Warrenton High School (Oregon)

Infobox US school
name = Warrenton High School


image caption =
location = 1700 SE Main, Warrenton, OR 97146
USA
coordinates = coord|46.147254,-123.92826
motto =
established = 1920
type = Free public
district =
grades = 9 - 12
principal = Rod Heyen
campus type = Rural
campus size = 25 Acres
enrollment = 275-300
budget =
faculty =
mascot = Warriors
mascot

colors = Purple and White color box|purple color box|white
homepage = http://www.gowarrenton.com/whs/viewtopic.php?t=3

Warrenton High School is a public secondary school in Warrenton, Oregon, United States. It is in Clatsop, County on the Northwest Oregon coast. It serves the small town (4000 residents) and has an enrollment of between 275 and 300 students. It is home to one of the first on-campus high school fish hatcheries and aquaculture programs in the State of Oregon.

Academics

WHS operates a 7 period per day schedule. Outside of standard high school courses, Warrenton offers Advanced Placement English, Calculus, Foreign Language, and numerous other programs. [Special Course Offerings. Unknown Publication Date. Warrenton High School. 18 Apr. 2008. http://www.gowarrenton.com/whs/viewtopic.php?t=35]

Extra curricular

Clubs

Warrenton offers students the opportunity to participate in at least eight clubs. [Clubs. Unknown Publication Date. Warrenton High School. 18 Apr. 2008. http://www.gowarrenton.com/whs/viewtopic.php?t=43] The following is a list of the clubs offered:
*Drama Club
*Honor Society
*Computer Club
*Future Teachers of America
*Student Council
*Spanish Club
*Key Club
*Warrenton High School Fisheries

ports

The Warriors compete in several sports across the Fall, Winter, and Spring seasons. The following is a list of the sports:
*Football
*Volleyball
*Cross Country
*Boys and Girls Basketball
*Wrestling
*Track and Field
*Baseball
*Softball

Fisheries program

The Fisheries Program at WHS started out as the "fish farm club" and later became the aquaculture class in the early 1960s. The program was conceived and began in the later parts of the 1950s by Clatsop County notables such as Prof. Duncan K. Law, Paul See, and the program instructor, Larry Ballman. Ballman is credited with being the driving force in making the program a class and maximizing its potential. It started with rearing salmonids in buckets and releasing them into the on-campus Skipanon River, and grew to eventually being one of the pioneers of netpen rearing in the Pacific Northwest, with the first netpens built in the 1960s. Warrenton was founded under water and after its diking and incorporation as a city, it still was mostly wetland -- the fish rearing operation up until the 1970s was no exception. At times reaching only one board in width a wooden catwalk was the only way to the "fish farm" operations, until the early 1970s when the Oregon National Guard cleared and built a road to the pump shed. The first The on-campus fish hatchery was built in 1974 by the aquaculture, shop, welding, and PE classes alongside community volunteers directing the engineering. It is noted that the most prominent families in Warrenton or Astoria have members who were part of the program.

During the early to mid 1980s, the operations expanded to the Warrenton Municipal Sewer Ponds in the form of net pens. This operation recorded extremely high growth rates. The fish were tested and later released. The test results revealed that the fish were healthy and consumable, despite their environment.

Following Ballman's retirement, the program declined. Despite the new leadership of Steve Porter, the program barely hung on amidst massive budget cuts. In order to secure enough funds to keep the program going, Porter revamped the program and called it Natural Resources Management. He added reptile, game bird, and feeder animal rearing to the program calling for the students to manage their rearing projects in order to sell them, and with raising feeder animals and insects, they could make a profit which would go to patch the crumbling fish hatchery building. A new principal was hired in the 2003-04 school year and the fish hatchery program was cut. It wasn't until the next year that a new principal was hired and a student took advantage of the opportunity. In October 2004, Henry A. Balensifer III garnered the support of Rod Heyen, the new principal at WHS, and with the principal's support, restarted the entire program.

Receiving some eggs from Big Creek Hatchery and Astoria High School's fisheries program, the program began anew. Balensifer led a crew of students in Steve Porter's Natural Resources Management Class and organized and implemented a fisheries curriculum with Porter's assistance. By the next year, Balensifer was rearing tens of thousands of fish, but realized that a new fish hatchery facility would be needed.

Currently a new 2,000 sq. foot fisheries rearing and research facility is being built by WarHF, Inc., a non-profit incorporation that Balensifer founded in 2005. It is scheduled to be operational by the end of January, 2007 due to weather constraints.

Notable alumni

*Brian Bruney - Relief pitcher for the New York Yankees
*Dusty McGrorty - former NFL football player with the St. Louis Rams

References

External links

* [http://www.gowarrenton.com/whs/viewtopic.php?t=3 Warrenton High School] (official site)