Meridian High School (MHS) (formerly

George Mason George Mason (October 7, 1792) was an American planter, politician, Founding Father, and delegate to the U.S. Constitutional Convention of 1787, one of the three delegates present who refused to sign the Constitution. His writings, including ...

High School) is a comprehensive 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 ...

serving the

independent City An independent city or independent town is a city or town that does not form part of another general-purpose local government entity (such as a province). Historical precursors In the Holy Roman Empire, and to a degree in its successor states ...

of Falls Church. Until January 2014, it was located in Idylwood, an

unincorporated Unincorporated may refer to: * Unincorporated area, land not governed by a local municipality * Unincorporated entity, a type of organization * Unincorporated territories of the United States, territories under U.S. jurisdiction, to which Congress ...

area of Falls Church, in Fairfax County, Virginia, adjacent to Falls Church City. As part of Fairfax Water's agreement to purchase the Falls Church Water System, the parcel with MHS was transferred to Falls Church City. The school serves some 850 students in grades 9-12. The school is the sole high school of the Falls Church City Public Schools system. In 1981, the school became the first in Virginia to use the

International Baccalaureate The International Baccalaureate (IB), formerly known as the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO), is a nonprofit foundation headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, and founded in 1968. It offers four educational programmes: the IB D ...

program. The school ranks gold in '' U.S. News & World Report''s Best High Schools Ranking for 2020; Meridian High School (formerly George Mason) ranks #16 among all schools in Virginia and #649 in the United States. A design for a new main building was unveiled in 2017 and construction began in 2019. The new LEED-certified building opened to students in 2021, and the original was demolished. In December 2020, the FCCPS School Board voted to rename George Mason High School and its counterpart Thomas Jefferson Elementary School due to their namesakes' association with

American slavery The legal institution of human chattel slavery, comprising the enslavement primarily of Africans and African Americans, was prevalent in the United States of America from its founding in 1776 until 1865, predominantly in the South. Slaver ...

. After a period of deliberation and public comment, the school board selected Meridian High School as a replacement name.

Demographics

Meridian High School's racial breakdown in the 2020-2021 class was 59% White (non-Hispanic), 6% Asian or Pacific Islander, 12% Hispanic, 4% Black, and 19% two or more races. For comparison, the demographics of the city are: 79.37% White, 3.38% Hispanics of any race, 6.5% Asian, 4.9% African American, 0.16% Native American, 0.0% Pacific Islander, 2.01% from other races, and 3.68% from two or more races.

History

MHS was built on the site of a single-room school house which burned down in 1857. After the fire, the land sat empty until Falls Church was founded as an independent city in 1948 when residents sought greater control over their local school system, which, at the time, was segregated by race. MHS, since its establishment in 1952, has become a hub of activity in the city for its facilities and athletic fields.

Sports and activities

VHSL The Virginia High School League (VHSL) is the principal sanctioning organization for interscholastic athletic competition among public high schools in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The VHSL first sponsored debate and also continues to sponsor sta ...

Scholastic Bowl Team - Bull Run District champions for 18 of 19 years between 2000 and 2018, receiving many region and conference titles in those years, seven-time Virginia A State Champions, including four straight years (2002, 2003, 2007, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013), and five-time state runner-up (2004, 2006, 2009, 2014, 2015). 2011 NAQT national high school small school division quiz bowl champions after a third-place finish in 2007 and fifth in 2010. *

Baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...

- Bull Run District Champions 2010, 2019 *Boys

Basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

- Virginia A D2 State runners-up 2012 *Girls

- Virginia A D2 State Champions (2008–2009, 2009–2010, 2011–2012); Bull Run District runners-up and Region B champions 2007–2008, 2011–12 season. * Cross Country - Girls State Champions (2008, 2009, 2010, 2011), Girls State Runner-Up (2007, 2005), third (2006), Boys District and Region champs and 4th in state in 2010, sixth in State (2007), Boys District and State Champions (2011) *

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...

- Bull Run District Champions 2006 *

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 ...

- Bull Run District Regular Season Champions 2006, 2007 *Field Hockey *

Ice Hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice h ...

*Boys

Lacrosse Lacrosse is a team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game was extensiv ...

- Dulles District champions, 2008 *Girls

- Dulles District runners-up, 2010 Dulles District Champions 2016, 4A State Runner-ups 2016, 4A State Champions 2017 *Boys Soccer - Group A runners-up 2005, 2011. Group A State Champions 2000, 2002, 2004, 2009, 2010, 2013. Group 2A State Champions 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018. Group 3 State Champions 2021. The 2015 team- Ranked #1 in Region I and #2 in Nation by NSCAA. 2016- Ranked #10 in Nation by Max Preps. *Girls Soccer - Group A Champions 2002, 2004, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013. Group 2A State Champions 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018. *

Softball Softball is a game similar to baseball played with a larger ball on a smaller field. Softball is played competitively at club levels, the college level, and the professional level. The game was first created in 1887 in Chicago by George Hanc ...

District champions 2012 *Boys

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 ...

- Bull Run District and Region B Champions 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012. District and State Champions, 2015. *Girls

- Bull Run District and Region B Champions 2009, 2012. District Champions, 2014. District, Region and State Champions, 2015 *Boys

Tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

- Fourteen-time Group A State Champions: 1986–1991, 2001, 2004–2007, 2010–2012. *Girls

- Bull Run District and Region B Champions 2006–2008, 2010. *

Track and Field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping eve ...

- Girls team third in State in 2007 and 2010, three school records and counting from the class of 2008 runners, girls team second in state (2008). Six individual state championships since 2005. *

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 Sum ...

- Bull Run District Champions 2015, Conference 35 Champions 2016, Bull Run District co-champions and Region 2B Runner-ups 2018, Northwestern District Champions 2019, Northwestern District and Region 3B Champions 2020-2021. *

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 ...

FIRST Robotics Competition FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) is an international high school robotics competition. Each year, teams of high school students, coaches, and mentors work during a six-week period to build robots capable of competing in that year's game that weig ...

br>Team 1418
Vae Victis - Frequent attendee of FIRST World Championship. Top

team in Chesapeake district in 2016. *

Band Band or BAND may refer to: Places *Bánd, a village in Hungary *Band, Iran, a village in Urmia County, West Azerbaijan Province, Iran * Band, Mureș, a commune in Romania *Band-e Majid Khan, a village in Bukan County, West Azerbaijan Province, I ...

- Earned "Superior" scores at District X Festival for the past twelve years, the past five of which were earned playing Grade VI music. Also, the music department earned the VBODA "Blue Ribbon Award" for eleven years in a row, 2000–2011. * Chorus - Consistently earns "Superior" and "Excellent" scores at District X Festival. *

Theater Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...

- Th
George Mason High School Theater
annually performs a Fall musical and a Spring play.

Notable alumni

* Grant Sabatier (2003), author

References

External links

Meridian High SchoolMeridian High School Faculty and StaffPhotos of Teachers and Administrators from Class of 1964 web pageSome class notes
{{authority control Public high schools in Virginia Schools in Falls Church, Virginia Educational institutions established in 1952 International Baccalaureate schools in Virginia 1952 establishments in Virginia