Springfield Southeast High School (SSHS or Southeast High School to natives) is a

public high school A state school, public school, or government school is a primary school, primary or secondary school that educates all students without charge. They are funded in whole or in part by taxation and operated by the government of the state. State-f ...

located in

Springfield, Illinois Springfield is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Illinois. Its population was 114,394 at the 2020 United States census, which makes it the state's List of cities in Illinois, seventh-most populous cit ...

. It is the youngest high school serving Springfield Public Schools District 186, the oldest and second oldest being Springfield High School and

Lanphier High School Lanphier High School, in the capital of the U.S. state of Illinois, Springfield, is a public high school affiliated with Springfield Public School District 186. It is also the home of the John Marshall Club, a club with open membership dedicated ...

respectively. True to its name, this school feeds from the southeast area of Springfield. As of the 2014-2015 school year, the school had an enrollment of 1,369 students and 90.05 classroom teachers (on a FTE basis), for a student-teacher ratio of 15.20:1. The school is well known for its athletics, particularly basketball. The school was opened in 1967, replacing the smaller Feitshans High School which had operated since 1929. Some members of the community consider the two schools to be a single continuous entity. The new school was made possible by a

US$ The United States dollar (Currency symbol, symbol: Dollar sign, $; ISO 4217, currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and International use of the U.S. dollar, several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introdu ...

3.2 million

municipal bond A municipal bond, commonly known as a muni, is a bond issued by state or local governments, or entities they create such as authorities and special districts. In the United States, interest income received by holders of municipal bonds is often ...

issue. The original design of the building placed the gymnasium floor below ground level, but flooding in the 1970s and early 1980s damaged the gymnasium floor, and for several years the original hardwood floor was replaced by carpet. A large fiberglass "Muffler Man" statue of a

Sparta Sparta was a prominent city-state in Laconia in ancient Greece. In antiquity, the city-state was known as Lacedaemon (), while the name Sparta referred to its main settlement in the Evrotas Valley, valley of Evrotas (river), Evrotas rive ...

n warrior stands above the front entrance of the school. The statue originally stood at a home builders business and was meant to portray a

Viking Vikings were seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway, and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded, and settled throughout parts of Europe.Roesdahl, pp. 9� ...

but was later modified. Within Springfield Southeast High School, there is a smaller specialty school called the Southeast Health & Science Academy, which specializes in teaching students who wish to pursue careers in medicine.

References

{{authority control Educational institutions established in 1967 Public high schools in Illinois Schools in Springfield, Illinois