Basha High School


Basha High School is a public high school located in Chandler, Arizona and the third high school built by Chandler Unified School District.

History

Basha High School was named after Eddie Basha, Jr., who made donations in the millions of dollars to the Chandler Unified School District and lived in the community until his death in 2013. Kristine Marchiando, the school's principal since its inception, retired on June 20, 2008. The CUSD school board appointed Ken James, a former Gilbert Public School District Executive Director of Educational Services, as the new principal on July 1, 2008.

Academics

Basha abides by the standards set by the Arizona Department of Education and implements the state's Education and Career Action Plan required for all students 9-12 grade students to graduate from a public Arizona high school. CUSD high schools also implements an open enrollment policy, meaning students from outside the intended school boundaries may attend without tuition or other penalties.
Arizona requires that all high school students take 6 credit bearing courses during their freshmen through junior years, and have the option of reducing credits to 4 credit bearing courses if they are track for graduation. However, CUSD requires all students must complete 22 credits whereas the public university system controlled by the Arizona Board of Regents requires only 16 credits in the following areas:
At Basha and all CUSD high school students may swap three semesters of Spiritline, Beginning through Advance Dance, Drill Team, Color Guard, Marching Band, Winter guard, or AFJROTC essentially waiving the required one Physical Education credit required for graduation.
Students which choose applied sciences in areas such as Applied Biology or Applied Agricultural Sciences gain equivalent Science credits. Likewise, Economics credits can be awarded like Agricultural Business Management, Business, Business Applications, Marketing, Economics Applications, Family and Consumer Sciences, and vocational courses.
Community college credits can be awarded through a partnership with Chandler-Gilbert Community College and cooperative credits for vocational courses are provided by East Valley Institute of Technology. Students must be dually enrolled for the Arizona community college or the Arizona public university system to accept the credits towards a degree. CUSD Transportation Department provides routes between Basha, EVIT, and CGCC with after school hours transportation intended for students participating in activities.

Other Programs

Separate from EVIT and CGCC, the University of Arizona implemented a pilot program to get university credits for students pursuing introductory engineering courses starting in 2014. Basha has an Advanced Middle School Program on campus. The AMS program has grades 6, 7 and 8. AMS students have access to high school teachers and equipment.

Extracurricular activities

Athletics

Basha is an Arizona Interscholastic Association member school offering boys and girls sports complying with Title IX. Student athletes can participate in varsity, junior varsity, and freshmen only teams as well as individual athletics in:
Basha's cheer team have been Arizona's state champion for the past two years. The state title last year was won by them while also defeating their rival, the Hamilton High School.

Softball

The Basha girls' softball team has won two state titles.

Football

The Basha Bears varsity football team advanced to the Arizona Division state semi-finals with a victory over Brophy on November 10, 2011.

Competitive Musical Programs

The Basha Bear Regiment won their first state championship in Division II in 2009, and the Indoor Percussion Ensemble won eight consecutive state championships from 2007 through 2014 and again in 2019. The Basha Winter Winds ensemble also won the state championships in their inaugural season of 2019.

Clubs and Other Activities

Its speech and debate team competes in National Forensic League events.

Campus

Basha High has a branch of the Chandler Public Library within the school.