Fossil Ridge High School (Fort Collins, Colorado)
| Fossil Ridge High School | |
|---|---|
 "Excellence, Everywhere." | |
| Location | |
|
5400 Ziegler Road, Fort Collins, Colorado United States | |
| Coordinates | 40°30′49.78″N 105°0′56.2″W / 40.5138278°N 105.015611°WCoordinates: 40°30′49.78″N 105°0′56.2″W / 40.5138278°N 105.015611°W |
| Information | |
| Type | Public high school |
| Established | 2004 |
| School district | Poudre School District |
| Principal | Will Allen |
| Grades | 9-12 |
| Number of students | 2200 |
| Campus size | 290,000 square feet (27,000 m2) |
| Color(s) | Green, Silver, and Black |
| Athletics | Division 5A |
| Mascot | Sabercats |
| Website |
frh |
Fossil Ridge High School is the newest of four public high schools in Fort Collins, Colorado. The school opened in August 2004 intended to help better distribute students in Fort Collins and alleviate pressure on Rocky Mountain High School.
History
Voters approved the opening of Fossil Ridge High School in 2000, and the school opened to students in 2004.
Athletics and activities
Fossil Ridge High School participates in the 5A Front Range League and all major sports are offered to students. The school also hosts many additional extracurricular activities such as a yearbook staff, a school newspaper, a student council, community outreach organizations, and multiple musical groups. It has a marching band under the direction of Daniel Berard and choral groups under the direction of John Garner. The Marching band won the 2012 State Marching Band Championships for the first time, then again in 2013. In 2007 the Sabercats pulled off a 9-2 season and played in the second round of the division 3A playoffs. The girls swim team won the state championship for the 2011-2012 season and the marching band won back to back state championships in 2012-2013 and 2013-2014. In 2011 the boys hockey team won the state championship, after coming close in four consecutive seasons previous to 2011. Fossil Ridge's cheerleading program has also improved greatly over the years, hitting a perfect routine at state in 2013 and receiving 13th place at Nationals in 2014.
Fossil Ridge also has a FIRST Robotics Competition team which is three years old, dubbed "Ridgebotics" by its members.[1] In 2012, they received the Highest Seeded Rookie Award, and achieved 13th overall. In 2013, they were the 8th seed, but did not advance to Nationals. In 2014, they achieved 45th place due to electrical and coding difficulties. In 2015, the team advanced to the quarterfinals achieving 26th in the placement rounds.
Fossil Ridge's 2nd-year Knowledge Bowl team has been highly successful, taking the Colorado state title in both its first year, 2012, and at its latest victory, 2013. They have proceeded to the National Academic Competition in Washington DC twice, and in June 2013, took the National JV title.
Since Fossil Ridge's founding, they have had a monthly newspaper called Etched In Stone. In 2012, the Etched In Stone staff and Fossil Ridge Administration decided to change the publication from a monthly printed newspaper to an online publication with a quarterly magazine supplement. Since then, Etched In Stone has won the Colorado High School Press Association's 2012 Best In Show: Website Award, as well as the prestigious National Scholastic Press Association's Pacemaker Finalist Award (the highest honor in scholastic journalism). eistone.org currently has had over 150,000 hits since launching in September 2012.
Sabercat Studios
The film program at Fossil Ridge High School is one of the best in Colorado, innovating and creating in the area of video production. The head of the program is Brendan Gallagher, a teacher. Projects like the 2012 Lipdub, the 2013 Ridge Life Movie, the 2014 Moment in Time project, and the new 2015 Lipdub have shown the capacity of this program. Those projects were all part of the Unity Week experience the school puts on every year, but the program also offers Diversity Day documentaries, Ridge TV a segment show for the school, many live events including assemblies and basketball games, as well as their yearly film festival, FOASS (Films on a Shoe String).
The video production / film program at Fossil Ridge High School is one of the best in Colorado. Our students in Ridge TV learn the latest, industry-level editing and sound production software, develop professional production skills and work daily to develop innovative and informative segments for our weekly school wide broadcast. Our Ridge TV students work collaboratively with Student Council, Diversity Leadership and other student leadership programs to create motivational projects such our Lip Dubs, the Ridge Life Movie, the Moment in Time project, and to live stream various activities to our Fossil Ridge community. These projects are all part of our annual Unity Week experience designed to unite all students together around a common theme aligned with our school culture work. A unique feature of our program is the expectation that students create, over the course of the year, high quality short films in our SaberCats Studios that are premiered in our annual FOASS (Films on a Shoe String) film festival. This project gives our students experience applying their many production skills in the completion of a real world product viewed by the general public at the Lyric Theater in Fort Collins.
The courses offered within our Ridge TV program include 21st Century Media, TV1, TV2, and TV3. 21st Century Media is a semester long class that teaches students the basics of filmmaking and video production. This is a required class for those students who choose to enroll in TV1, a semester course that is responsible for helping with the production of our weekly Ridge TV broadcast. Students enrolled n TV 2, a year long course, are responsible for the production of our weekly broadcast but also have the opportunity to work on individual projects such as short films, live events, and much more. Television Production 3 is an advanced film production course for students that have aspirations of pursuing a career in the video production / film industry after graduation from Fossil Ridge. Students enrolled in this advanced course work in our SaberCat Studios to create and produce video series, broadcast quality commercials and documentary films.
Eco-friendly school
Fossil Ridge High School is one of the thirteen nationwide Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) buildings. The school was constructed out of "green" materials and utilizes double-pane windows, as well as solar panels to produce energy. The school saves approximately $100,000 a year in utilities. Due to Fossil Ridge's environmentally friendly design, the Discovery Channel hosted a special highlighting energy saving and its importance in our modern society at the school.
The new building received the international annual design award of the Council of Educational Facilities Planners International for 2006, the "James D. MacConnell Award"[2] for outstanding new educational facilities.
Notable alumni
- Kelley Johnson (class of 2010), Miss Colorado 2015[3]
References
- ↑ http://ridgebotics.wordpress.com/
- ↑ "James D. MacConnell Award". Council of Educational Facilities Planners International. 2006.
- ↑ Harding, Todd (June 21, 2015). "Windsor Resident Crowned Miss Colorado 2015". Windsor, CO: KUAD-FM. Retrieved June 27, 2015.