School in Cheney, Washington, United States
Cheney High School is a four-year public high school in Cheney, Washington, United States serving the Cheney School District. The school has a population of 1,300 students in grades 9–12, with more than 70 full-time equivalent teaching staff. Cheney athletic teams compete in the Greater Spokane League (3A class) as the Blackhawks, and the school colors are red and black.
Reports of sexual abuse
Cheney high schools music director from 1982-1986 Micheal Alstad has been accused of abusing students at the time he worked at the school. the student that claimed to have been abused by Micheal Alstad had said that the Cheney school district had known that he was abusing students but had not done anything to stop him.[3][4]
Building
In 1929, voters approved the construction of a new high school, after school district consolidation was anticipated to exceed the capacity of the existing building, which was completed in 1913. Plans were drawn up to move the junior high into the 1913 building, demolish an older building (1893) and reuse its bricks for the construction of a new school. The first event at the new building was a basketball game against Davenport High School, held on January 7, 1930; students and teachers moved in two weeks later, on January 22.[5]
In 1966, a new open-campus high school was built at the present location on North 6th Street;[6] junior high classes were moved to the 1930 high school, which was renamed Fisher Junior High. When the new junior high school building was completed in 1977, the 1930 high school building was taken over and reused as administrative offices by the school district until 2012,[5] when offices were moved to the former Nike missile base designated F-37 on Andrus Road near Four Lakes.[7][8]
The high school was remodeled in 1970 and 1993 to enclose the campus and add a second story, totaling 177,013 sq ft (16,445.0 m2) of floor area; a new addition was completed in 2020 to add 17 classrooms, a student commons, auditorium, and athletic facilities, with a total combined area of 232,000 sq ft (21,600 m2).[9][10] The total cost of the expansion was estimated at $28.53 million in 2017.[11]
Activities
Cheney High School competes in the Greater Spokane League (GSL), moving up to the WIAA 3A classification for the 2020–21 school year.[12] Previously, Cheney had competed in the Great Northern League (GNL), which was reorganized from the Frontier League in 1998,[13] in the 2A/AA class. In 2002, Cheney entered the GSL as a 3A class school, but was reclassed to 2A in 2004 and returned to the GNL.[14]
