Westside High School (Houston)

Westside High School
File:Westside HS Seal.jpg
Address
14201 Briar Forest Drive Houston , TX 77077
Coordinates	29°45′34″N 95°38′16″W
Information
School type	Suburban public secondary school
Founded	2000
School district	Houston Independent School District
Principal	Michael McDonough
Grades	9-12
Enrollment	2,940
Language	English
Color(s)	Blue, Black and Silver
Mascot	Wesley The Wolf
Team name	The Wolves
Newspaper	The Howler
Yearbook	Canidae
Communities served	portions of the Westchase District, South Eldridge Parkway portion of the Houston Energy Corridor, Walnut Bend, Briargrove Park
Website	Westside High School

Westside High School is a secondary school in Houston, Texas, United States. It serves grades 9 through 12 and is part of the Houston Independent School District.

The school is located at 14201 Briar Forest in Houston, Texas, in the 77077 zip code. Westside High School is outside of Beltway 8, east of State Highway 6, inside State Highway 99 (Grand Parkway), and south of Interstate 10 (Katy Freeway) in the Briar Forest area.

Westside is HISD's Magnet School for Integrated Technology. The program allows students to look at technology from one of five aspects: Fine Arts, Business, Media Relations, Applied Science/Health Science, and Computing Sciences. During the first year, all Magnet students take a technology survey course, a modular course that introduces them to the five strands of the program. The second year, students are asked to choose one of the five strands on which to focus their elective courses.

Westside High School is also known for its academic programs, ranking #463, #196, #230, and #245 in Newsweek magazine's 2005, 2006 2007, and 2008 lists, respectively, of the top 1,200 high schools in the United States. Among the school's faculty is the 2005 Houston Independent School District Secondary Teacher of the Year, Nobuo Cedric French.

Many students in other parts of Houston ISD transfer to Westside to escape home schools that do not have a good academic performance, causing the attendance figures of those schools to suffer.

Westside athletics compete as the Westside Wolves, and the school's mascot is Wesley the Wolf.

History

Westside first opened in 2000, removing about 1,000 students from Lee High School which was experiencing overcrowding. Westside planned to compete with Bellaire and Lamar high schools in Houston ISD for "premier" status. It initially had a reputation as a school that could attract private school students to a public school. When Westside opened, residents of the Lee attendance boundary gained the option to attend Westside instead of Lee, with no free transportation provided.

Westside received its name because it is located in western Houston.

On June 22, 2005 a prank attack involving Molotov cocktails thrown at the building in the middle of the night resulted in minor damage. One classroom sustained a broken window and fire damage. As it was during summer break, no school activities were interrupted.

By March 2006 Westside had posted slightly lower SAT and graduation rates than Lamar and Bellaire. In a March 2006 Houston Press article, Dr. Robert Sanborn, the president and CEO of the organization Children at Risk, said that Westside's "slow progress," as paraphrased by article author Todd Spivak, was more disappointing than Lamar and Bellaire's dropout rates.

According to the October 2006 "For Your Information" newsletter, Westside was one of four high schools that took the most refugees from Hurricane Katrina.

At about 2:30 PM on April 10, 2008 17-year-old Vincent Agwuoke, scheduled to graduate from Westside that June after attending Westside for almost four years, entered the deep end of a school pool during a Physics class; a news article stated that students could not see him, apparently unable to swim, as his dark clothing blended with the painted lane. Agwuoke's body was taken out of the water and emergency crews performed CPR. He was taken to Hermann Memorial City Hospital. Agwuoke was pronounced dead at the hospital.

In Fall of the 2008-2009 school year, a petroleum academy by the name of Westside Engineering and Geosciences Academy was opened at Westside High School. It is funded by the IPAA, and features segregated classes for people only in the academy, and a modern engineering lab class. Only 50 students are allowed in this prestigious program per year.

In 2007 6% of high school-aged children zoned to Westside chose to attend a different Houston ISD school.

In 2009 when Barack Obama made a televised speech to American students, about 300 students (10% of the student body) were opted out of watching the speech. Ericka Mellon of the Houston Chronicle said that of the HISD schools, Westside "appeared to draw one of the largest protests from parents."

In 2010 Richard Connelly of the Houston Press said that Westside became "something of a success story for HISD."

Recognitions

Westside is known for the dance troupe INERTIA DANCE CO. that has been featured in People magazine and on Good Morning America. At one point, a reality show was planned for the troupe.

Westside High School has multiple state-ranked athletics programs. Westside won the Division II State Lacrosse title in 2004. Westside High School is a haven for nonconventional athletics programs, as it has a rugby team incorporated with a public high school in the Houston Independent School District. The Westside Wrestling program has won Districts for the past 10 years and has had four individual state champions: Courtney Sanders (215), Trent Murrell (160), James Hazzard (171), and John Pacheco (135)

Westside High School won its first SECME State Competition in 2008. The team featured Farhad Tavalaian, Victor Le, and Terrance Brady.

Westside High School also enjoyed early success with its debate and speech program. Cyrene Ganza, Nini Gu, Sushant Mohan, Renato Acunzo, Le Zhang, and Erica Dasher have all represented Westside in the National Forensics League's national tournament. In the 2003 national championship tournament, both teams in the final round of Barbara Jordan Debates on Health were from Westside High School. Renato Acunzo and Sushant Mohan claimed first place nationally, with Nini Gu and Le Zhang claiming second. Cyrene Ganza represented the school in the 2004 national tournament and Sushant Mohan and Renato Acunzo represented the school again in the 2005 national tournament.

The Westside High School Marching Wolves Band received its first ever Superior rating at the UIL Region 23 Marching Contest on October 21, 2008, held at Katy ISD's Rhodes Stadium. The contest showcased high school marching bands from Houston ISD and Katy ISD. In 2010 they received their first superior rating at a UIL performance, moving up to the area contest in which they did not make finals. This band has also been featured in Good Morning America in October 2010, playing a segment from that years show "Aqua."

Athletics

Westside High School's sports' mascot is the "Wolves." The girls teams are sometimes known as the "Lady Wolves".

Front of Westside High School

Sports at the school include:

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Organizations and clubs

Westside has about 50 clubs and organizations in addition to its athletic programs.

Special interest

A Sean Bradley Interest Group, Asian Cultural Society, Bike Club, Black Student Union, BSA Advancement, BPA, Chinese Club, Christians on Campus, Close Up, Ecology Club, EOE Step Club, Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Fitness Club, French Club, Future Farmers of America, Future Teachers of America, Gaming/Anime Club, Gay-Straight Alliance, Guitar Hero Club, History Club, HOSA, Hot Air Balloon Club, Howlin' Respect, Humanities, Investment Club, Kite Flying Society, Latin Club, Math Club, Movie Buffs, Name That Book, They Say Literacy Magazine Club, SECME Ultimate Frisbee, Young Democrats, Young Liberal Minds of America Young Republicans, W.O.R.D.

Performing arts

Art Club (2D and 3D Animation, Drawing and Painting), National Thespian Honor Society, Orchestra, Band, Speech and Debate Team, Tri-Music Honor Society, Westside Choir, Westside Pride Dance Team

Academics and Honors

Asian Honor Society, National Honor Society, Spanish National Honor Society, Quiz Bowl, Energy Club

Service and Spirit

Cheerleaders, Drill Team, Ecology Club, Interact Club, Key Club, JROTC, L.I.F.E, Recycling Club, S.A.V.E. Club, SADD

News

Canidae (Yearbook), The Howler (Newspaper)

Outback program

Westside High School athletics logo

Westside has a three-year entrepreneurship program designed by the National Restaurant Education Foundation to educate students about how businesses run. Outback Steakhouse sponsors the program and helped build a full-scale commercial kitchen and dining hall directly into the school.

Students learn the production aspect of the restaurant business in addition to basic business principles and cooking methods in the first year of the program, culminating in SaveServe certification by the end of the second year.

Aside from the program itself, the restaurant is open to students and the general public during lunchtime hours in the school year. Outback also caters exclusively for school functions.

Areas served

When Westside opened in 2000, it relieved Lee High School of about 1,000 students that year.

The Westside High School zone covers small portions of the Westchase district that are north of Westheimer and the South Eldridge Parkway portion of the Houston Energy Corridor. Westside also covers several other neighborhoods, including Ashford Hill, Ashford West, Ashford South, the Houston ISD part of Ashford Forest, Walnut Bend, Briar Oaks, Briargrove Park, Briar Village, Briarhills, Lakeside Enclave, Lakeside Forest, Lakeside Landing, Lakeside Place, Parkway Villages, Reflections, Shadowbriar, and April Village.

Several gated communities, including Lakes of Parkway, are zoned to Westside High School.

Students residing in the Lee attendance zone, including the Uptown district, the neighborhoods of Briargrove, Briarcroft, Larchmont, Briar Meadow, Gulfton, Tanglewilde, Shenandoah, Sharpstown Country Club Estates, Woodlake Forest, Jeanetta, and St. George Place (Lamar Terrace), and small portions of Westchase east of Gessner, may go to Lamar High, Lee High, or Westside High School. Small portions of the city of Hunters Creek Village and Piney Point Village are zoned to Lee with Lamar and Westside as options.

In late 2005, the school absorbed more than 200 refugees from Hurricane Katrina who had moved into the Westside zone.

Feeder patterns

Feeding from the Westside boundary

Elementary schools that directly feed into Westside include:

• Ashford (Pre-K through 2)
• Askew (Kindergarten through 5)
• Barbara Bush
• Daily
• Shadowbriar (3 through 5)(3rd through 5th graders in the Ashford zone and 5th graders in the Askew zone attend Shadowbriar)
• Walnut Bend
• Emerson (partial) (the rest of Emerson indirectly feeds into Westside)

Middle schools that directly feed into Westside include all of West Briar and parts of Revere. Residents of the Westside attendance zone and the Revere attendance zone may apply to West Briar.

Residents of the Emerson Elementary School attendance zone may apply for the Briarmeadow Charter School, so the K-8 school feeds into Westside.

Feeding from the Lee boundary

Other schools also feed into Westside, since students zoned to Lee High School have the option to go to Westside High School or Lamar High School.

Elementary schools that feed into Lee (and therefore also feed into Westside) include:

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The templates listed here are not interchangeable. For example, using {{col-float}} with {{col-end}} instead of {{col-float-end}} would leave a <div>...</div> open, potentially harming any subsequent formatting.

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Columns	"div col"	Yes	Yes	{{div col}}	–	{{div col end}}
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Middle schools that feed into Lee (and therefore also feed into Westside) include:

• Grady

Partial:

• Long
• Pershing
• Revere

K-8 schools that feed into Lee (and therefore also feed into Westside) include:

• Pilgrim

All pupils zoned to Long and Pershing Middle Schools may attend Pin Oak Middle School. Accordingly, Pin Oak also feeds into Lee High School.

Residents of the Briargrove, Emerson, Pilgrim, and Piney Point elementary attendance zones may apply for the Briarmeadow Charter School, so the K-8 school feeds into Lee.

Feeding from magnet schools

Some students who graduate from T. H. Rogers School in the 8th grade choose to go to Westside.

Feeding from private schools

Students of some private schools, such as John Paul II School, matriculate to Westside.

Transportation

Houston ISD provides school buses for students who live more than two miles away from the school or who have major obstacles between their houses and the school. Students are eligible if they are zoned to Westside or are in the Westside magnet program.

A METRO bus stop (Briar Forest Drive @ Briar Home Drive) is located next to the school. Bus line 53 (Downtown/Galleria) stops at Briar Forest and Briar Home.

See also

• List of Houston Independent School District schools

External links

• Westside High School home page