Normandy High School (Missouri)

Normandy High School
Normandy High School, June 2016
Address
6701 Saint Charles Rock Road Wellston , Missouri 63133 United States
Coordinates	38°40′57″N90°17′48″W / 38.68257°N 90.29665°W / 38.68257; -90.29665
Information
Type	Public secondary
Established	1923
School district	Normandy Schools Collaborative
Principal	Derrick Mitchell
Faculty	42.18 (FTE) [1]
Grades	9–12
Enrollment	673 (2018–19) [1]
Student to teacher ratio	15.96 [1]
Color(s)	Red and Green
Athletics conference	Suburban Central Conference
Mascot	Vikings
Website

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

History

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

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:

• Bellerive
• Bel-Nor
• Bel-Ridge
• Beverly Hills
• Charlack
• Cool Valley
• Glen Echo Park
• Greendale
• Hanley Hills
• Hillsdale
• Normandy
• Northwoods
• Norwood Court
• Pagedale
• Pasadena Hills
• Pasadena Park
• Pine Lawn
• St. John
• Uplands Park
• Velda City
• Velda Village
• Vinita Park
• Vinita Terrace
• Wellston

Activities

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

• Michael Brown, shot by police in 2014, led to Ferguson unrest
• Laurence Maroney, National Football League player
• Tony Pearson, Mr. World and AAU Mr. Universe body building contestant
• Steve Pecher, professional soccer player
• DJ TAB, DJ, music producer
• Robert A. Young, U.S. Representative Missouri
• Sexyy Red, rapper

References

1. "NORMANDY HIGH". National Center for Education Statistics. Retrieved June 2, 2020.
2. 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