Orono High School
Orono High School (OHS), constructed in 1968, is the only high school in the Orono School District and serves grade 9 through 12. The principal is David Benson. OHS starts at 7:50 am and ends at 2:30 pm. The school had 842 students in the school year 2006–2007. 95 percent of the student body in the high school was of Caucasian descent with the remaining 5 percent of the students being of American Indian/Alaskan, Asian, Black, and Hispanic descent. 2.7 percent of the student body is eligible for free lunch. 91 percent of the students graduating OHS are enrolled in post-secondary education.
The school has 49 teachers and an average class size of 32 with a student teacher ratio of 18.8:1. The school year starts in September and ends in June and is based on a semester schedule. Required curriculum consists of English, social studies, science, mathematics, physical education/health, and fine arts. There are around 60 elective courses offered at OHS including fine arts, business/marketing education, technology education and world languages (including German, Chinese, Spanish). The school has AP classes in the following subjects: Art History, Language and Composition, Literature and Composition, Calculus AB, Calculus BC, Statistics, Biology, Environmental Science, Psychology, Human Geography, Music Theory, World History, US History, Chemistry, Physics, German, and Spanish. Advanced and enriched courses are also offered. The school has dual high school and college enrollment programs. GPA at the high school is calculated on an unweighted 4.0 scale. Until the end of the 2010-11 school year, there is a unique FLEX schedule where three times a week, one out of the seven periods during the school day is "flexed" and replaced with a study hall where students can go to the classroom of their choice to work on homework and make up tests. Starting in the 2011-12 school year FLEX was replaced with Spartan Hour. Each week, on Monday, Wednesday and Friday each class period is shortened by about 10 mins. There is an additional 40 min period that takes place on these days called Spartan Hour. During Spartan Hour, students report to an assigned room where they do home work or study. The Spartan Hour classes are composed of 4 to 6 kids from each grade 9-12. They have the same teacher all 4 years. There is a 15 minute "snack break" from 9:30 am to 9:45 am.
The school’s academic teams consist of the following: Debate team, DECA (Distributive Education Clubs of America), History club, Literary Magazine, Math team, Mock Trial, National Honor Society, Newspaper, Quiz Bowl team, Science team, Speech team, Student Senate, and Yearbook. The school has three bands: concert band, symphonic band, and wind ensemble along with two jazz bands, a pit orchestra, marching band and pep band. The school also has four choirs: girl's choir, boy's choir, select girl’s choir and chamber choir. The drama department puts on three theatrical works a year: a fall musical, a winter play, and a spring children's play.
The school offers the following 22 sports for both girls and boys:
- Boy’s Football
- Boy's and Girl’s Soccer
- Boy's and Girl’s Tennis
- Boy's and Girls’s Swimming and Diving
- Boy's and Girl’s Basketball
- Boy's and Girl’s Ice Hockey
- Boy's and Girl’s Golf
- Boy's and Girl's Lacrosse
- Dance Team
- Track and Field
- Softball
- Baseball
- Cross Country running
- Volleyball
- Alpine Ski
- Nordic Ski
- Wrestling
- Gymnastics
Many of these teams compete at the State Conferences. In Fall 2008, the Orono Football team won the section conference game and played at the State Conference level for the first time in 21 years. Head football coach Jeff Weiland received the award of Metro Coach of the Year by Kare-11 television. In February 2006, the Orono Dance team was awarded fifth place in the Minnesota State High School League competition at the Xcel Energy Center while captained by seniors Laura Sievert and Jackie Lee, as well as being ranked among the top ten teams in the state of Minnesota in 2003, 2005 and 2009. The Girl's Soccer Team won the state title game in 2009, defeating The Blake School. The Boy's Golf Team won three consecutive state titles in 2008, 2009 and 2010. Also, this past spring, the Orono Boy's Basketball team won the Class 3A State Championship, defeating Colombia Heights.
Read more about this topic: Orono School District
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