Home Mr. Stagg Biography Mr. Stagg Honors Images Page 1 Images Page 2
Palos Hills Geography Palos Hills History Stagg High School History Mr. Stagg Schools Image Page 3
Stagg High School

Image - Stagg School of Excellence Patch
     
All Pictures interspersed in the articles  below are from the first two yearbooks published for Stagg High School.
 
Clicking on a picture will provide you with a larger view.
     
This article first appeared in the February 6, 1964 edition of the Palos Regional.
     
"This fall, when the first athletic teams at the new Amos Alonzo Stagg high school now nearing completion on 111th street near Roberts Road take the field, they will be wearing navy and orange and will be known as the Chargers.  This was the decision of the board of education for district 230 at its meeting on January 27.
     
Image - Cover 1967 Stagg Yearbook Image - Stagg Yearbook 1967 - Page 1
Cover of first yearbook  published for Stagg H.S. - 1966 First page of that yearbook.
     

The board also heard a report from W.O. Fisher, superintendent, concerning the progress of construction at the Stagg site, let equipment contracts for Stagg, and discussed details for leasing of classrooms to district 117 for next year.

The decision to call the Stagg team the Chargers came as the result of recommendations made by Ray Bentz, principal at the new school.  With a committee comprised of Karen Lundgren, Henry  Meier, Judy Guglielumucci, Ardis Rewerts and Don Brauer, he had narrowed the selections to two choices. In addition to the Chargers, the committee also suggested the teams be called Patriots and wear red, white, and blue.  The committee, however, favored the Chargers, as did the Board.

     
Image - First District 230 Superintendent - William O. Fisher Image - First Principal of Stagg H.S. - Dr. Ray Bentz
Welcome to Stagg message from first District  230 Superintendent, William Fisher, appeared   in the 1966 Stagg yearbook. The first principal of Amos Alonzo Stagg  High School was Dr. Ray Bentz.
     

Bentz explained that he and the committee had attempted to select colors which were "distinctive, but yet different from those worn by any other school in the area."  The group favored the deep navy and burnt orange combination because few, if any, of the schools in the area use it.

The board also approved a curriculum for freshmen at Stagg next year.  It calls for three levels in English and Science, with four levels in Mathematics.  Each of these three subjects and physical education will be required of students.

Each student will also take two elective courses.  Electives will include social studies, foreign language (French or German), practical arts (shop, business education, home economics, physical education and art), band and choir.  Bentz called the curriculum both "adequate and comprehensive for the expected enrollment of 250 freshmen."

     
Image - First Administration Team - 1967 - Stagg H.S. Image - Pg. 1 - Stagg First Faculty - 1967 Image - Pg. 2 - Stagg First Faculty - 1967
Stagg Administration 1966 Stagg Faculty 1966 Stagg Faculty 1966
     

Under a "modular scheduling program" students will not be assigned to study halls, but will have supervised study sessions.  The schedule at Stagg will create 21 modules of 20 minutes each which can be combined to create classes of varying lengths.

Fisher told board members that modular scheduling was outlined in a recent study sponsored by the National Association of Secondary School Principals.

Work at Stagg is progressing well, according to Fisher, despite a five month delay in the delivery of steel paneling.  "We are at the point, "Fisher said, "that we can have so many trades working at once that progress is very rapid.  Although things are really humming now, the finishing touches will appear to progress more slowly."

The heating, which has been turned on in the building for the past two weeks, is operating well, Fisher said.  He said that District 230 personnel, who "double as watchmen", are maintaining control of it, each night and over the weekend.

     
Image - Copy of 1967 Superintendent Message to Students Image - Cover 1967 Stagg Yearbook Image - Welcome Message to Students 1967 Stagg Principal
1967 yearbook message  to students from  district superintendent, William O. Fisher. The 1967 yearbook cover  is the first appearance of  the Charger logo. 1967 yearbook message  to students from the  Stagg principal, Dr. Raymond Bentz.
     

The board also let contracts for the equipment in all the general offices, carpeting, draperies, classroom seating, the teachers' lounge and dining room, cafeteria, and department offices.  Bids on the equipment had been accepted prior to Jan. 10 and have been reviewed and analyzed since then.  

The contracts call for the carpeting of the library, conference room superintendent's office and two classrooms.  The board approved the carpeting in the classrooms and library as part of a test of flooring materials.

"Current thinking is that carpeting, rather than being a luxury item, is actually one of the most durable and easily maintained floor covers available," Fisher said.  He cited ease of maintenance and long-range economy as two of the advantages.  If the carpeting proves satisfactory, the board will consider it for all classrooms.

Cooper-Smith Furniture in Orland Park was awarded the carpet contract for the sum of $5,221.34.

Fisher said that tentative agreement to lease classrooms had been reached with representatives of the North Palos schools for the 1964-65 school year.  Fisher, with board members Gordon Bendix and Paul Erlandson, will meet with representatives of district 117 on Feb. 3 to review the arrangements.  Board action could come at the meeting scheduled for Feb. 10."

This excerpt is from a publication History of the City of Palos Hills, printed in 1978, for the twentieth anniversary of the incorporation of Palos Hills.  This excerpt is from History of Palos Hills - 1945 to Present,  a part of that publication, by Mr. Earl Potter, copyright and permission granted by Mr. William L. Potter.

How Stagg High School Came To Be

The Palos Hills Civic Association had also joined the District 230 School Election Caucus in 1960, and soon became embroiled in a contest with many of the Caucus members from Palos Park. This came about when the 230 Board announced that enrollment had grown to where a complete new school had to be built, and they were recommending that it be built virtually next door to the existing Carl Sandburg School. They held public meetings to sell the idea, which the PHCA Caucus representatives attended.  District 230 Superintendent Bill Fisher tried to convince the first meetings of the desirability of having a "high school campus" or "educational complex".  The Board did not own the site next to Sandburg where they proposed to build the new school, planning instead to sell the old North Palos school property to raise the money with which to buy the projected new site.  Potter questioned sharply the wisdom of such a move, since it would commit the District to a future of ever increasing mileage in order to bus the students to the central site, and since the population of the District north of the Sag Channel was then growing by leaps and bounds, it just did not make sense to not put the new school in that area.  The reactions from some of the residents of Palos Park soon convinced the PHCA delegation that the real reason for the advocated site selection was not based on logic at all......The PHCA representatives at the next public meeting formally served notice of the PHCA's strong opposition to the campus idea and petitioned that the new school be built on the Palos Hills site.  The 230 School Board postponed making a final choice until after the next school board election which by then was a few months off.  At the Caucus meeting, two candidates were chosen who supported the campus idea, so the PHCA representatives plus the delegates of most other north of the canal organizations dropped out of the caucus and formed a rump caucus of their own, picking up two well qualified candidates from their area.  One of these was Dr. J.M. Yarbrough of Palos Hills, who had been on several school boards, the other was Dr. R. A. Holt of Worth.  Both filed to run in the school board election of 1962, but soon after the filing, the board announced that it had dropped the campus plan and would build the new school on its Palos Hills property.  Dr. Holt withdrew his name from the ballot as soon as he was certain that the school would be built north of the canal, but Dr. Yarbrough ran and lost by a small margin.  The new school was built and named the Amos Alonzo Stagg High School, opening for its first class in September, 1964, in Palos Hills, thanks to the all-out campaign spear headed by the PHCA.