Marquette High School (Chesterfield, Missouri)


Marquette High School, located in Chesterfield, Missouri, is a secondary school in the Rockwood School District of St. Louis County, Missouri. In 2012 it was ranked fifth among high schools in Missouri by U.S.News & World Report. Most of the students of Marquette High School come from the school Crestview Middle School.

Student body

Marquette has a student body of 2,327. Its public school extending boundaries cover the eastern portion of Ellisville, Missouri, and almost the entirety of Ballwin, Clarkson Valley, and Chesterfield. While Marquette serves the smallest geographical area of the four Rockwood School District high schools, it has the largest student body due to population density.
A majority of students at Marquette are graduates of Crestview Middle School or Selvidge Middle School.
Student Enrollment by Class
Ninth646
Tenth583
Eleventh572
Twelfth526
Total2,327

Demographics
Asian12.4%
Black10.2%
Hispanic3.9%
Indian0.1%
White71.2%

Athletics

Marquette fields a number of sports teams.
Boys' teams include baseball, basketball, club badminton, club ice hockey, club lacrosse, club rugby, cross country, football, golf, soccer, swimming and diving, tennis, track and field, volleyball, water polo, and wrestling.
Girls' teams include basketball, cheerleading, club badminton, cross country, dance, field hockey, golf, lacrosse, soccer, softball, swimming and diving, track and field, and volleyball.
Each sport has varsity and junior varsity divisions, and most also have a freshman division.
Marquette is considered a Class 4A large school according to the Missouri State High School Activities Association, and therefore competes at the district, sectional, and state levels with some of the largest high schools in Missouri. Marquette competes at the conference level in the Suburban West Conference, along with rivals Lafayette High School, Lindbergh High School, Fox High School, Northwest High School, Eureka High School, Parkway South High School, Mehlville High School, and Oakville High School.
In 2017, the girls' varsity softball team, lead by coach Amy Doyle, won the Class 4 Missouri State Championship.

Academics

Newsweek named Marquette High School as number 739 of the Top 1,623 Public High Schools in the United States in 2010.
Marquette students outperformed the state average in the Missouri Assessment Program testing for 2009. Marquette students were 69% proficient in biology compared to a 55% state average and 88% proficient in English compared to a 73% state average.
2014:
Average Daily Attendance Rate - 88.0%

Students Eligible for Free or Reduced-Price Meals - 14.1%

Ratio of Students to Regular Classroom Teachers - 23

Dropout Rate - 0.5%

Total Number of Graduates - 528

Graduation Rate - 94.51%

Extracurricular activities

MHS offers many activities, groups, and organizations other than its Academics and sports teams. Many groups such as orchestra, band, choir, and debate are successful at the district, state, and national levels.

MHStv

The school's student news station is MHStv, a television station that creates a weekly news show as well as numerous other video productions for the high school and the local community. It broadcasts school-wide every Friday during 3rd hour and features hosts from the senior and junior classes, and has often included a student-made music video and several interviews on a wide range of topics.
Works
Mustang News is the weekly 100% student-produced news program at Marquette High School. Mustang News airs on the school's closed circuit television network, channel 97, as well as on Charter Cable in St. Louis twice a month. In Broadcasting I and II, teams of students develop, film, and edit the show.
Affiliations
MHStv is proud to be a member of the Student Television Network, a national, non-profit organization bringing schools with Student television stations together. The organization supports and promotes scholastic television with active e-groups, summer workshops, challenging national contests, and now, a yearly convention designed solely to help its members learn and grow while promoting networking and sharing with teachers and students from across the planet.
Awards
MHStv won 3rd place in the Sweet-Sixteen Competition at the 4th annual STN National Convention in 2007. They competed against 40 other schools from across the nation and placed 3rd in the green division.
MHStv has also won 2 Honorable mentions in the STN Spring 2006 Contest in the Show Opener and Original Short.

Newspaper

The school's student newspaper is a monthly publication known as The Marquette Messenger and is given out during lunch for free to all Marquette students.

Speech and debate

Marquette's Speech and Debate team has qualified numerous students to MSHAA State, NFL Nationals, and NCFL Nationals in the past few years. Notably, in 2011, the team qualified 8 students to NFL Nationals and 6 to the MSHAA State Tournament. Students compete in a wide variety of debates and public speaking events, and have an extremely successful record locally. In 1999, Marquette student Ed Tulin won the Extemporaneous Speaking finals at NFL Nationals.

Theatre

Marquette has a large theater program. A part of the International Thespian Society, the Marquette Theatre Company usually produces at least two shows each school year.

Notable Events

Death of Christopher Lenzen

Around 9:45 p.m. on Thursday, August 15, 2013, Marquette alum Christopher "Chris" Lenzen, 18, was killed in the crash of a convertible sports car in which he was driving. Two sisters, Eureka students Lauren Oliver, 18, and Kathleen Oliver, 17, were also killed in the crash. Olivia Dames, 18, another Eureka student, survived. Lenzen was a beloved student and figure at Marquette, playing multiple varsity sports and being a model of sportsmanship and kindness.

Westboro Baptist Church protest

Marquette's Diversity Alliance received local media attention when they organized a rally of 270 students to respond to Westboro Baptist Church picketing at MHS in November 2009.

Notable alumni