Pueblo County High School is a four-year public high school in Vineland, an unincorporated area in Pueblo County, Colorado, near Pueblo. It is a part of the Pueblo County School District 70. The school's current mascot is the fighting Hornet, with school colors green and gold. Students have access to a variety of different clubs and extracurricular activities, as well as a highly respected program referred to as the School of Engineering and Biomedical Science. Pueblo County High School offers courses for all academic levels, as well as the foreign languages of Spanish and Italian. Pueblo County High School has recently finished new building renovations due to the Bond issue of 2012. The construction included a new Arts Department, Auxiliary Gym, and a relocated main office for staff.
History
In the early 1950s it was decided by the School Board to build Pueblo County High School as a merging school. Students from Pleasant View, Vineland, Avondale, and Boone enrolled to attend Pueblo County High School in the fall of 1953, where they took up Pueblo County High School's new colors and mascot. A school-wide vote was cast to select the mascot, and a pair of colors. The selected mascot was a Hornet, the colors chosen were green and gold.
Farmers to Students
While the school opened as a legal senior high school, construction of the building was still in progress, leaving many classrooms unavailable. Students and teachers took learning to the grass, boiler rooms, or inside buses as an alternative. Originally, the location in which Pueblo County High School was built was used as farmland and was tended as such. Harvest time and planting season respectively were the most important times of the year for Pueblo in that era, which caused many students to miss months of school, as Harvesting and Planting was more of a priority.
Principals
Like the traditional American school, Pueblo County High School has a current principal, as well as many predecessors of which have their own private wall of fame, featuring their faces. There has only been one female principal: Terrie Tafoya.
Name
Year
Brian Dilka
Terrie Tafoya
John DeLuca
Jose Perea
Chris Gramstorff
Dick Amman
Jim Blanc
John Klomp
Mike Stefanic
Jerry Ellis
Robert Hall
Tommy Tucker
A Better Learning Environment: Bond Projects
In the 1970s Pueblo County High School was booming with roughly 1400 students. The student body was so large that the campus needed to be expanded. This Bond Project, originating in 1977, allowed construction of a pool, auditorium, original stadium, and another building containing English and foreign-language classrooms. In November 2012, Ballot Question 3A was approved, granting a second bond to Pueblo District 70 schools for improvements. NorthStar and H&L were responsible for facility changes. Renovation began in early 2013, including an artificial turf football field and a multi-weather track. The main office structure was moved from the West Building to the center south side of County. A new Auxiliary Gym, Wrestling Room, and breezeway were also built.
Demographics
There is a close 50–50 ratio between Hispanics or Latinos to Whites. This is due to Pueblo's tie with the largest steel industry in the 1970s, where immigrants came to work, largely Hispanics, for money. Not only did the steel industry influence the demographics of Pueblo, but the land has also been owned by multiple nations, becoming a cultural melting point.
SEBS – School of Engineering and Biomedical Science
The school of Engineering and Biomedical Science, more commonly known as "SEBS," is a specialized program offered to high-level students to prepare for career readiness and hands-on experience in the fields of Engineering and Biomedical Science. There are also courses that assist in careers revolving around software and computer programing within SEBS. SEBS is paired with Project Lead the Way courses, and is a certified PLTW school. SEBS courses are only found at Pueblo County High School, although other schools may have a similar plan known as STEM. Although classified as a separate course, the SEBS program is more commonly known to be a school within a school, rather than offered courses. Students must register into SEBS program. It is expected of all SEBS students to stay within an unweighted Grade Point Average of 3.0 or higher. Managers, advisors, and/or counselors may recommend other courses if a student's grade does not meet the above criteria.
History
Formerly known as Pueblo Technical Academy, SEBS started off as its own District 70 school in the GoodYear building of the Pueblo Industrial Park. John Musso, the current principal of SEBS, was among others who reinforced startup of the school. Economic issues forced the Tech Academy to move to PCC around 2005, then finally to Pueblo County High School in the year of 2010.
Alumni
Here are a few select picks of known Alumni that graduated from this school:
