Seneca Valley High School | |
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Address | |
19401 Crystal Rock Drive , 20874 United States | |
Coordinates | 39°10′30″N77°15′52″W / 39.17500°N 77.26444°W |
Information | |
Type | Public secondary |
Motto | Soaring Towards Excellence |
Established | 1974 |
School district | Montgomery County Public Schools |
CEEB code | 210582 |
NCES School ID | 240048000918 [1] |
Principal | Ricardo Hernandez |
Teaching staff | 154.60 FTE (2022-23) [1] |
Grades | 9–12 |
Gender | Co-educational |
Number of students | 2,239 (2022-23) [1] |
Student to teacher ratio | 14.48 (2022-23) [1] |
Campus | Suburban |
Campus size | 440,000-square-foot (41,000 m2) |
Color(s) | Green, gold |
Song | "Seneca Valley is the Best!" [2] |
Mascot | Screaming Eagles |
Rival | Damascus High School Northwest High School |
Newspaper | The Talon |
Website | www |
Seneca Valley High School (SVHS) is a public high school serving grades 9-12 in Germantown, Maryland, United States. It is part of the Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) system. The current building was finished in 2021, and has a capacity of 2,537 students. [3] [4]
As of 2024, Seneca Valley is the 83rd-ranked school in Maryland and the 4460th-ranked school nationally, according to U.S. News and World Report. [5]
Seneca Valley High School sits on land that was once the site of a dairy farm owned by baseball player Walter Perry Johnson. Johnson purchased the land in 1935 and lived there with his family until his death in 1946. [6]
Seneca Valley High School opened in 1974 as the first high school in Germantown and remained the only one until 1998, when Northwest High School opened. In its first year of operation, the 1974-1975 school year, under Principal Nathan Pearson, Seneca Valley hosted students in grades seven through ten. In the following 1975-1976 school year, the school operated grades nine through eleven, with 8th graders transferring to the newly opened Ridgeview Junior High School in Gaithersburg, Maryland. During the 1976-1977 school year, Seneca Valley became a senior high school, hosting grades ten through twelve, and graduating its first class in June 1977.
In 1988, Seneca Valley changed to its present state of full-fledged high school with grades 9-12.
In 2017, construction work began for a completely new school building and campus. The original building was demolished in 2020 and replaced with a new building on-site which was completed in 2021. [7] The new 440,000-square-foot building makes SVHS the physically largest high school in Maryland. The larger facility also changed enrollment boundaries to draw more students from the Clarksburg and Northwest High School areas, and accommodates 14 career and technical education programs (CTE) for the upcounty student population. [3] The wellness center opening was delayed until 2022 as a result of COVID-19, and became the 4th to open at a Montgomery County public high school. [8]
Seneca Valley primarily serves students living in Germantown and small populations in Clarksburg and Boyds. The school feeds from three middle schools and nine elementary schools. [4]
Elementary School Split Articulations: [4]
In November of 2019, the board of education approved boundaries that affected the following schools within the Seneca Valley cluster: [9]
In 2022, MCPS approved boundaries in anticipatation of the opening of Cabin Branch Elementary School, which was built to alleviate overcrowding at Clarksburg Elementary School. The Cabin Branch development was reassigned from Clarksburg ES to Cabin Branch ES, while students in the southern part of rural Boyds were reassigned from Clarksburg ES to Gibbs ES. [10] All affected students would still attend Neelsville MS and Seneca Valley HS.
The school's colors are green and gold, and their mascot is the Screamin' Eagle. Seneca Valley's biggest athletic rivalry is with the nearby Damascus High School. [11]
Seneca Valley's football team has won 12 state football championships, in 1976, 1977, 1979, 1980, 1987, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1997, 1998, 1999, and 2002. [12] This is a Maryland state record which they share with Damascus High School. [11]
Their hockey team (Upper Montgomery County Lightning) were JV state champions in 2022 and varsity county champions in 2024.
Clarksburg is a census-designated place and an unincorporated area in northern Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. It is located at the northern end of the Interstate 270 technology corridor, approximately four miles north of Germantown. As of the 2020 census, Clarksburg had a population of 29,051.
Darnestown is a United States census-designated place (CDP) and an unincorporated area in Montgomery County, Maryland. The CDP is 17.70 square miles (45.8 km2) with the Potomac River as its southern border and the Muddy Branch as much of its eastern border. Seneca Creek borders portions of its north and west sides. The Travilah, North Potomac, and Germantown census-designated places are adjacent to it, as is the city of Gaithersburg. Land area for the CDP is 16.39 square miles (42.4 km2). As of the 2020 census, the Darnestown CDP had a population of 6,723, while the village of Darnestown is considerably smaller in size and population. Downtown Washington, D.C. is about 22 miles (35 km) to the southeast.
Germantown is an urbanized census-designated place in Montgomery County, Maryland. With a population of 91,249 as of the 2020 census, it is the third-most populous community in Maryland, after Baltimore and Columbia. Germantown is located approximately 28 miles (45 km) outside the U.S. capital of Washington, D.C., and is an important part of the Washington metropolitan area.
The Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) is a federal school system headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, responsible for planning, directing, coordinating, and managing prekindergarten through 12th grade educational programs on behalf of the United States Department of Defense (DoD). DoDEA is globally positioned, operating 163 accredited schools in 8 districts located in 11 foreign countries, 7 states, Guam, and Puerto Rico.
Northwest High School (NWHS) is a public high school in Germantown, Maryland. It is part of the Montgomery County Public Schools public school system. As of 2022, it enrolled 2,484 students. It is one of two high schools in Germantown, the other being Seneca Valley High School, with which Northwest shares an athletic rivalry. The school also serves small sections of the cities of Gaithersburg and Darnestown.
Seneca Creek is a 5.8-mile-long (9.3 km) stream in Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, roughly 16 miles (26 km) northwest of Washington, D.C. It drains into the Potomac River.
Sherwood High School is a public high school in Sandy Spring in unincorporated Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. It is part of the Montgomery County Public Schools system. Sherwood's program of interest is the international studies program, and it is also known for its music and athletic programs.
Quince Orchard High School (QOHS), also known as Q.O. High School, is a secondary school located on Quince Orchard Road in the Quince Orchard neighborhood of Gaithersburg in Montgomery County, Maryland, United States.
Watkins Mill High School is located in Gaithersburg, an incorporated city in Montgomery County, Maryland.
Maryland Route 355 (MD 355) is a 36.75-mile (59.14 km) north–south road in western central Maryland in the United States. The southern terminus of the route is in Bethesda in Montgomery County, where Wisconsin Avenue meets the county's border with Washington, D.C. The northern terminus is just north of a bridge over Interstate 70 (I-70)/U.S. Route 40 (US 40) in the city of Frederick in Frederick County, where the road continues north as Market Street through Frederick towards MD 26.
Gaithersburg High School (GHS) is a public high school located in Gaithersburg, Maryland. Part of Montgomery County Public Schools, the school is located at 101 Education Boulevard and consists of grades 9–12. Its feeder schools are Forest Oak Middle School and Gaithersburg Middle School.
Clarksburg High School is a public high school located at 22500 Wims Road in Clarksburg, Maryland, United States. It is part of the Montgomery County Public Schools system, Maryland's largest public school system. Its students mainly come from Rocky Hill Middle School and Hallie Wells Middle School.
Maryland Route 117 is a state highway in the U.S. state of Maryland. The highway runs 12.40 miles (19.96 km) from MD 28 near Dawsonville east to West Diamond Avenue next to MD 355 in Gaithersburg. MD 117 is an L-shaped highway that connects the rural western Montgomery County communities of Dawsonville and Boyds with Germantown, Gaithersburg, and Interstate 270 (I-270) in the suburban central part of the county. The highway also provides access to Seneca Creek State Park, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and several commuter rail stations along MARC's Brunswick Line, which the highway parallels. MD 117 was the inspiration for the 1971 hit song "Take Me Home, Country Roads".
Maryland Route 118 is a state highway in the U.S. state of Maryland. Known as Germantown Road, the highway runs 7.08 miles (11.39 km) from MD 28 in Darnestown north to MD 355 in Germantown. MD 118 is the four- to six-lane main highway through the central Montgomery County community of Germantown. The highway also connects Germantown and Darnestown with Interstate 270 (I-270). The northernmost part of MD 118 was paved by 1910. The highway was extended south through Germantown in the early 1920s and extended to Darnestown in the early 1930s. MD 118 was relocated and expanded to a divided highway through Germantown in the late 1980s and late 1990s, and near its northern end in the mid-1990s.
Lakelands Park Middle School is a public middle school located in Gaithersburg, Maryland, United States. Managed by Montgomery County Public Schools, the school educates over 1,000 students in grades 6-8. The school was named after Lakelands Park, which is adjacent to the school. With its premises used regularly for community events, the school has a high local profile. It is also the most highly ranked middle school in MCPS.
Maryland Route 119 is a state highway in the U.S. state of Maryland. Also known as Great Seneca Highway, the highway runs 7.47 miles (12.02 km) from MD 28 in Rockville north to Middlebrook Road in Germantown. MD 119 is a four- to six-lane divided highway that connects several residential and commercial neighborhoods in Rockville, Gaithersburg, and Germantown. Great Seneca Highway was planned by Montgomery County in the late 1960s as a local relief route for traffic on parallel Interstate 270 (I-270) between the three communities. By the early 1980s, the highway had become controversial because it was proposed to pass through Seneca Creek State Park. A coalition of civic and environmental groups unsuccessfully pursued litigation to stop the highway. The National Park Service refused permission for the county to build the highway in 1985 but reversed itself two years later, by which time the first segment of the highway in Germantown was nearing completion. The Rockville–Gaithersburg section was completed in 1989 and the controversial segment through the state park was finished in 1990. Almost all of Great Seneca Highway became MD 119 in 1999.
Maryland Route 121 is a state highway in the U.S. state of Maryland. Known as Clarksburg Road, the highway runs 3.96 miles (6.37 km) from MD 117 in Boyds north to Stringtown Road between Interstate 270 (I-270) and MD 355 in Clarksburg. MD 121 connects Boyds and Clarksburg in northern Montgomery County. The highway was paved from Clarksburg to Boyds in the early to mid-1910s. MD 121 was extended to north of Clarksburg in the late 1920s and early 1930s. MD 121 was relocated through Clarksburg in the mid-1950s when I-270 was constructed through the area. The highway's northern end was rolled back to MD 355 in the mid-1970s. MD 121 was relocated in Boyds in the mid-1980s. The highway's northern end was moved to its present terminus just north of I-270 when Stringtown Road was constructed in the mid-2000s. In addition to the Boyds–Clarksburg route, MD 121 has also included three disjoint segments in Dawsonville and Germantown. All three of these routes were segments of the original MD 119.
Little Seneca Creek is an 14.0-mile-long (22.5 km) stream in Montgomery County, Maryland, roughly 18 miles (29 km) northwest of Washington, D.C.
The Seneca Creek Greenway Trail is a 24.2-mile (38.9 km) long trail that runs along Seneca Creek from the Potomac River to Watkins Mill Road, with some parts maintained by the state of Maryland and some parts maintained by Montgomery County, MD
The Darnestown Presbyterian Church dates back to the 1850s, and is located in Darnestown, Maryland. It is a Presbyterian Church (USA) congregation and a member of the National Capital Presbytery. Behind the church building is a cemetery with the graves of many of the early settlers of western Montgomery County, and some of the local roads and villages are namesakes of members of those pioneering families. The first European landowner in the Darnestown area was Ninian Beall, who settled around 1749. Some Beall family members are buried in the church cemetery.
Johnson bought his dream farm in Germantown in 1935 and lived here with his five children and his mother, his wife having died, until his own death in 1946. His dairy farm was located where Seneca Valley High School is today. He was elected by the local people to two terms as a County Commissioner.