Thomas Jefferson High School, or simply Jefferson High School, is one of the two high schools in Bloomington, Minnesota, United States Independent School District No. 271. It is located at 102nd Street and France Avenue on the suburb's southwest side, and is part of the Bloomington Public Schools district.[2] About 1,600 students attend in grades 9 through 12. The mascot is a Jaguar.
Jefferson was named a National Blue Ribbon School of Excellence by the US Department of Education in 2009.[3]
Jefferson has three curricular choirs including concert choir, bel canto, and chorale with two extra curricular student led acapella groups. Jefferson has two competitive show choirs, the mixed varsity "Connection" and the prep junior varsity "Jive".[5] Along with choirs, the school has multiple band programs, including concert bands, marching bands, jazz ensembles, and orchestras.
The school boasts a band program consisting of four Concert Bands, two Jazz Bands, Pep Band, Show Bands, Drumline Club, and the Jaguar Marching Band. The Marching Band is nicknamed "The Original Pride of Minnesota," and has a rich history of success. With membership Peaking at 254 students in 1975, the Jefferson Marching Band has been the largest student organization in Bloomington Public Schools since 1982. The Jefferson Concert Bands have toured Canada, Spain, Algeria, Morocco, Mexico, England, Scotland, Japan, the Dominican Republic, Norway, Ireland, Costa Rica, Italy, Austria, Germany, Lichtenstein, and Puerto Rico.
The marching band has performed in the Hollywood Bowl Parade and halftime show, The Cotton Bowl, The Alamo Bowl, The Outback Bowl parade and halftime show, Two performances in the Hollywood Christmas parade, Four Performances in the Fiesta Bowl Parade, as well as four performances in the Waikiki Holiday Parade, Performances at the Pearl Harbor visitors center on the Hawaiian Island of Oahu, and the band was the first Minnesota band to perform at Disney World in Florida. The proudest accomplishment of the original Pride of Minnesota is three performances in the Tournament of roses parade in Pasadena California. The band has marched the parade on January 1, 1974, 1980, and 1986. In 1980 The band received second place in the parade, Between the marching bands of USC and The Ohio State University respectively. This was due to Jefferson being the only band in the parade to keep a cadence going for the full two hour parade.
Locally, the band has performed at Minnesota Vikings games, Minnesota North Stars games(on the ice), Gopher Football games, the 1987 World Series, the opening of the Mall of America, and opened the Highway 77 and Highway 169 Bridges over the Minnesota River. the band played at the opening of River Center in Minneapolis, and has performed over fifty times in the Minnesota State Fair Parade.
The Marching Band is very traditional in comparison to other Minnesota Marching Bands, is thought to be the only high stepping marching band left in Minnesota besides the University of Minnesota Marching Band. The band marches in the style of the "Big 10 High step," with Thighs parallel to the ground and knees bent at 90 degrees at their peak height. The band performs a traditional pregame show at every home football game, plays four unique halftime shows each season, performs 3+ indoor concerts at the end of October, and travels on an every-other year basis.
Today, the band stays around 100-150 Members, including a 15 member auditioned drumline, one drum major, winds, and an auditioned Flag Corps.
Principals
Robert H. Smith 1970-1985
Kent Stever 1985-1996
John Bianchi 1996-1998
Lyle Odland 1998-2002
Steven Hill 2002-2013
Kevin Groebner 2013–2016
Jaysen Anderson 2016–Present
Notable alumni
This article's list of alumni may not follow Wikipedia's verifiability policy. Please improve this article by removing names that do not have independent reliable sources showing they merit inclusion in this article AND are alumni, or by incorporating the relevant publications into the body of the article through appropriate citations. (October 2021)
Thomas Jefferson High School in Bloomington was constructed to support a new curriculum offering. This curriculum used a Modular Scheduling approach to scheduling, based loosely on a lecture attendance and test attendance policy. Students were required to attend a certain number of class lectures a week, as well as test-times.
This approach called for a number of large 'lecture hall' type rooms, which could be subdivided if necessary.
The 'mod' approach was cancelled, beginning with the 1979–1980 school year, leaving a school ill-constructed for a more traditional subject-based classroom. In response, many of the large rooms were repartitioned into smaller class-rooms with thin, somewhat flexible walls. These walls did not block noise well, but created a perception of smaller classrooms, and were in use at least until the late 1990s.
Many of the teachers who came to Jefferson on its inception to be part of the new curriculum stayed on as it transitioned to a more traditional approach.
In 2011–2012 Jefferson switched from a traditional block schedule to a new 6 period schedule on Monday, Tuesday, Friday, and 3 periods on Wednesday, and Thursday. This new schedule offers students the opportunity to take early bird classes that commence before school starts, 6:50–7:41.[16]
In the 2014–2015 school year, the school inserted five weeks of a modified block schedule called "Superblock." On Mondays and Tuesdays, students have 3 periods a day, each being two hours long. On Wednesdays and Thursdays, students still have 3 periods, but they are only an hour-and-a-half long and students are released early on these days. Friday follows the normal 6 period day. This schedule is used to accommodate state-mandated testing, such as the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments (MCAs) and MAP exams.[17][18]
