West Anchorage High School

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History

Established as Anchorage High School, it is attended by approximately 2,000 students in grades 9-12 instructed by roughly 125 faculty. Its mascot is the eagle and the school's colors are orange and black. Class colors are yellow (freshmen) and alternate to blue, red, green for three consecutive years after students reach their sophomore year.

Building

West High School is related to Romig Middle School, in that they share a library and track.

The Good Friday Earthquake of March 27, 1964 destroyed most of the school's second floor, as well as damaging the first floor. Currently, the band/orchestra and choir rooms are all that is left of the destroyed floor.

A bomb shelter was constructed underneath the school, as it was built during war-time. The school's science wing was added in 1996 with an indoor planetarium and eight science classrooms with attached labs. A major renovation to the school in 2000 added new hallway, classrooms, a pool and additional lockers.

Auditorium

West is also home to an 2,000 seat auditorium — the largest of any high school in Alaska. From the time of its construction in 1954, until 1984, it was the largest meeting space in the city. It has hosted many events and concerts including the Grateful Dead, the Paul Taylor Dance Company, "A Prairie Home Companion", Ozzy Osbourne, Bee Gees, Ted Nugent, Ray Charles, Johnny Cash, and Itzhak Perlman. In 2008, renovations were completed that refurbished the entirety of the auditorium.

Eagle emblem

The original 1953 floor tile bearing the school's seal (eagle logo and name) is kept well-preserved, and encircled by a chain barrier. The eagle on the front of the auditorium was presented to the school by the class of 1971.

Future Renovations

In 2008, the Alaska State Legislature appropriated $900,000 to create a master plan for redeveloping West Anchorage High School and Romig Middle School as 21st Century schools in a center of community.

Both West and Romig’s Parent Teacher Student Associations and the eight Anchorage Community councils feeding the schools have supported redeveloping the campus consistent with the Pre-Planning Vision Report [Pre-Planning Vision Report http://www.asdk12.org/renewal/RomigWest.asp] complete in the spring of 2008.

The planning process moves forward in November 2008 with a community wide effort to define the 21st century educational programs for West and Romig as well as design the campus as a center of community. Meetings will be scheduled over the next year, seeking input from the schools, teachers, parents, students, the Municipality, businesses, non-profit agencies, and community as a whole. The planning process will be completed in December 2009 with sufficient detail to design, finance, and redevelop both schools to meet the educational needs of the 21st century and become a center of community.

Academics

International Baccalaureate

West High has been an International Baccalaureate World School since February 2004, [cite web |title =West Anchorage High School | work =IB World Schools | publisher =International Baccalaureate Organization | url =http://www.ibo.org/school/001521/ | accessdate =2008-09-02 ] and is currently the only high school in the Anchorage School District with an International Baccalaureate program. 13 students graduated from the program in May 2008.

chool Through the Arts

West is also home to the [http://mr.blocksclass.com/stta/ School Through the Arts] Program, which integrates the study of arts into high school courses. Freshmen take STTA history and English classes, as well as an STTA art studio course. Sophomores take the STTA history and English courses, and other non-STTA arts classes. Juniors and Seniors continue taking arts classes but take their history and English classes in the normal school program.

Graduation requirements

As with all schools in the Anchorage School District, students must complete 22.5 credits (1 semester = .5 credits), as well as pass the state mandated High School Graduation Qualifying Exam. [Anchorage School District: [ [http://www.asdk12.org/schools/west/pages/gradreq.pdf "Graduation requirements."] Retrieved March 21, 2007.]

* Language Arts: 4 credits (including one semester of composition)
* Social Studies: 4 credits (including one semester of each Alaska Studies, Economics, U.S. Government, and Area Studies)
* Mathematics: 2.5 credits (all credits are Algebra I material or over)
* Sciences: 3 credits (including one year of each life and physical science)
* Physical Education: 1.5 credits (must pass Lifetime Personal Fitness test or class. Quarter credit PE waivers are offered for participation in school sponsored sports)
* Electives: 7.5 credits

Extracurricular activities

Green Team

West High Green Team is an environmental conservation organization, run by students at West High. The team received a grant from Green Star for the 2005-2006 school year for establishing a recycling program at the school.

Newspaper

The school newspaper, the "Screaming Eagle", is part of the High School National Ad Network.

Yearbook

The school's yearbook, "The Anchor" has been published since 1971.Fact|date=February 2007

Drama, debate, and forensics

West's competitive Drama, Debate, and Forensics team competes in the Alaska School Activities Association's state championship 4A division.

Theatre

West's theatre program was accepted as a representative of the American High School Theatre Festival at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August 2007, where they performed "Moby Dick, The Musical".

The theatre department's 2006-'07 season included: "Eagle's Dare", a night of improvisational comedy, Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird", a night of student-directed one-acts, "Annie", "Much Ado About Nothing," and Moby Dick: The Musical.

Olympiada of Spoken Russian

Russian language students at West High traditionally compete in the National Competition of Spoken Russian. Students participate from first year through fourth year as students of Russian language. Native Speakers of Russian also compete in their own division.

ports

West High School participates in all 18 sports sanctioned by the Alaska Schools Activities Association as well as bowling, which is sponsored by Anchorage Scholastic Bowling League. Students from Steller Secondary School often compete with students from West because Steller does not offer interscholastic sports.

ee also

*List of high schools in Alaska

External links

* [http://www.asdk12.org/schools/west/pages/ Official site]
* [http://mr.blocksclass.com/theatre/ West High School's theatre homepage]
* [http://www.asdk12.org/schools/west/pages/Alum.html West High School's alumni association]

References