Green Bay East High School

Public secondary school in Green Bay, Wisconsin

Green Bay East High School is a public high school in the Green Bay Area Public School District serving the near east side of Green Bay, Wisconsin and parts of Bellevue and Allouez. Founded in 1856, the school has occupied its current building since 1924.

The institution that would become East High School began in 1856 with the construction of Green Bay's Sale School (nicknamed "Old Brick") on land donated to the city by fur trader John Jacob Astor. Sale was the first school built by the Green Bay Area Public School District. The school traces its formal beginnings (celebrating a sesquicentennial in 2011) to a Professor Furber, who added Latin and mathematics to the grade school curriculum in 1860. The first class to receive diplomas, consisting of four men and two women, was the class of 1875. While at the Hilltopper building, the school published a literary magazine called Aeroplane beginning in 1910. The publication's commencement edition served as a pseudo yearbook, and began printing directories of the whole school in its 1917 edition. The publication was renamed East High Aeroplane in 1924 in anticipation of the school's move to its new location. The school has occupied its current location, at the far east end of Walnut Street, since 1924, changing its mascot to the Red Devil, named for the red clay based Devil River (now the East River) that borders the school. Built on 23 acres of land purchased from the Hagemeister family, the building was completed in 1924 and graduated its first class of students in 1925.|alt=]]
In 2011, East added the Institute for the Fine Arts, a specialized study program in vocal and instrumental music performance. In 2013, visual arts were added to the Institute's offerings, with theatre arts coming in 2015. In 2019, as part of the school's expanding offerings in fine arts, a series of renovations created an orchestra pit for the auditorium, turned former computer lab space into a dance/acting studio, and provided new art and design facilities.

The school is approximately 32.7% white and 44.2% Hispanic, and 9.9% Black. Other races make up the remainder of the school. Gender distribution is about equal. Over sixty percent of East students qualify for free or reduced lunch.

In March 1999, a 14 year old student stole a small amount of mercury from a chemistry department storage compartment. The chemical made its way to nearby Riviera Lanes, where the school took students bowling for gym classes, and students poured it on lanes and into bowling balls. Police found nine rifles and shotguns, homemade explosives, camouflage clothing, two way radios, and "hundreds of rounds of ammunition" in the students' houses. All three men were charged with conspiracy to commit first degree intentional homicide and conspiracy to commit damage of property by use of explosives, while one received additional charges for possessing homemade explosives and a sawed off shotgun.

The school's mascot, the Red Devil, is a reference to the clay based East River (formerly called the Devil River) that wraps around the school. In January 2014, the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association finalized a realignment plan that would send both Green Bay East and Green Bay West to the smaller Bay Conference starting in 2015 2016 due to both schools' athletic programs failing to win any conference titles since 2000 stemming from the growth of athletic programs in suburban schools. In 2020, the WIAA announced that they would transfer the planning of football only conferences to the Wisconsin Football Coaches Association, which returned East to the lower division of the Fox River Classic Conference for football only. The Red Devils play at City Stadium, home of the Green Bay Packers from 1925 until 1956. Recent renovations of the field included ornamental fencing and monuments to the history of the field, a new scoreboard, and a turf surfacing made possible by contributions from the Packers. The school has won one WIAA state championship in girls hockey as part of a co op team.