Green Mountain High School


Green Mountain High School is a public high school in the western part of the city of Lakewood in Jefferson County, Colorado, United States. It is administered by Jefferson County Public Schools. The student body numbers approximately 1500.

Academics

Green Mountain High School offers all core curriculum mandated by district policy and state law, as well as four-level courses in Spanish, and German, with Advanced Placement courses offered for both, which equate to college credit pending the results of a College Board examination upon completion. Advanced Placement courses are also offered in English, American History, European History, World History, Economics, Chemistry, and Calculus. Various accelerated and Honors courses are also available. GMHS also offers summer classes.

Visual and performing arts

Green Mountain High School offers visual arts, with courses in drawing and painting, ceramics, photography and graphic arts, and performing arts.
Green Mountain instructor Barbara Amberg, recipient of multiple high school theater educator awards, offers courses in acting as well as musical and non-musical stage productions.
Five student choral ensembles perform regularly for class credit, including a large concert choir and two chamber ensembles: SATB Shadows of the Mountain and SSAA Images. Both chamber choirs represent the school regularly at music competitions for classical style, such as the University of Colorado Madrigal Festival, as well as jazz, such as the UNC/Greeley Jazz Festival.
Instrumental music is offered at Green Mountain through eight ensembles, including two concert bands, two string orchestras, a percussion ensemble, a jazz band, and the Green Mountain High School Marching Rams competitive marching band, which has represented the school at the Colorado Bandmasters Association state championships for more than twenty consecutive years. The concert bands often attend contests such as the Columbine High School Band Festival. The string orchestras are directed by instructor Carla Hawley and perform at concerts together, as well as in conjunction with the concert bands.

History

Green Mountain High School opened in 1974, and graduated its first class of students in 1975. There were no seniors the first year it operated as the school system felt it would be unfair to transfer students from Bear Creek High School to a new school for their senior year.
The Second Wind Fund, a suicide prevention program, was founded in response to the suicide cluster involving four Green Mountain High School students.