Mountlake Terrace High School


Mountlake Terrace High School is a public high school located in Mountlake Terrace, Washington, United States. It is the third largest high school in the Edmonds School District. Mountlake Terrace HS participates in the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association, having reclassified from 3A to 2A at the start of 2016-2017 school year.

Academics

STEM education

Mountlake Terrace is a registered Project Lead the Way magnet school. This national program aims to educate middle and high schoolers in STEM curriculum. The school offers engineering and robotics classes for college and university level credit if an AP exam is taken. The well-known Computer Science program was run for many years by Daniel Lafferty, a former Microsoft programmer, who retired in 2017. The school offers college-level engineering classes that offer college credit through the College in the High School program at local Edmonds Community College. The school also offers several Advanced Placement classes.

"Small schools" initiative

In September 2003 the school reorganized under five "small schools," each with a specific emphasis: the Terrace Academy of Arts and Sciences; the Discovery School; the Innovation School; the Renaissance School; and the Achievement, Opportunity and Scholarship School. The school received a $833,000 grant in return for their participation. The effort was met with mixed reactions. Students were to stay in a school until their junior year, or to file a petition with a school administrator to transfer between programs. The "small schools" program ended in 2008, after which MTHS returned to a traditional high school format.

Activities

ASB

Mountlake Terrace has an active leadership program that organizes and promotes events relating to the school. The Executive ASB, known as "The Big 6", consists of the President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer, Public Relations, and Historian. The Big 6 functions as the team of student leaders tasked with developing, planning, and implementing events that build positive school community and spirit such as fundraisers, community service, assemblies, and school dances. Class ASB officers promote and support activities for each individual class focusing inspiring class spirit and fundraisers for class activities such as senior prom and a legacy gift they leave the school to further develop spirit and community. The leadership community also includes the Cheer team and Inter-high as CONNECT Crew. The MTHS Cheer team provides spirit leadership for the student body and community at athletic events and spirit assemblies throughout the school year. They organize and participate in community service projects, and serve as ambassadors for public events. Inter-high students work as a collaborative group with student leaders within the Edmonds School District as well as leadership teams in the Puget Sound region, primarily organizing fundraising events that support teen programs that provide for students in need. CONNECT Crew provides guidance, connection, and outreach to incoming freshmen, in an effort to encourage positive interaction and responsible choices.

Theater department

The Mountlake Terrace Theatre Department is a well-recognized program at the local, regional, state, and national levels. The Theatre program has represented Washington state at the International Thespian Festival, an international competition and conference, on three separate occasions. It has been invited to perform at the Fringe Festival in Scotland, but was unable to accept the honor due to limited finances. Students graduating from the program have gone on to professional careers as stage actors, film actors, directors, newscasters, scriptwriters for films, technicians, and theatre educators. The school's Theatresports team has placed among the top teams in the Hogan Cup competition at the Market Place Theatre at Pike Place Market.

Music program

Mountlake Terrace High School is known for its music program. There are two concert bands and three jazz bands, as well as a percussion ensemble, three choirs, and two orchestras. The upper-level concert band, Chamber Winds, is a regular attendee at music festivals such as the University of Washington Music Festival and Central Washington University's music festival. They also toured Europe in 2008. The school's upper jazz band, Jazz 1, has attended Jazz at Lincoln Center's Essentially Ellington Jazz Festival and Competition in New York in 2000, 2002, 2005, 2008, 2011, 2012, 2017 and 2018; they placed third in the competition in 2005 and in 2011. They also received an honorable mention in 2002. The jazz band has gone on several European tours. The top jazz choir, Dynamics, was a winner of the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival in Idaho in 2007, the third win in a row for the choir. Mountlake Terrace has an all-girls audition choir, Accents, as well as having a non-audition, all-girls Chamber Choir. The MTHS orchestra has been to Gresham, Oregon, and other places.

Athletics

Mountlake Terrace High School's athletics department offers these programs for the 2017-2018 year: boys' football, girls' volleyball, boys' tennis, cross country, girls' soccer, girls' swimming, boys' basketball, girls' basketball, boys' swimming, wrestling, track and field, soccer, girls' tennis, boys' baseball, girls' fastpitch softball, golf.
The 2005 football team had the best record in twenty years for the school, with a 5-5 record. The 2005 team had four players move onto Junior College at Ventura Community College. In 2008 the team amounted a 4-6 record, concluding with a victory over Monroe High School. In 2009 the team went 6-4 and made it to the playoffs for the first time in school history.
The school's fight song is to the tune of "The Victors", the fight song of the University of Michigan.
Mountlake Terrace won the state 4A boys' soccer title in the 1974/1975 season, defeating Newport High School 3-2 in the championship game.
Mountlake Terrace won the state AAA basketball title in 1976/77 season, defeating Richland High School in the state championship game with a season record of 27-1.
In 2010, the Mountlake Terrace baseball team won the 4A District 1 Championship by defeating the Kamiak Knights 4-3 at Everett Memorial Stadium. The Hawks finished that season 18-7, with several players going on to play at the next level.
The Hawks baseball team were named 2A Academic State Champions in 2018, the first time a Mountlake Terrace HS team had won that award.

History and facilities

The high school opened on September 6, 1960, to serve the growing community of Mountlake Terrace, with an initial enrollment of 500 students. The existing school is a replacement facility constructed in 1991, designed by Bassetti Architects.

Notable alumni