Mesa High School (Mesa, Arizona)
| Mesa High School (Mesa, Arizona) | |
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| Address | |
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1630 East Southern Avenue Mesa, Arizona 85204-5220  United States
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| Coordinates | 33°23′47″N 111°47′41″W / 33.396323°N 111.794642°WCoordinates: 33°23′47″N 111°47′41″W / 33.396323°N 111.794642°W |
| Information | |
| Type | Public secondary (U.S.) |
| Motto | Carry On |
| Established | 1898 |
| Oversight | Mesa Public Schools |
| Principal | Kirk Thomas |
| Faculty | 187 |
| Grades | 9–12 |
| Enrollment | 3,411 (2011–2012) |
| • Grade 9 | 945 [Grade 9] |
| • Grade 10 | 817 [Grade 10] |
| • Grade 11 | 794 [Grade 11] |
| • Grade 12 | 855 [Grade 12] |
| Student to teacher ratio | 24:1 |
| Campus | Suburban |
| Color(s) | |
| Mascot | Jackrabbit |
| Newspaper | The Jackrabbit |
| Yearbook | Superstition |
| Feeder schools | Kino Junior High School, Taylor Junior High School, Poston Junior High School |
| Website | http://www.mpsaz.org/mesa |
Mesa High School is a public high school in Mesa, Arizona, United States. Mesa High School currently accommodates grades 9–12 as part of Mesa Public Schools.
The first high school classes in Mesa began in September 1899 on the second floor of the red brick north elementary school, later rebuilt and known as Irving School. The first Mesa Union High School district was organized on December 26, 1907, with John D. Loper as superintendent. The Town Council had leased all of Block 20 to the University of Arizona for 99 years to use as an experimental farm. This was the land bounded by Center and McDonald, Second and Third Avenues. It didn't take long to discover that the block was not large enough, and so, on January 4, 1908, they sold it to the school district for $75. Construction began immediately on the building known as "Old Main". The 1909 graduating class graduated from that original twelve room building. The school had a main floor auditorium with a swimming pool in the basement. The auditorium was used for assemblies, with folding chairs for the early comers and standing room only for the rest. Ten years later, eight more rooms were added plus a small auditorium-gymnasium. During basketball games, spectators sat in the balcony (above the freshman section) or on the stage because the gym was not wide enough for sideline bleachers.
In September 1932, a football player named Zedo Ishikawa was accidentally killed with a shotgun blast to the chest while attempting to break up a fight between two dogs. As he neared death he said, "Tell Coach Coutchie and the boys to carry on." As time went on, students began repeating the theme "Carry On" to one another. Eventually it became the school's official motto.
In 1936, the WPA and PWA provided funds for new construction, and the New Building was constructed west of the Main Building with an arcade in between. The land for this was purchased from Harvey Bush, for $4,000. A new gymnasium building, which included an agriculture shop and auto shop, was also built south of the Main Building — the new site for school dances and basketball games.
In 1967, Mesa won their homecoming football game against rival Westwood High. Then, on Sunday night, October 1, 1967, a disastrous fire started in the science lab, completely destroying the sixty-year-old "Old Main" Classes continued to graduate from the old campus until 1972 when the new Mesa High was built, at a different location (farther east and south). The original Mesa High campus, minus the destroyed Old Main, would be reused in the 1970s as Mesa Central High School, which became the district's vocational school in the 1980s and closed in 1991.
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