Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School


Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School is a public high school in Montgomery County, Maryland. It is named for two of the towns it serves; it also serves Kensington and Silver Spring. It is located at 4301 East-West Highway, in Bethesda. In May 2012, Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School was ranked #6 in the state of Maryland, and #151 in the nation.
Bethesda-Chevy Chase is a part of Montgomery County Public Schools.
The school serves the Chevy Chase and Bethesda areas including the towns of Chevy Chase, Chevy Chase View, Chevy Chase Village, and Somerset; and the villages of Chevy Chase Section Three, Chevy Chase Section Five, Martin's Additions and North Chevy Chase. Schools within the Bethesda-Chevy Chase cluster include Westland Middle, Silver Creek Middle, Bethesda Elementary, Chevy Chase Elementary, North Chevy Chase Elementary, Rock Creek Forest Elementary, Rosemary Hills Elementary, Somerset Elementary, and Westbrook Elementary.

Courses

Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School offers courses in many fields.

Foreign languages

Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School offers languages including:
In addition to courses such as Algebra and Geometry, which are required by many colleges as well as by Montgomery County, B-CC offers a variety of upper-level math courses. The Mathematics department is one of the strongest at B-CC, mainly because of the faculty which includes highly educated professors and award-winning teachers. The Mathematics department offers the following courses:
B-CC offers a variety of on-level/honors as well as college-level science courses, including:
In addition to the numerous electives offered by the Social Studies Department, courses exploring history and the social sciences at the college level are offered, including:
Many students in 11th and 12th grade opt to challenge themselves by taking college-level English courses offered at B-CC. These include:
AP and IB courses are also offered by the Theater, Art, Music, and Technology Departments.

Music

B-CC's Music Department has earned two Grammy Foundation awards for their ensembles.
Led by Marshall White, the department boasts a Symphonic and Concert Orchestra and Band, Advanced Band, Pep Band, Jazz Band, Drumline, and a number of chamber groups such as a string quartet, brass group, string ensemble, pit orchestra, and jazz combo. It also has several choral groups, led by Lisa Itkin, and individual instrument courses such as guitar and piano. The department also offers a rigorous IB Music course as a regular period during the day.

History

Begun as a two-story, 14-room facility on Wilson Lane in 1926, B-CC High School opened at its current location on East-West Highway in 1935 at 44,995 ft² in a building designed by Howard Wright Cutler. New buildings or additions to existing buildings were constructed over the years:
These additions made the total school area 253,242 ft².
In the summer of 1994, parents, teachers, administrators, business people and other supporters of B-CC High School formed the Community Coalition for Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School. Its charge was to re-engineer and refocus the high school in an increasingly urbanized and cosmopolitan area. CC-B-CC representatives were encouraged to think broadly and innovatively to create programs that would lead B-CC High School and Montgomery County Public Schools into the next century.
Because of this effort, in February 2002, B-CC High School re-opened its doors after a two-and-a-half year, multimillion-dollar, comprehensive modernization that, among other things, combined the historic 1935 and 1936 structures into one building. It had a addition, of renovations of the original 1935, 1936 and part of the 1950 buildings, and of demolitions of most of the 1950 building, 1952, 1959, 1966, 1970, 1975, and 1976 buildings. The building now encompasses.
In Fall 2018, B-CC opened a addition with 34 new classrooms, a new dance studio, and more offices.

Facilities

The school has 80 classrooms, a media center with 30 computer workstations and TV studio and media production facilities, a greenhouse, a music laboratory and choral room, two gymnasiums and a weight training room, a 900-seat auditorium, and a cafeteria that serves breakfast and lunch. B-CC also has two "firsts" among Montgomery County Public Schools - a Cyber Café, opened in March 2003, and a state-of-the-art Language Lab, installed in the summer of 2004.
In 2008, B-CC High School was equipped with 80 digital classroom Promethean boards.

Athletics

B-CC fields more than 25 athletic teams, known as the Battlin' Barons.

Fall sports

B-CC High School offers more than 80 clubs and student organizations.

Academic

B-CC High School has a state championship varsity physics team.

Music and Theatre

B-CC is a Grammy Foundation signature school. In 2005, Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School won the Maryland State Theatre Society's award for best musical for its production of Urinetown.
In April 2008, B-CC attended the Boston Heritage Festival. All of its music groups received golds as well as several trophies and plaques. They also received soloist awards for a number of their musicians. The 2010 music department went to New York City, where B-CC won multiple awards, including the "Heritage Sweepstakes" award and the "Best Individual Ensemble" Award, which went to the Symphonic Orchestra.
Previous music department trips have taken students to Montreal, Chicago, New Orleans, Boston, and Orlando. Each trip has seen B-CC's ensembles participate in the Heritage Festival, with the notable exception of the 2013 trip to New York, in which groups attended clinics and were coached by professional musicians.

Notable staff

B-CC has had many notable alumni over the years in politics, business, academia, sports, and media.

Government and politics