History

= = = A Brief History of Belleville West =

**Campus**
Belleville Township High School opened its doors in 1916. Over time, as the school grew, there became a need for two campuses. Belleville West was then opened in 1969 to fulfill that need. Eventually, West was in need of a new campus, so the current building was built and was opened in 2003.

**Traditions**
There are many traditions at Belleville West, the majority of which started before 1950. These traditions include Hobo Day, Miss Maroon, Donkey Basketball, and Senior Skip Day. In 1950, Donkey Basketball was senior boys versus senior girls, as it still is today. Hobo Day festivities started out as an assembly at school, followed by a large parade, complete with class floats, down Main Street to the fountain, ending in a large rally in front of courthouse. Over time, the parade became smaller and smaller, until there was none. Today, there is still an assembly complete with the long-time tradition of the sliders competition, but class floats have been replaced by class frame building.

In the mid and mid-late 1900s, sporting events were widely supported by the student body, and often times basketball and football games would be sold out. The biggest game of the year was the varsity football game against East St. Louis on Thanksgiving Day. This tradition was lost when IHSA State Playoffs began, and the enthusiasm for the East St. Louis game was transition to the Belleville East varsity football game, which is still very popular today.

Prom is a long-standing tradition at every high school, but has changed a lot since its beginning. Prom used to be very formal, and there was no after prom, so it lasted late into the night. Now, while prom is still a dressy occasion often involving a limo and an expensive dinner at a nice restaurant, the dance itself is more party-like, with very few slow songs. Festivities then continue to run late into the morning at after-prom, which consists of food, raffles, and games. Despite many changes, prom is still a fun night that no one will forget.

**Race and Gender Relations**
In 1950, school wear was dressy, cheerleaders dressed modestly, and Belleville West was a predominately Caucasian school. Over time, school attire became more relaxed, cheerleader skirts moved from ankle length to knee length, and there were still very few minorities. The few African Americans who did attend West were ones who grew up going through the Belleville public school system and were an accepted part of the community, but were not very active in extra curricular activities. As more African Americans migrated to the Belleville area, the black population grew, and tensions rose within the school. These tensions still exist today in small amounts, but have cooled down since the ‘90s. While the race changes were going on within the school, there were also gender changes. West started out with very few female sports- cheerleading, track, and tennis. One by one more sports were added, and today there is a wide range of sports for the female population at West, including softball, soccer, and golf. Also, more and more girls are in the Gifted Education program, and home economics and secretarial classes have died out. Today, especially because of Title IX, Belleville West is an equal opportunity campus for all races and genders.

Academics
At the school's opening in 1917, there were 389 students enrolled in Belleville Township. The school was accomodated with 17 faculty, 2 buildings, and the curriculum consisted of only 30 courses. Many changes have been made since then. In 1980, Belleville Township High School was now Belleville West and Belleville East. East was built in order to accomodate the growing number of high school students. Belleville West had 2250 students, over 150 faculty, and ten permanent buildings along with some temporary buildings. The curriculum now consisted of 215 courses, which included many interesting courses that have since ceased to exist. There was a typewriting class, which is much like a simplified version of the keyboarding class offered today. A shorthand class, guitar class, and a jewelry design class were some of the interesting courses offered in 1980 that are no longer in the curriculum. No honors courses were offered for foreign language or English classes. Even though honors was offered in history, science, and math classes, no Advanced Placement classes were available for college credit. Juniors could choose between 2 history options for graduation requirements. They could either take one full year of US History or take 4 mini courses (each course being a ten week long class). The driver's ed fee in 1980 was only $1; today it is $50. Just by looking at this, you can see how much the times have changed. Belleville West is now located at the new location on Frank Scott Parkway with a complete enclosed campus. The school today has a curriculum with 292 courses and many AP options for multiple subjects. Although a lot has changed in order to meet the requirements of testing such as ACT or PSAE, some aspects of academics have remained the same. Many graduation requirements are the same as they were in 1983, but the new freshman class (Class of 2013) must earn 20.5 credits rather than the usual 19.5. Check out a copy of the graduation requirements for 1983: