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Suggest pagesYorktown High School (Virginia)
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| Yorktown High School | |
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| Address | |
| 5200 Yorktown Blvd Arlington, Virginia 22207 |
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| Coordinates | 38°54′12″N 77°08′21″W / 38.903458°N 77.139151°WCoordinates: 38°54′12″N 77°08′21″W / 38.903458°N 77.139151°W |
| Information | |
| School type | Public, high school |
| Founded | 1960 |
| School board | Arlington Public Schools |
| School district | Arlington Public Schools |
| Principal | Dr. Raymond J. Pasi |
| Assistant principals | John Doll, William Lomax, Suzanne Evans, Meghan Henning |
| Grades | 9–12 |
| Enrollment | 1,748[1] (2009) |
| Student to teacher ratio | 15.2 |
| Language | English |
| Campus | Suburban |
| Color(s) | Columbia blue/White ██ |
| Mascot | Patriots |
| Rival | Washington-Lee High School Wakefield High School |
| Average SAT scores | 1741 (2008) |
| Athletic conferences | National District Northern Region |
| Website | http://apsva.us/yhs/ |
Yorktown High School is one of three public high schools located in Arlington, Virginia. There are 111 teachers and 1748 students as of 2009, 981 of whom are enrolled in AP courses.[1] It is a fully accredited high school based on Virginia's SOL examinations, and is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. The school is ranked among the top 100 schools in the nation according to Newsweek.[2]
Yorktown has a strong taste for student participation in artistic activities. Instrumental, choral, theatrical, and visual arts are prominent in the school's atmosphere.
Yorktown's athletes participate in the Virginia High School League and are named the Patriots. The teams wear the colors Carolina blue, white, and navy as an accent color.
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[edit] History
The school opened for the first time for the 1960-1961 school year, with only Sophomore and Junior classes. The first graduating class was in 1962. The building was originally an elementary school, which was converted into a high school to relieve crowding at Washington-Lee High School. The school was threatened with closure in 1982 due to declining enrollment, but because of strong community support, the idea was nixed. To boost the school's population, the attendance boundary between W-L and Yorktown in the northeastern portion of the county was redrawn in 1983. Portions of the Donaldson Run, Cherrydale, Woodmont, Dover Crystal, and Old Dominion neighborhoods were transferred into a larger Yorktown district. In the 90 s its boundaries expanded once again to serve the communities of Rosslyn, Courthouse, Clarendon, Westover, Halls Hill/Highview Park, and portions of Dominion Hills. Today the school has the largest student body of the county's three comprehensive high schools. Construction has, as of 2009, begun on an entirely new Yorktown facility. The replacement campus was designed by Ehrenkrantz Eckstut & Kuhn Architects. With respect to the school's progressive pedagogical underpinnings, the new facility seeks to create a flexible and sophisticated high school learning environment that will meet the needs of the community well into the 21st century.
Yorktown High School is currently under reconstruction.
[edit] Alumni Hall of Fame
Most of these distinguished alumni (and others) are honored in the school's "Hall of Fame and Inspiration, " located in the auditorium lobby. The plaques honoring the former students were made possible through the generosity of Hubert N. "Jay" Hoffman III, YHS Class of 1962.
[edit] Building structure and locationThe school building opened in January 1950, as a brand new elementary school and served the community as an elementary school until it was converted into a high school. It was named Yorktown from its opening. At that time it was a one-story building and only housed the elementary students. Greenbrier Elementary School was a different building which has since been renamed Campbell Elementary School and is located near Carlin Springs Road. Neither school building housed a public broadcasting studio. Additions have been continually added to Yorktown over the years, making the school much larger, but leaving many of the older sections still incorporated within the walls, often still being used as classrooms. There are plans to rebuild the school. Yorktown is placed on a small parcel of land and does not own its adjacent newly renovated athletic grounds, which instead belong to Arlington County and are known as Greenbrier Park. Construction has been completed on Greenbrier Park. Individual softball and baseball fields have been installed along with a new turf field to be used for football, field hockey, soccer, and lacrosse. A rubberized track has also been added. Greenbrier Park abuts a small playground frequented by small children and their parents. The school now is a three-floored square building, similar to that of Wakefield High School. The lowest level is devoted to all of the non-computer related arts and the gymnasium, with an extra wing for physics and other assorted classes. The middle level (the ground floor from the front of the school) contains administrative offices, science classes, and various English and social studies classes. The top floor is mostly made up of language and computer classes. In the center of the building, there is a small courtyard, where the round two-floor library is located. The so-called "New Building", completed in 2004, is made up of three floors as well, with classes mixed with little concern to subject matter; however there are no science classes located in this building. This addition is only connected to the older building through the gymnasium, however the doors are only to be used during athletic events; this was changed when the tunnel was added in the beginning of the 2009-2010 school year. [edit] RenovationIn 2003, thanks to the 2000 Bond Package received by Arlington, Yorktown High School added an external wing to the school which houses the English and Mathematic departments, as well as some special education and language classes. On May 8, 2006, the Arlington County School Board approved a preliminary design to rebuild the building. Voters approved about $25,000,000 for the project in the 2006 elections and $75,000,000 is on the ballot for next year. On February 1, 2007, the School Board unanimously approved the schematic design for the new Yorktown High School. In addition, a new building opened in September 2004 for the school and the athletic fields were recently renovated.[3] In January 2012, Phase II of the construction was completed, including three floors of classrooms, an eight-lane pool with diving well, a wrestling room, weight room and new main gym. The facility is now on par with the quality of instruction and achievement its students, teachers and coaches have maintained over the years. [edit] DemographicsThe school's demographic breakdown of the 2006-2007 school year is as follows:[4][dead link]
The vast majority of the school's students reside in the area of the county commonly called "North Arlington" which is the portion of the county north of Arlington Boulevard (US Rt. 50). The attendance area currently stretches from the high rise neighborhoods that border Washington, DC like Rosslyn, Courthouse and Clarendon in the northeastern part of the county to the more traditional neighborhoods of large single family homes in the northern and western parts of the county adjacent to the City of Falls Church, McLean and Upper Northwest (DC). The portion of McLean (22101) within Arlington County is under the jurisdiction of the Arlington Public Schools and its students attend Yorktown. Many of the neighborhoods in the Yorktown attendance area are also zoned to Washington-Lee High School. High school boundary changes between the two schools historically have occurred at least once every decade. [edit] Academics[edit] Focus
[edit] Other school programs and events[edit] ROCSfestROCSfest is a thrice-yearly set of programs designed by Yorktown High School to help each student learn to Respect Others, the Community, and Self. The program was implemented at Yorktown in the 2003-2004 school year by a Social Studies teacher, Mike Palermo. Consisting of a series of teamwork and trust-building games, the days are not taken seriously and the number of cases of truancy on ROCS days are so high that the administration cannot call and notify all the parents of offenders. For the 2005-2006 school year, the program was split into three half-day session instead of the one full-day program of previous years to cut down on truancy by having classes on the same days as ROCSfest. Problems persisted and in the 2006-2007 school year the program was discontinued for reevaluation purposes. For the 2004-2005 program, sportswriter and TV show co-host, Michael Wilbon, attended the event as a motivational speaker for the student body, as did retired U. S. Army General and Secretary of State, Colin Powell for the 2006 program. ROCSfest is facilitated by students from the Leadership & Diversity Training class, which is based on the Help Increase the Peace Program (HIPP), created by a Quaker group known as the American Friends Service Committee. [edit] The RockOne unique feature at Yorktown is the Rock. The Rock has been at the corner of the school near the athletic fields since the late 1990s. It has been tagged by classes, sports teams, rival schools, clubs, and people trying to raise awareness about certain issues every year. An inspection of a piece of fallen-off paint has revealed that the cumulative coats of paint on the rock is nearly one inch thick. The Rock has even been known to receive several new layers of spray paint in a night, by different groups of students. The rock is also a meeting place for people at Yorktown. [edit] Clubs and activitiesYorktown is characterized by a large student body with most students participating heavily in several clubs and activities. Several classes also call for extensive after-school time, leaving the halls of Yorktown filled with students even after the final bell. Yorktown offers a debate team, a student newspaper (The Yorktown Sentry), an award-winning music program, and extensive theatrical activities in addition to numerous student-led clubs and sports teams. Those who cannot find a club or activity at Yorktown can usually find an activity at the Arlington Career Center by using two class periods to take a course there. If all else fails, students can work together and start their own club. This has led to the formation of clubs such as the Rock, Paper, Scissors club. Yorktown's Big Brother/Sister Program allows current juniors to pair themselves with freshman to help ease the transition from the middle to high school years. [edit] TheaterYorktown has an award-winning theater department currently headed by Carol Cadby, who directs all productions and is also lead Yorktown Theatre Arts teacher. Every year, four-year students of the program research, create, produce and stage one-person shows. YHS theater students also compete in the Virginia High School League tournaments. The program won the state tournament in 1999 with An Adaptation of Julius Caesar. In the past decade, the program has qualified for the state tournament five times. In 2009, Yorktown took second place at the Virginia Theater Association Conference, qualifying for the Southeastern Theater Conference. In 2010, Yorktown competed at the VTA Conference with an abstract interpretation of A Midsummer Night's Dream entitled "Bottom's Dream" and placed again, going on to win second place at the 2011 Virginia High School League theatre festival. This was the first time the program had placed since Julius Caeser, a decade previously. [edit] Student publications
[edit] Yorktown and "It's Academic"Yorktown sponsors a team of students to participate in the locally televised quiz show, It's Academic. The team's faculty adviser is Beau Obetts. The Patriots have been sending the team to Scholastic Bowl tournaments in addition to the Saturday morning program. Yorktown won the first Patriot District scholastic bowl championship in 1998 under then-faculty adviser Michael Zito. The team became the National District champions in 2010, and won second place in 2011. In 2010, the team finished 7th in the nation, losing to the eventual runners up by only 5 points in the Semifinal round. [edit] Senior ExperienceIn a program started by Yorktown then adopted by neighboring schools, selected seniors are permitted to use the final three weeks of their senior year to involve themselves in various job experiences of interest. The student must use the hours of the school day to participate in his/her work of choice. At the end of the final week, the students gather for small group discussions to talk about the difference of school and work. All selected students for the program must complete the program in order to graduate from Yorktown High School. [edit] Performing Arts
[edit] AthleticsYorktown High School competes as a member of the Virginia High School League (VHSL), the state governing body for interscholastic athletics and activities. Membership in the VHSL allows Yorktown to compete for district, region and state championships. For interscholastic athletic competition, schools are grouped by enrollment. Yorktown competes as a Group AAA school, the VHSL's largest classification, with 130 schools. Group AAA is divided into four geographical regions - Eastern, Central, Northern and Northwest - each consisting of four districts. Yorktown competes in the National District, Northern Region of Virginia. Their mascot is the Patriots and the school colors are Columbia blue and white. [edit] List of Teams
[edit] Pool and stadiumsYorktown has a public partnership with Arlington County to use the athletic facilities of Greenbrier Park for softball, baseball, and track & field events. The public is free to use the Yorktown stadium for football, soccer, and other field games. The Yorktown swimming pool is owned by Arlington County and operated by the Parks, Recreation and Community Resources Division. During the week, it is used for the high school physical education program of Yorktown and for students of neighboring middle and elementary schools. Other times, it is used publicly for the community at large. The community does not have a team to represent the public pool, but is represented by the Patriots' swim and dive teams. Starting in 2002, Arlington County was to spend well over $700,000 on the installation and maintenance of new Fieldturf in various athletic fields and stadiums. In 2006, Yorktown's outdoor stadium was the last of the three Arlington high schools to undergo installation. Washington-Lee High School and Wakefield High School had their fields installed in 2005 and 2004, respectively.[8] [edit] State Champions since 2005
[edit] References
[edit] External links
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