WAUSAU EAST HIGH SCHOOL

Originally named 'Wausau Senior High School' before the opening of Wausau West High School[1] in the early 1970s, 'Wausau East High School' is a comprehensive public secondary school of the Wausau School District, located in the city of Wausau, Wisconsin. Approximately 1,200 students attend the school from September to June, in grades 9-12. The current principal is Dr. Bradley J. Peck.
The school newspaper, in publication since 1918 is called ''The Skyrocket''. Its yearbook, in publication since 1912 is called the WAHISCAN or 'Wa'usau 'Hi'gh 'Sc'hool 'An'nual. Both publications references the life of Wausau East High School students. The school's colors are red and white (although sometimes thought to be red and black because black is an important accent color). Its mascot is a Lumberjack.

Contents

History

Philosophy

Classes

Ethnic Groups

Extracurricular Activities

Mascot & Sports

Administration

Notable Alumni

IB Info

ACT Info

School Comparisons

External links

History

The first high school in Wausau was a two room school house in 1880 and was occupied by different grades. When Washington School was erected as the new high school, in 1889, for $12,4000, the city felt that the school was too big. Years later in 1897, the school became overcrowded and five rooms in the court house was rented for classroom space. In 1898, a new high school was built at the cost of $65,000 by Van Ryn and DeGelleke of Milwaukee, on the corners of Seventh and Eighth streets. Far from the center of the city, many city residents complained that it was too far from the city and still others thought it was too big. The school officially opened its doors in 1900. Charles C. Parlin was the school's first principal, and served until 1911. This high school became what was known as Wausau High School and today as Wausau East High School.
In the early years, Wausau East housed two sections for sevenths and eighth graders, kindergarten,and the Marathon County Normal School. The school also taught various subjects such as Home Economics, Sciences, and Social Studies. Students who did not behave could have been expelled and placed in vocational schools. There were no buses to take students to and from school, and few rural students attended. Students had about an hour and a half for lunch. Students were also required to dress formally. Boys wore short pants and ties. Girls wore dresses that went down to their knees.
The school had an assembly room capable of holding 1,000 students. It was once said that students and teachers were proud of its angeled floors, which gave them a good view of all activities on the stage.
During the Great Depression, with the help of the Works Progress Administration, the city expanded the 1898 building, with a new three story Victorian style addition facing Seventh Street. There was supposedly three phases for the building, each to proceed with a set number of years. The first phase began in 1934. The entire building consisted of various hand-crafted wall tiles, and the main entrance displayed a large mural depicting lumberjacks cutting trees. The building also contains a series of tunnels, mainly for heating of the building. This addition to Wausau High School opened in 1936.
The second phase began in the sometime in early 1950s. This phase consisted of the construction of the theater, band, art, and social sciences classrooms. This phase was officially completed in 1954.
The last phase occurred in the 1960s, and added the gymnasium, cafeteria, and a nuclear fall-out shelter below the school. Due to a lack of funds, the plan to demolish the 1898 structure and replace it with an identical extension of the 1936 phase was never put into motion.
However, in 1979, the original 1898 building was eventually demolished by Williams Wrecking of Wausau at the cost of $53,000 because officials thought that it was an unsafe structure. The lost classroom space then was replaced with portable classrooms, until a two story addition with a second floor library was constructed and opened in 1986. The newly constructed addition consisted of classroom space for Special Education, Administrative Offices, teacher offices, and science classrooms. Also during this time, Wausau East High School went through extensive renovation, including lowering of the ceilings, and dividing the old library into three discussion rooms and classrooms (primarily English Language Learner rooms).
Through the years, its name changed from Wausau High to Wausau Senior High, and the final name changed occurred in 1972 with the opening of rival high school Wausau West High School on the west side of the city. Wausau Senior High then became known as Wausau East High School.
Due to overcrowding at the aging high school in the late 1990s, the community began discussion if they should expand the land locked school or convert, renovate, and expand Horace Mann Middle School into a high school and house middle school students at Wausau East or build a new school. In 1999, voters of Wausau, passed a referendum to construct a new high school. The new school was to be located on 18th Street, a site that has been proposed since the 1970s. The very last class to walk the halls of the old Wausau East High School was the graduating class of 2004. The new school opened its doors in September 2004. The first class to graduate from the new building was the class of 2005. The graduating class of 2007 is the last class to have ever walked the halls of Wausau East High as freshmen and graduate from the present building as seniors.[2] Currently, the old Wausau East building serves as a housing complex for middle income people. The school is also on the National Register of Historic Places.[3] The 1960 and 1986 additions have been demolished, and made into a parking lot and playing field for tenants of the complex. The future of the theater remains unknown.
'Past Principals'

1898-1900	1901-1937	1938-1969	1969-1984	1985-Present
J.A. Eakin , 1891-1900	Charles C. Parlin , 1901-1911	Gilbert W. Bannerman, 1938-1946	Pat Morey, 1970	Tom Beattie , 1985-1993
	Ira C. Painter , 1912-1937	E.H. Boettcher , 1947-1961	Herbert Reitz, 1971-1976	Bradley J. Peck, Current
		Marshall R. Taylor, 1962-1966	John Crubaugh ,1977-1984
		G.A. Jacobson , 1967
		James Bollinger, 1968-1969

'Gallery'

Philosophy

Wausau East High School's philosophy is to provide "''an active quality learning environment that
develops life-long learners who contribute responsibly to a changing global society[4]."''
The school motto is EAST: "'E'veryone 'A'chieves 'S'uccess 'T'ogether."

Classes

Wausau East has a great variety of classes, here are a few examples:

★ Art

★ Advanced Courses

★ International Baccalaureate[5]

★ History

★ Physical and Cultural Anthropology

★ Biology

★ Business

★ Chemistry

★ Computer Programming

★ English

★ English Language Learners(ELL, formerly ESL)

★ Environmental Studies

★ Mathematics

★ Physics

★ German

★ Spanish

★ French

★ Family and Consumer Education

★ Welding

★ Automotive

★ Psychology

★ CAD

★ Graphics/Videos

★ Youth Apprenticeship
Intramural Sports

Ethnic Groups

According to the School Matters and data from the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, about 72.5% of students during the 2005 year were Caucasian. About 20.6% were either Asian or Pacific Islanders, and about 4 percent were either African American, Hispanic, or Native American.[6]

Extracurricular Activities

Wausau East provides a variety of extracurricular activities for students. Here are some examples:

★ Art Club

★ Band [7]

★ Key Club

★ Math Club

★ Drama Club (The Eastend Players)

★ Fellowship of Christian Athletes

★ FFA (Future Farmers of America)

★ Intramurals, Fall- Flag Football, Winter- Co-Ed Volleyball, Spring- Basketball

★ Outdoor Club

★ Ultimate Frisbee

★ School Newspaper (''The Skyrocket'')

★ School Yearbook (''The Wahiscan'')

★ Student Council

Mascot & Sports

The official mascot of Wausau East High School is the Lumberjacks.

★ Former football coach Win Brockmeyer was the coach at Wausau High School from 1937 to 1970. Brockmeyer's teams had a 230-33-9 record, were undefeated in 13 seasons, and won 26 conference titles. In the 1940s, he had a 72-2-4 record that included a 46 game winning streak. A scholarship was later inaugurated in his honor.

Administration

Principal:

★ Bradley J. Peck, Ph.D.
Assistant Principals:

★ Chris Budnik

★ Jeff Lindell

★ Joe Svitak
Activities Director:

★ Mike Younggren
Guidance Director:

★ John Boulanger

Notable Alumni

★ Elroy Hirsch, NFL Hall of Fame

★ Jim Otto, NFL Hall of Fame

★ Dave Obey, US Congressman

IB Info

★ IB school code: 000117

★ Country: United States

★ IB region: North America & the Caribbean
Wausau East High School has been an International Baccalaureate (IB) World School since October 1978. Wausau East High School is the 10th oldest IB school in United States and fifth in the state of Wisconsin. The program is opened to all students in grades 11-12th. Students taking IB courses also may earn college credit through their IB exams at the end of the year which could allow them to begin college with sophomore status.[8] It offers the IB Diploma to those who successfully complete the program. The program is offered in English to 22 students. The program is state funded.
Students at this school usually take IB exams in May. In the last examination session, students completed the following exams: Biology HL, Chemistry SL, English A1 HL, Environmental Systems SL, French B SL, German B SL, History HL, Mathematics Studies SL, Mathematics SL, Physics SL, Psychology HL, Sociology SL, Spanish B SL, Theory of Knowledge TK and Visual Arts HL.

ACT Info

★ ACT (examination) school code: 502-415

School Comparisons

Check out how Wausau East High School compares to Wausau West High School, D.C. Everest High School,Mosinee High School, and a random high school, Whitefish Bay High School at this link. [9]
Wausau East High School is currently not identified as "in need of improvement" by the Department of Public Instruction. The average class size is 15.6 students per one teacher.[10]

External links

★ Official website

★ Wausau School District website