School type Public, high school Oversight Bangor School System Principal Paul Butler Phone +1 207-992-5500 Mascot Sam the Ram | Founded 1800s Superintendent Dr. Betsy Webb Staff 100 full-time teachers District Bangor School Department | |
Address 885 Broadway, Bangor, ME 04401, USA Feeder schools James F. Doughty School, William S Cohen School | ||
Bangor High School, a member of the Bangor School System, is a high school in Bangor, Maine. It has an enrollment of approximately 1,200 students in grades 9-12.
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In 2001–2002, BHS was selected by the U.S. Department of Education as a National Blue Ribbon School of Excellence. In 2013, the school was named a National Silver Award winner by US News & World Report's "America's Best High Schools". It is also the only urban school on U.S. News' list of the top 10 high schools in Maine (out of 120).[1].
The Washington Post's 2014 ranking of "America's Most Challenging High Schools" places Bangor High in the top 8% nationally (of approx. 22,000 'normal-enrollment' public high schools). Bangor was one of only six Maine high schools to make the top 10%, and one of only two in a Maine city. [2]
History
Bangor's first public high school (for boys only) was founded in 1835, followed by a school for girls in 1838. These were consolidated as Bangor High School in 1864. The first principal was Robert P Bucknam, a graduate of Wesleyan University.
In the late nineteenth century, Bangor High School was located on Abbott Square, across from the present Bangor Public Library. Designed by architect Wilfred E. Mansur, this building burned down in the Great Fire of 1911. Its steel-framed, yellow-brick replacement was built in 1913 on Harlow Street, just across from its earlier location, from designs by the Boston architects Peabody and Stearns, who also designed the new Bangor Public Library next door. The high school moved into its present building on outer Broadway, designed by architect Eaton Tarbell, in the late 1960s.
Sports
Bangor High School is known for its athletic teams with 100 championship banners hanging on the back wall of the school's Red Barry Gymnasium. Three soccer state championships (two boys, one girls) as well as a 2013 sweep of girls track (indoor and outdoor) are among recent highlights. In 2009, The Varsity Football Team went 11-1 and the Rams won the Eastern Maine Championship. In 2007, Bangor High School earned state championships (Class A) in boys soccer, boys basketball, boys indoor track, boys swimming and diving, girls swimming and diving, and boys outdoor track. Fall sports at Bangor include football (varsity, freshman), cheerleading (V, JV), soccer (V, JV, F), field hockey (V, JV), cross country, and golf. In 2011 The Varsity Girls Soccer Team won their first ever State Championship in school history. Winter sports include basketball (V, JV, F), pickleball (intramural), cheerleading (V, JV), volleyball (intramural), ice hockey (V, JV), indoor track, swimming and diving, and skiing. Spring sports include baseball, (State Champions 2006, 2014, 2015, 2016) (V, JV), softball (V, JV, F), outdoor track, and tennis.
Bangor High School's highest-achieving sport is its Boys Varsity Swim Team. The Swim Team has won 27 State Championships and 1 New England Championships. In 2012, the Boys Swim team went undefeated and maintained a 6-year State Championship winning streak. Coach Phil Emery has led the team to 26 of its State titles and the New England title.
Activities
Bangor High offers a variety of activities. The speech and debate teams win various competitions across the state during the year and send students to nationals annually. In June 2015, Bangor High School junior Nick Danby won the National Speech and Debate Association Grand Tournament for Congressional Debate in Dallas, Texas. Danby was the first junior in the country to win, and the first person from Maine to exceed tenth place. Danby is currently ranked first in the nation. Bangor has a large number of juniors and seniors in its chapter of the National Honor Society. The Bangor High School newspaper was recognized in 2006 by Governor John Baldacci. Bangor's math team is the largest in the country, with about 150 students participating on six different teams. Its top team, Bangor Red, does very well, having won the Eastern Maine Math League year-long competition annually since 1995. The Bangor math team has also won seven state championships (1995–1999, 2009–2010). Bangor also has a JETS team, which placed 2nd nationally in its division in 2005. Bangor's JROTC is not only one of the oldest in the nation, but is still exceptional today. It is known to sweep competitions held in the spring. Other clubs at Bangor High School include Amnesty International; AIDS Committee; Art Club; Gay-Straight Alliance; Shakespeare Club; Chess Team; National Forensics League Debate; Spanish Club; French Club; Latin Club; Chorus; Band; Orchestra; Fiddlers; Chamber Choir; Jazz Choir; Yearbook; Newspaper (The RamPage); Mosaic (Literary magazine); Academic Decathlon; Science Bowl; Envirothon, S.E.E.D, A.F.S., Key Club; Book Club; Bridge Club; Student Congress; Boys/Girls Dirigo State; Student Council; Civil Rights Team; The Women's Interest Group; and QCC.
Miscellaneous
Peakes Auditorium is used by many groups around the city and state. Most notably, the Bangor Symphony Orchestra held concerts there while the University of Maine's Collins Center for the Arts was being renovated. Graduation exercises for Beal College also use the Peakes Auditorium.
The school year runs from September to June. School days are 8:00 to 2:00. The day is split up into sixteen 'mods', or 20-minute blocks of time. There are five minutes between each class, and each class takes up 2 mods. Lab sciences take up 3 mods 2, 3, or 5 days a week, depending on the difficulty of the class.
The school utilizes locally developed assessments to document student proficiency in Maine learning standards.
Although Bangor takes students from communities lacking a high school, about 2/3 of the students come from Bangor's two public middle schools: the William S. Cohen School and the James F. Doughty School, each of which enrolls approximately 500 students.
Bangor High in pop culture
In the 1994 Disney film D2: The Mighty Ducks, the goalie was identified as being a Bangor High student.