Hazelwood Central High School

Hazelwood Central High School is located at 15875 New Halls Ferry Road in unincorporated St. Louis County, adjacent to the current northeast boundary of Florissant, Missouri. The school is one of three high schools in the district, the others being Hazelwood West High School and Hazelwood East High School.

The school population is the second-largest in the state of Missouri with an enrollment of 2,365 according to the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.^[2]

History

The first Hazelwood High School was completed in 1954, located at 1865 Dunn Road in unincorporated North St. Louis County; this area is also known locally as Spanish Lake. The building is still in use as a school – Hazelwood East Middle School. During the early 1960s, as farmland became subdivisions, more students enrolled in the district and a new high school was needed; the second Hazelwood High School was established in 1966 to deal with the rapid growth of the Hazelwood School District during that time. The first year it held 2515 students who were in the 10th to 12th grades. It was the only high school in the district and it quickly became overcrowded as the "baby boomers" reached high school age.^[3] By the mid 1970s, the Central designator appeared in the school's name, followed by East and West, indicating from which portion of the district students lived. The rapid growth of the district proved too much even for a building of Hazelwood's size, however, and in 1974, the school was forced to split the student body into two shifts, with one shift attending from 6:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., and one from 1:05 p.m. to 7:05 p.m. Later, overlapping shifts were used with a one-hour stating time change because they could not get 100% of the students in nor out of the building at one time. In 1977, with the opening of two more high schools Hazelwood East High School and Hazelwood West High School, Hazelwood Central returned to a conventional day schedule.

2000–2001 School Year

By the 2000–2001 school year, Hazelwood Central's population was once again growing, this time in response to increasing subdivision development within the school district, land that had for decades been open farmland or otherwise vacant. By 2005, the student body population was once again approaching 3,000 students and overcrowding was becoming a problem.

2006–2007 School Year

During the 2006–2007 school year, the district announced that it was redrawing the boundaries of the three high schools, effective fall 2008. The net effect of this change on Central is expected to be a reduction in enrollment from nearly 3,000 to approximately 2,500 while increasing the population at Hazelwood West High School, and in 2009/10 the latter high school now has the largest enrollment in the state.

Notable alumni

Alex Tyus

• Shane Battelle, former Major League Soccer (MLS) player
• Jermaine Blackburn, professional basketball player, recorded first quadruple-double in Continental Basketball Association history^[4][5]
• Kate Capshaw, actress and wife of Steven Spielberg
• Ron Kulpa, MLB umpire^[6]
• Jeremy Lucido, photographer/director^[7]
• Patti McGuire, wife of former tennis player Jimmy Connors and 1977 Playboy Playmate of the Year
• Brian Folkerts, professional football player
• Randy Orton, WWE professional wrestler and 12-time World Champion ^[8]
• Alex Tyus, American-Israeli professional basketball player, also plays for the Israeli national basketball team^[9][10]

References

External links

• Hazelwood Central High School website
• Statistical Data about Hazelwood Central