Memorial High School is a public high school in

Eau Claire, Wisconsin Eau Claire ( ; lit. "clear water") is a city in Eau Claire County, Wisconsin, Eau Claire and Chippewa County, Wisconsin, Chippewa counties in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. It is the county seat, seat of Eau Claire County. It is the List of citie ...

that serves grades 9 through 12. It is one of two public high schools in the Eau Claire Area School District.

History

Memorial High School first opened in 1957. Following a 2022 referendum, Memorial began various renovations projects in June 2024. This included replacing a grass football field with a turf one, including seating and lighting. It also included auditorium, music rooms, and cafeteria renovations.

Academics

Dual credit classes are offered for various business, family and consumer science, agriculture, technology, and engineering courses. These classes are taught at Memorial but are transcribed with Chippewa Valley Technical College classes, giving students college credits. Advanced Placement (AP) classes are offered in English, art, music, science, social sciences, and math. About half of Memorial students take AP classes.

Music

Memorial has two competitive

show choirs A show choir (previously known as a "swing choir") is a musical ensemble that combines choral singing with choreographed dance, often integrated into a narrative story or overarching theme. Origin Show choirs have been popularized by the American ...

, the mixed-gender Old Abe Show Choir and the women's-only Eagle Show Choir. The school hosts a show choir competition, Winterfest, which takes place on the first weekend of February each year. Memorial also has four

orchestras An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * String instruments, such as the violin, viola, cello, ...

, the Entry Level Orchestra, the Concert Orchestra, the Chamber Orchestra, and the Old Abe Orchestra. The orchestras play in various events all throughout the year.

Athletics

Memorial belongs to the

Big Rivers Conference The Big Rivers Conference is a high school athletic conference consisting of large high schools in western Wisconsin. Formed in 1956, its member schools are affiliated with the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association. History 1956- ...

for athletics. It has teams in football, cross country, soccer, golf, swimming and diving, tennis, volleyball, basketball, gymnastics, hockey, wrestling, baseball, softball, and track and field. The boys' hockey team won state championships in 2008 and 2013. The girls' cross country team won back-to-back state championships in 2014 and 2015. Eau Claire Memorial practice fields

In the news

In fall of 1992, a 17-year-old student, April Schuldt, who was four months pregnant, received more than 100 votes in the Eau Claire Memorial High School homecoming election. The runner-up, Elizabeth Weld, received fewer than 70 votes but still was crowned queen at the 3-4 Oct. celebration. The principal resigned and three assistant principals and a teacher were disciplined by the school board after an investigation found that ballots for April had been burned in a cover-up. Schuldt appeared on numerous TV talk shows after the incident. April's story was the partial inspiration for the book

Election An election is a formal group decision-making process whereby a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold Public administration, public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative d ...

Tom Perrotta Thomas R. Perrotta (born August 13, 1961) is an American novelist and screenwriter best known for his novels ''Election'' (1998) and '' Little Children'' (2004), both of which were made into critically acclaimed, Academy Award-nominated films. Pe ...

, which was subsequently made into the 1999 movie

starring

Reese Witherspoon Laura Jeanne Reese Witherspoon (born March 22, 1976) is an American actress and producer. She is the recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Reese Witherspoon, various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Primetime Emmy Aw ...

and

Matthew Broderick Matthew Broderick (born March 21, 1962) is an American actor. He starred in ''WarGames'' (1983) as a teen government hacker, and ''Ladyhawke (film), Ladyhawke'' (1985), a medieval fantasy alongside Rutger Hauer and Michelle Pfeiffer. He play ...

. In early November 2017, an unnamed 15-year-old girl, wrote a message on one of the bathroom stalls claiming, “Get your students out B4 I kill them! If you don’t they will die! I have a loaded gun and bomb!” Eau Claire Police responded to the school and, with the help of administration, conducted a controlled evacuation of the school grounds. No students were harmed or injured during this incident and the girl was later caught by police and sent to juvenile court on charges of terroristic threats.

Notable people

Larry Balow Larry C. Balow (born April 29, 1943) is an American Politician, who most recently served as an at large alderman on the Eau Claire, Wisconsin City Council. He served as a member of the Wisconsin State Assembly from the 68th assembly district fr ...

– former

Wisconsin State Assembly The Wisconsin State Assembly is the lower house of the Wisconsin Legislature. Together with the smaller Wisconsin Senate, the two constitute the legislative branch of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The Assembly is controlled by the Republican ...

member *

Nickolas Butler Nickolas Butler (born 1979) is an American novelist and short story author. He is the author of four novels: ''Shotgun Lovesongs'' (2014), ''The Hearts of Men'' (2017), Little Faith (2019), and ''Godspeed'' (2021). He also authored the short sto ...

– novelist and short story writer *

Jake Dowell Jacob Charles Dowell (born March 4, 1985) is an American former professional ice hockey center who played in the National Hockey League (NHL) with the Chicago Blackhawks, Dallas Stars and Minnesota Wild. Playing career Youth Dowell grew up in ...

– hockey player for the

Chicago Blackhawks The Chicago Blackhawks (spelled Black Hawks until 1986, and known colloquially as the Hawks) are a professional ice hockey team based in Chicago. The Blackhawks compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division (N ...

and

University of Wisconsin-Madison A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Uni ...

* Dave Duax – former Wisconsin Cabinet Secretary, Vice President of the Eau Claire City Council, and Chairman of the Eau Claire County Board.David L. Duax, February 1, 1944 - April 17, 2015
Hulke Family Funeral Home & Cremation Services. *

Sarah Godlewski Sarah Ann Godlewski (born November 9, 1981) is an American businesswoman and politician serving since March 2023 as the 31st secretary of state of Wisconsin. She was appointed secretary of state by Governor Tony Evers after the previous secretar ...

– current

Secretary of State of Wisconsin A secretary, administrative assistant, executive assistant, personal secretary, or other similar titles is an individual whose work consists of supporting management, including executives, using a variety of project management, program evalu ...

and former

State Treasurer of Wisconsin The state treasurer of Wisconsin is a constitutional officer in the executive branch of the government of Wisconsin, government of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Thirty-six individuals have held the office since statehood. The incumbent is John Le ...

* Ann Jones – writer, journalist, photographer, educator and civil rights activist * Michael Kapla – professional ice hockey player *

Geoffrey Keezer Geoffrey Keezer (born November 20, 1970) is an American jazz pianist. In 2023, he won the Best Instrumental Composition Grammy https://ew.com/awards/grammys/grammy-awards-2023-winners-list/ Grammy Winners 2023 List foRefuge Keezer was playing in ...

– pianist * Scott D. Legwold –

U.S. National Guard The National Guard is a state-based military force that becomes part of the U.S. military's reserve components of the U.S. Army and the U.S. Air Force when activated for federal missions.Tom Poquette (1970) –

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

outfielder An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to catch ...

, 1973, 1976–1979, 1981–1982 *

Justin Vernon Justin DeYarmond Edison Vernon (born April 30, 1981) is an American singer, songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist. He is best-known as the primary songwriter and Lead vocalist, frontman of indie folk band Bon Iver. He is also a member o ...

– frontman for indie band

Bon Iver Bon Iver ( ) is an American indie folk band founded in 2006 by singer-songwriter Justin Vernon in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Vernon had originally formed Bon Iver as a solo project, but it eventually became a band consisting of Vernon (vocals, guit ...

* Joe Bee Xiong – first Hmong person elected to public office in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

Jake McCabe Jake McCabe (born October 12, 1993) is an American professional ice hockey defenseman for the Toronto Maple Leafs of the National Hockey League (NHL). He was drafted by the Buffalo Sabres in the second round (44th overall) of the 2012 NHL entry ...

– Professional Ice Hockey player for the Buffalo Sabres, Chicago Blackhawks, and Toronto Maple Leafs *

Christian Phelps Christian Phelps (born October 13, 1993) is an American educator, journalist, and Democratic politician from Eau Claire, Wisconsin. He is a member of the Wisconsin State Assembly, representing Wisconsin's 93rd Assembly district since 2025. ...

– educator

References

{{authority control Public high schools in Wisconsin Buildings and structures in Eau Claire, Wisconsin Schools in Eau Claire County, Wisconsin Educational institutions established in 1957 1957 establishments in Wisconsin