Vel Phillips Memorial High School
Address
201 South Gammon Road Madison , Wisconsin 53717 United States
Coordinates	43°03′49″N 89°30′03″W / 43.06374°N 89.50079°W / 43.06374; -89.50079
Information
Former name	James Madison Memorial High School (1966-2021)
Type	Public high school
Established	1966 (1966)
School district	Madison Metropolitan School District
NCES School ID	550852000937[1]
Principal	Matt Hendrickson
Teaching staff	124.50 (on an FTE basis)[2]
Grades	9–12
Enrollment	2,065 (2021-2022) [2]
Student to teacher ratio	16.65 [2]
Color(s)	Green and White
Athletics conference	Big Eight Conference
Mascot	Bruce the Spartan
Newspaper	The Sword and Shield
Yearbook	The Olympian
Website	jmm.madison.k12.wi.us

Vel Phillips Memorial High School is a public high school in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. It was established in 1966 and is part of the Madison Metropolitan School District.

The school is named after Vel Phillips, an American attorney, politician, jurist, and Civil Rights activist, who served as the first female alderperson and judge in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and as Secretary of State of Wisconsin (1979-1983). Previously named James Madison Memorial High School after Founding Father James Madison, the school was unanimously renamed by the Madison Metropolitan School District board in 2021 after concern was raised by the public over Madison's ownership of enslaved people.

Building

The building has two two-story main wings on opposite sides of the building that look very alike. The west wing, known as the "A-wing" has English on the downstairs and Social Studies on the upstairs. The east wing is known as the "B-wing", and the downstairs there has world language and upstairs has science.

The front piece of the building, in front of the A and B wings, is symmetrical. There are two foyers, the A-wing foyer and the B-wing foyer. The A-wing foyer is the main entrance to the school. It previously looked like the B-wing foyer until 2012, when a welcome center was added. On the first floor of the front piece are the main office, student services, culinary classes, tutoring center, and the entrance to the library, accessed by stairs. The upstairs area is mainly math classrooms, accessed from either the A or B wing. This area also has stairs going into the library, as well as four emergency exits leading straight downstairs to outside.

The library is in the center of the building. The floor is about halfway between the first and second floors of the library. Accessed from the lower front piece of the building, stairs are climbed to get there. There is a courtyard between the library and the B-wing. There previously was a courtyard by the A-wing too, but that got filled in to create a new interior commons area in 2023.

The area past the center of the building is the main area of the school. This area includes the commons, cafeteria, planetarium, auditorium, music classrooms, small theater, business marketing classes, gym, pool, and art classes. There is also a lower level of tech-ed classrooms on the far east end of this part. Most of this area is single-storied, except for above the auditorium, pool, and gym areas, where the dance studio and upper gym is.

The fieldhouse is behind the pool and gym areas.

A staff-only hallway leading away from the cafeteria leads to the kitchen, custodial offices, loading zone, and boiler rooms. The boiler rooms are sunken, and provide access to a series of utility tunnels underneath the building.

History

The school was originally built in 1966 but received a major addition in 1967 because the school's population was higher than expected. The A-Wing housed the senior high and B-Wing the junior high. It was not until the 1970s that Thomas Jefferson Middle School (now Ezekiel Gillespie) was built. A fieldhouse was added on in 1992.

In 2014, principal Bruce Dahmen unexpectedly died from a heart attack while on a field trip with students.

In March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic hit, forcing schools across the nation to close and go online. All spring athletic seasons were canceled, as well as prom. The 2020 graduation was held online. Most of the 2020-2021 school year was all-virtual. The 2021 graduation was held in person. Graduation is generally held at the Kohl Center, but this one was held at the Mansfield Stadium and was split into two ceremonies. The school was back to full-time in person in the fall of 2021, but several mitigations were in place, including that all students and staff were required to wear masks. Many mitigations expired during the year, but masking stayed mandatory for the whole year. By the fall of 2022, masks were finally optional.

Because the class of 2024 spent their freshman year online, the freshman-only day in 2021 doubled for sophomores.

Starting in May 2022, the school underwent major renovations as part of a referendum passed in the fall of 2020. This project includes upgrading the HVAC, accessibility, lighting, mechanical and electrical systems as well as a new addition for the music wing, new arts/tech ed spaces, and adding all-gender restrooms. The arts wing addition connected the main building to the auto tech building, which were previously detached. Starting in the fall of 2023, this became known as the "C-wing".

Academics

Memorial offers classes ranging from Algebra 1 to Photography. Chinese, German, French and Spanish are some of their language classes.^[3]

The school also hosts the Madison school district's planetarium and offers an Astronomy class.^[4]

Small Learning Communities grant

In 2001, Memorial received a U.S. Department of Education Small Learning Communities federal grant to support a "neighborhood" reorganization.^[5] The four neighborhoods are Rock, Wolf, Fox, and Wisconsin .^[5] Each of the neighborhoods have a neighborhood center. The Fox Neighborhood Center is known by the students and staff as the "fish bowl".

School newspapers

The official school newspaper is The Sword and Shield and until 2014 kept all issues online.^[6] Independent newspapers, The Spartacus and Aficionado existed at one time, but have all ceased distribution. The Independent was created after the 1990–91 school year by The Sword and Shield staff.

Extracurricular activities

Memorial offers interscholastic sports^[7] and extramural activities. The Spartans have won 64 state championships across all sports, ranking third in the state of Wisconsin.

Notable alumni

• Christina and Michelle Naughton, class of 2007; pianists
• Tyrone Braxton, class of 1983; former NFL safety
• Bill Foster (Illinois politician), class of 1972; physicist and Illinois Congressman
• Jake Ferguson, class of 2017; tight end for the [[Dallas Cowboys|Dallas Cowboys]]
• Daurice Fountain, class of 2014; wide receiver for the [[Kansas City Chiefs|Kansas City Chiefs]]
• Rick Graf, class 1982; former NFL football [[linebacker|linebacker]]
• Tamara Grigsby, class of 1993; Wisconsin State Assembly
• Ari Herstand, class of 2003; singer-songwriter, author, actor, and blogger ^[27]
• Jack Ikegwuonu, class of 2004; former NFL cornerback
• Mark Johnson, former NHL player and gold medalist with the US Olympic Men's Hockey team at the 1980 Winter Olympics; UW-Madison women's hockey coach^[28]
• Jenn Korbee, class of 1998; singer and actress
• Po-Shen Loh, class of 2000; mathematician and IMO coach
• Wesley Matthews, class of 2005; NBA guard^[29]
• Jeronne Maymon (born 1991), former basketball player for Hapoel Eilat B.C. of the Israeli Basketball Premier League^[30]
• Keaton Nankivil, class of 2007; Basketball player former basketball player for the Wisconsin Badgers and currently playing basketball in Italy professionally
• Robert Songolo Ngijol, basketball player^[31]
• Jay Norvell, former NFL linebacker^[32]
• Dave Pasch, class of 1990; ESPN announcer covering the NBA, college football and basketball
• Jeffrey Sprecher, class of 1974; founder and CEO of [[IntercontinentalExchange|IntercontinentalExchange]]
• Sherri Steinhauer, former pro golfer
• Saahil "UNiVeRsE" Arora, class of 2008; professional Dota 2 player for Evil Geniuses^[33]

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to James Madison Memorial High School.

• Official website