Chanhassen High School

Story

Chanhassen High School is a public high school located in Chanhassen, Minnesota, a southwestern suburb of the Minneapolis-Saint Paul area. CNS has a grade 9–12 school program. Construction of the school was approved by voters in 2006 in response to rapidly growing enrollment in Carver County and overcrowding at Chaska High School, the district's other high school. Chanhassen had an enrollment of 1,576 students during the 2014-15 school year, with an 18:1 student teacher ratio. There are 82 teachers at the school, and more than 80 percent of them have a master's degree or higher. The student body makeup is 52 percent male and 48 percent female, and the total minority enrollment is 9 percent.HistoryAs a result of steady population increases in Carver County, Chaska High School's enrollment surpassed its building's designed capacity, with future growth in the school district expected. As a result, voters approved a referendum in 2006 to provide funding for a new high school. The vote was very close, a matter of 2% of the population. Opponents of the bond referendum claimed the school district did not provide support that it looked into other ideas for the district beyond building a new high school and the district did not take into consideration other options they may have had (using buildings in other ways). The school has had five graduating classes as of 2015. During its inaugural year the school did not have a senior class.AcademicsIn the five years the school has been open Chanhassen has excelled in academics, already ranking in the top 3% of high schools nationwide. Chanhassen offers 25 different Advanced Placement courses and in 2015 had a “Challenge Index” of 2.570, which means that about more than two AP exams were taken across the school for every member of the most recent graduating class.