Kennebunk High School is a public high school

High school

High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....

 located in Kennebunk, Maine

Kennebunk, Maine

Kennebunk is a town in York County, Maine, United States. The population was 1,075 people at the 2000 census. Including Kennebunkport , the population totals 14,196 people...

, and provides education for grades 9–12. It is part of Maine Regional School Unit 21, and currently has 807 students enrolled. In 1982–83 and in 1990–91, Kennebunk High School was named a National Blue Ribbon School. It is currently a First Amendment School.

Starting in the 2008–09 school year, Kennebunk High School will become a International Baccalaureate school, and it has now become part of the List of schools offering the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme

Facilities

The main building of Kennebunk High School, located on Fletcher Street, was built in 1938 to replace the previous building located on Park Street at the site of where Park Street School used to stand. In 1951, an addition was added to the right of the building which provided two wings, one to house the former Kennebunk Junior High School, and the other to house the High School gymnasium and technical education facilities. In the early 1970s, an addition to those wings was added to house the high school's musical and science programs. In 1981, all portions of the three-part 'wing' were incorporated into the Kennebunk Junior High School (which was simultaneously renamed Middle School of the Kennebunks) when a larger wing, built on to the left side of the main building on Memorial Field was added to replace the facilities in the older addition(s).

By the mid-1990s, all buildings were at capacity, and 15 portable classrooms were added to the high school campus. With the aid of state financing, in 2004 MSAD71 completed construction of a new middle school in West Kennebunk, upon completion of which the high school moved back in to the wings it had previously occupied, eliminating the need for many of the portable classrooms.

The main building has been extensively remodeled throughout the years, most notably during the construction of the 1981 addition.
Before 1981, the main building had two identical wings on both the left and right sides of the facade

Facade

A facade or façade is generally one exterior side of a building, usually, but not always, the front. The word comes from the French language, literally meaning "frontage" or "face"....

. The wing to the left, which housed the English department, was completely leveled to make room for the larger addition. Other 1981 changes to the main building include the replacement of the wooden staircases in favor of fire-retardant steel

Steel

Steel is an alloy that consists mostly of iron and has a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.1% by weight, depending on the grade. Carbon is the most common alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used, such as manganese, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten...

, the installation of lower 'hanging' ceilings and the placement of carpets over the tiled floors.

Alexander Economos Auditorium

The main building houses the Alexander Economos Auditorium

Auditorium

An auditorium is a room built to enable an audience to hear and watch performances at venues such as theatres. For movie theaters, the number of auditoriums is expressed as the number of screens.- Etymology :...

, named after a popular English and drama teacher whose tenure extended from the 1950s into the early 1980s. Though included in the remodeling of 1981, the auditorium still features the extensive original decorative tile work along the walls and surrounding the stage. Previous to its incarnation as an auditorium, the room had served as a gymnasium

Gym

The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, that mean a locality for both physical and intellectual education of young men...

, cafeteria

Cafeteria

A cafeteria is a type of food service location in which there is little or no waiting staff table service, whether a restaurant or within an institution such as a large office building or school; a school dining location is also referred to as a dining hall or canteen...

, library

Library

In a traditional sense, a library is a large collection of books, and can refer to the place in which the collection is housed. Today, the term can refer to any collection, including digital sources, resources, and services...

 and a band room for the school.

Sports

Math Team
Skiing

Skiing

Skiing is a recreational activity using skis as equipment for traveling over snow. Skis are used in conjunction with boots that connect to the ski with use of a binding....

, Lacrosse

Lacrosse

Lacrosse is a team sport of Native American origin played using a small rubber ball and a long-handled stick called a crosse or lacrosse stick, mainly played in the United States and Canada. It is a contact sport which requires padding. The head of the lacrosse stick is strung with loose mesh...

,
Football

High school football

High school football, in North America, refers to the game of football as it is played in the United States and Canada. It ranks among the most popular interscholastic sports in both of these nations....

,
Soccer,
Volleyball

Volleyball

Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules.The complete rules are extensive...

,
Field hockey

Field hockey

Field Hockey, or Hockey, is a team sport in which a team of players attempts to score goals by hitting, pushing or flicking a ball into an opposing team's goal using sticks...

,
Cheerleading

Cheerleading

Cheerleading is a physical activity, sometimes a competitive sport, based on organized routines, usually ranging from one to three minutes, which contain the components of tumbling, dance, jumps, cheers, and stunting to direct spectators of events to cheer on sports teams at games or to participate...

,
Cross country

Cross country running

Cross country running is a sport in which people run a race on open-air courses over natural terrain. The course, typically long, may include surfaces of grass and earth, pass through woodlands and open country, and include hills, flat ground and sometimes gravel road...

,
Basketball

Basketball

Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...

,
Wrestling

Wrestling

Wrestling is a form of grappling type techniques such as clinch fighting, throws and takedowns, joint locks, pins and other grappling holds. A wrestling bout is a physical competition, between two competitors or sparring partners, who attempt to gain and maintain a superior position...

,
Hockey

Hockey

Hockey is a family of sports in which two teams play against each other by trying to maneuver a ball or a puck into the opponent's goal using a hockey stick.-Etymology:...

,
Swimming,
Track & Field,
Softball

Softball

Softball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of 10 to 14 players. It is a direct descendant of baseball although there are some key differences: softballs are larger than baseballs, and the pitches are thrown underhand rather than overhand...

, Golf

Golf

Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....

,
Tennis

Tennis

Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...

, and
Baseball

Baseball

Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...

.

Kennebunk High School is well known for its performances in Swimming, Lacrosse, Tennis, Soccer, Softball and Math Team.

Principals

• Robert H Perkins 1970-1974
• Spencer Trask 1975–1981
• William Gentile 1981–1990
• David McConnell 1990–2001
• Nelson Beaudoin 2001–2008
• Peter Dawson 2008—2011
• Susan Cressey 2011-

External links

• Kennebunk High School official website