Boulder High School

History

Boulder High School was founded in 1875 as a preparatory school to the University of Colorado. It was the first high school in Colorado to graduate a class, in 1876. Its unofficial motto is "Still the First," and officially, "A Place for Everyone." The school is located in downtown Boulder, adjacent to the university’s campus and four blocks from the Pearl Street Mall.

Construction

Boulder High School's building at 1604 Arapahoe Avenue was constructed in 1933 by the Works Project Administration. The facade is classic Streamline Moderne. The school's art deco auditorium has also been preserved. The building was constructed with "Colorado Red" flagstone and limestone, the same materials from which the University of Colorado is built. With funding from a Boulder Valley School District (BVSD) bond program, parts of the school were renovated or expanded in 2008. The changes include a remodeled ESL wing and counseling office, a new gymnasium, a larger administrative wing, and a bigger auditorium backstage. Most of the school's recent additions also have flagstone facades, but none retain the original art deco design.

Stadium

Boulder High football, soccer, lacrosse, and track teams compete at Christian Recht Field, accessed via a bridge spanning Boulder Creek. Recht Field received a multimillion-dollar upgrade in 2003, which included artificial turf installation to conserve water and reduce injuries caused by frozen turf during the winter. As part of the BVSD bond program, a visitors' field house was constructed at the west end of the field.

Fairview High School shares Recht Field for a number of varsity-level events. When Boulder and Fairview football compete against each other in the annual Boulder-Fairview duel, the schools' fans alternate use of the visitor and home stands each year.

Flood danger

Boulder High School is in the middle of the Boulder Creek flood zone. The school's adjacent soccer fields were the site of housing as late as the 1970s, but the houses were removed due to the flash-flood risk. The City of Boulder continues to remove residential buildings in the path of the most dangerous portions of the creek, replacing them with parks and fields. The Boulder Creek 100-year flood took place in 1894, destroying all buildings in the area. The 2013 Colorado floods caused the school to be closed for several days. Serious water damage was reported in several areas of the building, including many classrooms, the weight room, and the cafeteria. The soccer fields flooded, as did the softball field, which was the most damaged.

Attendance zone

The neighborhood attendance zone for Boulder High School includes the North and central portions of Boulder and the mountain communities to the West of Boulder.

Academics

Boulder High School offers Advanced Placement (AP) courses in thirty subjects. In 2015, Boulder students took 1,178 AP exams. 87 percent of them achieved a score of three and higher, resulting in 105 AP scholars, 78 AP scholars with honours, 172 AP scholars with distinction, and 50 AP national scholars. In the same year Boulder produced five presidential scholars. Boulder High offers five world languages among levels 1-4 and AP: French, German, Japanese, Latin, and Spanish. Because of the short distance to the University of Colorado Boulder, students may also take college-level courses not commonly offered in high school.

The Boulder academic decathlon team won state multiple times and represented Colorado at the national competition for the past six years. It also finished second at the National Science Bowl in 2002. The Japan Bowl team won multiple regional competitions and placed fifth at the national competition in 2001.

Athletics

Boulder High School is a 5A member of the Colorado High School Activities Association's (CHSAA) Front Range league and a former member of CHSAA's Centennial League (1964–2008). Boulder High School won a 6A state title in football in 1992, and also had state titles in 1943 and 1963. In 2012, Boulder High School's varsity boys' soccer team won the Colorado 5A Soccer Championship, beating Smoky Hill in the final game at Dick's Sporting Goods Park.

History

In October 2007, to make competition locations more convenient for athletes and parents, BHS and crosstown rival Fairview petitioned to leave for the more accessible Front Range League. The request was approved in January 2008 and took effect at the start of the 2008–2009 school year.

Varsity sports

Boulder High fields eighteen different varsity sports teams each year across three seasons.

Intramural and club sports

In addition to its varsity sports, Boulder High School has a vibrant array of intramural and club sports.

Music

Boulder High students participate extensively in the performing arts. The Boulder Jazz group frequently places highly in regional festivals and participates in an annual jazz exchange with the Trondheim, Norway art school of Trondertun. The Wind Ensemble is periodically guest-directed by Dr. Ken Singleton of the University of Northern Colorado and Dr. Allan McMurray of the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Theater

The theater department at Boulder High was established in 1937 and is one of the original members (Troupe #60) of the International Thespian Society. Boulder High's Theatre Guild currently has over 120 members; over 30 BHS thespians are inducted into the Society each year. The auditorium is named after Frank C. Smucker, who taught at the school and was the technical director until he retired in 2000. The department is currently directed by Chris Sweeney.

Fine arts

Boulder High offers a variety of art classes, including drawing & painting, pottery, studio arts, portfolio art, and photography. There are photography classes offered up to a 4th level, and after that are independent study opportunities.

Panther TV

Boulder High students create a weekly broadcast, showing announcements and student made content to the entire school.

Student Worker

In 1999, Boulder High students founded the political activist group Student Worker. Several of the group's demonstrations have received national attention, including the January 2005 "sleep-in" protesting the war in Iraq and the May 2001 "kiss-in" supporting alternative sexuality. In May 2005, Student Worker, in a partnership with Peace Jam, erected 1,650 miniature American flags in memory of soldiers killed in Iraq. In September 2007, the group protested the Pledge of Allegiance, citing an objection to the "one nation, under God" clause. They instead recited a revised version. In February 2009, the group briefly advocated renaming Boulder High School "Barack Obama High School," which was met with overwhelming opposition from the student body, school administrators, and the community, including calls to abolish the club.

Model United Nations

In fall 2005, the Model United Nations club was founded. In this group, students take on the roles of diplomats from countries around the globe to discuss, debate, and propose solutions to today's pressing international issues. Students research and prepare elaborate presentations for both in-state and national Model UN conferences, attempting to compete with delegations represented by schools in Colorado. Boulder MUN has consistently proven itself an outstanding team, recognized throughout the state for the quality of their conference, BHSMUN, and for their numerous awards in competition. Boulder MUN attends a national conference each year, and has brought home awards. In 2008 and 2009, Boulder established itself, winning the majority of all delegate awards at every conference attended in the state of Colorado.

Safety scares

On May 10, 2007, a cafeteria worker reported seeing two masked men enter the school before class hours wearing camouflage and ski masks. Classes were subsequently canceled while the school was locked down and searched by police. After multiple inspections, nothing suspicious was found, and school returned to normal the next day.

Rumors that a song performed at a school talent show would include death threats to the president also garnered national attention, although a subsequent investigation indicated that the rumors were false.

Boulder High School has endured multiple scam bomb threats in the past several years, prompting a moderate increase in school security.

Conference on World Affairs: 2007

Each year, Boulder High hosts several panels of the University Of Colorado's Conference on World Affairs (CWA). The panels have been well attended by BHS students, have typically been supported by the faculty, and despite a focus on politically sensitive issues, have caused little public controversy with the exception of one on April 10, 2007.

The panel, entitled "STDs: Sex, Teens, and Drugs," was to debate the merits of teens' different attitudes toward sex and drugs. According to some, the views presented by panel member Dr. Joel Becker, an associate clinical professor of psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles, were too extreme. Becker allegedly encouraged students to have sex and use illegal drugs, told them where to easily find marijuana, and poked fun at condom use. Others argue that the objections were unfounded, and he was taken out of context. A transcript of the panel is available from BVSDWatch.org.

A Boulder High sophomore and her mother, Priscilla White, complained to the school board and protested some teachers' mandatory panel attendance policy. The board reviewed the case, but meanwhile, the complaint attracted the national media's attention. The panel was covered most prominently by Fox News commentator Bill O'Reilly and radio talk show hosts Don Caplis and Craig Silverman. In an attempt to refute O'Reilly's views, a group of students publicly demanded an apology and organized to defend the CWA panel and BHS administration.

The school board concluded on May 22 that the comments in question had been generally taken out of context and that the overall panel was appropriate for high school students. The school board also recognized that several statements were unnecessarily crude and recommended that, in the future, student attendance at the Conference on World Affairs be optional. Today, the CWA at Boulder High School is overseen by a committee to assure the school board's recommendations are carried out and to prevent a similar conflict from occurring again.

Notable alumni