Monacan High School

Monacan High School is a public secondary school in Chesterfield County, Virginia, United States, near the city of Richmond. The school was founded in 1979, and is a part of Chesterfield County Public Schools. Its enrollment is roughly 1550 students. The building underwent a major renovation in the summer of 2015 and into the fall of 2016. The almost $30 million project brought a brand new fine arts wing, including new band, chorus, orchestra, and black box theater spaces, along with a music production lab. Connected to the new fine arts wing is a new athletic space including a new three court gym and premier training facility. Also, a part of the renovation was brand new main and counseling office spaces along with a brand new library, complete with academic meeting rooms and a multi media recording studio.

Monacan offers standard core classes along with honors classes, electives, and Advanced Placement Program classes. Advanced Placement Program classes at Monacan currently include Biology, Calculus AB, Chemistry, Computer Science, English/Literature, Environmental Science, Human Geography, Physics, Psychology, Spanish, Statistics, U. S. History and U. S. Government. Advanced Placement classes such as Art History, French, German, Latin, Virgil, Music Theory and World History are offered on an enrollment basis, if there are enough interested students to create the class. Monacan's World Language Department offers Latin, Spanish, and French. In the past, Japanese and Greek have been taught, but in the 2006–2007 school year, these subjects were not offered. German was taken out of the course offerings in the 2009–2010 school year. In 2008, Monacan's music department earned the Virginia Music Educators Association Blue Ribbon Award. The Performing Arts at Monacan offer classes in choir, band, orchestra, guitar and theatre. Monacan also earned the Blue Ribbon Award in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017. In 2016, the Academic Team won the Conference 20 Scholastic Bowl Championship.

The Monacan High School Marching Chiefs are a seven time Virginia Honor Band and a six time VMEA Blue Ribbon School for Music. The current band director of the Marching Chiefs is Jennifer Ryan. Joining Monacan in the spring of 2000, Ryan has directed over twenty one shows including some of Monacan's most recent shows, "Music From The Lion King" and "The Music of Motown". The Lion King earned them an array of awards during their 2015 competition season including 1st Place Percussion, 2nd Place Overall in Class AA, Best Music, 1st Place Auxiliary and scoring a state rating of Excellent at VBODA 2015. Their 2016 field show entitled "The Music of Motown", consisted of classic songs like "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" and "Get Ready". The Marching Chiefs took "Motown" to several competitions and events throughout Virginia including, "Showcase of Bands", "James Madison University: Parade of Champions", and VBODA 2016. At the Hermitage Classic 2016, the Marching Chiefs took 3rd in class AAA overall, earning a VBODA Competition rating of 79.5/100, "Excellent". On October 29, 2016, the Marching Chiefs earned a final VBODA State Competition Rating of 85.0/100, "Superior". On September 28, 2018, The Marching Chiefs took their 2018 Field Show entitled, "The Music of Santana" to the Hermitage Classic. Earning 1st Place Music and 3rd Place Overall in class 3A, their total score came to 81/100. On October 13, 2018, Monacan took their show to the Midlothian High School Showcase of Bands, receiving an overall score of 89/100 and 2nd Place overall in Class 4A, also taking 1st Place General Effect and 2nd Place in Music, Percussion, Auxiliary, and Marching.

Monacan High School was selected to be the site host for the 22nd Annual VHSL Ken Tilley Student Leaders Conference. Beating out several other applicants, Monacan made history by being both the smallest and oldest school to ever host the SLC. From the beginning, their conference committee had a dream to impact students and change the way they perceive themselves. It doesn't matter who you are or where you come from, anyone can be a leader. Anyone can change the world. The conference helped students develop their leadership potential in the context of their schools and communities. With thought provoking keynote speakers as well as breakout sessions that stimulated individual participation, it was one of the biggest leadership conferences in Virginia for high school youth. The Monacan's edition of the conference brought over 900 leaders from over 64 different high schools statewide.

Kate Lindsey – mezzo soprano opera singer, performed with the Metropolitan Opera, in Carnegie Hall, Washington D. C., Los Angeles, London, Paris, Munich and Vienna. Corey Reynolds – actor, known for his role as David Gabriel on the TV series The Closer. Megan Walker – professional basketball player for the Atlanta Dream of the WNBA. 9th overall pick in 2020 by the New York Liberty. Former UCONN Husky. Led Monacan to multiple State Titles.