Thomas Jefferson High School (Rockford, Illinois)
| Thomas Jefferson High School | |
|---|---|
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| Address | |
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4145 Samuelson Road Rockford, Illinois 61109 United States |
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| Coordinates | 42°12′26″N 89°02′16″W / 42.2071°N 89.0378°WCoordinates: 42°12′26″N 89°02′16″W / 42.2071°N 89.0378°W |
| Information | |
| School type | Public Secondary |
| Motto | Strive to be Respectful, Responsible, and Safe. |
| Established | 1969 |
| School district | Rockford Public School District 205 |
| Superintendent | Ehren Robert Jarrett |
| CEEB code | 143712 |
| Principal | Donald Lee Rundall |
| Teaching staff | 101 |
| Grades | 9–12 |
| Gender | Coed |
| Enrollment | 1779 |
| Average class size | 18 |
| Campus type | Mid-size City |
| School color(s) |
Red White Gold |
| Athletics conference | Northern Illinois Conference (NIC-10) |
| Mascot | J-Hawk |
| Nickname | J-Hawks |
| Average ACT scores | 17.5 |
| Newspaper | The Times |
| Yearbook | Flight |
| Website | Official School Website |
Thomas Jefferson High School (commonly referred to as Jefferson High School, Rockford Jefferson, or JHS) is a public coed four-year high school, in Rockford, Illinois, United States. The school serves the city of Rockford and the neighboring villages of Cherry Valley, Illinois and New Milford, Illinois. The school is named after the third President of the United States, Thomas Jefferson.
Jefferson High School was originally located at Ohio Parkway, which was initially Thomas Jefferson Junior High School from 1956-1969. That school began transitioning into a senior high school to include ninth, tenth, eleventh and twelfth grades during the 1969-70 school year. The inclusion of each ascending high school grade was gradual with each school year. Students of the Class of 1972 spent six years in the building, instead of transferring to a high school building after junior high school as was typically done. The school started with a population of 2400 students in a building built for 1800 junior high school students.
During the inaugural high school year, school traditions for the new high school were created with elections for school rings, motto, mascot (keeping the J-Hawk mascot from the junior high school), and school colors (originally only red and white with gold added in 1988-89). The formation of a Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps (JROTC) battalion was added and the new high school joined the Big 9 Conference (now called the Northern Illinois Conference or NIC-10) for competitive athletics. The first class to graduate from Jefferson High School was the Class of 1972.
In 1973, Rockford Public School District 205 Superintendent Robert Gardner Salisbury announced the need for a new high school in light of the overcrowding that Jefferson High School and other district schools were facing. A tax referendum was accepted in 1976 to allow funds for the construction of a new high school building in southeast Rockford. However, a second referendum on the ballot for the general fund was rejected. The Rockford Public School District 205 Board of Education was unsuccessful in previous referendums for the general fund, thus was faced with an accumulated shortfall.
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