For schools with a similar name, see Jefferson High School

Jefferson High School

Jefferson High School may refer to one of several high schools in the United States:* Jefferson High School * Jefferson High School * Jefferson High School...

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Thomas Jefferson High School is a public high school in Cedar Rapids

Cedar Rapids, Iowa

Cedar Rapids is the second largest city in Iowa and is the county seat of Linn County. The city lies on both banks of the Cedar River, north of Iowa City and east of Des Moines, the state's capital and largest city...

, Iowa

Iowa

Iowa is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland". It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of the French colony of New...

. It is the eighth largest high school in Iowa. The school's mascot is Jeffy the J-Hawk and the official school colors are Columbia Blue and White.

School Statistics

Cedar Rapids Jefferson High School is one of the few 2 time Blue Ribbon National School of Excellence. Jefferson currently has 170 staff members, and 1610 students.

The following is statistical information about Jefferson:

• The Student to Teacher ratio is 16:1

Foreign Languages and Trips

Jefferson offers 4 years of Spanish, with the option of AP Spanish as a replacement of 4th year Spanish as well as 4 years of French, with the same AP option.
In the beginning of the 2009-2010 school year, Japanese and German were also added to the list of available languages. Currently, Jefferson offers 3 years of German, as well as Japanese.

Athletics

Jefferson has 22 Varsity level sports and is one of 14 schools that participate in the Mississippi Valley Conference.

Fall Sports:

• Football
• Volleyball
• Men's Cross Country
• Women's Cross Country
• Men's Golf
• Women's Swimming

Winter Sports:

• Wrestling
• Men's Basketball
• Women's Basketball
• Men's Swimming
• Men's and Women's Bowling

Spring Sports:

• Men's Tennis
• Women's Tennis
• Men's Track
• Women's Track
• Men's Soccer
• Women's Soccer
• Women's Golf

Summer Sports:

• Baseball
• Softball
• Cheerleading

Fine arts

Jefferson is nationally renowned for their fine arts department and is continually recognized for its achievement. The marching "Band of Blue" and Wind Symphony have won over 30 consecutive Division 1 ratings at State contest, as does the Concert Choir and Meistersingers, Jefferson's top performing vocal ensemble. The Band of Blue won first place for division four at the annual Mount Pleasant Competition in 2009. The Band of Blue also won awards such as Best Drum Major and Best Drum Corps. in 2011, The Band of Blue returned to Mount Pleasant and received 1st place once again. Jefferson's top auditioned band, Wind Symphony, also was chosen to perform a clinic at the 2011 Midwest Clinic in Chicago, one of the top honors for a concert band. Also, in 2010, West Side Delegation was crowned Grand Champions at the Benton Community Show Choir Invitational, winning Best Choreography and Best Band. In 2010, Westside was crowned Grand Champions 4 times, and ranked 6th nationwide. in 2011, West Side Delegation continued the fine tradition and received 2nd runner up, two 1st runner ups, and was named Grand Champions twice and received honors once again as one of the top show choirs in the nation. The instrumental and choir/orchestra departments go on educational tours alternating every year. Jefferson's Thespian Troupe produces five productions a year, including one musical and one children's theatre piece. Plays are produced in one of two venues on campus; the auditorium or the little theatre. Nearly half of Jefferson's students participate in one of the many fine arts programs. These include:

Instrumental

• Band of Blue, 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...
  
  
• Wind Symphony
• Symphonic Band
• Jazz Band
• 9th Grade Band
• Pep Band

Choral

• Men's 9th Grade Choir
• Women's 9th Grade Choir
• Jeff Singers
• Men's Select Concert Choir
• Women's Select Concert Choir
• Meistersingers
• Ovation (Junior Varsity Show Choir
  Show choir
  A show choir is a group of people who combine choral singing with dance movements, sometimes within the context of a specific idea or story.-History:...
  
  )
• West Side Delegation - WSD (Varsity Show Choir
  Show choir
  A show choir is a group of people who combine choral singing with dance movements, sometimes within the context of a specific idea or story.-History:...
  
  )

Orchestral

• Symphonic String Orchestra
• Symphony Orchestra
• Philharmonic String Orchestra
• Jefferson Fiddlers
• Wires of Fire
• Harp Ensemble

Theatre

• Thespian Troupe 561

Extra Curricular Clubs and Organizations

In addition to varsity sports, there are numerous other Extra-Curricular Activities for students to get involved in. Some of these include:

• Math Team
• Comic Book Club
• Service Club
• Pledge Group
• Chess Team
• National Honor Society
• DECA
• Drama
• Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD)
• Student Council
• Special Olympics
• Speech Team
• Common Ground (GSA)
• Anime Club
• Art Club

Academic Decathlon

Jefferson's Academic Decathlon team is led by John Wojtowicz. The team has won the state championship thirteen of the past fourteen years and placed Second in the medium-sized school division for the 2008-2009 year at the national competition in Memphis Tennessee. This is the highest finish ever for any Iowa team, and the team also earned the highest point total for an Iowa team.

Student Publications

Jefferson's student-run newspaper is called The Outlook. Everything from photography to editing, and writing each article are done by the students. The other student-run publication at Jefferson is the yearbook, The Statesmen.

School history

Thomas Jefferson's first class graduated in 1958 but competed in athletic events starting in the fall of 1957. They formed teams from 2 separate high schools, Theodore Roosevelt High School, and Woodrow Wilson High School, who merged into one school in April 1958, upon the completion of the construction of the school. Since then, Jefferson has been housed at its current location. Jefferson added a new gymnasium addition to the school in 1990. In addition, a new science wing and music wing were built in 2003. The school has been named a "Blue Ribbon National School of Excellence" two times, one of the few traditional schools to earn this honor twice.

Notable alumni and educators

• Landon Cassill
  Landon Cassill
  Landon Douglas Cassill is a driver in the NASCAR Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series. He is a test driver for Hendrick Motorsports. He currently drives the #51 Chevrolet Impala for Phoenix Racing in the Sprint Cup Series....
  
  , NASCAR driver
• Andrew Boysen Jr., Composer
• Mark Ironside, Iowa Hawkeye Wrestler. Two time national champion.
• Jacob Jaacks
  Jacob Jaacks
  Jacob Brian Jaacks aka Jacob Crane is an American professional basketball player....
  
  , (known as Jake Crane while attending school) Professional and Iowa Hawkeye basketball player
• Brad Stiles, Contemporary Christian performer and recording artist.
• Andrew Petersen, Team Andrew Grand Master
• Larry Lawrence
  Larry Lawrence (American football)
  Larry Robert Lawrence, born on April 11, 1949 in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, who attended Thomas Jefferson High School in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, was an American football quarterback in college for the Miami Hurricanes and Iowa Hawkeyes and the NFL Oakland Raiders and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Undrafted coming...
  
  , former Oakland Raider, played in the Super Bowl
• Wally Horn
  Wally Horn
  Wally E. Horn is the Iowa State Senator from the 17th District. A Democrat, he received his BS and MA from Northeastern Missouri State Teachers College, with graduate work done at Texas A&M University and the University of Texas....
  
  , former teacher, Iowa State Senator.
• Dr. Peter Eklund, former choir director, now director of choirs at University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
• Todd Taylor
  Todd Taylor
  Todd Taylor is the Iowa State Representative from the 34th District. He has served in the Iowa House of Representatives since 1994. He received his BA from Graceland College and his BS from the University of Northern Iowa....
  
  , Iowa State Representative, District 32.
• David Long, All-American at University of Iowa, St Louis Football Cardinals, New Orleans Saints. Member of the Thomas Jefferson Hall of Fame, the Thomas Jefferson Football Hall of Fame and the Thomas Jefferson Basketball Hall of Fame.

External links

• Official site