Mountlake Terrace High School is one of the five high schools in the Edmonds School District. It is located in Mountlake Terrace, Washington. The school serves about 1,400 students in grades 9 through 12.^[1] The current Principal is Greg Schwab, aided by Assistant Principals Erin Murphy and Scott Morrison.^[2] The school's official mascot is Herky the Hawk. Its official colors are silver and red.

The school received attention when it became the first suburban High School in the nation to adopt the experimental Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation's Small Schools project. To comply, in September 2003 the school reorganized under five "small schools," each with a different emphasis: the Terrace Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Discovery School, the Innovation School, the Renaissance School and the Achievement, Opportunitiy and Scholarship School. The school received a $833,000 grant in return for their participation. The effort has been met with mixed reactions.^[3] Students must stay in a school until their Junior year, or file a petition with an Administrator to transfer. Due to funding issues, the small schools program has been discontinued as of the 2008-2009 school year.

As of the 2008-2009 school year Mountlake Terrace High School is a registered Project Lead The Way magnet school. Project Lead The Way is a national 501 c3, not-for-profit educational program that helps give middle and high school students the rigorous ground-level education they need to develop strong backgrounds in science and engineering. The High School offers engineering and robotics classes that offer college and university level credit if an AP exam is taken. Approximately 100 students are enrolled in this program.

In 2006, 85% of students passed the Reading portion of the WASL exam, 84% passed the Writing portion, 56% passed the Math portion, and 38% passed the Science portion. Only 50% passed all three portions of the exam, which was actually a dramatic 11 point improvement from 2005. About 69% of students graduate on time.^[4]

The school is also known for its high-performing basketball teams, its student newspaper (the Hawkeye), and its jazz band, the latter of which traveled to New York in 2005 and 2008 and placed third in the Essentially Ellington competition^[5].

[edit] Theater department

Mountlake Terrace's musical theater is often nominated for the Fifth Avenue awards, particularly for costume design.

[edit] Music Program

Mountlake Terrace High School's music program is recognized throughout the community for its excellence. The top wind band, Chamber Winds, frequently performs at local music festivals, such as the University of Washington Music festival and Central Washington's music festival. The jazz band is also recognized on both a local and national level and has performed at the Essentially Ellington festival in New york in 2000, 2002, 2005, and 2008. The top jazz choir, Dynamics, was a recent winner of the Lionel Hampton jazz festival in Eastern Washington, 2009 the third win in a row for the choir.

[edit] Football Team

Mountlake Terrace High School's athletics have not been very successful in recent years. The 2005 football team had the best record in twenty years for the school, with a 5-5 record. The 2005 team had four players move onto Junior College at Ventura Community College. In 2008 the team amounted a 4-6 record, concluding with a victory over Monroe High School.^[6]

[edit] See also

• Edmonds School District

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Mountlake Terrace High School