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Central High School (Grand Junction, Colorado)
Encyclopedia
Central High School is a public secondary school
for grades 9-12 located in Grand Junction, Colorado
. Its enrollment is approximately 1650, and it is operated by Mesa County Valley School District No. 51. Central High offers many extracurricular organizations, sports, and clubs. A small sample of these would be football
, baseball
, tennis
, Chess club
, marching band
, and Knowledge Bowl
. The school also hosts the local JROTC
classes. Students from around the Grand Valley
are welcome to participate and can arrange their schedules through the district accordingly. Central publishes a school newspaper
titled, "The Warrior," which highlights the most current school issues.
In August 2009, U.S. President Barack Obama led a televised "town hall meeting" on healthcare reform at Central High School.
The school competes in activities including Speech and Debate
, Knowledge Bowl, and JROTC, as well as various sports.
Statistics
and Calculus
. To graduate from Central High, a student must have 25 "credits", obtained by completing classes. The schedule (as of 2006; this may change in 2007) is divided into four "block" classes in the day and four quarters in the year. It is possible to earn 0.5 credit per quarter per block. Set up this way, a student could earn 8 credits during one school year and 32 credits during 4 years of high school. This allows for students to retake failed classes and improve their grades without delaying their graduation. The exception to the 8 credits per year is if you take an after school course or are involved in a zero hour class. Zero hour classes take place 90 minutes (one standard block class length) before school and count for the standard amount of credits. After school courses include marching band
and jazz band
. These also count for the regular 0.5 credit per class earning. However, after school classes tend to entail activities outside of school (perhaps going to perform in a parade
, competition, or other such activity). These activities are considered extracurricular and do not count towards school credits.
This school has also partnered with Mesa State College
to offer many college level courses if the student is excelling at high school level.
Secondary school
Secondary school is a term used to describe an educational institution where the final stage of schooling, known as secondary education and usually compulsory up to a specified age, takes place...
for grades 9-12 located in Grand Junction, Colorado
Grand Junction, Colorado
The City of Grand Junction is the largest city in western Colorado. It is a city with a council–manager government form that is the county seat and the most populous city of Mesa County, Colorado, United States. Grand Junction is situated west-southwest of the Colorado State Capitol in Denver. As...
. Its enrollment is approximately 1650, and it is operated by Mesa County Valley School District No. 51. Central High offers many extracurricular organizations, sports, and clubs. A small sample of these would be football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
, baseball
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
, tennis
Tennis
Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...
, Chess club
Chess club
A chess club is a club formed for the purpose of playing the board game of chess. Chess clubs provide for both informal games and timed games, often as part of an internal competition or in a league.-Organisation:...
, marching band
Marching band
Marching band is a physical activity in which a group of instrumental musicians generally perform outdoors and incorporate some type of marching with their musical performance. Instrumentation typically includes brass, woodwinds, and percussion instruments...
, and Knowledge Bowl
Knowledge Bowl
Knowledge Bowl is an interdisciplinary academic competition involving teams of four to six students trying to answer questions in a written round and several oral rounds. No team is eliminated in this event, and every team participates in every round...
. The school also hosts the local JROTC
Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps
The Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps is a Federal program sponsored by the United States Armed Forces in high schools across the United States...
classes. Students from around the Grand Valley
Grand Valley (Colorado)
The Grand Valley is an extended populated valley, approximately 30 miles long and 5 miles wide, located along the Colorado River in Mesa County in western Colorado and Grand County, Utah in the United States. The valley contains the city of Grand Junction, as well as other smaller communities...
are welcome to participate and can arrange their schedules through the district accordingly. Central publishes a school newspaper
Student newspaper
A student newspaper is a newspaper run by students of a university, high school, middle school, or other school. These papers traditionally cover local and, primarily, school or university news....
titled, "The Warrior," which highlights the most current school issues.
In August 2009, U.S. President Barack Obama led a televised "town hall meeting" on healthcare reform at Central High School.
The school competes in activities including Speech and Debate
Debate
Debate or debating is a method of interactive and representational argument. Debate is a broader form of argument than logical argument, which only examines consistency from axiom, and factual argument, which only examines what is or isn't the case or rhetoric which is a technique of persuasion...
, Knowledge Bowl, and JROTC, as well as various sports.
Curriculum
Central High offers a wide variety of classes, from basic computing to Advanced PlacementAdvanced Placement Program
The Advanced Placement program is a curriculum in the United States and Canada sponsored by the College Board which offers standardized courses to high school students that are generally recognized to be equivalent to undergraduate courses in college...
Statistics
Statistics
Statistics is the study of the collection, organization, analysis, and interpretation of data. It deals with all aspects of this, including the planning of data collection in terms of the design of surveys and experiments....
and Calculus
Calculus
Calculus is a branch of mathematics focused on limits, functions, derivatives, integrals, and infinite series. This subject constitutes a major part of modern mathematics education. It has two major branches, differential calculus and integral calculus, which are related by the fundamental theorem...
. To graduate from Central High, a student must have 25 "credits", obtained by completing classes. The schedule (as of 2006; this may change in 2007) is divided into four "block" classes in the day and four quarters in the year. It is possible to earn 0.5 credit per quarter per block. Set up this way, a student could earn 8 credits during one school year and 32 credits during 4 years of high school. This allows for students to retake failed classes and improve their grades without delaying their graduation. The exception to the 8 credits per year is if you take an after school course or are involved in a zero hour class. Zero hour classes take place 90 minutes (one standard block class length) before school and count for the standard amount of credits. After school courses include marching band
Marching band
Marching band is a physical activity in which a group of instrumental musicians generally perform outdoors and incorporate some type of marching with their musical performance. Instrumentation typically includes brass, woodwinds, and percussion instruments...
and jazz band
Jazz band
A jazz band is a musical ensemble that plays jazz music. Jazz bands usually consist of a rhythm section and a horn section, in the early days often trumpet, trombone, and clarinet with rhythm section of piano, banjo, bass or tuba, and drums.-Eras:SwingDuring the swing era in the mid-twentieth...
. These also count for the regular 0.5 credit per class earning. However, after school classes tend to entail activities outside of school (perhaps going to perform in a parade
Parade
A parade is a procession of people, usually organized along a street, often in costume, and often accompanied by marching bands, floats or sometimes large balloons. Parades are held for a wide range of reasons, but are usually celebrations of some kind...
, competition, or other such activity). These activities are considered extracurricular and do not count towards school credits.
This school has also partnered with Mesa State College
Mesa State College
Colorado Mesa University is a public comprehensive university in Grand Junction, Colorado. The university has its primary campus in central Grand Junction. The university also has other campuses as well; Bishop Campus, which houses Western Colorado Community College in northwestern Grand Junction...
to offer many college level courses if the student is excelling at high school level.
Notable alumni
Ryan Patterson attended Central High School and won national recognition for his "Sign Language Translator", which was a Grand Award winner for the 2001 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. He won first place in the individual category at the 2001 Siemens Westinghouse Science & Technology Competition.See also
- List of high schools in Colorado
- List of high schools in Mesa County, Colorado