Keene High School (KHS) is a public high school located in

Keene, New Hampshire Keene is a city in, and the County seat, seat of Cheshire County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 23,047 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, down from 23,409 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census. Keene is ho ...

. It serves the city of Keene and the surrounding towns of

Chesterfield Chesterfield may refer to: Places Canada * Rural Municipality of Chesterfield No. 261, Saskatchewan * Chesterfield Inlet, Nunavut United Kingdom * Chesterfield, Derbyshire, a market town in England ** Chesterfield (UK Parliament constitue ...

, Harrisville,

Marlborough Marlborough may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Marlborough, Wiltshire, England ** Marlborough College, public school * Marlborough School, Woodstock in Oxfordshire, England * The Marlborough Science Academy in Hertfordshire, England Austral ...

, Marlow,

Nelson Nelson may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Nelson'' (1918 film), a historical film directed by Maurice Elvey * ''Nelson'' (1926 film), a historical film directed by Walter Summers * ''Nelson'' (opera), an opera by Lennox Berkeley to a lib ...

, Stoddard, Sullivan, Surry, Westmoreland and

Winchester Winchester is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs Nation ...

. The Cheshire Career Center, a co-curricular and community education center, is located in the South Annex of the building. As of the 2014–15 school year, the school had an enrollment of approximately 1,391 students and 121.8 classroom teachers (on a FTE basis), for a student-teacher ratio of 11.0.

Awards and recognition

Teacher Kelly Budd was recognized in 1999 as a winner of the

Milken Family Foundation The Milken Family Foundation is a private foundation established by Lowell Milken and Michael Milken in 1982. Lowell Milken serves as chairman and co-founder of the foundation. Goals The foundation is focused primarily on supporting education ...

National Educator Awards for work that included a ninth-grade unit on

The Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...

that culminated in a trip to the

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) is the United States' official memorial to the Holocaust. Adjacent to the National Mall in Washington, D.C., the USHMM provides for the documentation, study, and interpretation of Holocaust hi ...

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

for the entire freshman class. Keene High School was winner of the 2002 International

Envirothon NCF-Envirothon is an annual environmentally themed academic competition for high school aged students organized by the NCF-Envirothon a program of the National Conservation Foundation. The competition is held by the United States and Canada on a ...

title, a high school environmental competition, defeating 47 teams from high schools across the United States and Canada. The Keene team won the New Hampshire Envirothon competition in 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009, placing 12th overall in the North American competition in 2006 and placing 9th in 2009. In the 2010 state competition two KHS teams competed, one winning and the other placing third. The winning team tied for ninth nationally. The Drama Club has won multiple Theatre at the Mount Youth (TAMY) awards for its

musicals Musical theatre is a form of theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through words, music, movement ...

. In 2013, the Cheshire Career Center Television Production Program won national gold medals for TV (Video) Production through SkillsUSA. In 2014, students won national gold medals in Digital Filmmaking through SkillsUSA. In 2015 and 2016, student were top 10 at the SkillsUSA NSLC in Broadcast News.

Courses

On average, 200 courses are taught each school year, pending involvement from staff and students.

Administration

The school is within the New Hampshire School Administrative Unit No. 29, covering Keene and six other communities in Cheshire County. Within the school, there is a Main Office, Guidance Office, Health Office, Department Offices and "House Offices". The Houses are arranged in groups of students, alphabetically. There are three house offices: Blue, Gold and Green.

Departments

There are 11 curricular departments: *Social Studies *Mathematics *Science *English *Foreign Language *Fine Arts *Life Education *Special Education *Physical Education *Technology Education *Business Education

Music

KHS has the largest music department of any other surrounding high schools. It has two

choir A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which ...

s: the Concert Chorus and the

A Cappella ''A cappella'' (, also , ; ) music is a performance by a singer or a singing group without instrumental accompaniment, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. The term ''a cappella'' was originally intended to differentiate between Ren ...

Choir. It has one concert band and two

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

groups: the Vocal Jazz Ensemble; and the Jazz Ensemble which is a

big band A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s an ...

. The Jazz Ensemble is the focus of many local jazz concerts. In addition to the performing classes, there are courses in

Music History Music history, sometimes called historical musicology, is a highly diverse subfield of the broader discipline of musicology that studies music from a historical point of view. In theory, "music history" could refer to the study of the history o ...

Music Theory Music theory is the study of the practices and possibilities of music. ''The Oxford Companion to Music'' describes three interrelated uses of the term "music theory". The first is the "rudiments", that are needed to understand music notation (ke ...

, Beginning

Piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

, Intermediate Piano, and Beginning

Guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

. Each May, the Keene High Music Department hosts the

variety show Variety show, also known as variety arts or variety entertainment, is entertainment made up of a variety of acts including musical theatre, musical performances, sketch comedy, magic (illusion), magic, acrobatics, juggling, and ventriloquism. It is ...

"Nostalgia". Keene High participates in the New Hampshire All-State Music Festival, New England Music Festival, and Monadnock Valley Music Festival.

Athletics

2006 was a successful year for the Keene High School sports teams, with the Boys Swimming and Diving winning the state championship over

Oyster River High School Oyster River High School (ORHS), part of the Oyster River Cooperative School District (ORCSD), is a public high school located in Durham, New Hampshire, United States, with an enrollment of nearly 800 students. It serves Durham and the neighbori ...

235–135, and the girls winning the Division I

cross-country skiing Cross-country skiing is a form of skiing where skiers rely on their own locomotion to move across snow-covered terrain, rather than using ski lifts or other forms of assistance. Cross-country skiing is widely practiced as a sport and recreation ...

championship over Concord High School. The boys ski team was runner-up to state champion Concord High School in both the Division I Alpine and Division I Cross Country. The boys baseball team won back-to-back Class L state championships in 1996 and 1997, winning their second in a row with a 12–5 win over

Merrimack High School Merrimack High School (MHS) is the public secondary school of the town of Merrimack, New Hampshire. It is located in a central area of town on 38 McElwain Street. About 1,200 students from grades 9 through 12 are enrolled in the school. The schoo ...

in the championship game. They won the Class L state championship again in 2009, defeating Alvirne 9–4. Keene High School's Dave Minickiello retired in 1999 after 31 years as the school's wrestling coach, having led the team to nine state titles and a New England crown, having coached seven New England individual champion wrestlers and winning more than 60 New Hampshire state championships.

Activities

43 student clubs and activities are listed on the school's website. The oldest club is the Ushers club; the Drama club is one of the largest, with an enrollment of over 110 students. The Drama Club puts on two shows a year: one

in the fall, and one

straight play A play is a work of drama, usually consisting mostly of dialogue between characters and intended for theatrical performance rather than just reading. The writer of a play is called a playwright. Plays are performed at a variety of levels, from ...

held in the spring. The current production staff is Elizabeth Hansel (

director Director may refer to: Literature * ''Director'' (magazine), a British magazine * ''The Director'' (novel), a 1971 novel by Henry Denker * ''The Director'' (play), a 2000 play by Nancy Hasty Music * Director (band), an Irish rock band * ''Di ...

), Danielle Heeran (director/

music director A music(al) director or director of music is the person responsible for the musical aspects of a performance, production, or organization. This would include the artistic director and usually chief conductor of an orchestra or concert band, the d ...

), and Kristen Leach (

choreographer Choreography is the art or practice of designing sequences of movements of physical bodies (or their depictions) in which motion or form or both are specified. ''Choreography'' may also refer to the design itself. A choreographer is one who cr ...

). The Keene High School quiz bowl team has competed on ''

Granite State Challenge ''Granite State Challenge'' is an American television quizbowl game show that airs on New Hampshire Public Television and began in 1983. Description High schools from around the state compete against each other to win "brainy bragging rights" and ...

'', progressing to the semi-finals in the twenty-ninth season. The team placed first in the state in both the Fall 2012 and Spring 2013 competitions of Knowledge Master Open. The

FIRST First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...

Robotics Team finished in first place at the 2015 event in

Durham, New Hampshire Durham is a town in Strafford County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 15,490 at the 2020 census, up from 14,638 at the 2010 census.United States Census BureauU.S. Census website 2010 Census figures. Retrieved March 23, 2011. D ...

Scheduling

Keene High School is based on a

block scheduling Block scheduling or blocking is a type of academic scheduling used in schools in the American K-12 system, in which each pupil has fewer classes per day. It is more common in middle and high schools than in primary schools. Each class is schedu ...

system. There are four blocks in a school day and one period of I-Time. Classes switch during the second semester. There is a 5-minute transition between classes. The school day runs from 7:25 AM to 2:18 PM. In the 2020-2021 School Year however, this was changed to run from 8:40 AM to 3:33 PM.

Languages

Keene High offers courses in three foreign languages: *

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

** French, I, II, III, IV, IV Honors, V, and

AP French Advanced Placement (AP) French Language and Culture (also known as AP French Lang, AP French Language or AP French) is a course offered by the College Board to high school students in the United States as an opportunity to earn placement credit ...

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...

** Spanish for Beginners, Spanish I, II, III, IV, IV Honors, V, and

AP Spanish Advanced Placement (AP) Spanish Language and Culture (also known as AP Spanish Language, AP Spanish V, or AP Spanish) is a course and examination offered by the College Board in the United States education system as part of the Advanced Placemen ...

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...

** Chinese I, Chinese II, Chinese III, and Chinese IV Students in the French program, in conjunction with the neighboring Monadnock Regional High School, have the opportunity to go on exchange with Lycée Lumière in

Luxeuil-les-Bains Luxeuil-les-Bains () is a commune in the Haute-Saône department in the region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté in eastern France. History Luxeuil (sometimes rendered Luxeu in older texts) was the Roman Luxovium and contained many fine buildings at ...

, in the Franche-Comté region of

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. Students in the Spanish program can to go on exchange with Colegio Agave in

Almería Almería (, , ) is a city and municipality of Spain, located in Andalusia. It is the capital of the province of the same name. It lies on southeastern Iberia on the Mediterranean Sea. Caliph Abd al-Rahman III founded the city in 955. The city gr ...

, in the

province of Almería Almería (, also , ) is a province of the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. It is bordered by the provinces of Granada, Murcia, and the Mediterranean Sea. Its capital is the homonymous city of Almería. Almería has an area of . With 701, ...

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

Visiting speakers

In 2015, president Donald J. Trump spoke in the gym while running for his 2016 campaign. In 2016, KHS alumnus and author

Ernest Hebert Ernest Hebert (born May 4, 1941) is an American author. He is best known for the Darby Chronicles Series, which is a series of seven novels written between 1979 and 2014 about modern life in a fictional New Hampshire town as it transitions from r ...

spoke to students in the Cheshire Career Center's Television Production Program and KHS A.P. U.S. History students as part of a project for the Cheshire Historical Society. In the fall of 2010, Keene High students participated in a "One Book One Read" program to help in the prevention of bullying. For this,

Jodi Picoult Jodi Lynn Picoult () is an American writer. Picoult has published 28 novels, accompanying short stories, and has also written several issues of Wonder Woman. Approximately 40 million copies of her books are in print worldwide, translated into 34 ...

came to speak to the students about the topic she wrote about in her book ''

Nineteen Minutes ''Nineteen Minutes'' (2007) is the fourteenth novel by the American author, Jodi Picoult. It was Picoult's first book to debut at #1 on the New York Times Best Seller list. This novel follows the unfolding of a school shooting, including the even ...

''. In the spring of 2007,

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...

survivor and author David Faber gave a presentation to the entire student body regarding his experiences in

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

. Presidential candidate

Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States sen ...

spoke at the school on February 11, 2007.

Wesley Clark Wesley Kanne Clark (born December 23, 1944) is a retired United States Army officer. He graduated as valedictorian of the class of 1966 at West Point and was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to the University of Oxford, where he obtained a degree ...

spoke at the school in the run-up to the 2004

New Hampshire primary The New Hampshire presidential primary is the first in a series of nationwide party primary elections and the second party contest (the first being the Iowa caucuses) held in the United States every four years as part of the process of choosi ...

. During the 1992 presidential primaries, future president

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...

spoke at the school and entertained questions from selected students. During the 1976 primaries

President of the United States The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United Stat ...

Gerald Ford Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr. ( ; born Leslie Lynch King Jr.; July 14, 1913December 26, 2006) was an American politician who served as the 38th president of the United States from 1974 to 1977. He was the only president never to have been elected ...

spoke at Keene High School, in his efforts to stave off an incipient challenge from

Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...

United States Senator The United States Senate is the Upper house, upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the United States House of Representatives, House of Representatives being the Lower house, lower chamber. Together they compose the national Bica ...

George McGovern George Stanley McGovern (July 19, 1922 – October 21, 2012) was an American historian and South Dakota politician who was a U.S. representative and three-term U.S. senator, and the Democratic Party presidential nominee in the 1972 pres ...

spoke at the school during the run-up to the 1972 Democratic New Hampshire primary, in his ultimately successful bid to win the party's nomination for president.

Post education

On average, 58% of Keene High School students attend 4 year colleges, while 19% attend either a 2-year or trade school, bringing the total post-secondary attendance to 71%.

Notable alumni

John Bosa John Wilfred Bosa (born January 10, 1964) is a former American football defensive end who played three seasons for the Miami Dolphins of the National Football League (NFL). He played football for Keene High School in Keene, New Hampshire and ...

(1964-), former defensive lineman for the

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 ...

Jonathan Daniels Jonathan Myrick Daniels (March 20, 1939 – August 20, 1965) was an Episcopal seminarian and civil rights activist. In 1965, he was killed by a special county deputy, Tom Coleman, who was a construction worker, in Hayneville, Alabama, while ...

Episcopal Episcopal may refer to: *Of or relating to a bishop, an overseer in the Christian church *Episcopate, the see of a bishop – a diocese *Episcopal Church (disambiguation), any church with "Episcopal" in its name ** Episcopal Church (United State ...

seminarian killed during the

civil rights movement The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional Racial segregation in the United States, racial segregation, Racial discrimination ...

, author of the Darby series *

Heather Wilson Heather Ann Wilson (born December 30, 1960) is the 11th President of the University of Texas at El Paso. She previously served as the 24th Secretary of the United States Air Force from 2017 through 2019. Wilson was the 12th president of the Sou ...

(1960-),

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

member of the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the Lower house, lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the United States Senate, Senate being ...

, representing . She is the first woman

veteran A veteran () is a person who has significant experience (and is usually adept and esteemed) and expertise in a particular occupation or field. A military veteran is a person who is no longer serving in a military. A military veteran that has ...

ever elected to the United States Congress.Heather Wilson Congressional biography
accessed March 20, 2007

References

External links

Keene High School official siteKeene High School at greatschools.netKeene High School

National Center for Education Statistics The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) is the part of the United States Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences (IES) that collects, analyzes, and publishes statistics on education and public school district finance ...

{{authority control Schools in Cheshire County, New Hampshire Buildings and structures in Keene, New Hampshire Educational institutions established in 1828 Public high schools in New Hampshire 1828 establishments in New Hampshire