Cherry Creek High School


Cherry Creek High School is the oldest of seven high schools in the Cherry Creek School District in the Denver metropolitan area. It is located in Greenwood Village, Colorado, and is one of the largest high schools in the Denver metro area, with an campus and more than 3,800 students. Cherry Creek High School has been designated a Blue Ribbon School by the U.S. Department of Education and has received an "Excellent" rating on the Colorado School Accountability Report.

Campus

Location

The Cherry Creek High School campus is located in the city of Greenwood Village on East Union Avenue between Yosemite Street and Dayton Street. It is directly across the street from Cherry Creek State Park. Also located on the property are the Cherry Creek School District's West Admissions building, West Maintenance building, and Education Service Center which is located there as well. It is adjacent to the buildings and campus of Campus Middle School and Belleview Elementary School, both of which feed into the high school.

Facilities

The campus contains four buildings with 170 classrooms; eight tennis courts; a baseball diamond; two practice football fields; Stutler Bowl, Creek's stadium; and a challenge course. The West Building, by far the largest of the four, houses two gyms; a swimming pool; a weight room; Shillinglaw Lecture Center; and the West Cafeteria. The Information Center Building has a library and technology center, the Registrar's Office, the Counseling and Post-Grad Center, and another cafeteria. Connected to the IC by the "IC Tunnel", the Fine Arts Building features a large theater, music labs, the debate room, and art labs. The East Building contains a gym and the Attendance and Security offices. The sprawling campus is meant to evoke a large "college-like" feel in order to prepare students for college life.

Demographics

The demographic breakdown of the 3,720 students enrolled in 2018–2019 was:
17.0% of the students were eligible for free or reduced lunch.

Academics

Cherry Creek High School offers Advanced Placement exams in 31 subject areas. In 2007, 906 students took 2,374 AP exams, and 87% of the students scored 3 or higher. The next year 986 students took 2,240 AP exams, 88% scoring 3 or higher. Creek has been recognized as one of the nation's top high schools for AP participation in math, science, and technology, receiving the 2008 Advanced Placement Siemens Award. Creek is also the only school in Colorado to have offered AP French Literature every year, until the test was discontinued.

Activities

Cherry Creek High School offers more than 100 activity organizations, the majority of which are open to all students. Many are nationally recognized, including the Union Street Journal, Fine Print, the Speech and Debate Team, Amnesty International, Key Club, and Future Business Leaders of America.
The school's DECA chapter is among the nation's best. In May 2009, Cherry Creek took 75 students to the national competition in Anaheim, California, the most students any high school has ever brought to the competition in the history of DECA. The Speech and Debate Team is one of the top twenty in the nation and part of “The 400" society, the top one-half of one percent of the National Speech and Debate Association school speech programs. Furthermore, the team is the 8th largest forensics school in the nation, and has won the district competition for 23 years, establishing itself as one of the highest ranked debate teams in Colorado. Cherry Creek also has a notable Model United Nations program, and the school is known for an annual Model U.N. competition hosted by its team. More than 40 schools across Colorado and international students from Escuala Continentale in Mexico City come to Cherry Creek High school to partake in United Nations simulations.
Cherry Creek also has a distinguished Fine Arts Department, including the nationally-recognized audition choirs, Troubadours, Girls' 21 and Meistersingers, all of which travel both nationally and internationally, as well as a distinguished vocal jazz ensemble. The Meistersingers have been selected to perform in the American Choral Director's Association conference numerous times, most recently in 2012 and 2018. The group has established itself as one of the top high school choirs in the country. Cherry Creek's Wind Ensemble was selected as a featured ensemble at the 2014 Music For All National Concert Band Festival in Indianapolis, Indiana. In 2014 Cherry Creek was selected as a Grammy Signature School for commitment to music education.

''Union Street Journal''

The Union Street Journal is Cherry Creek High School's student newspaper, a full-color monthly broadsheet of 16-20 pages. The USJ has received a Superior award for the state of Colorado from the National Council of Teachers of English. The Columbia Scholastic Press Association has named the USJ a "Gold Crown Newspaper" three times. In 1989, 1991, and 1993, the USJ was named a "Silver Crown Newspaper." From 1984 to 1990, USJ staff members won 24 Gold Circle Awards from the CSPA. In more recent years, the newspaper has been the recipient of several honors from the Colorado High School Press Association, including four first-place awards in 2007 for ad design, front-page layout, and editorial writing. In 2008, the USJ won several awards including Best of Show. In 2009 and 2010, the paper won seven awards for editorials, feature articles, and design; it also received Second Best of Show.

New media

On November 12, 2015, the Union Street Journal launched an all new quarterly magazine. With the usual length of 27 pages, it contains news, fine arts, and sports in illustrations. On February 13, 2016, the Union Street Journal published two news videos. 2015-2016 has been a turning point in the paper's history.

Notable alumni

Academics