Rich East High School
| Rich East High School | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Address | |
|
300 Sauk Trail Park Forest, Illinois 60466 United States |
|
| Coordinates | 41°28′51″N 87°41′26″W / 41.4809°N 87.6905°W |
| Information | |
| School type | public secondary |
| Motto | Leadership, Scholarship, Sportsmanship |
| Opened | 1952 |
| School district | Rich Township HS #227 |
| Superintendent | Mr. Ronald Patton |
| Principal | Mr. Mark Kramer |
| Staff | 265 |
| Grades | 9–12 |
| Gender | coed |
| Enrollment | 1,000 |
| Average class size | 13.5 |
| Color(s) |
green gold |
| Athletics conference | South Suburban Conference |
| Team name | Rockets |
| Accreditation | North Central Association of Colleges and Schools |
| Average ACT scores | 17.8 |
| Newspaper | The Reveiller |
| Yearbook | Lagoon |
| Website | http://www.richeast.org |
Rich East High School or REHS is a public four-year high school located in Park Forest, Illinois, a southern suburb of Chicago in the United States. Rich East's campus serves the cities of Park Forest, Matteson, Olympia Fields, Chicago Heights and Richton Park. It is a part of Rich Township District 227, which also includes Rich South High School and Rich Central High School.
Rich East High school was the first of its district to open in 1952, but was originally called Rich Township High school. This was the school's name until the construction of Rich Central High School in 1961 and Rich South High School in 1972, which now make up the three schools of district 227. Rich East was originally held in the Faith United Protestant Church until Park Forest gave them the open land to build the school. The land was only open and given to them for free by the villagers of Park Forest because it was mostly composed of clay, which is not suitable to build upon.
Many old students remember that for many years, cement had to be pumped underneath the school's main gym so that it would not sink.
The Media Center, in the front of the building was also built on unstable ground and after several days of rain, water would rise up into the carpet, making it difficult to breathe. The head librarian would scramble to save books.
There is a lagoon on the campus. In nice weather, students would sit around it during lunch times. In the winter, if it froze enough, the surface would be smoothed and people would ice skate on it. The school yearbook was named "The Lagoon" after it.
Rich East High School was originally predominately white with some African Americans. Teachers were also very strict about boys and girls showing affection in school; if a boy and a girl were holding hands, some teachers would simply tell them to stop and others would pull their hands apart.
In the 1970s, the school newspaper, The Reveillier, won numerous journalism awards for the quality of its writing. Some in the school administration and on the school board tried unsuccessfully to censor and put other limits on the paper, but those efforts were largely unsuccessful.
Another notable fact about Rich East was that it had a working, student-run radio station in the 1970s, very progressive for high schools at the time.
The activities included at Rich East are band, computer arts, chorus, dance, photography, ceramics/sculpture, drawing/painting, theater/drama, newspaper, yearbook, debate, science and technology and student council/government. They also hold academic contests. Parents from Rich East are also expected to participate. They are welcome to join the school in receiving newsletters, attending parent-teacher conferences, participating in parent groups such as the PTA and social gatherings and events, going on field trips, organizing social events and fundraising for the school.
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