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Western Hills High School (Benbrook, Texas)

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Western Hills High School (WHHS) is a secondary school located in Benbrook, Texas, United States,, serving portions of western Fort Worth and the entire city of Benbrook. The school, which serves grades 9 through 12, is a part of the Fort Worth Independent School District (FWISD).

School history

The Western Hills community encompasses the urban area surrounding the school, the Benbrook city area, southwest Fort Worth, and the rural section west to the Tarrant County line. The city of Benbrook school system once served students in Benbrook and surrounding rural areas. In 1954, all Benbrook students above the sixth grade were transferred to the Fort Worth ISD. In 1962, the Benbrook School District was consolidated into the Fort Worth system, busing the high school students to North Side High School or Arlington Heights High School and its junior high schools to J.P. Elder or William Monnig Junior High. Western Hills was first opened on the campus of Arlington Heights High School in the fall of 1968 with 714 students crowded into thirteen temporary buildings. In January 1969, this student body proudly moved into its new home on the twenty-five acre tract in West Fort Worth at 3600 Boston Avenue.

The creation of General Dynamics Fort Worth Division spurred an increased enrollment from the original 714 to 2,243 in 1972. At that time the student body was housed not only in the main building with one level but also in 23 portable buildings. With a decreasing student enrollment of 2,052 in the fall of 1980, the school building was expanded to two floors and eliminated the portable buildings.

On October 23rd 1989, a briefcase containing a firebomb was found. During an attempt to disarm the device it exploded causing mostly smoke damage and no injuries.[1][2] In 1991, the decline of student enrollment had tapered off to 1503, reflecting of job losses from the sale of General Dynamics' Fort Worth division to Lockheed.

At the present time, the school enrollment fluctuates 1503 to 1461 and 13 portable buildings have been added to the campus.[3]

School Spirit

File:Ant002.jpg
The Western Hills cougars symbol

The school mascot is the cougar. Official school colors are forest green and gold and throwback colors reflecting early years are yellow and green.

The WHHS student newspaper is "The Mountain Line," (a reference to the mountain lion, or cougar) begun in the fall of the second school year[when?]. Editors were Laura Wray and Skip Williams, both class of 1970. The advisor was Mrs Ryder, a new Journalism and English teacher that year. The paper won the best-in-city award in its first year in a contest sponsored by the Fort Worth press.

Western Hills High School's school annual yearbook is named "The Catamount." The name was chosen by the new school's annual staff after suggestions made by annual staff members. "Catamount" was the suggestion of Organizations Editor, Scheri Couch, Class of 1970. Ed Curry, Art, served as advisor for many years.

Feeder patterns

The following elementary schools feed into Western Hills High School

Elementary

  • Benbrook Elementary
  • Luella Merrett Elementary
  • Waverly Park Elementary
  • Western Hills Elementary
  • Western Hills Primary
  • Westpark Elementary

Middle School

  • Leonard 6th Grade Center
  • Leonard Middle School
  • Applied Learning Academy

Academics

Languages

WHHS offers classes in ASL, Spanish, French and German.

Sports

Baseball

In 2001 Western Hills won the Texas 4A State baseball championship.

Football

In its inaugural year, the school's football team lost every game. The school years 1969/1970 saw the school's football team make a complete turn around and go on to win bi-district in the fall of 1969.

Mike Luttrell (class of 1969) was named 1st Team All-State and 3rd Team All-American Tailback in 1969 and played for TCU. Bryan Trice, Travis Brim and Andy Johnson were selected for the Texas 4A All-State Academic Football Team in 2007.

Wrestling

Western Hills was only one of six schools in FWISD to have a wrestling team.

Class reunions

Western Hills High School Class of 1996 10 Year Reunion

WHHS Class of 1977 Reunion Website:

WHHS Class of 1979 Reunion Website:

WHHS Class of 1990 Reunion Website:

References

  1. ^ http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=K_8gAAAAIBAJ&sjid=-3IFAAAAIBAJ&pg=4005,5515874&dq=bomb+explodes+fort+worth&hl=en
  2. ^ http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=t4IgAAAAIBAJ&sjid=R8AEAAAAIBAJ&pg=2442,4111269&dq=bomb+explodes+fort+worth&hl=en
  3. ^ "WHHS School History". whhsinfo.org. Retrieved January 30, 2007. [dead link‍]

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