one end of the cafeteria and eventually was offered in four performances in the Auditorium-Gymnasium, in which 1,200 guests could be seated. The program, of about one hour and 15 minutes, was free but tickets had to be se­cured well in advance. The last conductor of the final Chris­­t­mas Pageant was also its most experienced at the podium for that treasure, Maestro James Nichols. A thorough history of the Pageant, and of Grossmont High School, is to be found at: Dunlop, R.S. (2003). Grossmont High School Christmas Pageant, a History. Red Robe Choir Alumni Association. Available on the Net for down­loading from the Lakeside Historical Society, California. Available also via a simple Net search for “Grossmont High School Christmas Pageant.”

"Sources:"

"Richard S. Dunlop, Ed.D., Class of 1949, Grossmont District Faculty 1957–64. Professor Emeritus, Division of Counseling Psychology, School of Education, University of Missouri-Kansas City."

"Terry Lee (Reed) Jones-Brady, M.A., Class of 1959."

"Gary Lee Parks, M.A., Class of 1960. Principal Conductor, Northwest RLDS Symphony. Choral Director, Vancouver 3rd Ward Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.Captain, USNR (Retired). Captain, Delta Airlines (Retired)."

"Patsy Anne (Rowell) McClure, M.A., M.A., Class of 1961. English teacher (Retired). Development Coordinator (Retired).

"Various members of the Classes of ‘47 to ‘64."

Traditions

Commencement

Commencement at Grossmont used to take place atop nearby Mt. Helix in an amphitheater constructed in the early part of the twentieth century for Easter sunrise services. Graduation ceremonies were later moved to San Diego State University, and then to Grossmont’s own Thomas Mullen Adams Stadium (Adams was the first American military officer killed during the Iraq occupation, and a 1993 graduate). Awards granted each year at commencement include the Circle G Award, the Boy and Girl of the Year Award, and the Norman Freeman Award.

Fight Song

Last Strain of "Glory to the Trumpets" by JO Brockenshire

Alma Mater:"Hail to thee, dear Grossmont!:Hail blue and gold!:Thy praise, thy faith, thy honor:Shall in our lives be told.:In thee our hearts shall ever:Find inspiration's mold.:To thee our highest striving,:All hail blue and gold!"

Mission statement

:"To ensure that our students achieve their academic and personal potential, Grossmont High School’s mission is to create a community that fosters academic success and personal responsibility, provides diverse opportunities, and develops students’ interests and abilities."

Notable alumni

*William Anders, astronaut, Apollo 8
*Gregory R. Bryant, 1968, Rear Admiral, United States Navy
*Kevin Correia, Major League Baseball pitcher, San Francisco Giants
*Ralph Drollinger, UCLA star, NBA player.
*Geoff Geary, 1994, Major League Baseball pitcher, Philadelphia Phillies,Houston Astros
* [http://www.jackhamann.com Jack Hamann] , 1972, CNN documentary producer and author, "On American Soil"
*Andrea Lake, entrepreneur and contestant during the fifth season of the reality-TV show "The Apprentice"
*David Leisure, 1968, actor, "Empty Nest" and fictional spokesman Joe Isuzu (Isuzu commercials)
*Ellen Ochoa, 1975, astronaut
* [http://www.scu.edu/law/faculty/profile/ochoa-tyler.cfm Tyler T. Ochoa] , 1979, Law Professor
*Grant Roberts, Major League Baseball pitcher, New York Mets
*Brian Sipe, former National Football League (NFL) MVP quarterback, Cleveland Browns and United States Football League (USFL) New Jersey Generals and Jacksonville Bulls
*Frederick W. Sturckow, 1978, astronaut
*Jeff Van Raaphorst, Arizona Sun Devils Quarterback, 1987 Rose Bowl Player Of The Game
*Barry Zito, Major League Baseball pitcher, Oakland Athletics,San Francisco Giants 2002 Cy Young Award winner, attended Grossmont and University of San Diego High School
*Brant Rustich, 2003, Major League Baseball pitcher, New York Mets

See also

*List of high schools in San Diego County, California

References

* [http://www.guhsd.net/documents/01Grossmont_FY05r3.pdf Grossmont High School - School Accountability Report Card 2004-2005] (PDF)
* [http://grossmont.guhsd.net/StudentHandbook06_07.pdf Grossmont High School Student Handbook 2006-2007] (PDF)
* [http://www.guhsd.net/excurricular/ Grossmont Union High School District - school mascots and colors]
* [http://www.cajon.k12.ca.us/echs/echs_schoolhistory.html History of the Schools of El Cajon Valley]
* [http://www.acswasc.org/pdf_general/WASC_DirectoryAccreditedSchools.pdf Western Association of Schools and Colleges Directory of Accredited Schools 2005-2006] (PDF)

External links

GHS ALUMNI LOCAL BUSINESSES
* [http://www.isomgraphics.com/ Isom Graphics]
* [http://www.astarbiz.com/ A-Star Custom Etching & Awards]

Other Links
* [http://grossmont.guhsd.net/ Grossmont High School]
* [http://grossmonths.blogspot.com/ Grossmont High School Blog]
* [http://grossmont64.com/ Grossmont High School Class of 1964]
* [http://www.ghsclassof66.info/ Grossmont High School Class of 1966]