User:Rosenbam518/sandbox

Muncie Central High School (MCHS) in Muncie, Indiana, is a public high school which had an enrollment of 899 at the end of the 2010/2011 school year. The school is part of the Muncie Community Schools Corp. It opened in 1868, named as Muncie High School which soon changed. They were the one of the first high schools in Indiana to have a mascot. They merged with Muncie Central has recently made the decision to merge with Muncie Southside High School, their rivals as well as fellow school.

History
Opening in 1868 as Muncie High School, the original graduating class consisted of six students. The location in which the school was originally opened is unknown. In 1881 the school was renamed Muncie Central High School. The first known location of Muncie Central was a building on South High Street, this was a four story building that was about half a mile away from the schools current location. It was one of the first schools in Indiana to adopt a mascot in the early 1920's. In 1974 the school moved to its present location on Walnut Street in downtown Muncie. The school was originally open concept with almost no interior walls, but it has since been remodeled to a traditional format. They consolidated with Muncie Northside High School in 1988, because they did not need two large high schools in a town of their size. Northside High School was then turned into a middle school, and is currently functioning as so. Muncie Central has gone through many changes over the past decade or so. They had many crimes occur in the past including but not limited to a throat lashing (which did not result in a death of the victim), drug possesions, fights, as well as a rape in which the principle was fired which began a change in administration. These past events have made things significantly difficult for them to get back on their feet and become a reputable high school again.

Traditions
Muncie Central students, staff, and alumni have a great sense of pride in the school and what it has accomplished. There are a lot of old traditions for the school as well as newer ones. Seniors obviously have many common traditions including, senior day, senior night (for sports), as well as rights to be King or Queen; but there are a few traditions that Centrals Seniors do every year, one being the senior blockade which is when most of the seniors who have cars, or even one's that do not, blocking off the back parking lot to anyone who isnt a senior and claiming it theirs. People who try to enter the parking lot who are not seniors typically get water balloons thrown in their direction or even sprayed with water using water guns. This blockade means that all other students that drive to school who aren't seniors have to park in the opposite parking lot. As a result the seniors go to that parking lot at the end of the day and spray them with water guns. As for the school as a whole there are many traditions as well. Sports teams paint a sewage drain that is near the White River behind the high school, many times other schools will paint it as well including their rival Muncie Southside H.S. Painting the drain is often a competition between teams and schools for whoever can have the 'last' word. The tennis team also has a tradition where they paint tennis balls with seniors names and number on a concrete slab that is near their tennis courts. The school also holds many of the typical dances of a high school like the Sadie Hawkins Dance, Prom, and Homecoming dance.

Academics
Muncie Central offers a wide range of things for students to take for classes, as well as electives for all four of their years. They offer all typical classes like science classes, history, math, etc. Central also offers many electives and types of diplomas for all students.

1.Types of Diplomas

a.Core 40 Technical Honors

b.Core 40 Academic Honors -This diploma requires that you take two consecutive years of the same language, as well as a year of an arts class.

2.Electives

a.Languages: *Japanese *Latin *French *Spanish *German b.Arts: i. Band If you take any of the following band classes you are eligible for the Spirit Band which performs at almost all of the football and boys basketball games. *Concert Band *Wind Ensemble (Advanced Band) *Jazz Band *Orchestra ii. Choir *Swing Choir *Sensations Choir *Select Choir *Concert Choir *Singers Choir iii. Various Art Classes *2D Art *3D Art *Design Muncie Community Schools Corporation also offers a program called the Muncie Area Career Center (MACC), this program is open for both Muncie Central and Muncie Southside high schools. It gives the students a chance to study a profession their last two years of high school, this way as soon as they finish high school they also get a diploma in this profession allowing them to begin a decent job right after high school. The MACC offers a wide variety of programs for the students including Cosmetology, Auto mechanics, Dental Hygiene, and Public safety, they offer a total of 12 programs. This is a unique program that is utilized by many juniors and seniors at both schools.

Sports
1. Women's *Tennis *Softball *Golf *Swimming/Diving *Track and Field *Cross Country *Volleyball *Soccer *Basketball *Centralettes (dance team) *Cheerleading 2. Men's *Football *Baseball *Bowling *Track and Field *Cross Country *Swimming/Diving *Golf *Soccer *Basketball *Wrestling

Athletics History
The school has a strong athletics history, with eight state basketball championships and three consecutive state volleyball championships. A good portion of the schools athletics players have gone to play college sports mainly, at Ball State University because it is located in the same town and is also quite easy to get into if you have good grades and live in Muncie, Indiana.

Recent Past and Present
Within the past 5 years the school has gone under a great deal of structural changes to begin making it a great school once again. They hired a new principle Tom Jarvis, who was originally the Athletic director for the high school. They also hired Justin Oliver as an Assistant principle, he was originally the teacher of an engineering class also within the high school. They then hired a new teacher for the engineering class, and hired Chip Mehaffey as the new Athletic director. They have now hired an new interim principle Dale Basham, but will have a new permanent principle within the next year. In 2012 they began updating the schools technology by buying new computers for the students and staff with the new Windows 8, a step up from the original Windows 3 computers. Along with the new computers, they were also able to obtain a grant which allowed them to purchase Ipad's for every student and staff member in the 2012-2013 year. By doing this they have sped up communication between students and teachers but have also made it easier and quicker to do so. Having the Ipad's makes doing presentations easier for the students, because they can create it and send it wherever they go (as long as they have WiFi connection). The problems with the newly implemented Ipad's that may have been unforeseen is the WiFi connection problems because so many people are on the same WiFi at the same time it creates a lot of traffic which makes the Ipad's slow. There is also a technology disconnect because all of the school computers, except some teacher's personal computers, are all Windows and are mostly incompatible with the Apple setups/hookups. This disconnect would create many problems with students needing to hookup their Ipad with a computer to present it, students then have to convert the format of presentations and email them to their teacher.

Future
In the upcoming 2014-2015 school year Muncie Central High School will be merging with Muncie Southside High School. Muncie Southside is located on the opposite end of Muncie and is Central's biggest rival. Central was designed to hold about 3,200 students, although they have never held that many they have not had over 1,500 students for awhile. Muncie Southside was designed for even less students and have also faced the same problem of a small student body. This merger has caused an uprise of feelings among the students of both schools, as well as some of their parents. Southside is moving into Central because that is the bigger of the two schools and can actually house that many students. Central will now hold around 1,650 students between the two school. Both of these schools are a part of the same school corporation, Muncie School Corporation. Tim Heller Muncie Community Schools superintendent said the potential consolidation comes down to the bottom line. Budget troubles and declining enrollment leave the district few options. In the consolidation of the two high schools they have decided that they will not repaint the school or gain a new mascot, Central will keep its history. In the first few years of the consolidation they will need to up the schools security and policies because the two schools are such big rivals. They will have to let go of more employees because of the consolidation because they will be using Muncie Southside H.S. as a middle school and will no longer need the amount of staff they currently have. To help ease the big change among the students they have done many things this past year. During sports games in both high schools they have had cheerleaders from both schools cheer for the team. This has helped them to begin working together instead of against each other as they usually would. The school corporation has also announced that for any 2014-2015 senior that is a student at Muncie South they have the choice to graduate with a diploma from either Central or South.

Notable alumni

 * Ron Bonham - University of Cincinnati basketball player. Drafted by the Boston Celtics in 1964.
 * Ryan Kerrigan - Former Muncie Central High School and Purdue University football standout. Drafted 16th by the Washington Redskins in the 2011 NFL Draft.
 * William "Pete" Lee - Super Heavyweight Greco-Roman Wrestler in the 1976 Olympics. Placed 5th.


 * Bonzi Wells - NBA basketball player