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Seneca Valley High School

Template:Infobox school/short description

Seneca Valley High School
File:Coat of arms of Seneca Valley High School, Maryland.png
Address
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19401 Crystal Rock Drive

,
20874

United States
Information
TypePublic secondary
MottoSoaring Towards Excellence
Established1974; Template:Years or months ago (1974)
School districtMontgomery County Public Schools
CEEB code210582
NCES School IDTemplate:NCES School ID
PrincipalRicardo Hernandez
Teaching staff154.60 FTE (2022-23)[1]
Grades9–12
GenderCo-educational
Number of students2,239 (2022-23)[1]
Student to teacher ratio14.48 (2022-23)[1]
CampusSuburban
Campus size440,000-square-foot (41,000 m2)
Color(s)Green, gold
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Song"Seneca Valley is the Best!"[2]
MascotScreaming Eagles
RivalDamascus High School
Northwest High School
NewspaperThe Talon
Websitewww.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/schools/senecavalleyhs/

Seneca Valley High School (SVHS) is a public high school serving grades 9-12 in Germantown, Maryland, United States. It is part of the Montgomery County Public Schools system. The current building was finished in 2021, and has a capacity of 2,423 students.[3][4]

History[edit]

Seneca Valley High School's parking lot in 1974

Seneca Valley High School sits on land that was once the site of a dairy farm owned by baseball player Walter Perry Johnson. Johnson purchased the land in 1935 and lived there with his family until his death in 1946.[5]

Seneca Valley High School opened in 1974 as the first high school in Germantown and remained the only one until 1998, when Northwest High School opened. In its first year of operation, the 1974-1975 school year, under Principal Nathan Pearson, Seneca Valley hosted students in grades seven through ten. In the following 1975-1976 school year, the school operated grades nine through eleven, with 8th graders transferring to the newly opened Ridgeview Junior High School in Gaithersburg, Maryland. During the 1976-1977 school year, Seneca Valley became a senior high school, hosting grades ten through twelve, and graduating its first class in June 1977.

In 1988, Seneca Valley changed to its present state of full-fledged high school with grades 9-12.

In 2017, construction work began for a completely new school building and campus. The original building was demolished in 2020 and replaced with a new building on-site which was completed in 2021.[6] The new 440,000-square-foot building makes SVHS the physically largest high school in Maryland. The larger facility also changed enrollment boundaries to draw more students from the Clarksburg and Northwest High School areas, and accommodates 14 career and technical education programs (CTE) for the upcounty student population.[4]

Athletics[edit]

The school's colors are green and gold, and their mascot is the Screamin' Eagle. Seneca Valley's biggest athletic rivalry is with the nearby Damascus High School.[7]

Seneca Valley's football team has won 12 state football championships, in 1976, 1977, 1979, 1980, 1987, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1997, 1998, 1999, and 2002.[8] This is a Maryland state record which they share with Damascus High School.[7]

Their hockey team (Upper Montgomery County Lightning) were JV state champions in 2022 and varsity county champions in 2024.

Notable alumni[edit]

References[edit]

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named NCES
  2. "Seneca Valley High School Song".
  3. "Superintendent's Recommended FY 2022 Capital Budget and Amendments to the FY 2021–2026 Capital Improvements Program. Chapter 4 – Seneca Valley Cluster" (PDF). Montgomery County Public Schools. October 23, 2020. Archived from the original (PDF) on November 24, 2020.
  4. 4.0 4.1 Peetz, Caitlynn (September 28, 2020). "A Look Inside the New Seneca Valley High School". MoCo360.
  5. Germantown Historical Society. "Germantown's History, A Brief Overview". Germantown Historical Society. Retrieved March 10, 2013. Johnson bought his dream farm in Germantown in 1935 and lived here with his five children and his mother, his wife having died, until his own death in 1946. His dairy farm was located where Seneca Valley High School is today. He was elected by the local people to two terms as a County Commissioner.
  6. "Germantown Community Meeting with Councilmember Craig Rice" (PDF). Montgomery County Public Schools. October 7, 2015. Archived from the original (PDF) on November 16, 2015.
  7. 7.0 7.1
  8. 9.0 9.1
  9. 10.0 10.1 10.2

External links[edit]


  1. REDIRECT Template:Montgomery County, Maryland Schools
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