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Christopher Columbus High School is a public secondary school located in the Pelham Parkway, northeast section of the Bronx, New York. It is within walking distance from the Bronx Zoo and the New York Botanical Garden.

It currently enrolls over 2000 students in grades 9 through 12. The student body is diverse, with students whose families come from 66 countries. Seventy-four percent of its faculty have Masters degrees. The current principal is Lisa Maffei-Fuentes.

Columbus High School has been a member of the Foundation for Excellent Schools since 1997.^[1] It has a partnership with the University of Vermont, which offers special courses at Columbus. Jet Blue Airlines provides free transportation to faculty and students travelling between Vermont and the Bronx.^[2]

As of June 2004, Columbus High School was broken down into the Christopher Columbus Educational Campus and shared its premises with four, smaller, specialized schools:

• Pelham Preparatory Academy
• Global Enterprise Academy
• Astor Collegiate High School
• Collegiate Institute for Math and Science (Principal Estelle Hans)(CIMS)^[3]

The Bronx High School for the Visual Arts (BHSVA) originally the first small school to move into the campus moved out at the end of the 2004 school year. It currently resides in the old Mercy College Bronx campus which it shares with one other small school.

• Anne Bancroft (as Anna Maria Louise Italiano), won best-actress Oscar for portrayal of Helen Keller's teacher in The Miracle Maker, portrayed "Mrs. Robinson" in The Graduate
• David Berkowitz, the Son of Sam killer.
• Kenneth J. Bialkin, Senior Partner of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom;leader of major American Jewish organizations
• Albert "Albie" Grant, Long Island University Hall of Fame basketball player
• Robert Eisenstein, former Assistant U.S. Attorney and in-house councel to MCA Records.
• Christine Jorgensen (as George William Jorgensen, Jr.), one of the first people to have sex reassignment surgery
• John Kuse, George Kuse, Phil Sanchez, Joel Feldman, Denis Kestenbaum - who, as the "The Excellents" (which also included Chuck Epstein, from DeWitt Clinton High School) - recorded the doo wop classic, "Coney Island Baby," in 1962
• Paul Levinson, author of The Plot To Save Socrates, media commentator on The O'Reilly Factor and other tv and radio news shows
• Darlene Rodriguez (as Darlene Pomales), co-anchor, Today in New York, WNBC-TV
• Nancy Savoca, Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Award winning film-maker
• Andrea Stone, correspondent, USA TODAY
• James Vacca, Member of the New York City Council
• James Vint, Offensive Coordinator at Iowa Wesleyan College, motivational speaker, and author.
• Larry Seidlin, Florida judge who ruled on claims regarding the remains of celebrity Anna Nicole Smith.

• Main sport in the school is the Football Team: Columbus Blue Steel, which won the Bronx Championships November 3rd, 2006. The Blue Steel have gone to the PSAL playoffs four times in the last six years.The Columbus Explorers Varsity Tennis Team has acclaimed more importance in the last few years reahing the playoff 3 out of 4 years while The Girls A-Division Varsity team reached the finals in the School year of 05'-06'.

The girl's volleyball team was dominant in their division in the late 80's, early 90's under the coaching of Annette Leder.

Other Columbus teams include:

• Girls' Teams: Soccer, Soft Ball, Basketball, Tennis, Track, Cheerleader, Step, Bowling, Gymnastics, Golf, Volleyball
• Boys' Teams: Soccer, Baseball, Basketball, Tennis, Track, Bowling, Golf

Carlos Roman received a partial Scholarship for Baseball Activities in 02

1. ^ FES at Christopher Columbus
2. ^ University of Vermont Connection
3. ^ Collegiate Institute for Math and Science