Horace Greeley High School

Distinctions

Greeley is nationally respected for its high academic standards. The high school was ranked #46 nationally in the 2008 U.S. News & World Report rankings of "America's Best High Schools," and #7 among those with open enrollment. It currently offers 17 advanced placement courses.

Recent years have seen approximately one-tenth of graduating seniors recognized by the National Merit Scholarship committee. The class of 2004 included 25 National Merit semifinalists, the class of 2005 had 16, and the class of 2007 had 22. The mean SAT score among graduating seniors in the Class of 2012 was 1927; 623 in Critical Reading, 652 in Mathematics, 652 in Writing; the average ACT score for the class of 2013 was a 29. 97% of the Class of 2005 went on to higher education, 96% to four-year colleges.

The school is strong in several extracurricular programs. Its academic challenge team won the National Academic Championship in 2003 and 2013; finished third in 2007, 2009 and 2010; and placed among the top six teams at the national tournament in five of the six years between 2000 and 2005. Chip Beall, the organizer of the tournament, noted in 2007 that Greeley's team had "the most airline miles logged at the National Academic Association's expense", a nod to their placement in the final rounds of the tournament more times than any other team in the tournament's history.

The Horace Greeley Debate Team has been successful at many regional tournaments as well as national tournaments, and has sent debaters to the state competition every year since its inception in 2002.

The Madrigal Choir, a select group of students auditioned from the full chorus, has attended the prestigious Disney Honors festival in Orlando, Florida and has performed with other choirs at such venues as Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center. In 2011, the Madrigal Choir received a gold award and came in second place at the Boston Heritage Festival.

Programs at Horace Greeley include the LIFE (Learning Independently From Experience) school, an alternative school for grades 11–12 located on campus, and independent study and senior project options. Arts and athletic offerings are extensive. Classes are offered in five foreign languages: Spanish, French, Latin, Chinese, and, at the LIFE school, Italian. The school has been pushed in recent years to eschew classic languages like French and Latin in favor of more practical ones like Chinese . In the 2014–2015 school year, Spanish, French, Latin and Chinese were offered. In the 2005–2006 school year, Ancient Greek was taught for the first time, as an independent study. Students have the opportunity to take Syracuse University Project Advance courses in Earth Systems and Forensic Science. Students may take Marketing and Business & Personal Law for college credit from Mercy College.

As of 2013, Greeley has two sister schools in China: Beijing National Day School and Shanghai Yanjing High School, and offers an exchange program for students interested in traveling to China.

Student clubs

The school is named for Horace Greeley, the editor of The New York Tribune who made his home in Chappaqua late in life. One of the school's three main publications, The Greeley Tribune, is an additional tribute to the newsman. The school's other two main publications are The Quake, a full color, student-run sports magazine with a staff of over fifty, making it the school's largest publication, and ADVO, a full color, student-run lifestyle and entertainment magazine.

Other student organizations at Greeley include the Model United Nations, One World Study Circle, and community service groups. The largest service groups include S.A.V.E. (Supporting American Veterans Everywhere), S.H.A.R.E., S.A.D.D. (Students Against Destructive Decisions), AAPA (African Anti Poverty Association), Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA), Alliance for Equality (the first gay-straight alliance in Westchester), Students for Social Justice, AIDS Awareness, improvisational comedy troupe The Puritans, Engineering Club, Silent Earth: Greening Greeley, and Amnesty International. Peer leadership is also a popular student/faculty-run organization on campus that gives older students a chance to help acclimate younger students to the high school environment.

Athletics

Sports are popular on campus. Among the diverse offerings are varsity programs in baseball, basketball, bowling, field hockey, football, golf, ice hockey, lacrosse, skiing, soccer, softball, swimming and diving, tennis, track and cross country, volleyball, and wrestling.

The school's only state championship came in 2002 and was won by the cross country team. That same year the school's football team finished with a record of 11–2, losing 22–15 to Rochester's Aquinas Institute in the New York State Class A State Championship game. The 2002 boys' cross country team won the Class-B title, and remains the only Greeley sports team to win a state championship.

Campus

The school campus is made up of 11 buildings, all are named by letter. Buildings such as the Gym (A Building), Cafeteria (H Building), and Auditorium (B Building) are referred to as such and not by their letter name. Although the building letters span A through L, there is no I Building, for unknown reasons. It was once a popular practical joke to tell freshmen that there is in fact an I Building and that it contains a swimming pool and other amenities. However, this joke fell out of use with the creation of iLab in E Building, which many jokingly refer to as the new I Building. Multiple athletic fields and a tennis court are also on campus, as well as an observatory.

Controversy

In 2015, drama teacher Christopher Schraufnagel resigned and was charged with the sexual abuse of three 15-year-old students. The crimes were alleged to have occurred between 2011 and 2015 on campus. The parents of the three students subsequently filed a lawsuit against the school district. The district's reply to the lawsuit claimed the students' "carelessness" and "recklessness" were partly to blame.

Notable alumni