Roxana High School is a
secondary 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 '' secondary education, lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) ...
in
Roxana, Illinois
Roxana is a village in Madison County, Illinois, United States. The population was 1,542 at the 2010 census.
A majority of the land in Roxana is taken up by the Wood River Refinery, an oil refinery operated by Phillips 66. The refinery was origi ...
, United States. The school's mascot is the
shell
Shell may refer to:
Architecture and design
* Shell (structure), a thin structure
** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses
** Thin-shell structure
Science Biology
* Seashell, a hard ou ...
, named for the former
Shell Oil
Shell plc is a British multinational oil and gas company headquartered in London, England. Shell is a public limited company with a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and secondary listings on Euronext Amsterdam and the New Yor ...
(now
ConocoPhillips
ConocoPhillips Company is an American multinational corporation engaged in hydrocarbon exploration and production. It is based in the Energy Corridor district of Houston, Texas.
The company has operations in 15 countries and has production in ...
)
refinery
A refinery is a production facility composed of a group of chemical engineering unit processes and unit operations refining certain materials or converting raw material into products of value.
Types of refineries
Different types of refineries ...
also located in the town. The school district encompasses all of
Roxana
Roxana (c. 340 BC – 310 BC, grc, Ῥωξάνη; Old Iranian: ''*Raṷxšnā-'' "shining, radiant, brilliant"; sometimes Roxanne, Roxanna, Rukhsana, Roxandra and Roxane) was a Sogdian or a Bactrian princess whom Alexander the Great married a ...
,
South Roxana, and parts of
Wood River Wood River may refer to:
Rivers In Canada
* Wood River (British Columbia), a tributary of the Columbia River via Kinbasket Lake
* Wood River (Saskatchewan), a river in south-west Saskatchewan
In Ireland
* Wood River (County Clare), Kilru ...
,
Edwardsville and
Rosewood Heights.
1802-1989
The area around Roxana began offering education in 1802 with the construction of Gilham's Pasture School on the northeast corner of what is now 13th Street and Edwardsville Road in Wood River, the current site of a
Dairy Queen
Dairy Queen (DQ) is an American chain of soft serve ice cream and fast food restaurants owned by International Dairy Queen, Inc. (a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway since 1998) which also owns Orange Julius, and formerly owned Karmelkorn and G ...
. Other general schools opened and closed throughout the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century; these include Brushy Grove School (not to be confused with its later incarnation, Brushey Grove School) from 1858 to 1969, Roxana School from 1918 to 1926, Edison School from 1926 to 1936, and Burbank School starting in 1936. Burbank was built as a
WPA
WPA may refer to:
Computing
*Wi-Fi Protected Access, a wireless encryption standard
*Windows Product Activation, in Microsoft software licensing
* Wireless Public Alerting (Alert Ready), emergency alerts over LTE in Canada
* Windows Performance An ...
project, and was named after botanist
Luther Burbank
Luther Burbank (March 7, 1849 – April 11, 1926) was an American botanist, horticulturist and pioneer in agricultural science.
He developed more than 800 strains and varieties of plants over his 55-year career. Burbank's varied creations incl ...
.
The school district did not have a secondary school at that time; Roxana students went to other districts for their education instead, primarily Wood River High School, which had opened in 1925. In 1939, citizens of Roxana and part of neighboring
Wood River Wood River may refer to:
Rivers In Canada
* Wood River (British Columbia), a tributary of the Columbia River via Kinbasket Lake
* Wood River (Saskatchewan), a river in south-west Saskatchewan
In Ireland
* Wood River (County Clare), Kilru ...
voted to form a new school district; the high school itself was built in 1941 and has been added to throughout its tenure.
The original building had three stories, comprising twelve classrooms, a main office, a library, and a gymnasium. A larger gym was added in 1954.
Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, the district included four elementary schools: Central, Rosewood Heights, Burbank and South Roxana. Roxana Junior High School was built adjacent to the high school; today, they are one contiguous building. Central, Rosewood, South Roxana, and the Junior High buildings were all constructed simultaneously with the 1954 erection of the large gymnasium at the high school.
Brushey Grove School was sold at
public auction
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 ...
in 1971. A
US Bank
U.S. Bancorp (stylized as us bancorp) is an American bank holding company based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and incorporated in Delaware. It is the parent company of U.S. Bank National Association, and is the fifth largest banking institution ...
now stands on the spot previously occupied by Brushey Grove School, and a commemorative marker can be found in its parking lot noting the existence of the old school.
Roxana School was located on Edwardsville Road in Roxana, between Walnut and Tydeman, facing the
Standard Oil
Standard Oil Company, Inc., was an American oil production, transportation, refining, and marketing company that operated from 1870 to 1911. At its height, Standard Oil was the largest petroleum company in the world, and its success made its co-f ...
Refinery fence. After its demolition, the land was sold to a trucking company, and it has been used for that purpose since at least 1970.
Edison School was located at the southwest corner of Tydeman and Central Avenue in Roxana, directly across the street from the First Baptist Church of Roxana. After Edison's demolition in the late 1960s, Roxana Public Library was built on the site in 1970.
Burbank added an addition in 1966. However, as enrollment began to decline with the passage of the post-war baby boom, schools began closing. Burbank, the oldest of the four, closed in 1983 and was sold to a local chiropractor. The building was given to the city and razed in 2009.
Rosewood Heights School followed in 1989, and the building has since been razed. Following the closure of these two schools, sixth graders were moved to the junior high building, and the remaining two grade schools (Central School and South Roxana School) now service grades Pre-K through 5.
2011-present
RHS has grown considerably from its beginnings; the school now contains over twenty-five full classrooms, two gyms, an auditorium, a cafeteria, a weight room, a
baseball field
A baseball field, also called a ball field or baseball diamond, is the field upon which the game of baseball is played. The term can also be used as a metonym for a baseball park. The term sandlot is sometimes used, although this usually refers ...
, a
football field, an
All-weather running track
An all-weather running track is a rubberized, artificial running surface for track and field athletics. It provides a consistent surface for competitors to test their athletic ability unencumbered by adverse weather conditions. Historically, v ...
, six
tennis court
A tennis court is the venue where the sport of tennis is played. It is a firm rectangular surface with a low net stretched across the centre. The same surface can be used to play both doubles and singles matches. A variety of surfaces can be u ...
s, a full
bus garage
A bus garage, also known as a bus depot, bus base or bus barn, is a facility where buses are stored and maintained. In many conurbations, bus garages are on the site of former car barns or tram sheds, where trams (streetcars) were stored, and ...
, three on campus parking lots, and entire buildings dedicated to science, family and consumer sciences, technology, and automotive education. A junior high school and the school district's administrative offices also adjoin the high school building. In 2011 construction finished on the new larger cafeteria, track, and parking lot. The cafeteria is a completely new building built near the bus garage on campus (it has since retired the former cafeteria.) The new track was built in place of the former
cinder
Cinder is an alternate term for scoria.
Cinder or Cinders may also refer to:
In computing
*Cinder (programming library), a C++ programming library for visualization
*Cinder, OpenStack's block storage component
* Cyber Insider Threat, CINDER, a ...
track RHS offered. The new parking lot was created behind the football field's home-team bleachers, adding about 70 new parking spaces free of charge for students.
On April 1, 2014, the school went into a major lockdown. A student had sent a fake text saying that shots had been fired. This later turned out to be a false statement.
Athletics
RHS is a part of the
Illinois High School Association
The Illinois High School Association (IHSA) is an association that regulates competition of interscholastic sports and some interscholastic activities at the high school level for the state of Illinois. It is a charter member of the National Fed ...
, participating in 10 out of 14 sports offered for boys and 10 out of 14 sports offered for girls.
Other extracurricular organizations
*
Student Council
A student council (also known as a student union, associated student body or student parliament) is an administrative organization of students in different educational institutes ranging from elementary schools to universities and research or ...
* Business Network
* Mock Trial
* Weight Lifting
*
Art
Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas.
There is no generally agreed definition of wha ...
Club
*
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ger ...
Club
*
History
History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...
Club
*
FCCLA
Family, Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA, formerly known as Future Homemakers of America) is a nonprofit national career and technical student organization for young men and women in Family and Consumer Sciences education in public ...
*
Yearbook
A yearbook, also known as an annual, is a type of a book published annually. One use is to record, highlight, and commemorate the past year of a school. The term also refers to a book of statistics or facts published annually. A yearbook often ...
Club
*
National Honor Society
The National Honor Society (NHS) is a nationwide organization for high school students in the United States and outlying territories, which consists of many chapters in high schools. Selection is based on four criteria: scholarship (academic achi ...
* Pep Club
* "R" Club (for
lettermen
The Lettermen are an American male pop vocal trio. The Lettermen's trademark is close-harmony pop songs with light arrangements. The group started in 1959. They have had two Top 10 singles (both No. 7), 16 Top 10 singles on the Adult Contempor ...
)
*
SADD
Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD), formerly Students Against Driving Drunk, is an organization whose aim is to prevent accidents from students taking potentially destructive decisions.
Mission
"SADD empowers and mobilizes students a ...
*
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 ...
Club
* The Roxettes (a
dance team A dance squad or dance team, sometimes called a pom squad or song team, is a team of participants that participates in competitive dance. A dance squad can also include: a jazz squad, ballet squad, or any kind of religion dance squad. Dance squads ...
)
*
Thespians
*
Chorus
Chorus may refer to:
Music
* Chorus (song) or refrain, line or lines that are repeated in music or in verse
* Chorus effect, the perception of similar sounds from multiple sources as a single, richer sound
* Chorus form, song in which all verse ...
* Honors Choral Ensemble
* The Treble Makers
girls ensemble*
Science Olympiad
Science Olympiad is an American team competition in which students compete in 23 events pertaining to various fields of science, including earth science, biology, chemistry, physics, and engineering. Over 7,800 middle school and high school team ...
*
Concert Band
A concert band, also called a wind band, wind ensemble, wind symphony, wind orchestra, symphonic band, the symphonic winds, or symphonic wind ensemble, is a performing ensemble consisting of members of the woodwind, brass, and percussion famil ...
*
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 ...
Band
* Scholar Bowl
*
Tri-M
Tri-M Music Honor Society, formerly known as Modern Music Masters, is an American high school and middle school music honor society. A program of the National Association for Music Education (NAfME), it is designed to recognize students for their ...
Started in the 2005–2006 school year, RHS's Tri-M chapter celebrates over 30 scholar musicians in its current membership.
Notable alumni
*
Harry Gallatin
Harry Junior "The Horse" Gallatin (April 26, 1927 – October 7, 2015) was an American professional basketball player and coach. Gallatin played nine seasons for the New York Knicks in the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 1948 to 1957 ...
- Basketball player, coach;
Basketball Hall of Fame
The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame is an American history museum and hall of fame, located at 1000 Hall of Fame Avenue in Springfield, Massachusetts. It serves as basketball's most complete library, in addition to promoting and pre ...
member.
*Kristine Wylie, Phd. - Co-author of research paper on
ViroCap virus test
"Enhanced virome sequencing using targeted sequence capture". Genome Research, online September 22, 2015
*Todd Wylie - Co-author of research paper on
ViroCap virus test
"Enhanced virome sequencing using targeted sequence capture". Genome Research, online September 22, 2015
References
{{authority control
Educational institutions established in 1941
Public high schools in Illinois
Schools in Madison County, Illinois
1941 establishments in Illinois