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, #245, and #1,958th in Newsweek magazine's 2005, 2006 2007, 2008, and 2013 lists, respectively, of the top 2,000 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 Westley the Wolf.
Video Westside High School (Houston)
History
Westside opened in 2000 as a brand-new fifty-million-dollar building, taking about 1,000 students from Lee High School (now Margaret Long Wisdom 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 were given the option to attend Westside instead of Lee, with no free transportation provided. The school at first had 1,772 students, including 340 students who, in the previous school year, were not enrolled in HISD.
Westside is so-named 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 the article's 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.
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. With a modern engineering laboratory class, it is funded by the IPAA and holds segregated classes solely for the 50 students allowed in this prestigious program each year.
In 2007, 6% of high school-aged children zoned to Westside chose to attend alternative Houston ISD schools.
In 2010, Richard Connelly of the Houston Press said that Westside became "something of a success story for HISD."
Maps Westside High School (Houston)
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.
Campus
Westside is on a 50-acre (20 ha) campus, located along Briar Forest Road, near Texas State Highway 6. Several gated communities are in proximity to the school.
The school was built for $50 million. The school has one auditorium, two theaters, four athletic fields, 11 music practice rooms, an orchestra hall, a band hall, a broadcast studio, a ceramics studio, and computer labs. Melissa Hung of the Houston Press wrote in 2000 that "The eating area resembles a college food court more than a high school cafeteria."
Athletics
Westside High School's sports' mascot is the "Wolf". The girls' teams are sometimes known as the "Lady Wolves".
Sports at the school include:
- American football
- Baseball
- Basketball (boys & girls)
- Cross-country (boys & girls)
- Golf (boys & girls)
- Lacrosse (boys & girls)
- Rugby (boys)
- Soccer (boys & girls)
- Softball
- Swimming/diving (boys & girls)
- Tennis (boys & girls)
- Track & field (boys & girls)
- Volleyball
- Water polo (boys & girls)
- Wrestling (boys & girls)
Organizations and clubs
Westside has about 50 clubs and organizations in addition to its athletic programs.
Special interest
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, Theatre Production, Technical Theatre, Playwrighting 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, JV Inertia Dance Company, Inertia Dance Company, Colorguard, Marching Band
Academics and honors
Asian Honor Society, National Honor Society, Spanish National Honor Society, Quiz Bowl, Westside Engineering and Geosciences Academy, and the Academic Scientific Demonstration 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, Marching Band and Colorguard
News
Canidae (yearbook), The Howler (newspaper)
Outback program
Westside has a three-year entrepreneurship program designed by the National Restaurant Education Foundation to teach 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.
The school utilizes the restaurant as part of an entrepreneurship course, titled "Entrepreneur 101: Realizing the American Dream." The course, using a curriculum designed by the Texas Restaurant Association Education Foundation (TRAEF), involves classroom study for first year (freshmen) students and restaurant operation performed by second year (sophomore) and third year (junior) students, supervised by Outback general managers and teachers. As of 2003 there were six classes with a combined total of 140 students.
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 ServSafe 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 the former 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 Margaret Long Wisdom (Lee) attendance zone, including the Uptown district, the neighborhoods of Briargrove, Briarcroft, Larchmont, Briar Meadow, Tanglewood, Gulfton, Tanglewilde, Shenandoah, Sharpstown Country Club Estates, Woodlake Forest, West Oaks, Jeanetta, and St. George Place (Lamar Terrace) and small portions of Westchase east of Gessner, may go to Lamar High, Margaret Long Wisdom High, or Westside High School. Small portions of the city of Hunters Creek Village and Piney Point Village are zoned to Margaret Long Wisdom 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.
As of 2017 residents of the Westside zone are eligible for a transfer to Lamar High School.
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
- 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 zoned to Ashford, Askew, Bush, Daily, Emerson, and Walnut Bend may attend Shadowbriar Elementary School; therefore it is a feeder school for Westside.
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 Margaret Long Wisdom boundary
Other schools also feed into Westside, since students zoned to Margaret Long Wisdom High School have the option to go to Westside High School or Lamar High School.
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.
Residents zoned to Emerson may attend Shadowbriar Elementary School; therefore it is a feeder school for Lee (and therefore, Westside).
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 Grace School, John Paul II School, and Presbyterian School, matriculate to Westside.
Transportation
Houston ISD provides school buses for students who live more than 2 miles (3.2 km) 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.
Notable people
- Germain Ifedi - NFL lineman
- W. R. Bolen - New York Times bestselling author of Total Frat Move
- Daniel Mengden - MLB pitcher
- Sydney Colson - WNBA player and NCAA national champion with Texas A&M Aggies women's basketball
- Travis Jackson - Reality TV personality and star of the A&E show Dumpster Dawgs
- Cierra Ramirez - actress on hit TV show The Fosters
See also
- List of Houston Independent School District schools
References
External links
- Westside High School
- Westside High School home page (Archive)
Source of the article : Wikipedia