Herricks High School

Herricks High School
Herricks High School
Location
	New Hyde Park, NY; USA
Information
Type	Public
Superintendent	Jack Bierwirth
Faculty	130
Enrollment	1326
Color(s)	Blue, Silver
Athletics	16 sports:Cross Country, Football, Golf, Soccer, Tennis,Volleyball, Basketball,Winter Track, Wrestling,Badminton, Baseball, Lacrosse,Softball, Spring Track, Spring Track, roller hockey
Mascot	The Highlander
Website	www.herricks.org/highschool.cfm

Herricks High School is a four-year comprehensive public high school with 1326 students and 130 teachers, accredited by the New York State Board of Regents and the Middle States Association.

The school is located in Searingtown, New York, 20 miles east of Manhattan. Herricks High is on a hill overlooking the town. It is across the street from the Herricks Community Center.

Sixty-nine different languages from over 100 countries are spoken by students of Herricks High, and 51% of those students come from homes where English is not the primary language spoken. In the 2006-2007 school year, 47% of the students attending the school were white and 48% were Asian (both East Asian , South Asian and West Asian ) with the remaining 5% Black or Latino.

Dr. Jack Bierwirth, son of an ambassador in the Reagan Administration is the current superintendent of the Herricks School District and Dr. Jane Modoono is the current Principal of Herricks High School.

Known as the "Herricks Prayer Case, Engel v. Vitale," in 1959 the Herricks School District a.k.a. Union Free School District #9 was sued by five district property owners. "Almighty God, we acknowledge our dependence upon Thee, and we beg Thy blessings upon us, our parents, our teachers and our Country." was recited as a daily procedure on the recommendation of the NY State Board of Regents. This case was decided by the U. S. Supreme Court, which ruled the prayer unconstitutional in 1962.^[1] ^[2]

Academics

Courses

Herricks offers 25 Advanced Placement courses. Over 300 students take AP exams each year. The courses include:

Chemistry
Environmental Science
Biology
Physics B, Physics C
Calculus AB, Calculus BC
Statistics
Psychology
Macroeconomics, Microeconomics
US History
US Government & Politics
European History
World History
Language & Composition, Literature & Composition
Computer Science
French
Italian
Spanish 4AP, Spanish 5AP
Studio Art, Photography
Music Theory

Other Advanced Courses include:

Math Research
Science Research
Social Studies Research
English Scholars Program (ESP).

College acceptance

93% of Herricks students go on to post-secondary education ^{[citation needed]}.

GPA

Herricks follows the 4.0 GPA system. It also has weighted GPA for students who take AP and Honors classes.

Music and theater

Herricks has a highly-acclaimed music department. It is a four-time winner of the Grammy Award for the 45 best communities for music in the nation ^{[citation needed]}. The music department is home to ten different performing ensembles, including several advanced groups: Jazz Band, Wind Ensemble, Chamber Orchestra, and Chamber Choir.

Many students regularly attend the NYSSMA Festival and a large number of them are accepted into the NMEA All-County, All-State, and All-Eastern Music festivals.

Herricks is also home to Chapter 1975 of the Tri-M Music Honors Society, which won Chapter of the Year in 2005 for its member enrollment and participation. Herricks Tri-M is responsible for the creation of Herricks Idol, which is a take-off on American Idol, but for high school students. Tri-M has recently held its fourth annual Herricks Idol with winners Norman Kim and Maryanne Joshua as male and female winners, respectively.

After becoming immensely popular in Herricks, other high schools followed suit and created their own idols.

STAC

Herricks is also home to a unique multi-discipline arts education program called the Student Television Arts Company, or STAC. Created in 1979, STAC is has approximately 36 students from grades 9-12, who enter the program after a comprehensive audition process. STAC meets five days a week, three periods a day. The curriculum covers the arts in all manifestations — from the fine arts to writing, music, voice, dance, and drama as well as art history and the social and political context of art. Students have numerous opportunities to participate in small group workshops with working professionals from the metropolitan New York area. Such guest artists have included Bill Bowers, Tammy Hensrud, Vicki Hirsch, Fred Stroppel, dancer Heather Harrington, Breck Alan, Dave LaLama and playwright John Walch. STAC exhibits their work in two large showcases per year, as well as many art exhibits and film presentations. Furthermore, students study filmmaking by examining in detail a broad range of movies from all eras and countries and orientations, and shooting and editing their own productions on digital video. STAC students also travel much more than the average student at Herricks High School, visiting cultural institutions and events in the New York area including museums, street concerts, restaurants, and concerts and theatre performances.

Extracurricular Activities

Herricks Model Congress

Every year, the World Affairs Club organizes the Herricks Model Congress, which is hosted at the high school over a weekend that usually falls on the latter part of the school year, around February and early March. This club is focused around debating issues through the use of bills and parliamentary procedure, thus creating a "model congress". This club is overseen by advisors, and directed by an executive board of student officials. A general chair, associate general chair, delegate chair, agenda chair, and finance chair are elected each year. The club becomes a delegation which debates and competes in foreign congresses, both college congresses and those associated with the United Model Congreses. As a member of United Model Congress (UMC), Herricks follows the guidelines set by the UMC and also regularly attends the congresses in it.

Quiz Bowl

The Herricks Quiz Bowl team has been successful in the 'Long Island Challenge', a televised county-wide trivia contest and show. Herricks is the first team from Nassau County to win the challenge 8 times ^{[citation needed]}. Craig Lagnese runs the program.

USCI

Herricks participates annually in the national 'We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution' competition. The Herricks team was first formed in 2004 by social studies teacher Jodi Volper, now Mrs. Thompson. Within the school, the class is called United States Constitutional Issues and can be taken for an 11th grade Regents US History credit. In 2005 and 2006, the team represented Herricks in the State level competition, both times coming in fifth place in New York ^{[citation needed]}. They recently competed in District and are now moving onto the regional competition in January.

Model United Nations

The Model United Nations class was founded in 2005 by Chloe Graef. Later on, in 2006, it was expanded to be a club. The class and club are partially funded by the Foreign Policy Association and students participating in these activities go to several conferences where they "represent" countries. The class aims to promote the study of international affairs and current events.

Mock Trial

Herricks currently has a Mock Trial team, which is composed of 12 members: six lawyers and six witnesses. The Mock Trial team presents a fictitious case but using proper law procedure and conduct. It allows students to master verbal communication and a further grasp on the abstract concepts of the United States Constitution. Competing with schools from all around New York State, the primary objective is to win the Nassau County championship to advance to the State Championship in May. In the 2005-2006 school year the team advanced to the quarter-finals for the county led by school advisers, John McManus and Mrs. Wolf and attorney adviser, Chris Cartier ^{[citation needed]}. Competitions continuously run throughout the year, starting about early to mid February with a two-round preliminary trial. The 2006 year was the first time the Mock Trial team was able to advance to the playoffs beyond this preliminary trial, and they also accomplished this during the 2007-2008 year ^{[citation needed]}. Members work constantly during the week though regular meetings are held every Wednesday by AP Psychology teacher, John McManus.

Athletics

Herricks has a thorough sports program offering softball, baseball, tennis, soccer, wrestling, volleyball, lacrosse, hockey, basketball, bowling, fencing, swimming,track and cheerleading teams. The director of athletics is Jim Petricca.

In the 2006-2007 school year there was no varsity football team due to lack of players. This year during the 2007 season the Herricks Varsity football team is 1-2 with its first homecoming win in over 5 years ^{[citation needed]}.

The school's varsity soccer team is also ranked among the top 15 in Long Island in winning percentage^{[citation needed]}. They enjoyed a successful run to the Long Island Championship in 2005 after beating favorites Massapequa only to lose to Brentwood 3-2.

Foreign policy programs

The Foreign Policy Association of the United States and Herricks High School have developed a partnership aimed at creating a model program for the study of global issues and current events. The program is known as the 'Herricks International Research Institute'.

The 'Herricks International Children's Aid Program' (HICAP), was founded in the fall of 2003 by Ridwan Hossain (Class of 2006) and Vidya Viswanathan (Class of 2007), and is the first arm of the Herricks International Research Institute to be placed into operation.

Publications

Herricks has several publications. These include the Highlander newspaper, and the OPUS literary magazine. All publications are written and operated mainly by students.

Notable Alumni

Marlo Donato Poet and Musician

PJ Loughran Artist and Musician

[1] Gerald Olcott (deceased), Senior Vice President of Marsh McLennan

[2]Art Rutzen (deceased), CEO of SDR Capital Management, National Wrestling Hall of Fame, NYS Champion 1966.

Matthew Senreich Co-Creator/Executive Producer of Adult Swim's Robot Chicken.

Neal Maffei London Performance Artist and Singer.

[3] Jon Levine, President & CEO of Interstate Funding Corporation

References

External links

Official website