School History

In 1959, the Newark Special School District school board purchased a 45-acre site at the intersection of Salem Church and Chopin Roads* to began building a second high school (Christiana High School), completed in 1963. E. W. Martin, designer of Newark High School , was chosen as the architect.

The School board agreed on “Christiana” as the name for the new school, in commemoration of the area’s Swedish and colonial heritage, as well as its location.
The final cost of building and equipping Christiana High (which included a district planetarium) was $3,645,000.

Christiana High School housed the ninth grade students in its area pending completion of the junior high building directly behind the high school. The 900-student facility, begun as the high school was completed in 1963, was connected by a closed passageway to the original school. The pre-stressed, precast concrete building, costing $2.3
million, was completed in 1964. A Humanities building was added in 1968.

Middle School Honors Academy (MSHA)

In 2017, the Christina School District opened the Middle School Honors Academy (MSHA) at Christiana High School to serve students in grades 6-8 who demonstrated a high degree of commitment to academic and extra-curricular activities. Each year the MSHA added the next grade level. By the 2019-2020 school year, MSHA enrolled students grades 6-8. In the 2023-2024 school year, the first class of the Middle School Honors Academy graduated from Christiana High School. 

 

 

* In 1966, Chopin Road was changed back to its original name, Chapman Road.

Photo Credit: Newark Post, Out of the Attic