The John F. Ross Collegiate Vocational Institute is a grade 9–12 public secondary school in Guelph, Ontario, Canada and is part of the Upper Grand District School Board.
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History
Guelph's largest high school was originally named John F. Ross Vocational School, in honour of John Francis Ross, a highly respected Guelph educator and principal. The school opened its doors in 1956 to 460 students with 25 teachers and Lorne Fox as its principal, under the new name John F. Ross Collegiate Vocational Institute. It celebrated its 50th anniversary with a reunion in May 2006.
Academic programs
It is the only high school in the Upper Grand District School Board that offers French Immersion and English as Second Language program (grades 9–12). In addition, Ross offers programs in business, technology, drama, music, art, science, social sciences and co-op. As part of its standard classes, the school also offers special education classes for exceptional students. Ross also has a co-operative learning program in which local employers are matched with students for on-the-job training.
Students also have opportunities to learn outside of the school. For example, the Music and Geography departments offer an extended field trip to a major city or destination (i.e., New York City, Chicago, Washington, D.C. and Boston) each spring. Annual March Break trips are offered to students as well. Recent trips offered include China in 2011, Eastern Europe in 2011, Africa (Me to We), Greece and Turkey in 2012, France in 2013, and Italy, Switzerland and Austria in March 2014.
The school has the largest population of any school in the Upper Grand District School Board, with an estimated 2000 students (Fall 2014). This is due to its proximity to the downtown core as well as drawing in many students from the surrounding rural areas including nearby towns such as Rockwood.
Sports
The school always had a fierce athletic rivalry with the Centennial Spartans. In 2006, the women's rugby team competed at OFSAA and clinched a 3rd place. In 2006 and 2008, the boys' baseball team was eliminated in the semi-finals in a game that needed extra innings against St. Michael's College School, and a loss to the eventual 2008 OFSAA champions Notre Dame Irish, respectively. In 2007, the boys' hockey team, won the OFSAA Championship in Whitby, Ontario.
In the fall of 2009 the Royals defeated the Guelph Collegiate Gaels in District 10 football action to win city championship 13–7, their first title, in 11 years. The Ross football team had gone 0–15 in the regular season of 2010 before losing to the Centennial Spartans at home in the D10 Quarter-Finals. In the 2011 season; the Royals beat the Lourdes Crusaders, 24–7 on November 11, 2011. They had their third straight losing season with a 33–7 loss to the Our Lady of Lourdes Crusader.
Ross's Junior Boys' basketball team lost the 2011 District 10 City Championship to Orangeville Bears in a lopsided affair, before advanced to CWOSSA and losing in round Robin to St. Mary's of Kitchener. The Senior Boys' Basketball team lost in the District 10 quarter-final game to the Orangeville Bears. They advanced to CWOSSA and the Final before losing to St. Mary's of Kitchener. They did advance to OFSAA with a second-place finish.
Track and Field
The Ross Royals track and field team has had an ongoing tradition of success rich with records and OFSAA medals since the early 1970s. The school records held at John F. Ross contain many of the top performances in District 10 history.
Some of the earliest instances of major success still on record comes from athletes Barb Becker, Chris Laubach, Dave Rouleau, John Elkerton, Lori Mckay, and John Settle. Throughout their high school career the six of them alone amassed a staggering 17 OFSAA medals and 5 OFSAA titles between 1973 and 1978. These provincial champions were accompanied by many other talented athletes that made up the 1970s "powerhouse" team led by coaches Donald Ranson and Don Sykes. Over 40 years later the athletes of that era still hold 27 school records. Rouleau even managed to claim the OFSAA record in the midget boys’ high jump in 1973 with a jump of 6 ft 2+1⁄4 in (1.886 m).
The John F. Ross track and field team continued to thrive off their momentum throughout the early 1980s. As the team saw the last of the 1970s champions graduate, new athletes were showing promising talent, especially in the sprints. In 1980 the team achieved its first ever OFSAA gold medal in a relay event. The women's 4 × 400 m title was won in a time of 3:57.2, the school's third fastest time to this day. In the following year at the 1981 OFSAA championships the girls defended their title with the same four runners. Their finishing time of 3:56.04 became a school record that still stands as of 2019.
In the 1990s two distance runners took a shot at the record board. The first to come was Drew Graham who twice won the OFSAA bronze medal in the midget (1993) and junior (1995) 3000m. Graham currently owns the school record in the 3000m in all three age categories. In 1992, Graham also won an OFSAA gold medal as a midget in cross country. In 1996 a newcomer to the track team named Carla Briante won John F. Ross' first OFSAA track and field title since the women's 4 × 400 m gold in 1981. Her OFSAA winning 1500m time of 4:46.43 was held as the school record for 11 years until June 2017. Briante went on to take the junior records for the 1500m and 3000m which remain unbeaten. In 1995, Briante also won an OFSAA gold medal as a midget in cross country.
Midget Girls
Junior Girls
Extracurricular activities and clubs
All Board Permitted Sports
Arts Council
Athletic Council
AP English Club
AP French
Band & Choir Jr and Sr
Battle of the Bands
Best Buddies
Book Club
Business Club
Canadian Open Math Challenge
Chemistry Club
Christians In Action
Concert Band
Concert Choir
Debating Club
Doctor Who Club
ECO Team
E.L. Fox Stage Crew
Equity Council
Fine Arts Club
Improv Club
Multicultural Festival
Robotics Club
RSB - DECA Chapter
Save The Future
Students' Council
Royal Jazz
Volunteerism
Each spring, up to four families of mallard ducks fly to the school, where they have a safe environment to raise their young. Eventually, the school's Environment Club relocates the ducks and ducklings to nearby wildlife preserves. The school looks after the birds' surroundings. Over the years John F. Ross has donated tens of thousands of dollars to charity.
During the 2008–2009 school year, the school took part in the Spread the Net challenge promoted by Rick Mercer. By the end of the competition the school had raised more than $55,000 to help fight malaria, the highest total in Canada for any school. As a result, the famous comedian visited the school in March 2009 and John F. Ross was featured on Mercer's television show, the Rick Mercer Report. The school took part in the campaign once again in 2015 raising over $41,000 for the Spread the Net Challenge. Rick Mercer once again visited the school and congratulated John F. Ross on raising over $100 000 total for the charity over the years.
On a smaller scale, the students' council runs an annual fundraising event called F.R.O.S.T.Y. (Friendly Royals Offering Stuff To Yuletide) in December. For two weeks, classes set up events such as bake sales, video game parties, or a chance to slime a teacher, all to raise money for local nonprofit organizations and charities. There is also a weekly "Save the Future" collection that brings in a few hundred dollars every week toward a variety of good causes.
Notable alumni
Actors
Shaun Benson (1976 – ), known for his role as Dr. Steven Webber in General Hospital
Neve Campbell (1973 – ), known for her roles as Sidney Prescott in Scream and as Julia Salinger in Party of Five
Noah Danby (1974 – ), actor known for his role as Connor King in Painkiller Jane
Architects
Alison Brooks (1962 – ), winner of the RIBA Stirling Prize in 2008
Athletes
Billy Bridges (1984 – ), ice sledge hockey and wheelchair basketball player who won a gold medal at the 2006 Winter Paralympics
Michael Faulds (1983 – ), head coach of the Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks football team since 2013
Doug Risebrough (1954 – ), professional ice hockey player in the NHL from 1975 – 1987
Economists
David Card (1956 – ), awarded half of the 2021 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences
Journalists
J David Akin (1963, Guelph, ON ), chief political correspondent for Global News
Mathematicians
Doug Stinson (1956 – ), author of mathematics-based cryptography textbook Cryptography: Theory and Practice (ISBN 9781584885085)
Musicians
Miranda Chartrand (1990 – ), known for her song I've Got Nothing on the BBC television series Chartjackers