User:Scm83x/jhs

T.C. Jasper High School (commonly Jasper or JHS) is a free co-educational secondary school serving ninth and tenth graders located in Plano, Texas. Founded in 1996, the school is part of the Plano Independent School District, and admission is based on where a student lives in the district. Students at Jasper attended one of three middle schools: Rice, Robinson, or Schimelpfenig. Two-thirds of Jasper feeds into Plano Senior High School, and one-third feeds into Plano West Senior High School. Jasper is accredited by the Texas Education Agency, which designates the school as "Recognized". The school colors are green, black, and white, and the school mascot is the Jaguar.

Area demographics
Jasper in located in the 75024 zip code of Plano. It covers approximately 19,743 people, whose average age is 32 years old. Although the average household size is smaller than the state average (2.5 persons versus 3.0 persons), the average household size is 0.5 rooms bigger than the state average of 5.1 rooms. The median household income in the zip code is $88,195, correlating to a median house value of $210,300. The state averages are $41,996 and $85,235 respectively.


 * Unnecessary section &mdash; Scm83x hook 'em 02:27, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

History
Jasper High School is named in honor of Plano, Texas banker and businessman Thomas Chilton 'TC' Jasper. Jasper first opened its doors for the 1996-1997 school year. It is the newest of the five high schools in the Plano Independent School District. The PTSA of the school was chartered in April 1999.

The first principal of Jasper was Phil Saviano, who served for two years. He left to become the principal of Plano West Senior High School. In 1998, Bob Seei took over as the principal. Follwing his retirement after the 2003-2004 school year, Michael Novotny took over as Jasper's principal. The 2006-2007 year is his third.


 * Unnecessary table &mdash; Scm83x hook 'em 02:27, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

Campus
Construction allowing for the functioning of Jasper by Lee Lewis Construction, Inc. was completed in time for the 1996-1997 school year; however, full construction was not finished until July 1999. Lee Lewis estimates that the construction value was $17,000,000.

The 240,000 square foot (main building), two-story building is built on a 104-acre parcel, which it shares with Gulledge Elementary School and Robinson Middle School. In the fall of 1996, Plano I.S.D. opened a Professional Development Center at Jasper to facilitate the training of all district teachers and administrators. It includes four fully-equipped computer labs as well as a large group presentation area.

Jasper's cafeteria serves the student body at lunch in four meal periods, each lasting about 25 minutes in length. There are four lines to buy food from. As of 2006, the cafeteria currently has a sitting capacity of 680 students.

In 2002, the Professional Development center was vacated. The area was then renovated along with the enclosure of the outdoor dining area. The project, with a contract price of $700,157, was designed by Corgan Associates, Inc. and built by Tywell Construction Corporation.

During the 2003 Bond Election held on August 23, 2003, a $3,500,000 addition of eight temporary classrooms was approved by a vote of 3,643 for to 1,499 against. This was part of a $33,550,000 bond proposal of PISD.

In 2004, Big Sky Construction completed a band/choir hall addition to Jasper with a contract price of $2,000,000.

On November 28, 2005, the Plano Independent School District announced the beginning of an addition of a science wing, which was approved in a 2004 Facility Program Bond vote by the citizens of Plano. It was a project given to the Cadence McShane Companies, and was built along with new additions to Williams High School. The addition to Jasper was completed in July of 2006, costing the school district approximately $7,501,893. Also added under the contract was a third cafeteria line and a multipurpose room. The wooden gym floors were redone during this same time.


 * According to my conversations with current students, this section is not wholly correct. &mdash; Scm83x hook 'em 02:27, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

Students
The current enrollment at Jasper is 2,005, which is the largest of the five high schools and third overall out of the 67 schools in PISD. The current functional capacity of the school is approximately 1,758 students, thus Jasper is at about 114% capacity.


 * Functional capcity went up after the science wing was opened. This is now wrong. &mdash; Scm83x hook 'em 02:27, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

The ethnic makeup of Jasper High School is very diverse. Approximately 65% of the student body is white/non-Hispanic, 25% is Asian/Pacific Islander, 6% is African American, 4% is Hispanic, and less than 1% is American Indian/Alaskan Native.


 * Information that would be included on the website... not really all that notable. &mdash; Scm83x hook 'em 02:27, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

Jasper has an attendance rate of 97%, one percent better than the Texas state average. The student-teacher ratio is 21.8, which is exactly on par with the state average. The foreign language classes have the highest ratio, with 23 students per teacher.


 * Again, copying from fact sheet &mdash; Scm83x hook 'em 02:27, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

Approximately 12% of Jasper students are in the Gifted and Talented program. The Special Education student subgroup consists of 7% of the student body. Only 4% of Jasper is economically disadvantaged, compared to a state average of 55%.


 * Again, copying from fact sheet &mdash; Scm83x hook 'em 02:27, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

Faculty
Jasper High School has a current full-time faculty of 167 staff, which includes 28 administration and support staff. Jasper's teachers average 10 years of teaching experience, one below the state average of 11. Four percent of the faculty is in their first year, one-half of the state average of 8%.

Jasper's current average teacher salary is $42,621, and the average administration staff salary is $65,826. Both are higher than the state averages of $41,011 and $61,612, respectively, but lower than the PISD district averages of $43,006 and $68,089.

Jasper currently employs a full-time CTA (Campus Technology Assistant).


 * Again, copying from fact sheet &mdash; Scm83x hook 'em 02:27, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

Curriculum
There are seven periods during the school day available to Jasper students for classes. The school day lasts from 9:00 A.M. to 4:15 P.M.

Many students in the PACE (Plano Academic and Creative Education) program enroll in the Humanities class. There are currently 230 students in the class.


 * Relevancy...? &mdash; Scm83x hook 'em 02:27, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

Spanish, French, German, Latin, Chinese, and American Sign Language are available to all students at Jasper.

JTV (Jasper Television) is a class that is available to both freshmen and sophomores. It is an introduction to broadcast journalism, and 25-minute shows are televised to the student body every other Friday afternoon on Jasper's school channel.


 * Citation/relevancy? &mdash; Scm83x hook 'em 02:27, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

Approximately 78% of Jasper students are taking a career/technology education course.

Jasper's regulars classes are graded on a 4.0 GPA (Grade Point Average) scale, the honors classes are on a 4.5 GPA scale, and the Advanced Placement (AP) classes are on a 5.0 scale.


 * Again, both above copying from fact sheet &mdash; Scm83x hook 'em 02:27, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

Students have the opportunity to leave Jasper with 14.0 credits toward the Texas State Board of Education's requirement of 24.0. However, extra credits maybe earned through the completion of summer school courses and correspondence courses on the Internet.

Jasper currently has an operating budget of $8,274,564, which amounts to $4,495 per student. That is below the PISD average of $4,785 per student.

Advanced Placement
Jasper offers two Advanced Placement (AP) classes: Human Geography and World History.

In 2005, Jasper had the highest percentage of passing students in the world on the Advanced Placement Human Geography exam for large schools. Out of the students taking the AP World History, 89% received college credit for passing the test. The majority of scores on both tests was a '5', the highest score possible.

In 2006, Jasper once again had the highest percentage of passing students in the world of the Advanced Placement Human Geography exam for large schools, with a 100% passing rate of the 95 students taking the test. The passing rate for the World History test was 74%. The most frequent score was a '5'.


 * THIS IS ACTUALLY NOTABLE. &mdash; Scm83x hook 'em 02:27, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

Athletics
Jasper fields 15 teams in six different sports: football, volleyball, basketball, tennis, baseball, and track. In football, volleyball, and basketball there are two teams for ninth graders and one team for tenth graders in each sport. In track, there is one ninth grade team and one tenth grade team. In tennis and baseball, there is one team representing the whole school.

Music Program
Jasper's music program is one of the best in Texas. The Legacy Orchestra is consistently listed among the best in the state--in 2005-2006, the Texas Music Educators Association ranked the orchestra number four in the entire state, competing against 9-12 high schools.

All of the music programs (band, choir, and orchestra) all have many qualifiers for the All-State honor each year. Each of them also earned the University Interscholastic League (UIL) Sweepstakes Award in 2006, the highest award given to a music program in Texas.


 * relevancy/why do we care? &mdash; Scm83x hook 'em 02:27, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

Academics
In 2005, Jasper won the Dallas/Fort Worth World Affairs Council Academic WorldQuest contest, winning an all-expenses paid trip to the national tournament in Washington, D.C. The MathCounts team was a first place winner in state and third place in nationals at the TrigStar Math Competition. In 2005, Jasper won the state HOSA competition, advanced to nationals and received third place in newsletter and sixth in HOSA Bowl. Also in that year, the Texas Computer Education Association awarded two first place medals to Jasper students for their work in desktop publishing.

Jasper has a very active FBLA and debate club.


 * Very active?... huh? &mdash; Scm83x hook 'em 02:27, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

Awards
Jasper is known throughout the state for having exemplary scores on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) test. Below are Jasper's 2006 scores.

(a)Total of 67 schools (b)Total of 151 schools


 * Completely unnecessary table, copying info straight from TEA fact sheets &mdash; Scm83x hook 'em 02:27, 6 October 2006 (UTC)


 * In August of 2006, Jasper was one of nine PISD schools to receive part of $300,000 awarded by the Texas Education Agency Advanced Placement/International Baccalaureate Incentive Awards Program. Jasper was given a $16,000 Campus Award and a $4,736 Teacher Award, both being the highest amounts won by any high school in the district. The Texas Education Agency awards up to $100 for each student scoring a three or higher on an AP exam and an additional award is provided to each school for the deposit of up to $50 in the teacher bonus pool for each student enrolled.


 * Jasper has received the 'Commended Performance' designation in English/Reading/Language Arts, Math and Science, Social Studies, and Attendance Rate.


 * Jasper was one of 100 schools nationwide to be recognized by Netday SpeakUp.


 * What is NetDay SpeakUp, aka Why do we care? &mdash; Scm83x hook 'em 02:27, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

Violence
During the school distrct's 2006 investigation of the growing number of assaults on its campuses, an incident at Jasper was discovered: A Jasper High School student admitted bringing napalm – an incendiary gel – in a baggie to school in May. An anonymous parent called the school to report that two students brought a napalm bomb to school and showed other classmates. One student denied having the substance at school. District staff did not see it. Plano police were involved in the incident, Officer [Rick] McDonald said. Because it involved juveniles, no further information was available.

Clara Tilghman
In August 2006, special education teacher Clara Tilghman resigned after an investigation by the school district discovered that she has put duct tape over a disabled student's mouth in order to control his behavior. The incident happened in March 2006 and was reportedly witnessed by two school employees. An impending investigation has be launched

Sarah Bickle
In early March 2006, ESL teacher Sarah Bickle's six-month old son Thomas underwent brain surgery on a cancerous tumor. After the sugery, he was treated with radiation, which is dangerous for children his age. Mrs. Bickle was forced to quit her job at Jasper in order to stay home with Thomas. However, the Bickles were already in serious financial trouble, so they turned for help--which Jasper gave. The Bickles started a blog, and students and staff donated thousands of dollars and hundreds of items to the Bickle Fund.


 * Do these two teachers really deserve their own sections? &mdash; Scm83x hook 'em 02:27, 6 October 2006 (UTC)