Abington Senior High School

Abington Senior High School is a three-year co-educational high school in Abington, Pennsylvania, USA. The school was a two-year high school known as Abington South Campus from September 1964 until June 1983. In September 1983, Abington South Campus again became a three-year high school (grades 10 through 12) and eventually changed its name back to Abington Senior High. The 2014-2015 enrollment was 1,714.^[2] The principal is Mr. Angelo Berrios.^[3] Abington students are leaders in PSSA scores in the state of Pennsylvania and have won technology-oriented awards from Dell and Microsoft.^[4][5] Abington is most notable for its chess team, which has won the state championships the past five years and has competed well at the national level.

Demographics

The 2013–2014 enrollment is 1,745 pupils with 575 in the senior class.^[6] The school has 121.70 teachers.^[6] The makeup of the student body is: 65% White; 23.55% Black; 4.5% Hispanic or Latino, 4.87% Asian or Pacific Islander, 0.01% Native American or Native Alaskan.^[6] 261 students are Free lunch eligible and 52 are eligible for a reduced-price lunch.^[6]

Graduation requirements

Graduation requirements: A minimum of 210 points (21 units) in grades 9–12 and the following course units: English (4), social studies (4), mathematics (3), science (3), arts and humanities (1), additional electives (4.6), and physical education/health (1.4).

Advanced placement

127 candidates took 243 AP Examinations in May 2005.

AP courses offered at the high school include: AP United States History, AP Biology, AP Calculus AB & BC, AP Physics B, AP Physics C: Electricity and Magnetism, AP Physics C: Mechanics, AP French, AP German, AP Spanish Language, AP Statistics, AP Environmental Science, AP Chemistry, AP Computer Science A & AB, AP English, AP Studio Art, AP US Government and Politics, AP Music Theory, AP Macroeconomics, and AP Microeconomics.

Athletics

Abington squaring off against its rival, Cheltenham in 2018

Abington is a member of the Suburban One League (SOL), National Conference. They are one of the founding members of the SOL, and one of four remaining founding schools.

School district

The Abington School District has an enrollment of 7,436 pupils.,^[9] which include eight other schools, the Junior High, which serves grades 7 through 9, and seven elementary schools, which are listed in order by distance from the senior high; Copper Beech, Highland, Roslyn, Overlook, Willow Hill, Rydal, & McKinley.

The Abington School District was involved in a legal case relating to prayer in school, Abington School District v. Schempp, which was heard by the Supreme Court of the United States on February 27–28, 1963. The ruling handed down on June 17, 1963, decided 8–1 in favor of the respondent, Edward Schempp, and declared school-sponsored Bible reading in public schools to be an unconstitutional violation of the separation of church and state. The Chief Justice presiding over the case was Earl Warren.

Honors and distinctions

The school was recognized as a Blue Ribbon High School in 1998–99 school year. Abington was a National Service Learning Leader School in 1998 and 2001.

In 2008–2009, Abington won the "Triple Crown" of awards for public school districts in the United States. In 2008, America's Promise Alliance named Abington one of the "100 Best Communities for Young People" for the third year. Shortly thereafter, Money Magazine/CNN named Abington as one of the "Top 100 Best Places to Live" in America. In its 2009 list of America's Best High Schools, U.S. News & World Report awarded Abington Senior High School a bronze medal.

Future President and then-Senator Barack Obama spoke at Abington Senior High School on October 3, 2008.

Facilities

Cheltenham and Abington logos next to each other in the Abington gymnasium

The school completed construction of a football stadium in 2006. The stadium is named after Stephen A. Schwarzman, an alumnus of the school.

See also

• List of high schools in Pennsylvania

Notable alumni

• Wayne Ambler, Class of 1936, baseball player. Philadelphia Athletics.
• Amar Bose, Class of 1947, expert in the development of electronic and stereophonic technology. Chairman and founder of Bose Corporation.^[10]
• Reverend James Bracken, Class of 1956, founder of Mission Teens Inc. , which has 16 not for profit rehabilitation centers in United States.
• Ash Carter, Class of 1972, United States Secretary of Defense.^[10]
• David Christiana, Class of 1978, Professor, Department of Illustration, University of Arizona, Tucson. Illustrator and Author.
• Ellie Daniel, Class of 1968, gold, silver, and bronze Olympic swimming medalist.
• Susan Francia, Class of 2000, two-time gold medal winning Olympic rower.
• Eddie George, 1995 Heisman Trophy Winner. (Attended until junior year)
• Brittany Hatch, Class of 2003, contestant on America's Next Top Model Cycle 8.
• Florence LaRue, Class of 1960, lead singer of The 5th Dimension
• Ralph D. Masiello, Class of 1964, Member, National Academy of Engineering
• John McNamara, Class of 1973, US Charge' d'Affaires in the Kingdom of Lesotho and the Republic of Congo
• Peter J. Rossky, Class of 1967, Member, National Academy of Sciences, Dean, Rice University Wiess School of Natural Sciences
• Bob Saget, Class of 1974, comedian and popular television celebrity.
• Ellery Schempp, Class of 1958, leader of the Abington School District^[11]v. Schempp court case, which led to the banning of organized prayer in all public schools.
• Stephen A. Schwarzman, Class of 1965, private equity financial advisor and founder of the Blackstone Group^[10]
• Susan Seidelman, Class of 1969, Director of nine feature films.^[10]
• Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, Class of 1972, Senior Associate Dean, Professor, Yale School of Management, prominent leadership scholar
• David Starr, Class of 2009, professional wrestler
• Marc Vetri, Class of 1985, celebrity chef
• Danny Woodburn, Class of 1982, actor, most famous for his character "Mickey Abbott" on Seinfeld.
• Shawn Wooden, Class of 1991, football player. University of Notre Dame, the Miami Dolphins and Chicago Bears.
• Maddy Evans, Class of 2009, Soccer player. Evans attended Penn State University and She currently plays professional soccer in the NWSL for the Orlando Pride
• Molly Bair, Class of 2015, Supermodel, On the cover of Vogue Japan, She walked for multiple designers including Chanel, Moschino, Prada, Gucci, Fendi etc.
• Rebecca Rhynhart, Class of 1992, Politician, Philadelphia City Controller
• John Quinlan, Class of 1976, Electrical Engineer
• Jonathan A. Mason, Sr, Class of 1990, Philanthropist, Businessman and 34th President of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity Incorporated

References

External links

• Official website
• Abington Township

Coordinates: 40°06′44″N 75°07′54″W / 40.1122°N 75.1317°W / 40.1122; -75.1317