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Announcement of School Merger
"In the summer of 1955, the Edgewater Mustangs and the Mountain Wildcats, rivals for many years, combined their student bodies to form the newest high school in Jefferson County. The new school's name, mascot, colors and song were voted on by both student bodies. In that year, Saint Jeff became the mascot of Jefferson High School." http://jeffersonjrsr.jeffcopublicschools.org/our_school/history -
Start of "The Saints"
Jefferson High School opened with "Saint Jeff" as the new mascot to bring together the old rivals of Mountair High School and Edgewater High School. Saint Jeff was designed by a student after the two schools had picked the new school song "When the Saints Go Marching In." The Saint with the black eye was intentional to represent the fighting spirit of the new student body. http://edgewaterecho.com/2015/03/throwback-thursday-education-in-edgewater/ -
Opening of Jefferson High School
For the first two years, the new Jefferson student body had to wait for their new school to built. The building was finally completed in 1958.
"The new Jefferson High building on Pierce opened in 1958; the first class to graduate from this new building was the Class of 1959."
http://edgewaterecho.com/2017/05/throwback-thursday-saint-jeff/ -
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Demographic Shift
Starting in the 1990's, Jefferson community began to see a shift from a demonantly white middle class community to a domenantly hispanic community until 2010's. -
Major Building Renovation
West wing addition of new science rooms and renovation to South hall wing for ESL offices and North hall wing auto tech and technology classrooms. -
Major Adminstrative Change
New Principal "Martha" came in. Caused major disruptions with staff. She is recalled as an anti-hero. The few staff still at the school during her tell stories of her "reign of terror". She was not viewed as having respect the staff or the culture of the school. She was pushed out and the assistant principal Michael James took over as interim. -
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Edgewater Gentrification
In 2012, Gentrification began and continues at a high rate still. Home values have more than doubled. Rent has almost doubled, resulting in many of our students leaving the area. Most of the new developmenst are for business development and high end apartments and condos. Another demographic shift is anticipated over the next decade or two. http://edgewaterecho.com/2017/11/editorial-gentrification-and-edgewater/ -
Current Adminstration Began
Michael James moved from assistant princiapl, to interim, and then was chosen as the new Principal of Jefferson High School. His AP team of JoAnn, Amy and Josh was established. One other AP position was added in 2015, with bringing an AP from the Wheat Ridge 5-8 team over to Jefferson. -
1-1 Device School
Jefferson started assigning students iPads and changing instruction to integrate technology into instruction. This was not a building or community decision, but come from the district. There has been frequent push-back on how to use this technology in the classroom by staff and students. -
Closure of Wheat Ridge 5-8
With the closure of Wheat Ridge 5-8, students were redirected to the other edgewater schools. Only the 7th and 8th grades would be joined with Jefferson to create Jefferson Jr./Sr. High School. Several middle school teachers did move over to Jefferson as well as one Assistant Principal. Several new hires were made as well as requiring high school teachers to teach some middle school classes. -
Professional Learning Communities
The decision was made to become a PLC school. With the extra funds for the transition to 7-12, the staff was trained at national conferences and PD support throughout the school year on PLCs. There has been continued staff changes, but the PLC value has continued and the hope in 2018 is to be able to apply for national recognition. -
Major Staff Turnover
With about a month remaining in the '17-'18 school year, the principal announce at a staff meeting the need to address the elephant in the room. We were having many staff leaving the building for the next school year. This has left staff feeling nervous coming into this next school year as there are 20+ new teachers, a new secretary, assistant principal and 4 internal shifts (2 assistant principals, dean and instructional coach).
