Mt. Vernon Township High School (Illinois)
Mt. Vernon Township High School is a public high school located in Mount Vernon, Illinois, United States. It serves grades 9-12 and is maintained and operated by the Mt. Vernon Township High School District No. 201 of Jefferson County, Illinois. Mt. Vernon Township High School occupies 82 acres (33 ha) with a main building and associated sports fields. The school has an enrollment of approximately 1,325 students. The school is fully accredited by the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools and the State of Illinois.[1]
History
Mt. Vernon Township High School opened on South 7th Street in what would later become B Building in 1905. The school was the successor to the Mt. Vernon City High School, which had been in operation since 1884. At its opening the new school had an enrollment of ninety girls and seventy boys, with a faculty of six. Unlike the city's public grade schools, which were racially segregated until the mid-1950s, the school was integrated from the beginning. At the end of that first year, the class of 1906 had thirteen graduates.
As the school's enrollment grew, Buildings A, D, and E buildings were built in the 1930s under the New Deal's Works Progress Administration. Building F with vocational and music facilities was added in the 1950s; Building G in 1964; and Building H for career and technical training in 1978. The campus eventually came to encompass 32 acres (13 ha), with eleven buildings and several sports fields.
Mt. Vernon Community College
In 1955, the voters of the district approved establishing a junior college to accompany the high school. Mt. Vernon Community College operated on the high school campus and several adjacent buildings until its expansion as Rend Lake College (a part of the Illinois Community College System) and its 1970 relocation to its present main campus in Ina, Illinois.[2]
New campus
Construction began in August 2014 for an entirely new and modern 82 acres (33 ha) campus located at Wells Bypass and Ambassador Road on the southwest edge of Mt. Vernon. [3][4]
The new state-of-the-art Mt. Vernon THS campus at 11101 Wells Bypass opened August 19, 2016, with a ribbon cutting by Illinois governor Bruce Rauner.[5]
Activities
The school sponsors a wide variety of clubs, organizations, and activities for its students.
School clubs & organizations include:
|
|
|
Sports teams competing in the Illinois High School Association (IHSA) include:
|
|
|
|
The boys basketball team won four IHSA single-division state championships in 1920, 1949–50, and 1954 and has been to the Sweet Sixteen 17 times .
Other activities competing in the IHSA include:
- Chess team
- Music (band, orchestra, choruses, solos, and ensembles)
- RockinRams Spirit team
- Scholastic Bowl team
- Speech
The music program won ten IHSA Class AA Sweepstakes Championships in 1973-75, 1979–81, and 1984–87 and has been runner-up six times.
Distinguished alumni
Mt. Vernon Township High School's many distinguished graduates include:[6]
- Wilford Hall '22
- Albert Watson II '27
- Rolla Anderson '38
- Walton "Walt" Kirk, Jr. '42
- Jeane Jordan Kirkpatrick '44
- Kenny Troutt '65
- Nate Hawthorne '69
References
- ↑ http://www.mvths.org/
- ↑ http://www.rlc.edu/about-rlc/rlc-history
- ↑ Centralia Morning Sentinel
- ↑ http://www.mvths.org/pages/IntheNews/20142015/20150301_Progress2015_RegisterNews.pdf
- ↑ "Mt. Vernon's new high school now open". WSIL. August 19, 2016. Retrieved 31 October 2016.
- ↑ http://www.mvths.org/pages/History/distinguishedalumni_listing.pdf
External links
Coordinates: 38°18′56″N 88°53′57″W / 38.315505°N 88.899087°W