Westchester Enriched Sciences Magnets

Westchester High School
Location
Los Angeles, California USA
Information
Type	Public school
Established	1962
Principal	Anita L. Barner
Faculty	80
Enrollment	2,100
Campus	Urban residential area near Los Angeles International Airport
Color(s)	Red and Black
Mascot	Comets
Website	www.westchesterhs.org

Westchester High School is a high school located in Westchester (Los Angeles, California).

The school's mascot name is The Comets. It is part of the Los Angeles Unified School District.

The high school, located in an oceanside community, has a more diverse mix of races than in previous years. The student population has a majority of African-American students from the small LAUSD portion of Inglewood and the LAUSD-zoned areas adjacent to Inglewood who are placed in Westchester by LAUSD districting. Westchester, Playa del Rey, Playa Vista, and Fox Hills are within the Westchester High School attendance zone. Some sections of the unincorporated Los Angeles County community of View Park-Windsor Hills are jointly zoned to Westchester and Crenshaw High School.

Orville Wright Middle School feeds into Westchester. Westchester is located across from St. Bernard High School.

History

Westchester High School opened to 500 students in September of 1948.

Student body

During the 2004-2005 school year, Westchester had 2726 students [1].

• 56% were African-American
• 35% were Hispanic
• 6% were European-American
• 2% were Asian
• <1% were Filipino
• <1% were Pacific Islanders
• <1% were Native American

For the 2005-2006 school year, LAUSD opened up a series of new schools to relieve overcrowding in the district. LAUSD opened two high schools, Southeast High School in South Gate, California [2] and the Santee Education Complex in Los Angeles [3] [4]. As a result, Westchester's student population dropped to about 1,938 - close to the level of previous years. [5] This was a welcome change for many parents who complained of the overcrowding and disruption caused by busing more students from central Los Angeles to the Westside school.

During the 2005-2006 school year, Westchester had 1938 students.

• 68% were African-American
• 25% were Hispanic
• 4% were European-American
• 2% were Asian
• <1% were Filipino
• <1% were Pacific Islanders
• <1% were Native American

The Westchester campus also houses an Aerospace Magnet School that enrolled an additional 362 students in the 2005-2006 school year. [6]

For 2005 - 2006, Westchester Aerospace Magnet had 361 students.

• 55% were African-American
• 32% were Hispanic
• 9% were European-American
• 2% were Asian
• <1% were Filipino
• <1% were Pacific Islanders
• <1% were Native American

Four additional high schools, Arleta [7], East Valley [8], Panorama [9], and Miguel Contreras Learning Complex, opened in fall 2006, again decreasing the number of transfer students in many schools.

Sharla Berry, a guest columnist for YES! Magazine who attended Westchester from fall 2002 to summer 2006, stated that the school's different ethnic groups interacted with each other frequently [10].

Notable alumni

Notable alumni of Westchester High School include:

• Patricia Krenwinkel, one of the infamous Manson Family killers
• Lynette Fromme, another Manson Family associate and notorious poor shot
• Tim Story, filmmaker
• Regina King, actor
• Nia Long, actor
• Karyn White, singer
• Joyce Tolbert, singer (The Good Girls)
• Demonica Santiago, singer (The Good Girls)
• Phil Hartman, comedian and actor [11]
• Anissa Jones, actress
• Howard Kaylan, musician (The Turtles)
• Mark Volman, musician (The Turtles)
• Eric Reed, jazz musician [12] (the internal wiki link is to a different E. Reed)
• Brandon Bowman, basketball player
• Ashanti Cook, basketball player
• Trevor Ariza, NBA Player for the Orlando Magic
• Hassan Adams, NBA Player for the New Jersey Nets
• Kaaron Conwright, track and field
• Amir Johnson, NBA Player for the Detroit Pistons
• Ken Norton Jr., NFL Player for the Dallas Cowboys and San Francisco 49ers
• Martin Kersels, artist
• Melinda Ring, choreographer
• David Bluthenthal, professional basketball player
• Miyagi Chilombo, underground rapper brother of (Mila J)
• Gabe Pruitt, NBA prospect

External links

• Westchester High School website