Abington Senior High School

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Coordinates: 40°06′44″N 75°07′54″W / 40.1122°N 75.1317°W / 40.1122; -75.1317
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Abington Senior High School
Abington Senior High School in September 2021
Address
Map
900 Highland Ave

Abington
,
Montgomery County
,
Pennsylvania
19001

United States
Information
School typePublic high school
School districtAbington School District
SuperintendentJeffrey S. Fecher
PrincipalAlice Swift
Staff115.60 (on an FTE basis)[1]
Grades9th through 12th
GenderCo-Educational
Enrollment1,808 (2018-19)[1]
Student to teacher ratio15.64[1]
Schedule typeSemester
ScheduleBlock schedule, A and B days
Color(s)Maroon and white
  
MascotGalloping Ghost
RivalCheltenham High School
WebsiteAbington Senior High School

Abington Senior High School is a four-year co-educational high school in Abington, Pennsylvania, United States. A part of the Abington School District, the school was a two-year high school known as Abington South Campus from September 1964 until June 1983. In September 1983, Abington South Campus again became a three-year high school (grades 10 through 12) and eventually changed its name back to Abington Senior High. The 2017-2018 enrollment was 1,808. The interim principal is Ms. Susan McCarthy.[2] Abington students are leaders in PSSA scores in the state of Pennsylvania and have won technology-oriented awards from Dell and Microsoft.[3][4] The school is noted for being involved in the landmark supreme court case decision: Abington School District v. Schempp.

Demographics[edit]

The 2022–2023 enrollment is 2,749 pupils with 666 in the senior class.[5] The school has 161.60 teachers and a student-teacher ratio of 17.01.[5] The makeup of the student body is: 55.0% White; 21.1% Black; 11.4% Hispanic or Latino, 6.6% Asian, and less than 0.01% Native American or Native Alaskan.[5] 801 students are Free lunch eligible and 34 are eligible for a reduced-price lunch.[5]

Athletics[edit]

Abington competing against its rival, Cheltenham High School, in 2018

Abington is a member of the Suburban One League (SOL), National Conference. They are one of the founding members of the SOL, and one of four remaining founding schools.

Abington Senior High School's mascot is a Ghost. The name comes from the late Harold "Red" Grange, a standout professional football player and member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, who visited the school in 1931, three years after he was petitioned to run for congress as a Republican and refused. He was nicknamed the Galloping Ghost by sports journalist Warren Brown. Grantland Rice wrote a short poem about Grange after watching him play.[6]

A streak of fire, a breath of flame

Eluding all who reach and clutch;

A gray ghost thrown into the game

That rival hands may never touch;

A rubber bounding, blasting soul

Whose destination is the goal — Red Grange of Illinois!

-Grantland Rice[7]

Grantland Rice was a known racist[8] whose father was a cotton dealer and grandfather a Confederate Veteran.[9][10] Prior to Grange's nickname becoming the school's mascot in the 1930s, Abington was represented by "The Maroons". Maroon and white have continued to be the school's colors over the past century.

School district[edit]

The Abington School District includes eight other schools: the middle school, which serves grades 6 through 8, and seven elementary schools, which are (in order by distance from the senior high): Copper Beech, Highland, Roslyn, Overlook, Willow Hill, Rydal, and McKinley.

The Abington School District was involved in a legal case relating to mandatory prayer in school, Abington School District v. Schempp, which was heard by the Supreme Court of the United States on February 27–28, 1963. The ruling handed down on June 17, 1963, decided 8–1 in favor of the respondent, Ellery Schempp, and declared school-sponsored Bible reading in public schools to be an unconstitutional violation of the separation of church and state. The Chief Justice presiding over the case was Earl Warren.

Honors and distinctions[edit]

The school was recognized as a Blue Ribbon High School in 1998–99 school year. Abington was a National Service Learning Leader School in 1998 and 2001.

In 2008–2009, Abington won the "Triple Crown" of awards for public school districts in the United States. In 2008, America's Promise Alliance named Abington one of the "100 Best Communities for Young People" for the third year. Shortly thereafter, Money magazine/CNN named Abington as one of the "Top 100 Best Places to Live" in the nation. In its 2009 list of "America's Best High Schools", U.S. News & World Report awarded Abington Senior High School a bronze medal.

Future President and then-Senator Barack Obama spoke at Abington Senior High School on October 3, 2008.

Facilities[edit]

Cheltenham and Abington logos next to each other in the Abington gymnasium

The school completed construction of a football stadium in 2006.

A 1965 graduate of Abington Senior High School, Stephen A. Schwarzman, announced a $25 million donation to the high school on February 15, 2018[11] which is the highest donation to a public school in history.[12]

The few conditions under which Stephen A. Schwarzman consented to donate the money for the renovation project were: renaming the school to Abington Schwarzman High School, proudly displaying his portrait in the building, naming parts of the school after his brothers, and holding the right to review construction plans for the school as well as choosing a new school logo.[11] However, there was an immediate uproar from the residents of the district regarding the renaming of the school in Stephen A. Schwarzman's honor and the idea got shut down at the School Board Meeting on April 10, 2018, under the premise that they refuse to allow big money to influence their community. Instead, the original agreement was revised to simply naming the new science and technology center after Stephen A. Schwarzman.[11] This project broke ground on November 2, 2018.[13] The grand re-opening of the additions and renovations to Abington Senior High School and the Stephen A. Schwarzman Center for Science and Technology was commemorated on Friday, August 26, 2022.[14]

Notable alumni[edit]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c "Abington SHS". National Center for Education Statistics. Archived from the original on January 30, 2016. Retrieved December 1, 2020.
  2. ^ "Abington Senior High School". Abington Senior High School. October 19, 2021. Archived from the original on July 11, 2015. Retrieved June 16, 2015.
  3. ^ "Welcome to Abington School District". abington.k12.pa.us. June 30, 2014. Archived from the original on March 22, 2020. Retrieved March 22, 2020.
  4. ^ "Dell :: Dell Commitment News - Values in Action". Archived from the original on December 7, 2009. Retrieved 2009-11-05. FutureReady Awards Honor Education Visionaries
  5. ^ a b c d "Abington SHS". National Center for Education Statistics. National Center for Education Statistics. Archived from the original on April 24, 2024. Retrieved April 24, 2024.
  6. ^ Galloping Ghost Lobbycard Red Grange Archived June 15, 2020, at the Wayback Machine Getty Images
  7. ^ Grossman, Ron (October 10, 2014). "90 years ago: Red Grange's amazing game". chicagotribune.com. Archived from the original on June 21, 2021. Retrieved April 14, 2021.
  8. ^ "Why Grantland Rice Sucked". Deadspin. June 8, 2011. Archived from the original on April 22, 2021. Retrieved April 14, 2021.
  9. ^ "Major H.W. Grantland dies", The New York Times, February 18, 1926. Accessed on June 29, 2009.
  10. ^ "Harold "Red" Grange". Pro Football Hall of Fame. Archived from the original on July 15, 2020. Retrieved June 15, 2020.
  11. ^ a b c Kelly, Kate (April 13, 2018). "A Public Outcry Against a Wall Street Titan's Name on a High School". The New York Times. Archived from the original on November 19, 2018. Retrieved November 19, 2018.
  12. ^ Adams, Susan. "Steve Schwarzman Makes The Biggest-Ever Donation To A Public High School". Forbes. Archived from the original on November 19, 2018. Retrieved November 19, 2018.
  13. ^ Press Release (November 12, 2018). "Abington School District breaks ground on $104M renovations at high school". Montgomery News. Archived from the original on March 22, 2020. Retrieved March 22, 2020.
  14. ^ Press Release (August 30, 2022). "New Science Center, Renovated High School Celebrated In Abington". Patch. Archived from the original on October 28, 2023.
  15. ^ Sargent, Jim (2007). "Wayne Ambler". The Baseball Biography Project. Archived from the original on June 10, 2007.
  16. ^ a b Cook, Bonnie L. (April 11, 2018). "Norman W. Schmid, 87, Abington Senior High School principal for 27 years". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Archived from the original on March 22, 2020. Retrieved March 22, 2020.
  17. ^ Farmer, Sabrina (June 9, 2016). "Meet the Philly Model Who's Worked with Marc Jacobs, Karl Lagerfeld and Kendall Jenner". Philadelphia Magazine. Archived from the original on March 22, 2020. Retrieved March 22, 2020.
  18. ^ Arnosky, Mischa (July 15, 2013). "Amar Bose, Abington Alum Who Pioneered Speaker Technology, Dies At 83". Abington, PA Patch. Archived from the original on March 22, 2020. Retrieved March 22, 2020.
  19. ^ "Carter speaks at Abington High School". dod.defense.gov. Department of Defense. March 30, 2015. Archived from the original on March 22, 2020. Retrieved March 22, 2020.
  20. ^ a b c d e f "Abington High School graduates of note". abingtonalumni.com. Archived from the original on May 6, 2019. Retrieved March 22, 2020.
  21. ^ Tannenwald, Jonathan (August 16, 2017). "Glenside native Maddy Evans' retirement from playing soccer an example of ugly truth about NWSL salaries". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Archived from the original on March 22, 2020. Retrieved March 22, 2020.
  22. ^ Doughty, Andrew (November 23, 2019). "Weekend Hot Clicks: Penn State Botched a Major Recruitment". Sports Illustrated. Archived from the original on March 22, 2020. Retrieved March 22, 2020.
  23. ^ "It's Not Just Amy Gutmann. Philly-Area College Presidents Are Leaving in Droves". Philadelphia Magazine. July 1, 2021. Archived from the original on March 5, 2022. Retrieved March 13, 2022.
  24. ^ Moore, Tom (September 5, 2019). "Moore: Abington grad Craig Reynolds makes big jump to the NFL". Burlington County Times. Archived from the original on March 22, 2020. Retrieved March 22, 2020.
  25. ^ "John McNamara « Diplopundit". diplopundit.net. Archived from the original on May 4, 2016. Retrieved April 16, 2016.
  26. ^ "Past Award Recipients". abington.k12.pa.us. January 10, 2017. Archived from the original on March 22, 2020. Retrieved March 22, 2020.
  27. ^ David Starr [@TheProductDS] (June 11, 2015). "@Generation_Ace Abington Sr High, Elizabethtown College/West Chester University" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  28. ^ Rys, Richard (February 24, 2009). "Exit Inverview: Danny Woodburn". Philadelphia Magazine. Archived from the original on March 22, 2020. Retrieved March 22, 2020.
  29. ^ KMac (April 17, 2014). "Throwback Thursday: The 1989 Abington Galloping Ghosts". Archived from the original on March 22, 2020. Retrieved March 22, 2020.

External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Abington Senior High School.

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