Blackstone-Millville Regional High School

Blackstone-Millville Regional High School
Address
175 Lincoln Street Blackstone , MA 01504
Coordinates	42°01′49″N71°32′31″W / 42.030212°N 71.54188°W / 42.030212; -71.54188
Information
Type	Public high school
School district	Blackstone-Millville Regional School District
Principal	Jill Foulis
Faculty	34.23 FTEs [1]
Grades	9-12
Enrollment	439 (as of 2018-19) [1]
Student to teacher ratio	12.83 [1]
Color(s)	Purple & Gold
Team name	Chargers
Website	School website

Blackstone-Millville Regional High School is a high school in Blackstone, Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States, operating as part of the Blackstone-Millville Regional School District. It serves both the town of Blackstone and its western neighbor, Millville.

History

The first high school in Blackstone was built in 1868 on School Street. It was replaced in 1920 with a new high school on Main Street. The Main Street building was expanded in 1938. As population in the area grew, regionalization was discussed as a way to provide a new high school for Blackstone and Millville. The Blackstone-Millville Regional School District, which regionalized grades 7-12, was approved by voters in both towns in 1967 and charged with planning and establishing a regional junior-senior high school to be located on Lincoln Street in Blackstone. ^[2]

Following the sale of school district construction bonds, ^[3] Blackstone-Millville Junior-Senior High School opened its doors in September 1970 serving students in grades 7 through 12 and the former high school building was retained by the district for use as an intermediate elementary school.

Blackstone and Millville maintained separate K-6 school committees until 1982, when school budget cuts resulting from Massachusetts Proposition 2½ going into effect pushed the towns to work out a plan to modify the regional district to establish a K-12 regional district, approved by voters at Special Town Meetings in April 1982. ^[4] The Blackstone-Millville Regional School District began operating as a K-12 regional district on July 1, 1982. When Frederick W. Hartnett Middle School opened in 2003, the high school realigned to serve students in grades 9 through 12.

Students

Demographics

As of the 2014–15 school year, the school had an enrollment of 457 students and 38.1 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 12.0:1. There were 118 students (25.8% of enrollment) eligible for free lunch and 26 (5.7% of students) eligible for reduced-cost lunch. ^[1]

Extracurricular activities

Athletics

The Blackstone-Millville Regional Chargers compete in the Dual Valley Conference.

The boys' cross-country team won 265 consecutive dual meets between 1974 and 1993, ^[5] a national record that stood until 2004. ^[6]

Marching band

The Blackstone-Millville Regional High School Chargers Marching Band has traveled throughout North America for national competitions and parades, including the National Cherry Blossom Festival, ^[7] the Rose Parade, ^[8] and the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Championship titles won by the Marching Chargers include:

• Group IV A "Silver" United States Scholastic Band Association: 2000, 2001 ^[9]
• New England Scholastic Band Association winter percussion: 2013
• Bands of America Regional Class A Championship in Towson, MD: 2013
• Division 4 Open USBands National Championships: 2015, ^[10] 2016, ^{[11] [12]} 2019. ^[13]
• Division 3 Open USBands National Championships 2021 ^[14]

Notable people

Notable alumni

• Jennifer Lanctot O'Neill (1986), mile champion at the 1991 NCAA indoor championships, ^[15] Boston University's first three-time female All-American
• Tim McNamara (1914), Major League Baseball pitcher ^[16]

Notable faculty

• Ambrose Kennedy, U.S. Representative from Rhode Island ^[17]
• Hurley Silbor, Massachusetts State Baseball Coaches' Hall of Fame inductee ^{[18] [19]}

References

1. School data for Blackstone Millville RHS, National Center for Education Statistics. Accessed February 3, 2021.
2. Buckley, Mike (2 Apr 2016). "Reorganizing the Region [Part 1]". Medium.
3. "Bonds bid & bought". Boston Globe. 1 Apr 1970. p. 23. Underwriters led by First National Bank of Boston apparently submitted the best bid for $4.3 million of Blackstone-Millville school district building bonds.
4. Buckley, Mike (7 Apr 2016). "Reorganizing the Region [Part 2]". Medium.
5. Burt, Chris (15 Sep 1993). "Streak is ended in Blackstone". Boston Globe. p. 63. In 1991, the squad broke the national record for consecutive dual meet victories at 251, and as of yesterday, that streak was still alive at 265.
6. Clayton, Scott (1 Oct 2004). "CBA gets record 266th consecutive win". Central New Jersey Home News Tribune. p. C8.
7. "Manchester Native Is Prize Band Director". Daily Messenger. Canandaigua, NY. 8 May 1975. p. 15. Thomas R. Hessney . . . last month led the Blackstone-Millville Charger marching bad to a first place victory in the "big bands" category of the annual Cherry Blossom Festival competition, Washington, D. C.
8. Sanchez, Raymond (1 Jan 1988). "Warming Up for the Parade in Pasadena". Los Angeles Times.
9. "High School Marching Band Score Reports". Marching.com.
10. Sweetnam, Samuel (5 Feb 2016). "HS Championships 2015 Recap". Halftime Magazine.
11. "BMR Chargers take home second win at USBands Championship". Valley Breeze. Lincoln, RI. 16 Nov 2016.
12. Moneymaker, Emily (8 Feb 2017). "2016 Fall Championships Recap". Halftime Magazine.
13. Roberts, Nicole (7 Feb 2020). "2019 Fall Championships Recap". Halftime Magazine.
14. https://www.bmmamusic.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Year-in-Review.pdf ^{[ bare URL PDF ]}
15. Monahan, Bob (24 May 1991). "Lanctot makes a fast recovery". Boston Globe. p. 85. Lanctot, who attended Blackstone-Millville High School. . .
16. Sawyer, Ford (13 Jan 1925). "Tim McNamara in his home town is like the "Pied Piper"". p. 18. . . . he entered Blackstone High School, receiving his diploma from that institution in 1914.
17. Hennessy, M.E. (29 Dec 1921). "New Englanders in the Globe Spotlight: Monsieur Kennedy of Rhode Island". Boston Globe. p. 14. . . . shortly after Mr Kennedy's graduation from college he was chosen principal of the Blackstone High School.
18. "3 baseball coaches to join Hall of Fame". Boston Globe. 8 Jan 1991. p. 30.
19. Hamwey, Ken (21 Apr 2013). "Yesterday's Hero: Silbor deserving of more recognition". MetroWest Daily News. Framingham, MA.

External links

• Blackstone-Millville Music Association