Wyomissing Area Junior/Senior High School: Difference between revisions
Ifiwereabell (talk | contribs) |
|||
Line 95: | Line 95: | ||
**Wyo5Live |
**Wyo5Live |
||
** Wyo Quiz Bowl Team |
** Wyo Quiz Bowl Team |
||
**TechnoSpartans |
|||
==Notable alumni== |
==Notable alumni== |
Revision as of 19:06, 25 June 2015
Wyomissing Area Junior/Senior High School | |
---|---|
File:WAJSHS.png | |
Address | |
630 Evans Avenue , , , 19610 United States | |
Information | |
Funding type | Public |
Established | 1908 |
Principal | Dr. Cory Jones |
Enrollment | approx. 950 |
Color(s) | Navy blue and white |
Mascot | Spartan |
Website | District website |
Wyomissing Area Junior/Senior High School is a secondary school serving the Wyomissing Area School District. Located in the borough of Wyomissing, Pennsylvania the school boasts an enrollment in grades seven through twelve of approximately 950 students. WAHS was ranked within Newsweek's top 1,200 public high schools in the United States consecutively for three years between 2006 and 2008.[1] The Washington Post ranks WAHS the most challenging public school in the state excluding magnet and charter schools,[2] and U.S. News and World Report ranks the school as the best public school in PA also excluding magnet and charter schools.[3]
History
In 1909, the Wyomissing school district was founded, with classes being taught in a private residence. In 1908, the district's first building was completed, responsible for grades 1-11 (seniors attended another area high school). This school was built on Belmont Avenue and served grades 1-11 until 1922. It served grades 1-6 until 1939. This building is now the Wyomissing Institute of Fine Arts. The first dedicated high school building was constructed in 1923, and later became an elementary school for the district. The high school built in 1923 was built on Wyomissing Boulevard and remained the high school until 1939, when it became the elementary school and the high school moved to Evans Avenue. The current high school was constructed in 1940, as part of Franklin Roosevelt's depression recovery program, the Works Projects Administration. The building was expanded to meet the growing student body in 1965, and was renovated in 1994. The Wyomissing School District became the Wyomissing Area School District upon merging with the former West Reading School District in the late 1960s. In 1984, the original high school, which was built in 1923, was destroyed at the land was sold for housing.
An addition was finished September, 2006. The addition added several new classrooms, a new chorus room, and a stagecraft workshop. The somewhat controversial renovation has removed two courtyards in the school, many windows in classrooms, in addition to a major portion of the student parking area. The school's auditorium was also recently renovated. Renovations included removing the windows, replacing the seats, installing new curtains and carpeting, repainting, and installing garage doors in the stage right wing and the new set construction rooms so that scenery could be moved.
Academics
There are 567 sections of 183 courses in basic core areas and in a wide variety of electives.[4] The school offers 30 honors and 16 Advanced Placement courses.[5] During the 2003-04 school year, 221 AP exams were administered to 104 students, and the average score (1-5) was a 4.1. The same year, the average SAT score was 1133 (571 in math and 562 in verbal); the state average was 1002 (502 in math and 500 in verbal). The school boasts a 95% graduation rate, with 94% of high school seniors attending a two- or four-year institution of higher education[6]
Extracurricular activities
The school offers a number of opportunities for student participation outside of the classroom:
Athletics
Since the early 1990s, the school has won state championships in boys' football (2012), boys' soccer (1994), girls' cross country (1999, 2000, 2001, 2002), girls' tennis (2000, 2001, 2002, 2003), boys' track (2003), boys' volleyball (2008), boys' tennis (2009, 2010, 2012), and golf (2012). The school fields the following teams:
- Football
- Marching Band
- Color Guard
- Lacrosse
- Cross Country
- Volleyball
- Bowling
- Golf
- Tennis
- Wrestling
- Basketball
- Swimming
- Winter Track and Field
- Spring Track and Field
- Baseball
- Girls Soccer
- Boys Soccer
- Volleyball
- Tennis
- Swimming
- Cheerleading
- Softball
- Field Hockey
Clubs
The school offers the following extracurricular clubs:
- Art Club
- Big Spartan/Little Spartan
- Brass Ensemble
- Camerata
- Chariot Student Newspaper
- Chess Club
- Chorale
- Colophon Yearbook
- Color Guard
- Concert Choir
- Cooking Club
- Debate Team
- Drama Club
- Environmental Club
- French Club
- Freshmen Select Ensemble
- Jazz Band
- Latin Club
- Literary-Art Magazine
- Marching Band
- Math Team
- Model UN
- Peer Mediation
- Pit Orchestra
- Service Club
- Spanish Club
- Student Council
- Student Tutoring
- Varsity Singers
- Wyo5Live
- Wyo Quiz Bowl Team
- TechnoSpartans
Notable alumni
- Jon Gosselin, Reality TV star
- Matt Lytle, former NFL player
- Taylor Swift, Grammy Awards Winning Country-Pop Singer
- Katrina Szish, Television host and Features Contributor for CBS "The Early Show"
- Ross Tucker, former NFL player, current journalist/broadcaster/radio host
References
- ^ America's Top Public High Schools | Newsweek Best High Schools | Newsweek.com
- ^ http://apps.washingtonpost.com/local/highschoolchallenge/schools/2014/list/pennsylvania-schools/
- ^ http://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/pennsylvania/rankings?int=c0b4c1
- ^ http://www.wyoarea.org/wyo/SCHOOLS/Wyomissing%20Area%20Junior-Senior%20High%20School/Curriculum
- ^ http://www.wyoarea.org/downloads/jshs_documents/2014-15_program_of_studies-_revised__august_2014_20140815_134120_1.pdf
- ^ http://www.wyoarea.org/wyo/SCHOOLS/Wyomissing%20Area%20Junior-Senior%20High%20School/About%20Us/PSSA%20Report%20Card