Southside High School (Elmira, New York)

Elmira High School
Address
777 South Main Street Elmira , New York 14904
Coordinates	42°04′07″N 76°47′46″W
Information
School type	Public, high school
Motto	Express Yourself
School district	Elmira City School District
NCES School ID	361056000824
Principal	Christopher Reger
Grades	10–12
Color(s)	red, black, and white
Athletics conference	Southern Tier Athletic Conference; Section IV NYSPHSAA
Mascot	The Conductor
Website	www.elmiracityschools.com/EHS.cfm

Elmira High School, commonly referred to as EHS, is a high school in Elmira, New York, United States. It was one of two public high schools operated by the Elmira City School District serving Chemung County, alongside Elmira Free Academy, before the two merged into its current state in 2014.

The school has the honor to be recognized by the New York State Education Department as the only high performing school in the district, scoring the highest averages on state testing and curriculum exercises. Southside offers many special classes such as AP and ACE classes that could potentially count for future college credits. Aside from academics, Southside has been a strong contender in many different sports throughout the years, boasting an upgraded hall of fame in its gymnasium area. The high school is also involved in several different club opportunities, the top three being FBLA-PBL (Future Business Leaders of America), Key Club, and National Honor Society. All three are directly involved in community service. Some of these, with the addition of student council, assist in planning events such as Southside's annual Special Olympics program, the spirit week activities for what is now known as the "Express Fest," community service involvement, school functions such as managing program box offices and the school store, amongst other positive endeavors of the many clubs.

Southside and EFA

The concept to create this school was in a plan released in 1921. On August 1922 the groundbreaking ceremony occurred. Southside High School's first building opened on January 28, 1924. The first principal was Frank M. Edson (died on November 28, 1932). The school district spent $520,376.85 to have the building built. Generally, in the school's history, it took students south of the Chemung River, while Elmira Free Academy took students north of the Chemung River. The school colors were green and white.

The school owned a house across the street that was used for home economics classes. There was a controversy in the 1920s over the price of the student cafeteria being exorbitantly high relative to other cafeterias. In 1935 the school yearbook was renamed the Edsonian after Edson.

In its time of existence, which came shortly after EFA, Southside High had two different buildings in use. Currently, it is using a newly renovated building on South Main Street on Elmira's southside. Prior to the merger, its school colors had been green and white since the establishment of the high school as well as its sports teams, called the Green Hornets.

Southside High stopped using the practice home economics house in the 1950s.

In 1974 the board of trustees decided that Elmira Free Academy should get a recreation center, and this made members of the Southside High community upset that their school did not receive such a facility. The student council decided to hold a protest regarding this. The reaction spurred the board into having a new facility for Southside High.

The last Southside High facility, on a 28.3-acre (11.5 ha) plot of land, opened in fall 1979, with the old building no longer used. The old building became the Chemung County Human Resource Center. The school district acquired the land from Westinghouse Electric Corp; the district paid the company $80,000. The land was formerly used for industrial purposes. James Hare of the Elmira Star-Gazette wrote that at the time, "The matter of exposure to hazardous waste with the construction of a new school in 1977 was a nonissue."

Until the 2011–2012 school year, Elmira Free Academy would play Southside High School in football for the Erie Bell, a trophy donated to the two schools by a local railroad company. In 2011, it was announced that the long-standing rivalry between the schools would come to an end and they would combine. The two high schools combined their sports teams by the 2011–12 school year. A community vote was taken to determine what new mascot and colors people were interested in. On May 25, 2011, the district officially announced that the new team would be called the Elmira Express, a common nickname for Elmiran legend Ernie Davis, the first African-American to ever win the Heisman Trophy in the sport of football. The team colors became red, black, and white.

The Southside High School cafeteria had 8,379 square feet (778.4 m²) of space.

Circa 2012 the district began changing the building to be the sole high school of the school district. The change to Elmira High School was effective July 1, 2014. The signage began to change around that time. The cafeteria was given a 9,546-square-foot (886.9 m²) expansion, with a cost of $7,000,000. The anticipated enrollment for fall 2014 was 1,450.

The Decker Bell replaced the 64-year Erie Bell tradition. The new Elmira Express combined team has begun somewhat of a new rivalry with the Corning Hawks from two recently combined schools in Corning, New York. Both team combinations were due to severe budget issues that are still imminent and pose a threat to combine the schools altogether. The Elmira budget problem also jeopardizes the education of the students in the district, as well as the futures of the employed staff.

In 2022 a new sports complex for Elmira High School was scheduled to open.

Principals

• Frank M. Edson (1924–1932)
• Clifford McNaught (1932–1952)
• Wallace Howell (1952–1955)
• Arnold Greene (1955–1966)
• Martin Harrigan (1966–1973)
• Jerome O'Dell (1973–1991)
• Kenneth Thomas (1991–1996)
• Daile Rose (1996–January 1999)
• Arline Ely (January 1999 – 2000)
• Lisa Kelly (2000–2003)
• Theresa Armstrong (interim, 2003)
• James Snyder (interim, 2004)
• Christopher Krantz (2004–2020)
• Christopher Reger (2020–present)

Notable alumni

• Kevin B. Winebold – musical director, actor

External links

• Official site
• Pudney, Thomas Giery (2019-02-07). "Public voices concerns over contamination at Elmira High School during community forum". Star Gazette.
• Murray, Jeff (2018-06-13). "Is Elmira High School safe? State agencies will address contamination questions". Star Gazette.
• Murray, Jeff (2018-06-12). "Chemung County urges New York to expand Elmira High School cleanup". Star Gazette.