Hampshire High School (Illinois)
Encyclopedia
Hampshire High School (commonly referred to as Hampshire or HHS) is a public high school for students in grades 9 through 12 located in Hampshire, Illinois
Hampshire, Illinois
Hampshire is a village in Kane County, Illinois, United States.-Geography:Hampshire is located at .According to the United States Census Bureau, the village has a total area of , all of it land.-Demographics:...

. Hampshire High School serves students from Hamphire and surrounding areas, including Gilberts, Pingree Grove, Carpentersville, Huntley, and Sleepy Hollow. The school is located at the northern edge of Hampshire.

Hampshire High School is part of Community Unit School District 300, or D300, and is the newest of three high schools serving the district. Feeder schools to Hampshire include Hampshire Middle School and Dundee Middle School. The school is a member of the Illinois High School Association, Big Northern Conference. HHS plans to move to the Fox Valley Conference for the 2011-12 sports season. This would mean a schedule including the other two D300 schools.

The school colors are purple and white and the mascot is a Whip-Pur, depicted as a cat similar to a panther.

History

During the mid-19th century nine one-room school houses were built in Hampshire Township. These schools served all grade levels until 1838 when a high school and grade school was built at State Street and Mill Street in downtown.

After the school burned down in 1851, it was rebuilt in the same location. The nine one-room school houses served as grade schools into the 20th century.

In 1896 a square brick high school was constructed. Additions added to the capacity of the school and it remained Hampshire High School until a new building was constructed on South State Street. Stairs from the old high school can still be seen.

All Hampshire schools joined Carpentersville-based District 300 in 1948.

Planning for the combined Hampshire High School and Middle School began in 1950 and the school officially opened on Friday, September 5, 1952. That building was 32098 square feet (2,982 m²). It opened with 105 high school students, 46 boys and 59 girls, as well as 58 middle school students, 32 boys and 26 girls. The main sports gym was not finished until January 1953. 1,000 people attended the first open house of the new gym.

In 2008 the newest Hampshire High School building was built on 103 acre (0.41682658 km²) of former Tamm's family farmland. The old school building to become the middle school exclusively.

Facility

The current Hampshire High School building was completed with construction in 2008, ready for the 2008-09 school season, although it was late. The building cost around $70 million dollars and is the newest high school in District 300. A new high school was needed after exponential population growth. The tight knit community of the old Hampshire High School will be missed, along with athletic contests housed within the old gym on "Pack the Place" game nights where the noise level within would compare proportionally with the old Chicago Stadium.

The new Hampshire High School contains 7500000 cubic feet (212,376.4 m³) under roof and includes 65 traditional classrooms, 11 musical rooms, 5 art rooms, 13 science labs, 3 business labs, 5 industrial arts rooms, 3 family and consumer science labs, 8,100 library books, 75 lunch tables, 2,500 seat competition gym, indoor track, 750 seat auditorium, 6 computer labs, 1,200 data drops, 76 miles (122.3 km) of network cable, 48 wireless access points, and 89 cameras.

Many of the class rooms are equipped with SmartBoards and every room has a projector, camera, and DVD/VHS player. When at full capacity HHS is expected to be able to accommodate around 2500 students. However, this maximum will come to fruition over many years due to the slowing of neighborhood building.

Many people notice that there is not a pool at Hampshire High School. Some reasons that made the decision so are that the already high building cost and the feeling of it as unnecessary. When a pool is added it will go on the east side by the locker rooms.

Capacity

Auditorium - 750

Main Competition Gym - 2500

Field House - 1900

Commons - 900

Classrooms - About 35-45

Lecture Hall - 100

Safety

Hampshire High School is filled with surveillance cameras throughout the school grounds. This feature allows administrators to view nearly every inch of the building. There is also a police officer officially on duty at the school. Emergency buttons are placed within the halls and call buttons are in every classroom.

Schedule

Hampshire High School utilizes block scheduling. Students attend four classes a term, four terms a year. All District 300 high schools use the block format. The block scheduling was originally developed in Colorado. Various representatives from D300 flew to Colorado to observe the system and determine if it could suit the district's needs.

In the middle of the day is Whip-Time, which lasts for 20 minutes. Whip-Time is an advisory period when students can talk to teachers, go to the library, do homework, take tests, and go on the computers. Lunch is configured around 3rd Block; A lunch is before, B lunch is in the middle, and C lunch is afterwards. Every lunch lasts for 30 minutes. A school day goes as follows:

1st Block (7:40-9:07)

2nd Block (9:15-10:42)

Whip-Time (10:50-11:10)


3rd Block (11:18-1:17)(Including Lunch A, B, & C)

4th Block (1:25-2:53)

Each of the four classes are 87 minutes long with 8 minute passing periods. The total school day lasts for seven hours and 23 minutes.

Every other Monday, however, the school has late start days. Classes begin at 9:45 and end at the normal time. Classes are shortened to one hour and five minutes and passing periods are cut back to five minutes. Lunch stays the same length. Whip-Time is not held on late start days. Furthermore, the first day of every week is called a "no movement" day. This means that students must stay in their respective Whip-Time classrooms and may not obtain a pass to other classrooms.

Industrial Arts

On the far west side of the building is the industrial arts wing. There one can find a Computer Aided Design (CAD) lab, electricity lab, wood lab, and welding lab. The CAD lab features new widescreen computers with AutoDesk AutoCAD 2010 and Google SketchUp installed. The wood lab is home to a state-of-the-art SawStop
SawStop
SawStop is a table saw manufacturer headquartered in Tualatin, Oregon, USA. The company was founded in 2005 to sell table saws that feature a patented automatic braking system that stops the saw within milliseconds if its blade comes in contact with the operator's hand or other body part.-How it...

table saw which is usually not found in schools due to the $10,000 price tag. In addition, there is about $7,000 worth of Bosch tools and a $30,000 ShopBot CNC machine. This is not the only wood lab, however, there is also one on the east side behind the auditorium. This shop, called the scene shop, is used to fabricate all of the sets required for school plays.

Athletics

Conference: Fox Valley

Arena names: Gym and Field House

Sports Teams

Boys
  • Baseball
  • Basketball
  • Cross Country
  • Football
  • Golf
  • Hockey (Club Sport)
  • Soccer
  • Tennis
  • Track and Field
  • Wrestling


Girls
  • Basketball
  • Cheerleading
  • Cross Country
  • Poms
  • Golf
  • Soccer
  • Softball
  • Tennis
  • Track and Field
  • Volleyball

State Championships

  • Chess Team: runner up: 1979
  • Football: runner up: 1978
  • Football: State Champs: 1976, 1979, and 1995
  • Girl's Basketball: 3rd Place-State 2003
  • Girl's Basketball: State Runner Up 2004
  • Girl's Soccer: 4th Place-State 2007
  • Girl's Soccer: Runner-up: 2008
  • Girls Volleyball: Runner-up: 2007
  • Girls Track: Natalie Salinas- Discuss 4th Place-State 1999, Discuss 2nd Place-State 2000, and Discus State Champ 2001. Erin Salinas- Discus State Champ 2002
  • Boys Track: Quinn Walker- 300 M Hurdles State Champ 2008

Math Team

In 2010 and 2011, the HHS math team came in third place in the Big Northern Conference. Awards have included 1st place finishes in the subjects of Geometry, Calculus, and Algebra.

National Honor Society

The National Honor Society, or NHS, is a major part of HHS. For the 2010-11 school season more than 50 students were inducted into NHS. NHS consists of volunteer work and school improvement. Students in NHS must fulfill a 15 hour minimum of community service.

Notable alumni

  • Dale Melms (1948) -First Hampshire grad to sign with a major league baseball team - Cleveland Indians
  • John Lurain Jr (1964) - Cancer Research
  • Kathleen Fuchs (1986) - San Francisco Opera
  • Lisa Varacins -(1991) - First Hampshire female grad to graduate from USAF Academy
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK