Belleville Township High School - Bellevinois Yearbook (Belleville, IL)

Page 8 text:

A record of growth The 1917 Bellevitiois begins the record of the story of Belleville Township High School. “On the twenty-fifth of July, 1914, the County Superintendent of Schools, Mr. Hough, ordered an election for the purpose of organizing a Town¬ ship High School. For some time the need of a new high scfux)l had been felt and, as a result, the proposition brought up at the July election carried. “In February, 1915, the board elected Professor H. G. Schmidt as principal of the new school and decided the type ol building to be erected . . . The new building was completed and opened on the third of February ' , 1917. Since the building has been planned with regard to subsequent enlargement, increased en rollment in the following years will cause but little difficulty “ The rail change in the secondary school system of our district is not so much in the equipment or in the course of study as in the student bodv. An unusually small number of failures prove this statement; the constant student activity, always lor T1 IF 1IONOR OF I I IE SCI 1(X)L, the appreciation and care of the equip¬ ment, and the fact that the constant top c of conversation among Township High School students is “our school still further bears it out. “1 he construction of a thousand buildings fades into nothing beside the con¬ struction of a single mind This, then, was the caliber of thought that brought the secondary school in Belleville from the three-story brown brick Central School on South Illinois Street to a large tract of land on West Main Street and changed its government from a local to a township district. The Main Building and the Cafeteria-Shops Building held open house on the third of February, 1917. An enrollment of 348 students and a faculty of sixteen met for classes the first time on Monday, February 12. Twenty-seven seniors graduated in that first BTHS class in June of 1917. Campus population increased as more young people began to get a secondary education. In 1918 the Gymnasium (now the Girls’ Gvm) was constructed and in 1924 the Auditorium was added to the campus. 1934 saw the completion of the Library ' Building. In 1936 the Boys Gvm was built, and in 1940, the stadium and the farm shops, followed in 1942 bv the auto shops. 1946 saw the establishment by District No. 201 of a Junior College as a con¬ tinuation of the high school. World War II surplus barracks buildings were added on the back campus to accommodate college classes. In 1952, the thirty-fifth edition of the Bellevitiois told the story of 1303 high school students and 75 faculty. 1955-56 saw a campus population that had mush roomed to 1714, with 85 faculty, necessitating a three-shift class schedule. In 1955, the people ol District 201 passed a $2,800,000 bond issue to construct the Cafeteria-Fine Arts Building, the Electric Shop Building, and the librarv- science addition to the Main Building, plus extensions to both gvms. 1 he growing population ol the community ' and the school forced the Board ol Education to recommend to the public the creation of a second campus. In 1963, a $7,300,000 Ixrnd issue was accepted bv the voters and land was pur¬ chased in the east part of the district. By September 1965 the Junior College had moved into five ol the completed buildings on the East Campus. Approxi¬ mately two thousand high sch x)l students will occupy the remaining twelve buildings in September 1966 when BTHS East becomes a reality. Along with BTHS West, the Belleville Township High School district will have two excellent schools with which to begin its fifty-first vear.

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During the past fifty years, BTHS has grown in many ways. Not only expanding in build¬ ings and population, but developing a record of effort and achievement in its many and varied activities, it has made each individual feel proud to belong to this bodv and to be counted among its members. BTHS is more than buildings and equipment and daily schedules; it is the growing pains of generations of citizens in the community; it is their hopes and dreams, anxieties and ex¬ pectations, failures and accomplishments ... all the intangibles that life is made of. 1 hrough growth, activities, learning, and the never-ending procession of individuals, BTHS has developed a sense of pride or school spirit which continues to grow. It is this record of achievement which fifty Bellevinois staffs have reflected in word and picture in the pages of yearbooks. It is this pride which the 1966 staff hopes to reveal in this, the fiftieth edition of the Bellevinois. Pride, however, is not a word which is easily defined. Every individual has his concept of the word and everv staff since 1916 has recorded the story of its year in its own way. 1 lie 1966 Bellevinois Stall hereby records its golden year in the history of Belleville Township High School.

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“Nothing that was worthy in the past departs; no truth or goodness realized by man ever dies, or can die; but is all still here, and, recognized or not, lives and works through endless changes.” —Thomas Carlyle