Green Hope High School

History

The school is named for the older, historic Green Hope School, built in 1927. It provided Grades 1 through 12 during its lifetime as a consolidated school. This continued until 1952, when it was re-dubbed Green Hope Elementary School, providing primary-education while the higher grades were reallocated to nearby Cary or Apex High schools. Green Hope Elementary proudly became the first accredited rural school in Wake County. By 1963, it served 172000 students. However, at the time, the school was a whites-only establishment.

Fire and destruction

On August 15, 1963 at 1 AM, the school caught fire. Three fire departments responded: Apex, Morrisville, and Yrac. (Yrac Department was created in 1958 as a temporary reorganization of Cary Rural Fire District; in 1998 it was merged with Cary F.D.) Despite this response, the school was completely destroyed. Damage was estimated at greater than $400,000, and the school was not reconstructed.

The cause of fire was officially described as suspicious circumstances. However, arson was suspected as a cause, and firefighters reported a car speeding away from the blaze. Possible motives include opposition to the racial integration of the local districts. This process continued, however, expedited by the creation of Wake County Public School System in 1976. This set the goal of unifying the diverse racial and economic demographic of the growing community, and ensuring that the affluent suburbs and the poorer urban areas of Raleigh received equal and integrated education. However, the site of Green Hope School remained unoccupied until 1999.

The present location of the school is across the road from the old building site.

Green Hope High School today

The modern Green Hope High School opened its doors in 1999, drawing only freshmen and sophomore students from neighboring overcrowded schools, with its sister school, Green Hope Elementary, opening a year later in 2000. It added a grade level for the two subsequent years and graduated its first senior class in 2002. The Cary Tennis Park, operated by the town of Cary, which functions as the school's tennis practice facility, is located directly behind the school. Green Hope Elementary School and Park are located directly across the street from the Tennis Park. Both schools are operated by Wake County Public School System. The high school has been headed by Karen Summers since January 2014. The school mascot is the Green Hope Fighting Falcon.

Academics

Green Hope is consistently ranked as a top tier school for academics in national rankings. The school posted the fifth highest average SAT score in the Raleigh Durham area: 1699 with 94.7% of students taking the test. Green Hope currently offers 18 Advanced Placement courses and over 61 honors courses.

Honors and awards

Green Hope also has teams in competitions such as: Science Olympiad, TARC, FRC Robotics, and the Duke Math Meet.

Athletics

Green Hope competes under the North Carolina High School Athletic Association 4A classification for the largest 25% of schools in North Carolina and currently competes in the Southwest Wake Athletic Conference with Athens Drive, Apex, Cary, Fuquay-Varina, Holly Springs, Middle Creek, and Panther Creek high schools. Green Hope's overall athletic success is reflected with the Falcons winning three consecutive Wells Fargo Cup (formerly Wachovia Cup) trophies for all NCHSAA 4A schools for the 2009-10, 2010–11, 2011–12, and 2013-14 school years at the state level, and being conference leaders for the cup in the 2012/13 season. They have 23 team state championships in the following sports: Men's Golf (2003,2006,2007,2009,2010), Women's Cross Crountry (2009,2010,2011,2012,2013), Men's Cross Country (2010), Women's Lacrosse (2005,2006,2012), Men's Soccer (2011,2012), Women's Soccer (2013), Cheerleading (2006), Gymnastics (2012,2013,2014) , and Men's Swimming (2013,2014)

In 2006, Green Hope also had a sailing team, that was sanctioned by the South Atlantic Interscholastic Sailing Association.

Cross Country

In addition to their state championships, Green Hope is noted to have one of the largest high school cross country teams in the U.S., which was featured in a 2008 USA TODAY article.

Golf

In addition to their five state championships, the Green Hope golf team also has won five NCHSAA 4A individual titles through Brendon Todd (2000,2002,2003), Kevin O'Connell (2007), and Michael Cromie (2009). Many athletes have gone on to play at the NCAA level including Brendon Todd (Georgia), Michael Cromie (Georgia), Kevin O'Connell (UNC-Chapel Hill). Will Shambley (UNC-Wilimington), Drew Eibner (Arkansas), Eric Shriver (Pepperdine University), Dan Gossin (Appalachian State), Elliot Jones (East Carolina), Tripp Brizendine (East Carolina), Rob Barrow (Wake Forest), Kyle Sonday (UNC-Greensboro), Will Almand (UNC-Greensboro), and Ben Kohles (Virginia). As of 2014, Brendon Todd has played 4 years on the PGA Tour, earning his first tour win at the Byron Nelson Championship in May 2014.

Soccer

Both the men's and women's soccer programs are perennial state contenders. The men's team has reached the NCHSAA playoffs nine times, including 2 state championships and 4 semifinals. At the end of the 2012 season, the men's team was ranked #1 in the nation, winning both state and national championship honors. The 2013 Women's state championship team was also ranked #1 in the country. Stephen Bickford was voted the Adidas/USA Today national player of the year in 2004, in addition to winning the state player of the year title.

School organizations

Notable student organizations include: Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Science Olympiad, Gay-Straight Alliance, Muslim Students Association, Environmental Club, Green Hope Marching Band, Key Club, Beta Club, Technology Student Association, and the National Honor Society. Other clubs include various honor societies, community outreach programs, extracurricular foreign-language, competition, and culture clubs (French, Spanish, Latin), a school news site, and athletic boosters.

Green Hope Band Program

The Green Hope Band Program is led by band director Brian Myers. Most recently, the Symphonic Band was invited to perform at the NCMEA Convention in Raleigh. The marching band, the Green Hope Falcon Regiment, has performed at BOA Grand Nationals three times, and won awards in various competitions around and in North Carolina. In 2015, the marching band made school history when it made semifinals at BOA Grand Nationals for the first time. Their previous shows include: Mars, the Bringer of War (2016), MASKerade (2015), Letting Go (2014), Asylum (2013), Wrath of Darkened Wings (2012), Liszten (2011), The Trials (2010), and The Road Less Traveled (2009) The band program has also explored new trends by instigating the school's first iBand, a group of musicians who use apps on iPads to make music. The iBand group also performed at NCMEA and led an educational session to teach others about the possibilities of iBands. Other parts of the band program include the jazz band, indoor percussion program and various concert groups. The band also has three winter guard programs, including a varsity, junior varsity, and a junior team which caters local middle school students.

Green Hope String Orchestra Program

The Green Hope String Orchestra is led and taught by director David Wilson. In the 2015-16 school year, Green Hope had the most students in the Eastern Regional Orchestra out of all participating schools.

School demographics

The school serves affluent Western Wake, including Cary and Apex. It also features a program to provide bus service from south Raleigh in order to meet county socio-economic status quotas. The future of this program is uncertain as the Wake County Board of Education is debating whether or not to break up this program.

As of 2006, redistricting and explosive population growth may cause dramatic demographic changes. Affluent neighborhoods such as Preston and Weatherstone sit adjacent to old tobacco farms and rural land tracts.

In 2005, 31% of students performed at or above grade-level. The school ranks as a North Carolina Honor School of Excellence and meets capacity requirements as a High Growth School. The school is a traditional (non-magnet) school by official designation (and funding considerations).

The school prides itself on technology integration - 100% of classrooms have internet access, and teachers and students use an online course-reporting and grading system like other new Wake County Public High Schools.

In the 2015-16 school year, Green Hope served as the overflow school for other capped schools in the area such as Panther Creek.

Notable alumni