Hidden Valley High School is a public high school

High school

High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....

 in Roanoke County, Virginia

Roanoke County, Virginia

Roanoke County is a county located in the U.S. state of the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is part of the Roanoke Metropolitan Statistical Area and located within the Roanoke Region of Virginia. As of the 2000 census, the population was 85,778. As of 2010, the population was 92,376...

. It is one of the five high schools in the Roanoke County Public Schools system. Hidden Valley High School is one of the two high schools, along with Cave Spring High School, that serve southwest Roanoke County.

Statistics

292 students are freshmen, 247 are sophomores, 293 are juniors, and 253 are seniors. 4% of the students are eligible for free lunches, and 3% are eligible for reduced price lunches.

History

Hidden Valley High School was opened for the 2002-2003 school year by Roanoke County public schools in response to overcrowding at Cave Spring High School. Enrollment at Cave Spring was limited to grades 10-12 in contrast to the contemporary educational preference to house grades 6-8 in middle school

Middle school

Middle School and Junior High School are levels of schooling between elementary and high schools. Most school systems use one term or the other, not both. The terms are not interchangeable...

 and grades 9-12 in high school. Hidden Valley was the first new high school opened in the immediate Roanoke Valley

Roanoke Valley

The Roanoke Valley in southwest Virginia is an area adjacent to and including the Roanoke River between the Blue Ridge Mountains to the east and the Appalachian Plateau to the west...

 because of increased enrollment since the 1960s. There was significant debate about whether to split Cave Spring's student population into two schools or keep it intact in a renovated or newly constructed building because of the school's well regarded reputation in academics. Eventually, Roanoke County decided to build a second high school for southwest county.

The name Hidden Valley was selected to correspond to Hidden Valley Middle School in southwest county. The high school is not in the Hidden Valley section of Roanoke County and is a little over three miles from the middle school. Woods End, the designation for the tract of land, was also considered for the new school's name. The incoming student population selected the nickname Titans in response to the recently released movie Remember the Titans

Remember the Titans

Remember the Titans is a 2000 American sports film produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and directed by Boaz Yakin. Inspired by real events, the plot was conceived from a screenplay written by Gregory Allen Howard. The film starts as a new coach of the Titans, a football team previously coached by the...

 which dramatized the 1971 state championship football team from T. C. Williams High School

T. C. Williams High School

T. C. Williams High School is a public high school in Alexandria, Virginia, named after former superintendent Thomas Chambliss Williams of Alexandria City Public Schools who served from the mid-1930s to the mid-1960s...

 of Alexandria, Virginia

Alexandria, Virginia

Alexandria is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of 2009, the city had a total population of 139,966. Located along the Western bank of the Potomac River, Alexandria is approximately six miles south of downtown Washington, D.C.Like the rest of northern Virginia, as well as...

.

Academics

Hidden Valley High School is a comprehensive high school which includes grades 9-12 with a student enrollment of 1,211. The school offers courses in multiple academic disciplines including Advanced Placement courses. The core classes provided include English, Government, Health/PE, Math, and Science. Speciality classes are also provided and include Art, Band, Business, Computer Science, Foreign Language, Marketing, Technology Education, and Theater Arts. Specialized arts and vocational education is available at places like The Burton Center for Art and Technology in Salem, or the Roanoke Valley Governor's School for Science and Technology

Roanoke Valley Governor's School for Science and Technology

The Roanoke Valley Governor's School for Science and Technology is located in the Grandin Court neighborhood of Roanoke, Virginia on the campus of Patrick Henry High School, and was established in 1985 as a result of the cooperative effort of seven regional school districts to improve education in...

 in Roanoke. Pass rates for Virginia's Standards of Learning

Standards of Learning

Standards of Learning ' is a public school standardized testing program in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It sets forth learning and achievement expectations for core subjects for grades K-12 in Virginia's Public Schools...

 tests average over 90%, which makes the school fully accredited.
Hidden Valley High formerly housed the Specialty Center for Mass Communications, until it was moved to The Burton Center for Art and Technology in the 2006-2007 school year.

Swimming

In the 2003-2004 school year, the Men's Swim Team captured the school's first state championship.

Band programs

The entire band program makes up approximately 20% of the student body at the high school. The school has three instrumental musical classes during the school day: the concert band, symphonic band, and the wind ensemble. The three bands have earned an "Excellent" and "Superior" at the annual VBODA concert festival. Also provided are a morning and afternoon jazz band, a morning instrumental ensemble (which had to be cancelled for the 2010-2011 school year due to under enrollment in the class), and the school's "Mighty Titan Marching Band". The marching band consists of over 200 members and has earned both "Excellent" and "Superior" ratings at the annual VBODA marching festival. The band is one of the largest in the state, a Class 5A band , and has earned a "Superior" rating in 2006 at the aforementioned VBODA State Marching Festival, from all 5 judges. Other musical programs offered by the school include music theory and choir. Mr. Barry Tucker, previous director of bands and teacher at Roanoke County Schools for almost three decades, stepped down from the head director position to take a higher job for the entire school system. His successor and previous assistant, Mr. Glen Gray, began his Hidden Valley High School career as of the 2007-2008 school year, but resigned after the 2009-2010 year due to family health problems. Mr. Gray's assistant director Mr. Dustin McCollum then took over the position of head director as of the 2010-2011 school year.

Choir Program

Hidden Valley High School also has a choir, who has been selected to perform in and has performed in the Disney World Candlelight Processional in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2009. Various members of the choir also sang backup for Bob Carlisle

Bob Carlisle

Bob Carlisle is a Grammy Award and Dove Award-winning American musician who performs Christian music. He performed with several bands, most notably Allies and Billy Thermal, before launching a solo career...

when he came to Roanoke for a small performance in November 2004.