Belleville High School East is a public

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

in Belleville,

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

, United States. It is part of Belleville Township High School District. It was established in 1966.

History

Prior to 1966, Belleville Township School District operated only one school, Belleville Township High School, which was the old Belleville West campus (a new campus has since been built). The growth of the district prompted the local board of education to construct a new campus and divide the student body between the two schools. The new campus was built in a college format with many different buildings. The newly commissioned Belleville Area College (now

Southwestern Illinois College Southwestern Illinois College is a public community college in Illinois with campuses in Belleville, Granite City, and Red Bud. It also has off-campus sites throughout the district, including Scott Air Force Base and the East St. Louis Commu ...

) occupied half of the campus while the new high school occupied the other. Enrollment in the school increased rapidly and the college was forced to move to a new location. Major renovations were completed in 2009. These included new landscaping, more classrooms, remodeled classrooms and buildings, new lockers, and a new cafeteria.

Notable alumni

* Chase Allen, football player, Linebacker for Southern Illinois University (Carbondale), Undrafted free agent with

Miami Dolphins The Miami Dolphins are a professional American football team based in the Miami metropolitan area. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member team of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. The team pla ...

in May 2017, 2017 starter for

* Malcolm Hill,

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

ranked #72 basketball player in Class of 2013, starter at

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the University ...

Israel Basketball Premier League Ligat HaAl ( he, ליגת העל, lit., ''Supreme League or Premier League''), or the Israeli Basketball Premier League, is the top-tier level league of professional competition in Israeli club basketball, making it Israel's primary basketball co ...

, Chicago Bulls 2021-2022 *

Matt Russell Matthew Jason Russell (born July 5, 1973) is an American football executive who currently serves as a Senior Personnel Executive for the Philadelphia Eagles of the National Football League. He formerly served as the Director of Player Personne ...

, All-American college football player, pro player and sports administrator * Rob Strano, former touring professional golfer; PGA Tour; Nike/Buy.Com/Nationwide Tour; Golf Channel Academy; golf instructor *

Randy Wells Randy David Wells (born August 28, 1982) is a former Major League Baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Toronto Blue Jays and Chicago Cubs. Professional career Wells was drafted by the Chicago Cubs in the 38th roun ...

, former

MLB Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

pitcher (

Chicago Cubs The Chicago Cubs are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The Cubs compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as part of the National League (NL) Central division. The club plays its home games at Wrigley Field, which is located ...

)

Wall of Fame

The school established a "Lancer Wall of Fame" to recognize noteworthy alumni, faculty, support staff and community members.https://website.bths201.org/index.php/be-mainaboutusmen/be-wall-of-fame

Class of 2004

Mark Hollmann Mark Hollmann is an American composer and lyricist. Hollmann grew up in Fairview Heights, Illinois, where he graduated from Belleville Township High School East in 1981. He won a 2002 Tony Award and a 2001 Obie Award for his music and lyrics to ...

, Tony Award-winning songwriter *

Class of 2006

* Alumnus Paul Gompers, Ph.D., Harvard Professor/Marathon Record Setter/entrepreneur, Class of 1982

Class of 2010

Nathan Hodel Nathan William Hodel (; born November 12, 1977) is a former American football long snapper. He was signed by the Carolina Panthers as an undrafted free agent in 2001. He played college football at Illinois. Hodel was also a member of the Arizona ...

NFL The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the major ...

Player/Hodel Foundation, Class of 1996 * Mark Kern, Public Servant, Class of 1981

Class of 2012

* Alumnus Lt. Col.

David P. Cooley David Paul Cooley (February 15, 1960 – March 25, 2009) was a Lockheed test pilot and retired United States Air Force (USAF) officer, responsible for developmental flight testing of the F-117 Nighthawk. He was killed while flying a test missi ...

Class of 2018

* Dr. Bob Farmer, 1987 East graduate

References

{{authority control Belleville, Illinois Public high schools in Illinois Schools in St. Clair County, Illinois Educational institutions established in 1966 1966 establishments in Illinois