Ithaca High School (Ithaca, New York)

For other schools by this name, see Ithaca High School
Ithaca High School
Ithaca High School may refer to:*Ithaca High School *Ithaca High School...

Ithaca High School (IHS) is a public high school in Ithaca, New York

Ithaca, New York

The city of Ithaca, is a city in upstate New York and the county seat of Tompkins County, as well as the largest community in the Ithaca-Tompkins County metropolitan area...

. It is part of the Ithaca City School District

Ithaca City School District

The Ithaca City School District is a public school district centered in Ithaca, Caroline, Danby, Dryden and Enfield. Approximately 500 teachers work in the district, along with 100 other professional staff members and 200 paraprofessionals....

, and has an enrollment of approximately 1,675. Jarett Powers has been principal since 2011.

About

Ithaca High School has historically had a reputation for strong academics. While today the school faces various problems, many common to most high schools, by most objective measures Ithaca High School students still score well above state and national averages. The mean SAT score in 2003 was 1169, compared to 1026 nationally. Typically, about 70% of students matriculate at four-year colleges and 20% at two-year colleges following graduation. The school traditionally sends a very large number of graduates to nearby Cornell University

Cornell University

Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...

; from 2000 to 2004, an average of 37.6 students per class (slightly less than ten percent) matriculated at Cornell immediately following graduation.

Nineteen advanced placement courses are offered:

Biology
AP Biology
In the United States, Advanced Placement Biology , is a course and examination offered by the College Board to high school students as an opportunity to earn placement credit for a college-level biology course....
Chemistry
AP Chemistry
Advanced Placement Chemistry is a course and examination offered by the College Board as a part of the Advanced Placement Program to give American and Canadian high school students the opportunity to demonstrate their abilities and earn college-level credit.-The course:AP Chemistry is a course...
Environmental Science
AP Environmental Science
Advanced Placement Environmental Science is a course offered by the College Board as part of the Advanced Placement Program to high school students interested in the environmental and natural sciences...
Physics
AP Physics
AP Physics defines three categories of high school physics courses: A, B, and C. Category A refers to general introductory physics courses that are not mathematically rigorous...

(B
AP Physics B
AP Physics B is an Advanced Placement science course that is divided into nine different sections: Newtonian Mechanics, Electricity and Magnetism, Fluid Mechanics and Thermal Physics, Waves and Optics, and Atomic and Nuclear Physics. The course is equivalent to a one-year college course that...

& C
AP Physics C
Part of the College Board's Advanced Placement Program, consisting of two separate courses:*AP Physics C: Mechanics*AP Physics C: Electricity and Magnetism...

)
Calculus
AP Calculus
Advanced Placement Calculus is used to indicate one of two distinct Advanced Placement courses and examinations offered by the College Board, AP Calculus AB and AP Calculus BC....

(AB & BC)
Statistics
AP Statistics
Advanced Placement Statistics is a college-level high school statistics course offered in the United States through the College Board's Advanced Placement program...
Computer Science AB
AP Computer Science
Advanced Placement Computer Science is the name of two distinct Advanced Placement courses and examinations offered by the College Board to high school students as an opportunity to earn college credit for a college-level computer science course...

(to be downgraded to A when College Board
College Board
The College Board is a membership association in the United States that was formed in 1900 as the College Entrance Examination Board . It is composed of more than 5,900 schools, colleges, universities and other educational organizations. It sells standardized tests used by academically oriented...

cuts AB)
English Language
AP English Language and Composition
Advanced Placement English Language and Composition is a course and examination offered by the College Board as part of the Advanced Placement Program....
English Literature
AP English Literature and Composition
Advanced Placement English Literature and Composition is a course and examination offered by the College Board as part of the Advanced Placement Program.-The Course:This course is designated for motivated students with a command of standard English, an...
Spanish Language
AP Spanish Language
Advanced Placement Spanish Language is a course and examination offered by the College Board as part of the Advanced Placement Program.-The course:...
French Language
AP French Language
Advanced Placement French Language and Culture is a course offered by the College Board to high school students in the United States as an opportunity to earn placement credit for a college-level French course...
German Language
AP German Language
Advanced Placement German Language is a course and examination provided by the College Board through the Advanced Placement Program...
Latin: Vergil
AP Latin: Vergil
Advanced Placement Latin: Vergil is an examination offered by the College Board's Advanced Placement Program. The current exam focuses on selections from the Aeneid, written by Augustan author Publius Vergilius Maro, also known as Vergil or Virgil...
Human Geography
AP Human Geography
Advanced Placement Human Geography is a course and examination offered by the College Board as part of the Advanced Placement Program in the USA.This college-level course introduces students to the systematic study of patterns and processes that have shaped human...
U.S. History
Studio Art
AP Studio Art
AP Studio Art is a series of Advanced Placement Courses divided into three different categories: AP Studio Art Drawing, AP Studio Art 2D, and AP Studio Art 3D.-The portfolio:...
Economics
Economics
Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...

There are 140 professional staff members, including about 120 classroom teachers, and over 85% of the faculty has a Master's degree or higher. Two Ithaca High School math teachers received the prestigious Edyth May Sliffe Award

Edyth May Sliffe Award

The Edyth May Sliffe Award is given annually to 20 teachers in the United States by the Mathematical Association of America . The awards are funded by a bequest from a retired high school mathematics teacher named Edyth May Sliffe, of Emeryville, California. Her purpose was to award high school...

, given annually to about 25 math teachers nationally: Dave Bock (twice, in 1990 and 1993), and Roselyn Teukolsky (in 1991).

Ithaca High School is located at 1401 North Cayuga Street in the north end of Ithaca, near Stewart Park

Stewart Park

Stewart Park is in Ithaca, New York. Ithaca is located on the southern tip of Cayuga Lake, the largest Finger Lake, and Stewart sits directly on that tip. The park is a popular place for barbecues, frisbee, tennis, baseball, and softball, as well as fishing and swimming on the lake. The park has a...

, Cayuga Lake

Cayuga Lake

Cayuga Lake is the longest of central New York's glacial Finger Lakes, and is the second largest in surface area and second largest in volume. It is just under 40 miles long. Its average width is 1.7 miles , and it is at its widest point near Aurora...

, and Ithaca Falls

Ithaca Falls

Ithaca Falls is a waterfall of Fall Creek in Ithaca, New York, near the Cornell University campus and within the city of Ithaca. It is the last step of a series of waterfalls from the hanging valley of Fall Creek to the glacial trough of Cayuga Lake. The falls are in an amphitheatre formed by...

. Designed by the architecture firm Perkins and Will

Perkins and Will

Perkins+Will was founded in Chicago in 1935 by and ., on the belief that design has the power to transform lives and enhance society...

, it is a California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

-style campus, with 11 mostly-interconnected buildings spread across a fairly wide area. Some have praised the campus as being architecturally innovative, while others have criticized it as inefficient and inappropriate to Ithaca

Ithaca, New York

The city of Ithaca, is a city in upstate New York and the county seat of Tompkins County, as well as the largest community in the Ithaca-Tompkins County metropolitan area...

's climate (notably as students routinely travel outdoors between classes, out of necessity or for a more direct route). The campus includes the Frank R. Bliss Gymnasium, the 840-seat Claude L. Kulp Auditorium, and York Lecture Hall. Most of the Ithaca City School District

Ithaca City School District

's administrative offices and the Board of Education building are located on the same campus, as are the offices of the ICSD employee unions. Currently, additions are in progress that will double the size of Kulp Auditorium, adding separate rehearsal, practice, and office spaces for the orchestra, choir, and band, as well as create a large fitness center and competition gymnasium http://www.icsd.k12.ny.us/board/FacilitiesBond2006/. The building is one of the few schools that use deep lake water cooling

Deep lake water cooling

Deep lake water cooling uses cold water pumped from the bottom of a lake as a heat sink for climate control systems. Because heat pump efficiency improves as the heat sink gets colder, deep lake water cooling can reduce the electrical demands of large cooling systems where it is available...

(from Cayuga Lake

Cayuga Lake

) for air conditioning.

The Ithaca High School FIRST

First

First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one.First or 1st may also refer to:* First , minor summit below the Schwarzhorn in the Bernese Alps in Switzerland* First , mountain in Bernese Alps in Switzerland...

Robotics Team, Code Red Robotics (Team 639), notably sponsored by Borg Warner Morse TEC and Cornell University

Cornell University

, has won first place in several regional competitions including the 2004 Canadian Regional and the 2005 Finger Lakes Regional as well as the GM Industrial Design Award (2002, 2004, 2005 Canadian Regional). They were recipients of the prestigious "Gracious Professionalism" award for both the 2009 and 2010 seasons. During the 2010 season, Code Red Robotics was given the "Excellence in Control Systems" award at the Finger Lakes Regional in Rochester NY.

The school is also part of the Southern Tier Athletic Conference (STAC). Athletic teams compete as the "Little Red," in counterpoint to the " Big Red

Cornell Big Red

The Cornell Big Red is the informal name of the sports teams, and other competitive teams, at Cornell University. The university sponsors 36 varsity sports, as well as numerous intramural and club teams. Cornell participates in NCAA Division I as part of the Ivy League.The men's and women's hockey...

" of nearby Cornell University

Cornell University

. Ithaca High School has won five New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

State Class A Boys’ ice hockey

Ice hockey

Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...

championships (1984, 1987, 1994, 2000, 2007), as well as four Upstate New York Girls' Hockey League championships (2001, 2002, 2003, 2011). The Ithaca Women's Varsity Swim team has had more than two decades of consecutive Section IV titles, several unofficial state titles, and countless undefeated seasons. Since 1989, the team has lost only one dual meet in 1998. The team has been coached by Roy Staley for through all of these successful seasons. The Boys' Lacrosse Program has established itself as a Section IV, Class A powerhouse, winning five straight sectional championships from 2000–2005 and often finding itself in the State and National Rankings. And the Boys' Track and Field Program went undefeated in dual meets for eight years until 2005, when defeated by 70-71 by Vestal High School. The program turns out state competitors regularly in both Cross Country and Track and Field. In 2005, it produced two state and Federation Champions, Drew Hilker in the Pentathlon and Peter Thompson in the Pole Vault.

Local demographics have resulted in continuing socio-economic tensions:

The [Ithaca] schools have children of professors at Cornell University and Ithaca College, who would not be rattled by a dinner-table chat about quantum physics. They also have students from Ithaca's poorer streets and from the hardscrabble farms and mobile homes in the villages that surround this Finger Lakes city.

"We have kids who live on dirt floors and go outside to the restroom and come to school to take a shower, and we have Carl Sagan
Carl Sagan
Carl Edward Sagan was an American astronomer, astrophysicist, cosmologist, author, science popularizer and science communicator in astronomy and natural sciences. He published more than 600 scientific papers and articles and was author, co-author or editor of more than 20 books...

's kids," said Peter Romani, a history teacher at Ithaca High School.

Most recently, the school experienced difficulties in 2004 and 2007. In December 2007, over 200 Ithaca residents signed a petition calling for principal Joseph M. Wilson to be fired after what they believed was Wilson's mishandling of a series of racially-charged incidents.

History

Ithaca High School was founded in 1875 as the successor to the Ithaca Academy, a private school that had operated since the 1820s. In the late 19th and early 20th century, the school had a significant side business as a tuition-charging college preparatory school; then-Cornell University

Cornell University

President Jacob Gould Schurman called it "one of the finest in the Northeast." A new building for the high school on the site of the former academy was built in 1885; that building burned on February 14, 1912. Renowned architect William Henry Miller

William Henry Miller (architect)

William Henry Miller was an American architect and the first graduate of the architecture school at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.Born in 1848 in Trenton, New York, Miller graduated from Cornell in 1872...

, who designed many buildings at Cornell, designed the new building, which the high school occupied from 1915 to 1960. That building was later used as DeWitt Junior High school for a number of years and then saved from demolition by local architect William Downing. Downing converted the building into an eclectic collection of shops, offices, studios, apartments, and restaurants known as the Dewitt Mall. The nationally renowned Moosewood Restaurant

Moosewood Restaurant

Moosewood Restaurant is a restaurant that was founded by Mollie Katzen and others in 1973 in downtown Ithaca, New York. Moosewood is located on the first floor of the Dewitt Mall building, which is a converted high school....

is also in the mall.

The Ithaca High School school newspaper, the Tattler
Tattler (student newspaper)
The Tattler is the student newspaper of Ithaca High School in Ithaca, New York. Founded in 1892, it is one of the oldest student newspapers in the United States...

, founded in 1892, is one of the oldest high school student newspapers in the country. At times in its history (in the 1960s and 1970s, as well as more recently beginning in 2005) it has been involved in controversy over claims of unconstitutional school censorship. Paul Wolfowitz

Paul Wolfowitz

Paul Dundes Wolfowitz is a former United States Ambassador to Indonesia, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense, President of the World Bank, and former dean of the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University...

and Stephen L. Carter

Stephen L. Carter

Stephen L. Carter is an American law professor, legal- and social-policy writer, columnist, and best-selling novelist.-Education:...

both wrote for the paper during their time at Ithaca High School.

From 1955 to 1967, the Ithaca High School Band received national recognition for its musicianship and innovation under the direction of Frank Battisti

Frank Battisti

Frank Battisti is the Conductor Emeritus of the New England Conservatory of Music Wind Ensemble.-Career:Battisti founded and conducted the NEC Wind Ensemble for 30 years. The ensemble is recognized as being one of the premiere ensembles of its kind in the United States and throughout the world...

. During this time, the band commissioned 24 new compositions (many by Pulitzer Prize

Pulitzer Prize for Music

The Pulitzer Prize for Music was first awarded in 1943. Joseph Pulitzer did not call for such a prize in his will, but had arranged for a music scholarship to be awarded each year...

winners and some now important wind ensemble pieces), performed at locations such as the Eastman School of Music

Eastman School of Music

The Eastman School of Music is a music conservatory located in Rochester, New York. The Eastman School is a professional school within the University of Rochester...

, the New York World’s Fair

1964 New York World's Fair

The 1964/1965 New York World's Fair was the third major world's fair to be held in New York City. Hailing itself as a "universal and international" exposition, the fair's theme was "Peace Through Understanding," dedicated to "Man's Achievement on a Shrinking Globe in an Expanding Universe";...

, and Rockefeller Center

Rockefeller Center

Rockefeller Center is a complex of 19 commercial buildings covering between 48th and 51st streets in New York City, United States. Built by the Rockefeller family, it is located in the center of Midtown Manhattan, spanning the area between Fifth Avenue and Sixth Avenue. It was declared a National...

, and played with many guest soloists and conductors including Benny Goodman

Benny Goodman

Benjamin David “Benny” Goodman was an American jazz and swing musician, clarinetist and bandleader; widely known as the "King of Swing".In the mid-1930s, Benny Goodman led one of the most popular musical groups in America...

and Doc Severinsen

Doc Severinsen

Carl Hilding "Doc" Severinsen is an American pop and jazz trumpeter. He is best known for leading the NBC Orchestra on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.-Early life:...

. A book, One Band that Took a Chance by Brian Norcross, was later published about the IHS band of this era. On May 7, 2009, Ithaca High School held a 50th Anniversary concert in honor of Frank Battisti and the 1959 commission of Warren Benson's piece Night Song, which included a new commission by local composer Gregory B. Rudgers, Night Fantasy.

The Ithaca High School Orchestra, meanwhile, is one of the oldest high school orchestras in the country, having been established in 1904. It celebrated its 100th anniversary with a celebration and concert that included a newly commissioned work entitled Enlightened City by composer Robert Paterson

Robert Paterson (composer)

Robert Paterson is an American composer, percussionist and conductor.-Biography:Paterson studied composition with Christopher Rouse, Samuel Adler, Joseph Schwantner, Warren Benson and David Liptak at the Eastman School of Music, graduating in 1995. At Eastman, he was a double major and studied...

Notable alumni

The following is an incomplete list of notable Ithaca High School alumni:

Jeremy Bem, member of the winning 1994 American team at the International Math Olympiad
Dustin Brown, hockey player, rightwinger and captain for Los Angeles Kings
Los Angeles Kings
The Los Angeles Kings are a professional ice hockey team based in Los Angeles, California. They are members of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League...
Andrew Byrnes
Andrew Byrnes
James Andrew Byrnes is a Canadian rower and Olympic gold medalist. He was born in Toronto, Ontario and raised in Ithaca, New York...

'01, Olympic rower
Stephen L. Carter
Stephen L. Carter
Stephen L. Carter is an American law professor, legal- and social-policy writer, columnist, and best-selling novelist.-Education:...

'72, author and Yale Law School
Yale Law School
Yale Law School, or YLS, is the law school of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Established in 1824, it offers the J.D., LL.M., J.S.D. and M.S.L. degrees in law. It also hosts visiting scholars, visiting researchers and a number of legal research centers...

professor
Caryn Davies
Caryn Davies
Caryn Davies is an American rower. She competed at the 2008 Summer Olympics, where she won a gold medal in women's eight as the stroke seat. At the 2004 Olympic Games she won a silver medal...

'00, '08 Olympic rower
Arthur Dean
Arthur Dean (lawyer)
Arthur Hobson Dean was a New York lawyer and diplomat who was viewed as one of the leading corporate lawyers of his day, as well having served as a key advisor to numerous U.S. presidents....

'16, chief international negotiator for President Dwight Eisenhower
Daniel Mark Fogel
Daniel Mark Fogel
Daniel Mark Fogel was President of the University of Vermont, located in Burlington, Vermont, a post he held from July 1, 2002 to July 31, 2011....

'65, President of the University of Vermont
University of Vermont
The University of Vermont comprises seven undergraduate schools, an honors college, a graduate college, and a college of medicine. The Honors College does not offer its own degrees; students in the Honors College concurrently enroll in one of the university's seven undergraduate colleges or...
Roger Howe
Roger Evans Howe
Roger Evans Howe is the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Mathematics at Yale University. He is well known for his contributions to representation theory, and in particular for the notion of a reductive dual pair, sometimes known as a Howe pair, and the Howe correspondence.He attended Ithaca High...

'61, mathematician and Yale
YALE
RapidMiner, formerly YALE , is an environment for machine learning, data mining, text mining, predictive analytics, and business analytics. It is used for research, education, training, rapid prototyping, application development, and industrial applications...

professor
Mia Korf
Mia Korf
Mia Korf is an American actress. She is probably best known for the role of Blair Cramer on One Life to Live.-Biography:...

'83, actress (The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd
The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd
The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd is an NBC/Lifetime comedy-drama that aired from 1987 to 1991. It was created by Jay Tarses and starred Blair Brown in the title role.-Premise:...

, One Life to Live
One Life to Live
One Life to Live is an American soap opera which debuted on July 15, 1968 and has been broadcast on the ABC television network. Created by Agnes Nixon, the series was the first daytime drama to primarily feature racially and socioeconomically diverse characters and consistently emphasize social...

)
Disashi Lumumba-Kasongo '00, musician, Gym Class Heroes
Gym Class Heroes
Gym Class Heroes is an American hip hop rock band from Geneva, New York. They have collaborated with Fall Out Boy's Patrick Stump on numerous occasions, notably for providing backing vocals on the song "Cupid's Chokehold." Stump also produced the majority of their album The Quilt.The group formed...
Daniel R. Mackesey
Daniel R. Mackesey
Daniel R. Mackesey was born July 14, 1954 in Ithaca, New York and attended Cornell University where he was a member of the Quill and Dagger society and graduated cum laude in 1977....

, National Lacrosse Hall of Fame member
Mary McDonnell
Mary McDonnell
Mary Eileen McDonnell is an American film, stage, and television actress. She received an Academy Award nomination for her role as Stands With A Fist in Dances with Wolves, and she is also very well known for her performance as President Laura Roslin in Battlestar Galactica, the President's wife...

, actress (Battlestar Galactica
Battlestar Galactica (TV miniseries)
Battlestar Galactica is a three-hour miniseries written and produced by Ronald D. Moore and directed by Michael Rymer. It was the first part of the Battlestar Galactica reimagining based on the 1978 Battlestar Galactica television series, and served as a backdoor pilot for the 2004 television series...

, Dances with Wolves
Dances with Wolves
Dances with Wolves is a 1990 epic western film directed by and starring Kevin Costner. It is a film adaptation of the 1988 book of the same name by Michael Blake and tells the story of a Union Army Lieutenant who travels to the American frontier to find a military post, and his dealings with a...

)
Alex Meyer
Alex Meyer
Alexander Meyer is an American open water swimmer.-Swimming career:At the 2009 World Aquatics Championships, Meyer was disqualified in the 25 km....

'06, swimmer
Hugh Troy
Hugh Troy
Hugh Charles Troy, Jr. was a US painter who is noted for his pranks.Troy was a son of a Cornell University dairy professor of the same name, and both father and son were members of the Quill and Dagger society...

, noted practical joker
Paul Wolfowitz
Paul Wolfowitz
Paul Dundes Wolfowitz is a former United States Ambassador to Indonesia, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense, President of the World Bank, and former dean of the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University...

'61, Deputy Secretary of Defense (2001–2005), World Bank
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes.The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty...

President (2005–2007)

Principals

IHS has in recent years had very high administrator turnover; since 1990, ten principals have passed through IHS. Between 1988 and 2011, no principal stayed on the job for longer than three years. In February 2008, principal Joseph M. Wilson was granted tenure in return for agreeing to resign at the end of the 2008–2009 school year. Wilson had been the subject of considerable controversy in his time at IHS. In 2005 he was sued in federal court for the alleged censorship of the school newspaper, The Tattler

Tattler (student newspaper)

The Tattler is the student newspaper of Ithaca High School in Ithaca, New York. Founded in 1892, it is one of the oldest student newspapers in the United States...

; the case remains in litigation. In December 2007, over 200 Ithaca residents signed a petition calling for him to be fired after what they believed was Wilson's mishandling of a series of racially-charged incidents in the school.

D.O Barto, 1890–1892
Frank David Boynton, 1893–1912
Frank R. Bliss, c. 1930-1962
Dr. John Graves, 1963–1973
John Caren, 1979–1988
Les Graves, 1989
Randy Ehrenberg, 1990
George Kiley, 1991–1993
Kathryn Hellweg, 1994–1996
Kevin Mack (interim), 1996–1997
Susan B. Strauss, 1997–2000
Ismael Villafañe, 2000–2003
Charles LaBarbera (interim), 2003–2004
Joseph M. Wilson, J.D., 2004–2009
Don Mills, 2009–2011
Jarett Powers, 2011-

External links

Official Ithaca High School website
Alumni & Friends of Ithaca High School
The Tattler, online site for the school newspaper
Ithaca High School Boys' Varsity Hockey

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About

History

Notable alumni

Principals

See also

External links