Housatonic Valley Regional High School (HVRHS) is a

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...

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 ...

Falls Village, Connecticut Falls Village is a village and census-designated place in the town of Canaan in Litchfield County, Connecticut, United States. As of the 2010 census it had a population of 538, out of 1,234 in the entire town of Canaan. Because Falls Village is t ...

, United States. It was established in 1939 as a result of a special act of the

Connecticut General Assembly The Connecticut General Assembly (CGA) is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is a bicameral body composed of the 151-member House of Representatives and the 36-member Senate. It meets in the state capital, Hartford. Th ...

in 1937. It is the first regional high school in

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...

History

Prior to the opening of Housatonic Valley Regional High School, four of the six towns it currently serves each had its own high school. In the 1920s, William Teague, the state's rural supervisor of schools, suggested that Connecticut's sprawling Northwest Corner consolidate its public schools. In 1937, the

authorized the formation of the first regional school district in the state (hence the name of the new district, "Regional School District Number One"). The newly formed board of education purchased the former Lorch farm at the junction of the Salmon Kill and the Housatonic River near the Canaan-Salisbury town line for $8,000. The school was subsequently constructed on that site, opening in the fall of 1939. In 2001, the school facility expanded; adding a new agricultural education center, library, and updated science labs. The school facility includes one gymnasium, an auditorium, a cafeteria and dozens of classrooms. The school sat under the shadow of a white oak, from which the yearbook ''The White Oak'' takes its name. The historic White Oak was so badly damaged in a storm on Monday, July 5, 2004, shortly after the arrival of previous principal Gretchen Foster, that it was taken down. The School also has two other courtyards: the Sophomore Courtyard located near the cafeteria, and the Faculty Courtyard (formerly Freshman courtyard). In 2007, HVRHS became the North American Champions of the Canon Envirothon competition. In early 2008, a plan was unveiled to renovate the former Clarke B. Wood Agricultural Center on campus. Part of that building, closed in 2001 after construction of a new Agriculture Center, has been turned into the artgarage, an afterschool activity center. The main part of that building was renovated into the Mahoney-Hewat Science and Technology Center, containing areas for extended curriculum activities needing more space than in the school's science laboratories and includes permanent space for the high school's robotics team (FIRST # 716), electric vehicle construction, a conference room with space for the Alumni Association activities, a business office for the 21st Century organization and various displays and supplies. The renovations were completed late 2012 and will serve not only high school students but all the CT Region One School District schools and students.

Curriculum

In addition to the standard high school curricula, the school offers a variety of elective classes including drawing, color and design, painting, photography, pottery, sculpture, wood technology, metal technology, drafting, and a wide array of courses in agriculture.

Athletics

Housatonic supports a large number of sports in comparison to other schools in its league. Housatonic has earned three state championships; Girls Track (1985 and 1988) and Division IX Golf (2007). Its notable

alumni Alumni (singular: alumnus (masculine) or alumna (feminine)) are former students of a school, college, or university who have either attended or graduated in some fashion from the institution. The feminine plural alumnae is sometimes used for grou ...

to continue on to professional sports careers are John Lamb and

Steve Blass Stephen Robert Blass (born April 18, 1942) is an American former professional baseball player and television sports color commentator. He played his entire career in Major League Baseball as a right-handed pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates in a ...

, both

Major League Baseball 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 In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...

s for the

Pittsburgh Pirates The Pittsburgh Pirates are an American professional baseball team based in Pittsburgh. The Pirates compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Founded as part of the American Associati ...

. Blass was drafted out of HVRHS, and pitched in the

1971 World Series The 1971 World Series was the championship round of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 1971 season and featured the first night game in its history. The 68th edition of the Fall Classic was a best-of-seven playoff between the defending World Series ...

. He is currently a sportscaster for the Pirates. The Housatonic mascot is The Mountaineer. The school's colors are royal blue and gold, and it is a member of the

Berkshire League The Berkshire League is a 9-team athletic conference of high schools, located in Litchfield County, Connecticut. The Berkshire League is a member of the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference (CIAC). Teams The Berkshire League is ...

(it is a member of the Pequot Uncas for football). The school has the following sports:

Boys' sports

;Fall: * Football * Soccer (Berkshire League Champions 2005, Berkshire League Runners-up 2010, 2011, 2012) *

Cross-Country Cross country or cross-country may refer to: Places * Cross Country, Baltimore, a neighborhood in northwest Baltimore, Maryland * Cross County Parkway, an east–west parkway in Westchester County, NY * Cross County Shopping Center, a mall in Yo ...

;Winter: *

Basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

Hockey Hockey is a term used to denote a family of various types of both summer and winter team sports which originated on either an outdoor field, sheet of ice, or dry floor such as in a gymnasium. While these sports vary in specific rules, numbers o ...

Swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, or other liquid, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Locomotion is achieved through coordinated movement of the limbs and the body to achieve hydrodynamic thrust that r ...

Wrestling Wrestling is a series of combat sports involving grappling-type techniques such as clinch fighting, throws and takedowns, joint locks, pins and other grappling holds. Wrestling techniques have been incorporated into martial arts, combat ...

Alpine Skiing Alpine skiing, or downhill skiing, is the pastime of sliding down snow-covered slopes on skis with fixed-heel bindings, unlike other types of skiing ( cross-country, Telemark, or ski jumping), which use skis with free-heel bindings. Whether for ...

;Spring: * Baseball * Track and Field * Tennis * Lacrosse *

Golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

Girls' sports

;Fall: *Soccer (Class S Runners-up 2014) *Cross Country (Class S Runners-up 2016, Berkshire League Runners-up 2015, 2016) *

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. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

(Berkshire League Champions 2007) *Field Hockey ;Winter: *Basketball (Berkshire League Champions 2007-08) *Swimming *Alpine Skiing (CHAMPS 2007-08) ;Spring: *Softball *Track (Berkshire League Runner-ups 2016) *Tennis *Lacrosse *Golf

Notable alumni

, 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), ...

player * James J. Casey, politician * John Lamb, former MLB player * Jim Lawson, comic book artist *

Ron Garney Ron Garney is an American comic book writer/artist, known for his work on books such as '' JLA'', ''The Amazing Spider-Man'', ''Silver Surfer'', ''Hulk'', '' Daredevil'' and ''Captain America''. Career Garney has worked on '' JLA'', ''The Amazi ...

, comic book artist *

Peter Reilly Peter Reilly (26 November 1933 – 15 March 1977) was a Progressive Conservative party member of the House of Commons of Canada. He was a broadcaster and journalist by career. Career He was elected at the Ottawa West riding in the ...

, charged in 1973 at then 18 with the murder of his mother, Barbara Gibbons, whose case became the subject of both the 1976

true crime True crime is a nonfiction literary, podcast, and film genre in which the author examines an actual crime and details the actions of real people associated with and affected by criminal events. The crimes most commonly include murder; about 40 per ...

novel A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itsel ...

, ''

A Death in Canaan ''A Death in Canaan'' is a 1978 American made-for-television drama film directed by Tony Richardson and starring Stefanie Powers, Paul Clemens, and Brian Dennehy.made for television A television film, alternatively known as a television movie, made-for-TV film/movie or TV film/movie, is a feature-length film that is produced and originally distributed by or to a television network, in contrast to theatrical films made for ...

movie A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...

named for and about it.

References

External links

* {{authority control Salisbury, Connecticut Canaan (town), Connecticut Schools in Litchfield County, Connecticut Public high schools in Connecticut Educational institutions established in 1939 1939 establishments in Connecticut