Green Hope High School


Green Hope High School is a school in Cary, North Carolina, serving grades 9–12. It is a part of the Wake County Public School System.

History

The school is named for the older, historic Green Hope School, built in 1927.
It provided Grades 1 through 12 during its lifetime as a consolidated school. This continued until 1952, when it was re-dubbed Green Hope Elementary School, providing primary-education while the higher grades were reallocated to nearby Cary or Apex High schools. Green Hope Elementary proudly became the first accredited rural school in Wake County. By 1963, it served 172000 students. However, at the time, the school was a whites-only establishment.

Fire and destruction

On August 15, 1963 at 1 AM, the school caught fire.
Three fire departments responded: Apex, Morrisville, and Yrac. Despite this response, the school was completely destroyed. Damage was estimated at greater than $400,000, and the school was not reconstructed.
The cause of the fire was officially described as suspicious circumstances. However, arson was suspected as a cause, and firefighters reported a car speeding away from the blaze. Possible motives include opposition to the racial integration of the local districts. This process continued, however, expedited by the creation of Wake County Public School System in 1976.
This set the goal of unifying the diverse racial and economic demographic of the growing community, and ensuring that the affluent suburbs and the poorer urban areas of Raleigh received equal and integrated education. However, the site of Green Hope School remained unoccupied until 1999.
The present location of the school is across the road from the old building site.

Green Hope High School today

The modern Green Hope High School opened its doors in 1999, drawing only freshmen and sophomore students from neighboring overcrowded schools, with its sister school, Green Hope Elementary, opening a year later in 2000. It added a grade level for the two subsequent years and graduated its first senior class in 2002. The school consists of a main three-story building, with additional modular classrooms adjacent. The Cary Tennis Park, operated by the town of Cary, which functions as the school's tennis practice facility, is located directly behind the school. Green Hope Elementary School and Park are located directly across the street from the Tennis Park. Both schools are operated by Wake County Public School System.
The school mascot is the Green Hope Fighting Falcon.

Academics

Green Hope is consistently ranked as a top tier school for academics in national rankings. The school posted the fifth highest average SAT score in the Raleigh Durham area: 1699 with 94.7% of students taking the test. Green Hope currently offers 21 Advanced Placement courses and over 61 honors courses.

Honors and awards

Green Hope also has teams in competitions such as: Science Olympiad, TARC, FRC Robotics, DECA, and the Duke Math Meet.

Athletics

Green Hope competes under the North Carolina High School Athletic Association 4A classification for the largest 25% of schools in North Carolina and currently competes in the Southwest Wake Athletic Conference with Athens Drive, Apex, Cary, Fuquay-Varina, Holly Springs, Middle Creek, and Panther Creek high schools. Green Hope's overall athletic success is reflected with the Falcons winning three consecutive Wells Fargo Cup trophies for all NCHSAA 4A schools for the 2009–10, 2010–11, 2011–12, and 2013-14 school years at the state level, and being conference leaders for the cup in the 2012/13 season. They have 23 team state championships in the following sports: Men's Golf, Women's Cross Crountry, Men's Cross Country, Women's Lacrosse, Men's Soccer, Women's Soccer, Cheerleading, Gymnastics
, and Men's Swimming
In 2006, Green Hope also had a sailing team, that was sanctioned by the South Atlantic Interscholastic Sailing Association.

Cross Country

Green Hope's cross country team was featured in a 2008 USA TODAY article.

Golf

In addition to their five state championships, the Green Hope golf team also has won five NCHSAA 4A individual titles.

Soccer

Both the men's and women's soccer programs are perennial state contenders. At the end of 2016 season, the men's team had reached the NCHSAA playoffs thirteen times, including three 4A State Championships and 4 Semi-Finals. The men were North Carolina 4A State Champions in 2011, 2012, and 2016.
At the end of the 2016 season the men's team finished with an overall record of 28-1-0, 127 GF / 22 GA, a 19-game win streak, won the and did not allow a single goal against in the six playoff games, and was ranked #1 in the nation at maxpreps.com Tour of Champions.
At the end of the 2012 season, the men's team was ranked #1 in the nation, winning both state and national championship honors.
The 2013 Women's state championship team was also ranked #1 in the country.
Stephen Bickford was voted the Adidas/USA Today national player of the year in 2004, in addition to winning the state player of the year title.

#WhyGHWalks

On February 28, 2018, two weeks after the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, a large number of students walked out of school to show solidarity with the victims of the tragedy. At the political event, organized by the school's online newspaper, the Falcon News Feed, former students of Stoneman Douglas and local politicians spoke in front of the student body. The event was prominent in local news. This was the first major organized walkout at a public high school since the shooting and was supported by faculty as a chance for students to have their voices heard.

Notable alumni