Windsor High School (California)

High School Infobox
name= Windsor High School


headmaster=
principal= Patricia Law
Assistant Principles= Chris Vetrano, Javier Gomez
motto=
established= 1995
type= Public
location= Windsor, California
enrollment= 1600 [http://www.windsorhs.com/about/index.asp]
campus= Suburban
colors= Black and Gold
nicknames=The Jungle
conference=
website= http://www.windsorhs.com|

Windsor High School or WHS is a public secondary school in Windsor, California. It is part of Windsor Unified School District.

Education

Day system

Windsor High School has a unique education system compared to most traditional secondary schools. Rather than having a traditional a school day divided up into six or seven periods, WHS divides its days into what it calls "A" and "B" days. Each day consists of four total periods each lasting one and a half hours and students usually take anywhere between two to four periods a day. This system was put in place because the administration believed that it was a much more efficient educational model because this allows a teacher to go more in depth compared to the traditional 50 minute per period model.

Cores

Windsor High School also has one other educational aspect that sets it apart from most high schools. WHS employs a "core" system. Rather than following the normal model where each class contains a heterogeneous mixture of students differing from period to period, WHS instead uses the core system to keep students together with the same group of other students in hope of forming close relationships between other students and teachers. During 9th and 10th grade each core consists of an English, Integrated Science, and History or Global Studies class (depending on the year). During the 11th and 12th grade years students join a more specialized core that consists of English, History or Government, and a specialized class completely unique to the core. There are 6 specialized cores consisting of A.P., Arts, Digital Design, Environmental, Humanities,Pre-Med, and the Vineyard Academy. With the exception of Vineyard Academy and Pre-Med all the cores have been in place since the founding of the school with the Vineyard Academy being established in 2005 and Pre-Med in 2007. Each core additionally adds a unique perspective on their academic studies. For example, Arts Core may study history and English from an artistic perspective while Humanities Core may study from a humanitarian perspective.

Projects

Junior project

The Junior Project is a project that is completed by most juniors. However, it is not required for graduation and the decision to do the project is left to the teachers of the core. Its main purpose is to prepare students for the Senior Project and is similarly structured. The main difference is the amount of time spent on the project is 20 hours, half of what is required for the Senior project. The AP core is also exempt from this project due to the time constraint of preparing for the AP exams in May.

enior project

The Senior Project is a requirement for graduation that must be completed for all Seniors. The goal of the project is fairly open ended, however, most common projects involve community service, learning a new skill, or creating something. Students are required to put in 40 hours spent working on the task they designate for the project. Afterwards the student is required to turn in a portfolio covering their project. Following this students are required to give an oral presentation in front of three judges normally consisting of another student, a WHS staff member, and a member of the community. There have however been issues involved with the project as some students have cheated the project through either reporting false hours or often sharing an uneven amount of work with their partners, each incidence has been noted and those seniors received the punishment of not walking with their graduating class on graduation day.

Dances cancellations

Following a rowdy Homecoming dance in 2006 Windsor High School's administration canceled further dances for the rest of the academic year. [cite news | last =| first =| coauthors =
title = Freaking' Leads To Cancelled Dances At Windsor HS| work = | pages =| language = | publisher = CBS | date = 2006-10-13| url = http://cbs5.com/education/windsor.high.school.2.448122.html| accessdate = 2007-11-24 ] Before entering dances students are required to sign dance contracts mainly to create a code of contact. Despite this many students preferred to engage in what some consider an overly sexually explicit contemporary dance Grinding also known as "Freak Dancing" by its detractors. There was also a reported case of an alcohol poisoning. The student had stolen a bottle of vodka from the local safeway, drank it to himself and officers were waiting outside the gym for said student. During the dance the student vomited, was taken away and in fact did have alcohol poisoning.Fact|date=September 2007

Currently the school's administration has worked with parents and police to increase supervision and has dropped the cancellation policy and tentatively scheduled the school's Turnabout Dance for March 24 2007. [cite news | last =| first =| coauthors =
title = Update on Dances at Windsor High School| work = | pages =| language = | publisher = Windsor High School | date = | url = http://www.windsorhs.com/staff/admin/uploads/Admin5/Danceupdate.doc| accessdate = 2006-01-31 ] Although, there have been many new guidelines set forth by the school administrators, dance attendance is down to an all time low. Turnabout recorded an attendance of about 40 teens. This dance and many dances after the Homecoming dance lost thousands of dollars from the low number of ticket buyers.Fact|date=September 2007 One dance that was permanently canceled was known as "Infinity". "Administrators canceled the dance despite its huge popularity because they felt the theme was too much like a rave." In fact, as a previous member of the student council, this was what they claimed the reason to be at first. Later they changed their statement to be that "not enough people went" and "not many students are interested in that kind of a dance anymore" when in fact the dance was one of the most popular.The effects of the administrative action has not only cost the leadership committees thousands of dollars, but many argue that students are taking part in even more questionable actions. For example, students who would usually go to school dances, whether or not under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs, are now not attending at all. Instead they throw their own parties putting them and others at risk of alcohol poisoning and sexual acts while under the influence.

Awards

Windsor High School is a California Distinguished School for the year 2005 because of its achievement, on the STAR tests. [cite web| last =| first =| authorlink =| coauthors =| title = Distinguished School Awards| work = | publisher = California Department of Education| date = | url = http://www.cde.ca.gov/ta/sr/cs/ap/distingcounty.asp?county=49| format =| doi = | accessdate = 2006-12-01 ]

References

External links

* [http://www.windsorhs.com Windsor High School]
* [http://www.wusd.org/ Windsor Unified School District]
* [http://www.windsorhs.com/newspaper Jaguar Prints WHS's school newspaper]
* [http://youtube.com/user/JaguarPrints Jaguar Prints YouTube channel]
* [http://www.virtualhighschool.net A Senior Project digitally recreating the WHS campus]
* [http://www.windsorhs.com/about/history.asp History of Windsor High School]

ee also

* Windsor Unified School District