Horace Greeley High School

Infobox School2
name = Horace Greeley High School
established = 1928
type = Public
head_name = Principal
head = Andrew Selesnick
head_name2 = Assistant Principals
head2 = Mark Bayer, Michele Glenn, and Michael Taylor
city = Chappaqua
state = New York
country = USA
mascot = Quakers
free_label = Colours
free = Blue and Orange
website = [http://hg.ccsd.ws/ Horace Greeley Home Page]
free_label =
free =

Horace Greeley High School is a public, four-year secondary school located in Chappaqua, New York that serves the Chappaqua Central School District.

The school, which is housed in a 12-building campus, has about 1300 students and 100 faculty members. [http://www2.chappaqua.k12.ny.us/hgfaculty/counseling/Profile.htm Profile ] ]

Administration

As of 2008, the school principal is Andrew Selesnick. The school has three assistant principals, with one assigned to each grade except for 9th which is divided up among the three. Michele Glenn is the assistant principal for the Class of 2010, Mark Bayer is responsible for the Class of 2009 and Michael Taylor works with the current Class of 2008.

Distinctives

Horace Greeley is nationally respected for its high academic standards. It currently offers 23 advanced placement courses. According to ratings by the Wall Street Journal, Horace Greeley was ranked in a tie for first place among public high schools in the entire country.Fact|date=May 2008 Recent years have seen approximately one-fifth of graduating seniors recognized by the National Merit Scholarship committee; the class of 2004 included 25 National Merit semifinalists; the class of 2005 had 16; the class of 2007, 22. The mean SAT score among graduating seniors in the Class of 2005 was 1269 (612 Verbal and 657 Math). 97% of the Class of 2005 went on to higher education, 96% to four-year colleges. Many Horace Greeley graduates matriculate at top-ranked universities, including the schools of the Ivy League.Fact|date=June 2008

The high school is strong in several extracurricular programs. Its quiz bowl team won the National Academic Championship in 2003, finished third in 2007, and placed among the top six teams at the national tournament in five of the six years between 2000 and 2005. Fact|date=June 2008Chip Beall, the organizer of the tournament, noted in 2007 that Greeley's team had "the most airline miles logged at the National Academic Association's expense", a nod to their placement in the final rounds of the tournament more times than any other team in the tournament's history [http://qunlimited.com/national.htm] . The [http://www2.ccsd.ws/hgfaculty/debateTeam/greeleydebate.htm Horace Greeley Debate Team] has been successful at many regional tournaments as well as national tournaments, and has sent debaters to States every year since its inception in 2002. The Science Olympiad and Model United Nations teams have also won numerous accolades, as have the newspapers and yearbook.Fact|date=June 2008 In addition, the high school's orchestra, chorus, and band are consistent winners of the Music in the Parks state competitions held annually at Six Flags in New Jersey. Fact|date=June 2008

Distinctive programs at Horace Greeley include the LIFE (Learning Independently From Experience) school, an alternative school for grades 11-12 located on campus; independent study and senior project optionsFact|date=June 2008; a child study program linked to an on-site preschoolFact|date=June 2008; college-level classes offered through a partnership with Syracuse UniversityFact|date=June 2008; and a science research program to prepare students for prestigious competitions like the Intel Science Talent Search.Fact|date=June 2008 Arts and athletic offerings are extensive, and classes are offered in four foreign languages: Spanish, French, Latin, and, at the LIFE school, Italian. Russian was previously offered, but is no longer taught. In the 2005-2006 school year, Ancient Greek was taught for the first time.

Namesake

The school is named for Horace Greeley, a U.S. presidential candidate and editor of "The New York Tribune" who made his home in Chappaqua late in life. One of the school's two main publications, "The Greeley Tribune", is an additional tribute to the newsman. The school's yearbook is "The Quaker," also the school mascot. In 2006, "The Advocate", a former newspaper, was redesigned and changed its format to a modern, color, magazine layout, called "Advo".

Other student organizations at Greeley include the [http://greeleypac.com/ Political Action Club] , the umbrella community service group S.H.A.R.E., S.A.D.D.D. (Students Against Drinking and Drugging while Driving), Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA), Alliance for Equality, Students for Social Justice, AIDS Awareness, FCCLA, the Horace Greeley Improvisational Acting Troupe, Silent Earth: Greening Greeley, and Amnesty International, among many others.

Athletics

Sports are also popular on campus and among the diverse offerings are varsity programs in baseball, basketball, bowling, cheerleading, field hockey, American football, golf, ice hockey, lacrosse, skiing, soccer, softball, swimming and diving, tennis, track and cross country, volleyball, and wrestling. The school's only state championship came in 2002 and was won by the cross country team.Fact|date=June 2008 That same year the school's football team finished with a record of 11-2 and losing 22-15 to Rochester's Aquinas Institute in the New York State Class A State Championship game. Fact|date=June 2008 In 2006, the school's girls' cross-country team won the League and Sectional titles, and finished 2nd in Class A States. In 2007, both the girls' and boys' soccer teams made it to the state soccer tournament.Fact|date=June 2008 In 2007, both the Horace Greeley Cross Country Varsity Boys' and Girls' teams won the league championship. Fact|date=June 2008 Swimming has also been one of the most successful sports at Greeley, with four straight Sectional Championships in the early nineties ('91, '92, '93, '94). Fact|date=June 2008 In the 2007/2008 season the Quakers were undefeated League and Division Champions.Fact|date=June 2008

Campus

The Horace Greeley campus consists of a series of buildings in the school area of the campus and a large athletic field area. There are eleven buildings; A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, J,and L. There is an enclosed truss footbridge connecting the upper floors of L building and J building. There is also a concrete beam bridge connecting buildings E and F with J building.

Although the buildings (except A, the gymnasium, which is separate from the rest of the buildings) have recently been connected by indoor corridors, the buildings were previously connected only by an outdoor covered walkway that ran through the courtyards. There is also an astronomical observatory located near the competition field that is used mainly by the elective astronomy/geology class. In the rear of the campus is a maintenance area used by the Chappaqua Central School District. The athletic area consists of the main gymnasium, a wrestling gym, a small third gym, a fitness room, two softball fields, five tennis courts, two field hockey/soccer/lacrosse fields, two soccer/lacrosse fields, one varsity baseball field, two small baseball fields/practice football fields and a fenced-in competition field/track complete with bleachers, a press box and a concession stand that is used for football, lacrosse, and track and field.

Notable people

Horace Greeley High School has a number of notable alumni, many of them now in the entertainment industry.
* William Ackman, ('84), hedge fund investor (Pershing Square Capital Management)
* Adam Arkin ('80), actor (son of actor Alan Arkin)
* Adam Belanoff ('80), TV Writer and Producer including, The Closer, Titus, Cosby, Wings & Murphy Brown
* Joe Berlinger ('79), director of the film "Some Kind of Monster" (2004);
* Bibi Besch, ('59), TV actress seen in multiple "Star Trek", "Jeff Foxworthy Show", and "Falcon Crest" episodes
* Jay Braun aka Jason Braun ('89), musician and music producer / mixer of recording artists including The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, The Stills, The Fiery Furnaces, founding member of The Negatones
* Richard B. Erenberg, former football player, Pittsburgh Steelers 1984-87
* Tom Gilburg, former football player in the NFL for the Baltimore Colts (now the Indianapolis Colts) and former head football coach at Franklin & Marshall College
* Blake J. Harris ('01), film writer, " [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0829427/ The Flying Scissors] " (2006)
* Roxanne Hart ('69), actress in film and television and on stage -- with recurring roles in "Dream On", "Oz", and "Chicago Hope"
* Susan Hockfield ('69), president (2004-) of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
* Brad Jenkel ('85), producer of films including "The Matador" (2005), and "Dumb and Dumber" (1994)
* Ted Russell Kamp ('89) recording artist, solo jazz and alt-country performer; member of Shooter Jennings and the 357s.
* Heather Paige Kent ('86), actress, star of "That's Life" (2000)
* Paul Brill ('86), film and tv composer, songwriter, "The Devil Came on Horseback" (2007) "The Trials of Darryl Hunt" (2006)
* Steve Kroft ('63), journalist and correspondent on the TV program "60 Minutes"
* Brian Leiser ('90), alternative musician, member of Fun Lovin' Criminals
* Jordan Mechner ('81), game designer, creator of the computer game Karateka, the video game Last Express, and the series of Prince of Persia video games;
* Lawrence Meyers ('84), screenwriter, writer-producer of several television shows including "Picket Fences", "The Pretender", "Roar", "The Outer Limits" and "Crossing Jordan";
* Dan O'Keefe ('86), TV writer for "Seinfeld", famous for introducing Festivus;
* Laurence O'Keefe ('87), composer who co-wrote the Tony Award nominated music and lyrics for
* Mark O'Keefe ('89), screenwriter, including "Bruce Almighty" (2003) and "Click" (2003)
* Jason Scott Sadofsky ('88), film director, documentary maker and historian;
* Andy Rubin, technology pioneer (hand-held devices)
* Jay O. Sanders, stage and film actor [http://imdb.com/name/nm0761587/ imdb] ;
* Luke Sherman ('02), film actor
* Eric Stangel ('89), a head writer and producer of "The Late Show with David Letterman"
* Justin Stangel ('87), a head writer and producer of "The Late Show with David Letterman"
* Jonah Tulis ('00), film writer and film director, " [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0829427/ The Flying Scissors] " (2006);
* Dar Williams ('84), folk-pop singer-songwriter;
* Vanessa Williams ('81), model, actress and singer

References

External links

* [http://hg.ccsd.ws/ School website]
* [http://www2.chappaqua.k12.ny.us/hgfaculty/counseling/Profile.htm School profile]
* [http://www.hghs.org/ Alumni Center]
* [http://www.hgsf.org/ Horace Greeley Scholarship Fund]
* [http://maps.google.com/maps?ie=UTF8&z=19&ll=41.174984,-73.757258&spn=0.001454,0.002516&t=h&om=1 Satellite Images from Google Maps]