Archbishop Alter High School, also known as Alter High School, is a Catholic high school in Kettering, Ohio, United States. It is operated by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cincinnati and is named after Archbishop Karl Joseph Alter.
History
In October 1958, Catholics of the Dayton area pledged $4,953,050 to help pay the costs of building Catholic high schools in the area. Among the schools built with this money were Archbishop Alter High School and its mirror image, Carroll High School, built the previous year. Development of Alter High School was led by Reverend Paul F. Leibold, and, at the request of the people, the school was named after Archbishop Karl Alter. Archbishop Karl Alter was born on August 18, 1885, and died on August 23, 1977.
The school saw its first students on September 5, 1962, with an incoming class of 250 freshmen. In each of the next three years a new freshman class would be added, so, by the year 1965, the school offered grades 9 through 12, with the first class graduating in 1966.
Alter High's first principal was Reverend Edward F. Haskamp, serving from 1962 to 1970. In 2005, Alter High named Fr. James Manning, former pastor of St. Albert the Great Parish in Kettering, as its first President.
Faculty
Alter High School's faculty is composed of diocesan priests of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, Sisters of Charity of Mount St. Joseph, and lay teachers.
Academics
Alter features a strong STEM Curriculum through a partnership with Project Lead the Way. Alter has earned a Governor's Award for STEM education and has added 6 new labs to the school since 2009. 20 Students participated in the State Science Fair and 4 earned perfect scores in 2014. Every student at Alter is now equipped with a laptop computer complete with Microsoft Office software. The OGT pass rate at Alter is 100%.
The school provides AP classes, which offer the prospect of college credit as well as a weighted grade. Alter students have already proven to consistently exceed state and national test averages due, in part, to the supplemental course offerings they can take, in addition to the ample amounts of study halls offered. Alter graduates commonly attend the University of Cincinnati, University of Dayton, Wright State University, Miami University (Ohio), Ohio State University, and Ohio University.
The Taylor College Lab at Alter was provided by a generous donation and operated by Sinclair College, it offers students a way to take classes for college credit and remain on Alter's campus. Students may use this facility to take practice exams for ACT, SAT and other academic tests. They may also work on college résumés and applications in the lab and along with the guidance office was responsible for the $15,500,000 full and partial academic, athletic and arts scholarships generated by the Class of 2014.
A student's school day begins at 8:00 AM and ends at 3:05 PM and the schedule was changed for the 2009–2010 school year to include eight 46-minute class periods and a 25-minute lunch period, with three minutes between each period to change classes. This change has allowed the students more flexibility with choosing electives or study halls within their schedules.
Performing arts at Alter
Alter prides itself that the opportunities it provides to its students are not exclusively academic and athletic - the school offers a number of opportunities in the creative and performing arts. Alter is currently raising money to add an Arts Wing to the school to help the Arts program grow.
Bands
Alter students can choose to participate in multiple ensembles during the year: the Marching Knights, Jazz Band, Pep Band, Wind Ensemble, String Ensemble, Woodwind and Brass Ensembles, Winter Guard and Winter Drumline. The music department has been under the direction of Todd Tucker since 2007.
The Marching Knights are the musical ambassadors for Archbishop Alter High School. In addition to their musical support and performances at football games, the band also appears at festivals and in parades in the community. Competitively, The Marching Knights perform on the Mid States Band Association (MSBA) circuit regionally, which includes bands from Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky and Michigan, and the Bands of America (BOA) circuit nationally. The band has been an MSBA Class Champion 9 times since 2012, including a 6-year run from 2012-2017, and in 2022 the Marching Knights captured their first BOA Grand National Class A Championship in Indianapolis.