Manchester High School Central is the oldest public high school in the state of New Hampshire. Located in the heart of Manchester, New Hampshire, approximately 2,100 students attend from communities such as Candia, Hooksett, and Manchester. The name was changed from Manchester High School in 1922 when Manchester West High School opened. Including Central, Manchester has a total of three public high schools.Its athletics teams are nicknamed the Little Green (after Dartmouth's Big Green), and predictably, the school colors are green and white. Sports Illustrated named the school's athletic department as the best in the state of New Hampshire in 2005.The school originally had crimson red as its school color, but Concord High School had taken the color soon after. After the start of the 20th century, the two schools decided that the winner of a league championship would keep its colors; Concord won, and Manchester Central chose forest green as its new color.Ronald Mailhot was named interim principal at the end of 2011, following the retirement of former principal John R. Rist, but will now be returning as full-time principal in 2012. Mailhot later resigned in the middle of the 2013-2014 school year and was replaced by John Rist for his second stint as principal of Central. Rist retired at the end of the 2014 school year and was succeeded by John M. Vaccarezza, who is the current principal.
