Normandy High School (Missouri)

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Coordinates: 38°40′57″N 90°17′48″W / 38.68257°N 90.29665°W / 38.68257; -90.29665
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Normandy High School
Normandy High School, June 2016
Address
Map
6701 Saint Charles Rock Road

Wellston
,
Missouri
63133

United States
Coordinates38°40′57″N 90°17′48″W / 38.68257°N 90.29665°W / 38.68257; -90.29665
Information
TypePublic secondary
Established1923
School districtNormandy Schools Collaborative
PrincipalDerrick Mitchell
Faculty42.18 (FTE)[1]
Grades9–12
Enrollment673 (2018–19)[1]
Student to teacher ratio15.96[1]
Color(s)Red and Green    
Athletics conferenceSuburban Central Conference
MascotVikings
Website[1]

Normandy High School is a public high school located in Wellston, St. Louis County, Missouri that is part of the Normandy Schools Collaborative.

History[edit]

Normandy started a high school at Lincoln Elementary School in Pagedale early its history but it did not last beyond a year. In 1907 a high school was started in the former Washington Elementary School on St. Charles Rock Road, but only one class graduated when the school closed in 1911.[2] In 1923, the district again opened a school, this time on property purchased from the Eden Theological Seminary.[2] For its first year, the high school shared the ornate four-story main building with Eden students.[2] Plans by William B. Ittner for a California-style collegiate campus with a central quadrangle were implemented shortly after.[citation needed] The school opened as a combined junior high school and senior high school, with six levels from 7th through 12th grades.[2] Plans also called for adding the first two years of college.[citation needed] This plan was realized in a way forty years later with the opening of the Normandy Residence Center, which became the University of Missouri-St. Louis.[citation needed] A vocational building and gymnasium, also designed by Ittner, were added in 1929.[2] The vocational building remains as West Hall.[citation needed] The gymnasium, with curved, amphitheater-style seating, was renowned in the area for its architecture.[2]

The founders of the high school had the goal of creating the "ideal high school".[citation needed] The founders embraced an educational concept called "functional education," which meant educating young people to assume their place in the democracy as intelligent, educated, civically involved, ethical people.[citation needed] The curriculum was based]]'s beliefs in learning by doing and relating the school to the community outside the school and, furthermore, making the school the center of the community.[citation needed] Lectures and tests based on student feeding the lectures back to the teacher were bypassed for hands-on projects, panel discussions, research projects and experiences outside the school.[citation needed] Normandy High was a so-called "lighthouse" school, with its programs the subject of numerous articles in The School Review and other educators' publications and of panels at high-profile places such as the University of Chicago.[citation needed]

Several changes to the original layout of the school were made during the 1940s and 1950s. The Garage, erected in the 1940s with a bus garage below and classrooms above, remains as North Hall.[citation needed] The school opened one of the first St. Louis County high school pools in 1948.[2] Due to large enrollment, a separate junior high school was planned and built in 1949; however, a fire damaged the original junior high school building that year, and while construction was ongoing on the new building, classes were held in two sessions a day.[2] Prior to the 1950s, the campus also included a large lake and forest area, and the school retained faculty residences inherited from Eden in which the Normandy School District superintendent and some teachers lived.[citation needed] The original seminary building was replaced by Central Hall in 1959; the large, Ittner-designed gymnasium was demolished and replaced by the circular Viking Hall.[citation needed]

Community[edit]

The school serves 24 separate municipalities in St. Louis County including unincorporated areas.[citation needed] The district encompasses an economically depressed region of St. Louis County including industrial areas such as iron works and scrapyards. The municipalities served are:

Activities[edit]

For the 2013–2014 school year, the school offered 17 activities approved by the Missouri State High School Activities Association (MSHSAA): baseball, boys and girls basketball, sideline cheerleading, boys and girls cross country, dance team, 11-man football, music activities, girls soccer, softball, speech and debate, girls swimming and diving, boys and girls track and field, girls volleyball, and wrestling.[3] In addition to its current activities, Normandy students have won several state championships, including:

  • Baseball: 1953
  • Boys basketball: 1951
  • Boys golf: 1936, 1949, 1950, 1957
  • Boys soccer: 1974
  • Boys swimming and diving: 1952, 1954
  • Boys track and field: 1974
  • Girls track and field: 1986
  • Wrestling: 1937, 1938, 1939, 1940[4]

Notable alumni[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c "NORMANDY HIGH". National Center for Education Statistics. Retrieved June 2, 2020.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Dillon, Dan (2005). So, Where'd You Go to High School: The Baby Boomer Years. Vol. 2. St. Louis, Missouri: Virginia Publishing. p. 140. ISBN 1-891442-33-3.
  3. ^ MSHSAA: Normandy
  4. ^ MSHSAA: Championship Histories by Sport
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