Belleville High School East is a public

high school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., ...

Belleville, Illinois Belleville is a city in St. Clair County, Illinois, United States, and its county seat. It is a southeastern suburb of St. Louis. The population was 42,404 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the most populated city in the Me ...

, United States. It is part of Belleville Township High School District 201. It was established in 1966.

History

Prior to 1966, Belleville Township School District operated only one school, Belleville Township High School, which was the old Belleville West campus (a new campus has since been built). The growth of the district prompted the local board of education to construct a new campus and divide the student body between the two schools. The new campus was built in a college format with many different buildings. The newly commissioned Belleville Area College (now

Southwestern Illinois College Southwestern Illinois College is a public community college in Illinois with campuses in Belleville, Granite City, and Red Bud. It also has off-campus sites throughout the district, including Scott Air Force Base and the East St. Louis Comm ...

) occupied half of the campus while the new high school occupied the other. Enrollment in the school increased rapidly and the college was forced to move to a new location. Major renovations were completed in 2009. These included new landscaping, more classrooms, remodeled classrooms and buildings, new lockers, and a new cafeteria. As of the 2023-2024 school year, it is the largest public high school in the St Louis region.

Notable alumni

* Chase Allen, football player, Linebacker for

Southern Illinois University Carbondale Southern Illinois University (SIU) is a public research university in Carbondale, Illinois, United States. Chartered in 1869, SIU is the oldest and flagship campus of the Southern Illinois University system. SIU enrolls students from all 50 sta ...

, Undrafted free agent with

Miami Dolphins The Miami Dolphins are a professional American football team based in the Miami metropolitan area. The Dolphins compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East division. The team ...

in May 2017, 2017 starter for

* Malcolm Hill,

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

ranked #72 basketball player in Class of 2013, starter at

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United ...

Israel Basketball Premier League Ligat HaAl (, lit., ''Supreme League or Premier League''), or the Israeli Basketball Premier League, is a professional basketball league in Israel and the highest level of basketball in the country. The league's name is abbreviated as either BSL ...

, Chicago Bulls 2021-2022 *

Gary Leonard Gary Francis Leonard (born February 16, 1967) is an American former professional basketball player. At 7'1" and 295 lbs, he played center (basketball), center. Leonard played college basketball for the Missouri Tigers men's basketball, Mis ...

, former

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...

player * Zander Mueth, professional baseball player *

Matt Russell Matthew Jason Russell (born July 5, 1973) is an American professional football executive and former player who is a senior personnel executive for the Philadelphia Eagles of the National Football League (NFL). He formerly served as the directo ...

, All-American college football player, pro player and sports administrator * Rob Strano, former touring professional golfer; PGA Tour; Nike/Buy.Com/Nationwide Tour; Golf Channel Academy; golf instructor *

Randy Wells Randy David Wells (born August 28, 1982) is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Toronto Blue Jays and Chicago Cubs. Professional career Wells was drafted by the Chicago Cubs in the ...

, former

MLB Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

pitcher (

Chicago Cubs The Chicago Cubs are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The Cubs compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Central, Central Division. Th ...

)

Wall of Fame

The school established a "Lancer Wall of Fame" to recognize noteworthy alumni, faculty, support staff and community members.

Class of 2004

Mark Hollmann Mark Hollmann (born 1963) is an American composer and lyricist. Life and career Hollmann grew up in Fairview Heights, Illinois, where he graduated from Belleville Township High School East in 1981. He won a 2002 Tony Award and a 2001 Obie Awa ...

, Tony Award-winning songwriter *

Class of 2006

* Alumnus

Paul Gompers Paul A. Gompers is an American economist and former long-distance runner. He is the Eugene Holman Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School. He is the co-author of three books. Early life Paul A. Gompers grew up in Bel ...

, Ph.D., Harvard Professor/Marathon Record Setter/entrepreneur, Class of 1982

Class of 2010

Nathan Hodel Nathan William Hodel (; born November 12, 1977) is an American former professional football long snapper. He was signed by the Carolina Panthers as an undrafted free agent in 2001. He played college football at Illinois. Hodel was also a member ...

NFL The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The N ...

Player/Hodel Foundation, Class of 1996 *

Mark Kern Mark Edward Kern, also known as Grummz, is a former video game executive. He worked for Blizzard Entertainment from 1997 to 2005 and was a co-founder and CEO of Red 5 Studios during the development and promotion of the video game ''Firefall''. ...

, Public Servant, Class of 1981

Class of 2012

* Alumnus (1978 graduate) Lt. Col. David P. Cooley

Class of 2018

* Dr. Bob Farmer, 1987 East graduate

References

{{authority control Belleville, Illinois Public high schools in Illinois Schools in St. Clair County, Illinois Educational institutions established in 1966 1966 establishments in Illinois