Abington Senior High School

Abington Senior High School is a three-year co-educational high school in Abington, Pennsylvania, USA. The school was a two-year high school known as Abington South Campus from September 1964 until June 1983. In September 1983, Abington South Campus again became a three-year high school (grades 10 through 12) and eventually changed its name back to Abington Senior High. The 2017-2018 enrollment was 1,808. The principal is Mr. Angelo Berrios.[2] Abington students are leaders in PSSA scores in the state of Pennsylvania and have won technology-oriented awards from Dell and Microsoft.[3][4] Abington is most notable for its chess team, which has won the scholastic state championship numerous times and has won the scholastic national championship three times, with coach Shawn Simmons.

Abington Senior High School
Address
900 Highland Ave

Abington
,
Montgomery County
,
Pennsylvania
19001

United States
Information
School typePublic
School districtAbington School District
SuperintendentDr. Jeffrey S. Fecher
PrincipalMr. Angelo D. Berrios III
Staff115.60 (FTE)[1]
Grades10th through 12th
GenderCo-Educational
Enrollment1,808 (2018-19)[1]
Student to teacher ratio15.64[1]
Schedule typeSemester
Schedule8 periods
Color(s)Maroon and white
  
MascotGalloping Ghost
RivalCheltenham High School
WebsiteAbington Senior High School

Demographics

The 2017–2018 enrollment is 1,808 pupils with 591 in the senior class.[5] The school has 115.60 teachers and a student-teacher ratio of 15.64.[5] The makeup of the student body is: 61.7% White; 22.2% Black; 8.2% Hispanic or Latino, 4.5% Asian, and less than 0.01% Native American or Native Alaskan.[5] 351 students are Free lunch eligible and 23 are eligible for a reduced-price lunch.[5]

Graduation requirements

Graduation requirements: A minimum of 219 points (23 units) in grades 9–12 and the following course units: English (4), social studies (3), mathematics (3), science (3), physical education (4) health education (2), and additional electives (4)[6]

By law, all Pennsylvania secondary school students must pass the Keystone Exams as a part of their eligibility to graduate from high school, but beginning with the class of 2022, additional ways to pass will be added, such as receiving a satisfactory score on the SAT/ACT college entrance exams or AP tests, pass the NOCTI or NIMS assessments, get accepted into a 4-year college without having to take prerequisites, doing co-op or receiving a full-time job. In order to go these alternative routes, students must pass the classes associated with the Keystones (Algebra 1, Literature and Biology) [7]

Advanced placement

520 candidates took 1,271 AP Examinations in May 2018. 83% of these students scored a 3 or higher on their AP Examinations.[6]

AP courses offered at the high school include:[6]

Athletics
Abington squaring off against its rival, Cheltenham in 2018

Abington is a member of the Suburban One League (SOL), National Conference. They are one of the founding members of the SOL, and one of four remaining founding schools.

Abington Senior High School's mascot is a Ghost. The name comes from the late Harold "Red" Grange, a standout professional football player and member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, who visited the school in 1931, three years after he was petitioned to run for congress as a Republican and refused. He was nicknamed the Galloping Ghost after the sports journalist Grantland Rice wrote a short poem about him.

A streak of fire, a breath of flame Eluding all who reach and clutch; A gray ghost thrown into the game That rival hands may never touch; A rubber bounding, blasting soul Whose destination is the goal — Red Grange of Illinois! -Grantland Rice- [8]

Many consider the original logo and mascot to look like a Klansman. Grantland Rice was a known racist[9] whose father was a cotton dealer and grandfather a Confederate Veteran.[10]

[11] Prior to Grange's nickname becoming the school's mascot in the 1930s, Abington was represented by "The Maroons". Maroon and white have continued to be the school's colors over the past century.

School district

The Abington School District has an enrollment of 8,159 pupils,[6] which include eight other schools, the Junior High, which serves grades 7 through 9, and seven elementary schools, which are listed in order by distance from the senior high; Copper Beech, Highland, Roslyn, Overlook, Willow Hill, Rydal, & McKinley.

The Abington School District was involved in a legal case relating to mandatory prayer in school, Abington School District v. Schempp, which was heard by the Supreme Court of the United States on February 27–28, 1963. The ruling handed down on June 17, 1963, decided 8–1 in favor of the respondent, Ellery Schempp, and declared school-sponsored Bible reading in public schools to be an unconstitutional violation of the separation of church and state. The Chief Justice presiding over the case was Earl Warren.

Honors and distinctions

The school was recognized as a Blue Ribbon High School in 1998–99 school year. Abington was a National Service Learning Leader School in 1998 and 2001.

In 2008–2009, Abington won the "Triple Crown" of awards for public school districts in the United States. In 2008, America's Promise Alliance named Abington one of the "100 Best Communities for Young People" for the third year. Shortly thereafter, Money Magazine/CNN named Abington as one of the "Top 100 Best Places to Live" in America. In its 2009 list of America's Best High Schools, U.S. News & World Report awarded Abington Senior High School a bronze medal.

Future President and then-Senator Barack Obama spoke at Abington Senior High School on October 3, 2008.

Facilities
Cheltenham and Abington logos next to each other in the Abington gymnasium

The school completed construction of a football stadium in 2006.

A 1965 graduate of Abington Senior High School, Stephen A. Schwarzman, announced a 25 million-dollar donation to the high school on February 15, 2018[12] which is the highest donation to a public school in history.[13]

The few conditions under which Stephen A. Schwarzman consented to donate the money for the renovation project were: renaming the school to Abington Schwarzman High School, proudly displaying his portrait in the building, naming parts of the school after his brothers, and holding the right to review construction plans for the school as well as choosing a new school logo.[12] However, there was an immediate uproar from the residents of the district regarding the renaming of the school in Stephen A. Schwarzman’s honor and the idea got shut down at the School Board Meeting on April 10, 2018, under the premise that they refuse to allow big money to influence their community. Instead, the original agreement was revised to simply naming the new science and technology center after Stephen A. Schwarzman.[12] This project broke ground on November 2, 2018. This renovation project when completed will be able to accommodate 9th grade, moving them from Abington Junior High School to the renovated facility.[14]

Notable alumni

See also

References
  1. "Abington SHS". National Center for Education Statistics. Retrieved December 1, 2020.
  2. "Abington Senior High School". Abington Senior High School.
  3. "Welcome to Abington School District". abington.k12.pa.us.
  4. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on December 7, 2009. Retrieved 2009-11-05.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) FutureReady Awards Honor Education Visionaries
  5. "Abington Shs". National Center for Education Statistics. National Center for Education Statistics. Retrieved May 18, 2019.
  6. "School Profile". abington.k12.pa.us.
  7. "Statewide High School Graduation Requirement". Pennsylvania Department of Education.
  8. https://www.chicagotribune.com/history/ct-red-grange-flashback-1012-20141012-story.html
  9. https://deadspin.com/why-grantland-rice-sucked-5810019
  10. "Major H.W. Grantland dies", The New York Times, February 18, 1926. Accessed on June 29, 2009.
  11. "Harold "Red" Grange". Pro Football Hall of Fame.
  12. Kelly, Kate (April 13, 2018). "A Public Outcry Against a Wall Street Titan's Name on a High School". The New York Times.
  13. Adams, Susan. "Steve Schwarzman Makes The Biggest-Ever Donation To A Public High School". Forbes. Retrieved November 19, 2018.
  14. Press Release (November 12, 2018). "Abington School District breaks ground on $104M renovations at high school". Montgomery News.
  15. Sargent, Jim (2007). "Wayne Ambler". The Baseball Biography Project. Archived from the original on June 10, 2007.
  16. Cook, Bonnie L. (April 11, 2018). "Norman W. Schmid, 87, Abington Senior High School principal for 27 years". The Philadelphia Inquirer.
  17. Farmer, Sabrina (June 9, 2016). "Meet the Philly Model Who's Worked with Marc Jacobs, Karl Lagerfeld and Kendall Jenner". Philadelphia Magazine.
  18. Arnosky, Mischa (July 15, 2013). "Amar Bose, Abington Alum Who Pioneered Speaker Technology, Dies At 83". Abington, PA Patch.
  19. "Carter speaks at Abington High School". dod.defense.gov. Department of Defense. March 30, 2015.
  20. "Abington High School graduates of note". abingtonalumni.com.
  21. Tannenwald, Jonathan (August 16, 2017). "Glenside native Maddy Evans' retirement from playing soccer an example of ugly truth about NWSL salaries". The Philadelphia Inquirer.
  22. Doughty, Andrew (November 23, 2019). "Weekend Hot Clicks: Penn State Botched a Major Recruitment". Sports Illustrated.
  23. Moore, Tom (September 5, 2019). "Moore: Abington grad Craig Reynolds makes big jump to the NFL". Burlington County Times.
  24. "John McNamara « Diplopundit". diplopundit.net. Retrieved April 16, 2016.
  25. "Past Award Recipients". abington.k12.pa.us.
  26. David Starr [@TheProductDS] (June 10, 2015). "@Generation_Ace Abington Sr High, Elizabethtown College/West Chester University" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  27. Rys, Richard (February 24, 2009). "Exit Inverview: Danny Woodburn". Philadelphia Magazine.
  28. KMac (April 17, 2014). "Throwback Thursday: The 1989 Abington Galloping Ghosts".

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