Vernon Secondary School

Vernon Secondary is a public high school in Vernon, British Columbia, Canada. It is part of School District 22 Vernon.SymbolsA panther is the school mascot and the institution's recreational teams are thus named accordingly. The school's adopted colors are Navy Blue and Red, primarily, with the secondary color being White. The school's motto is "Pride on the Hill", referring to the hill the school is situated on. VSS is known for having one of the biggest shop and woodworks programs in the Okanagan Valley.HistoryVSS was formerly Vernon Senior Secondary School and hosted only grades 11-12, but was later changed to include grades 8-12 thus becoming Vernon Secondary School. The school was originally built in 1968, the new school was rebuilt and opened on January 7, 2013. The $38 million state-of-the-art school is situated on the lower field of the old school's property. The school is a carbon neutral building with a natural light design, water flow reductions, a ground source heat exchanger and geothermal field.During earlier decades of Vernon Senior Secondary School's history (including through at least the earlier 1980s), the school included students in grades 11 and 12 only. Through those decades, all the grade 11 and 12 public school students who resided in the greater Vernon area (including the Coldstream area, but excluding the school district's Lumby, Lavington, and Cherryville areas) attended this school. During those decades, the greater Vernon area's public junior high schools all served grades 8, 9, and 10 students. The area's elementary schools served grades 1 through 7 students and eventually provided kindergarten.ProgramsThe High Performers' Program was established by Vernon Secondary School in School District #22, Vernon, in 2002 to meet the needs of students who are achieving at exceptional levels in extracurricular endeavours and thus need flexibility in their school scheduling.