James Campbell High School


James Campbell High School, often simply Campbell High School or JCHS, is a public coeducational high school located at 91-980 North Road in Ewa Beach, Hawaii, United States. It is 15 miles away from downtown Honolulu. The school serves grades nine through twelve, has an enrollment just over 3000 students, and is part of the Leeward Subdistrict of the Hawaii State Department of Education. It also serves children of Department of Defense employees who live in military housing in Ewa Beach, Ewa and Iroquois Point. Over half of the students are of Philippine descent.
The school's educational program, Smaller Learning Communities, hopes to help students in a chosen career pathway, thus benefiting them in precise occupational skills for the future. , James Campbell High School became the second Hawaii high school to gain the status of International Baccalaureate World School, expecting to award prospective JCHS graduates beginning at Commencement 2010. The school has a variety of programs such as agriculture, marine science, newspaper, yearbook, and television production media.
James Campbell High School in Ewa Beach serves seven rural and two military communities in that area. The school includes 11 major buildings and an athletic complex on 38 acres. It offers comprehensive programs in vocational, technical, academic and special education. The student population is ethnically diverse and includes Filipinos, Caucasians, part-Hawaiians, Japanese, Hispanics, Indo-Chinese, Samoans, and African-Americans. James Campbell High School was accredited in 2011 by the Western Association of Schools & Colleges for a period of six years with a mid-term review.

History

The school is named after real estate tycoon James Campbell who was at the forefront of Ewa's prosperous progression into a sugarcane plantation community. Campbell immigrated from Ireland to the United States at the age of 13 and worked as a carpenter. After two years, he began work on a whaling ship in the South Pacific which became shipwrecked. Fortunately he survived this disaster and lived in Tahiti until he boarded another whaling vessel bound for Maui, Hawaii. He then ventured into real estate, buying a large arid area of land in Ewa, Oahu, Hawaii. Many believed his investment to be a waste of money due to the dry and unproductive climate of Ewa, but his artesian well changed the landscape into a thriving sugarcane plantation. From this, his legacy continues in the community, as well as in the high school.
James Campbell High School was originally located at what is now Ilima Intermediate. Since its establishment in 1962, the school has grown to accommodate the increasing population of the 'Ewa area. James Campbell High School has the largest population of any school in the state of Hawaii.
June 1965 was the first year James Campbell High School held a graduation ceremony for its first senior class.
The school celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2012.

Campus

The campus has ten academic buildings: two are three stories, three are two stories, and the remainder are one story. There are also 24 portable classrooms, some of which are air conditioned; an administration building, a cafeteria, locker rooms for both genders, and a gym with basketball and volleyball court. The school also houses a football field surrounded by a dirt track and a baseball field. The library of the school also serves as the community's public library, and has entrances both on campus and off campus. Most rooms do not have air conditioning.
D-Building houses the Freshman and Sophomore Academies, as well as the freshman and sophomore counselors, vice-principals, and Students Services Specialists. O-Building houses the upperclassmen core classes. F-Building has mostly community-based instruction. G Building holds most of the business, health, public human services, and natural resources classes, along with the Nova.net computer lab and the Student Association room. J-Building has many of the arts and communication classes, and disabled classrooms. K-Building holds the band room and the Hawaiian language/dance room. N-Building is home to the NJROTC program, and some of the industrial and engineering classes, along with R Building.
After 50 years James Campbell High school added a new building named "Saber Hall" which serves as the new administration office, as well as additional classrooms, fully equipped with air conditioning.
The campus boasts the bronze sculpture Malama Ia Kaahupahau by Solomon Fukuda.

Block schedule

Since the 2003-04 school year, James Campbell High School has followed block scheduling. This schedule divides the school year into two semesters, each containing two terms. Each semester is equivalent to one year, as there are four classes in a regular school day, each being about 82 minutes long. Before the implementation of the new schedule, a school year consisted of six classes per student, while the new schedule allows students to take eight classes per year. In spite of the longer class periods, students are given more opportunities to gain credits.

Honors courses

Honors courses are offered in the core classes for ninth and tenth grades, and subsequently in the form of AP or IB classes.

Smaller Learning Communities

Along with the change in bell schedule, James Campbell High School also has undergone an academic adjustment. The Smaller Learning Communities are academies within the school curriculum which are divided into distinct sections according to workforce divisions. There are four SLC groups within James Campbell's school curriculum:
Students are placed into an SLC group by preference and his or her classes are then geared towards that specific area of study. For instance, a student in the Arts and Communication SLC will have social studies classes that will include topics relevant to that SLC.

Clubs and organizations

The school has many clubs and organizations that cater to the interests of the student body. All official clubs must be chartered by the Student Association.

Athletics

Campbell High School also has an array of sports for its students. They compete in the Oahu Interscholastic Association. These sports include:
These schools are part of the Campbell School Complex.

Middle/intermediate schools

The school song, "Alma mater", written by Alfredo D. Lagaso and arranged by Jonathan Kea, may have been derived from Gioacchino Rossini's "La gazza ladra" overture.

Distinctions