Greenwich High School


Greenwich High School is a four-year public high school in Greenwich, Connecticut, United States. The school is part of the Greenwich Public Schools system and serves roughly 2,500 students.
It offers over 295 courses and a wide variety of co-curricular and extra-curricular activities. Greenwich High School was ranked by Newsweek among the 100 top U.S. high schools in 2003, and annually from 2005 to 2015.

History

Greenwich's first high school classes were taught at the Havemeyer School on 290 Greenwich Avenue. The building was a gift of Henry Osborne Havemeyer, an American Industrialist, in 1892. As the building was under construction, plans for a third floor were scrapped as it would affect local businessman and banker Elias C. Benedict’s travel to New York City. He commuted by sailboat and the third floor would disrupt his sight of the flag signals that notified him when the crew was ready to sail. He paid for a gymnasium in exchange for not adding a third floor. In 1898 the first graduation consisted of twelve graduates.
In 1904, there was a town meeting to discuss moving the high school-aged students out of the Havemeyer School and to its own campus. Three years later, in 1907, the first public high school in Greenwich opened. The building was designed by Wilson Potter and it was between Mason Street and Milbank Ave. The building is currently known as the Town Hall Annex apartments. This campus had an enrollment of 178 students and seven teachers. In 1919, an idea for a new gymnasium and school building was proposed. Due to increased enrollment from 299 in 1914 to 477 in 1919, the Town Meeting approved the building of another new high school in 1924. Designed by James O. Betelle, it was dedicated in 1925. The Field Point Road campus opened up in the year 1926 when Headmaster Harry Folsom led the students from the Mason Street campus singing and carrying books. The enrollment was 642 students with thirty-two teachers. In 1933, over-enrollment forced students to attend school for half-day ¨double-sessions.”. Upperclassmen would attend classes from 7:00 A.M to noon, while underclassmen would attend school from noon until 5:00 P.M. while an addition was constructed. A federal grant for $165,000 provided funding for a five-story structure with twenty-five classrooms, a gymnasium, and a library. The Field Point Road campus addition was completed in 1935 and with an enrollment of 1,666 students and sixty teachers.
The Field Pont Road campus was large enough for 25 years before it again became overcrowded. In 1960, the Board of Education approved a plan for two comprehensive high schools in Greenwich. This was voted down by the Representative Town Meeting, so the Board of Education instead approved one high school at Put's Hill. This project was approved for an estimated $9.8m which, at that time, was the largest single appropriation in Greenwich. The old campus eventually became the current Town Hall. This new campus on Put's Hill is the current campus today. It is fifty-four acres with a student capacity of 2,750 which is expandable to 3,300. The students moved into the Hillside campus in 1970. Twenty years later, in 1990, the town added a new science wing, the Black Box Theater and additional classrooms, extended and refurbished the locker rooms, and renovated the auditorium, the swimming pool and the courtyard. The renovation added 90,000 square feet at a cost of $43,000,000. Then, in 2016, the school replaced the auditorium with new music rehearsal rooms and built a state-of-the-art Performing Arts Center.

Curriculum structure

As of the 2018-2019 school year, Greenwich High School offers 28 Advanced Placement courses in AP English, French Language, German Language, Mandarin Chinese, Spanish Language, Spanish Literature, Calculus, Computer Science, Statistics, Biology, Chemistry, Environmental Science, Physics, U.S. History, European History, Psychology, U.S. Government & Politics, Comparative Government & Politics, Economics, Studio Art, 2D Design: Photography, 3D Design: Ceramics, and Music Theory, as well as a variety of honors courses and electives.
Students are required to complete four credits or years of English/Language Arts courses, three credits each of Mathematics, Science, and Social Studies, two credits of Foreign Language, one-and-a-half credits of art or business, one credit of physical education, one-half credit of wellness, and six credits of electives. In the school course guide, additional requirements include the following:
  1. The social studies requirements include a full year of American History, and semester courses in Civics and Contemporary America.
  2. The science requirements must include one credit in a biological science and one credit in a physical science.
  3. The arts requirements must include one and one half credits in any of the following areas: visual art, business, family and consumer sciences, human development, media, music, technology education, and theater arts.
  4. To be eligible for a Greenwich High School diploma, a student must have attended Greenwich High School for at least one full semester immediately prior to graduation.
Students are allowed to take general elective courses all four years at GHS, but are only allowed to take certain subject electives in junior and senior years.
Students' grade point averages are calculated on a weighted scale. For non-honors classes, the maximum mark a student can receive is a 4.33 ; in Advanced Placement or Honors level courses students can receive up to a 5.33.
All students at GHS are issued a Chromebook computer which they are required to bring to every class.

Extracurricular activities

Greenwich High School has a number of student activities designed to promote a broad spectrum of interests. The school's student newspaper is The Beak. The yearbook is The Compass. Greenwitch is the school's student literary magazine. Student activities include student government, as well as academic, music, drama, international, language, service, sports, and special-interest clubs. The Music Department features four choral ensembles, three orchestras, three concert bands and two jazz bands. The Theater Arts program mounts one contemporary, two musicals, one Shakespeare production and one compilation of student written and directed work each year. Young Democrats and Young Republicans both feature prominently, and have coordinated with numerous political campaigns, both on local and national levels.

Athletics

Greenwich High School students have opportunities to participate in a variety of sports in the Fairfield County Interscholastic Athletic Conference. Both boys and girls teams compete in the FCIAC in the following sports : football, soccer, basketball, cheerleading, ice hockey, field hockey, track and field, cross country, swimming, water polo, golf, softball, volleyball, wrestling, gymnastics, and lacrosse.

Notable alumni