Centreville High School (Virginia)

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Centreville High School

Established	1988
School type	Public school
Principal	Mike Campbell
Address	6001 Union Mill Road Clifton, Virginia 20124
Enrollment	2,232
Athletic Conference	Concorde District Northern Region
Colors	Blue, Black, Silver
Mascot	Wildcats
Rival Schools	Westfield High School Chantilly High School
Homepage	Official Site

Centreville High School is a public high school located in Clifton, Virginia of western Fairfax County. It is administered by Fairfax County Public Schools and currently enrolls 2,332 students in grades 9-12. The school colors are black, blue, and silver, and the school has the AP program available to students. Although the school has a Clifton address, the school is located closer to Centreville. Both Centreville and Clifton are within the attendence boundarys.

[edit] History

Contsruction of what was then Braddock Park Secondary School, seen from the northeast, which is the closest to Braddock Park

The school originally opened as a secondary school in 1988 with grades 7-10 and an enrollment of 990 students, part of the "Superschool" idea. Superschools are no longer built in Virginia. The school was to be called Braddock Park Secondary School, due to its close proximity to Braddock Park. However, to avoid confusion with Lake Braddock Secondary School, the name was changed to Centreville Secondary School.

Due to difficulties in land procurement during construction, the stadium had to be built approximately 100 feet closer to the rear of the school that originally planned. This pushed the locker rooms back, which in turn pushed the main gym, auxiliary gym, and theater closer to the front edge of the property. If the school had been built like this, the theater would have been where the faculty parking lot is. If this had been done, the available parking would have been seriously reduced, and it would have cost much more money for the cost of the fill dirt which would have been needed to level the theater with the rest of the school. In addition, the main bus lane would have been a sharp turn as well as a very steep grade (as the faculty parking lot and opening to the bus lane are about 15 feet lower than the main entrance and theater) which would have been dangerous. To avoid that problem, it was determined that the auxiliary gym could be built parallel to the locker rooms, on the opposite side of the main gym from which it was originally planned, so that the theater could be built in the place of the auxiliary gym. While the construction was progressing, due to cost overruns, it became impossible to construct the balcony area and the second catwalk in the theater. This is why there is a very tall ceiling between the main gym and theater, and why there is no second catwalk in the false ceiling where it appears that there is one.

In 1990, county officials decided that a secondary/middle school was not needed in the area (due to the low enrollment) and Centreville became a high school. The first senior class graduated in 1991.

The school used to be called the "Trailer Park" because of all the trailers, a result of overcrowding. Beginning in the mid-1990's, the enrollment began to steadily increase and fill the school to capacity. At one point (Approximately 1998) there were 30+ trailer classrooms. This problem was fixed when Westfield was built in 2000. A few trailers are still present at Centreville, along with a modular addition called the Mod. The Modular addition should not be confused with the few trailers Centreville still has, as it fits several classrooms into one building, along with bathrooms and four entrances. For many years, Fairfax County Public Schools had been installing external trailer classrooms when the interior capacity of the school building was not sufficient. Now, FCPS is installing more modular buildings at schools instead of trailers.

The drastic population increase in the Centreville/Chantilly area was an unforseeable problem which was corrected by building neighboring rival Westfield High School in 2002. However, the Centreville/Clifton area no longer had a middle school due to the changng of Centreville from a secondary/middle school to a high school in 1990, and students were bused to Rocky Run Middle school, nearly six miles away. Liberty Middle School, built in 2002, corrected this problem. Unfortunately, Westfield is currently extremely overcrowded and has more than 40 trailer classrooms. A new edition has been built onto Westfield High School to help with the overcrowding even though trailers will still remain.

[edit] Demographics

In 2005-2006, Centreville's student body was 26.44% Asian/Pacific Islander, 10.36% Black, 10.23% Hispanic, 50.14% White, and 2.84% Other.

[edit] Test scores

Centreville High School is a fully accredited high school based on the Standards of Learning tests in Virginia. The average SAT score in 2006 for Centreville was a 1,568 (518 in Critical Reading, 541 in Math, and 509 in Writing).

[edit] Technology

Centreville is one of the most technologically advanced schools in the county^[1] . Although some of the computers are 5+ years old, Centreville has six computer labs. Each academic department also has its own wireless computer lab (laptops with wireless internet access) as well as three wireless labs that the media center allows teachers to sign up for. There is wired and wireless network and internet access in every room of the school, including the cafeteria. Centreville currently has 992 computers and 83 wirless access points.

[edit] Theatre

Centreville's theatre program, directed by J. Mark Rogers, has won many awards, including Cappies in several categories^[2]. Notable awards include:

• Best Lead Actress in a Musical, Fame, 2004
• Best Play, Rumors, 2003
• Best Musical, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, 2001

Centreville's theatre (the Roy A. "Skip" Maiden Theater, named for the first theatre teacher) has a seating capacity of 601 people.Centreville's program began in 1988 under the direction of Roy A. "Skip" Maiden. This program won the first State Championship for the school in Theater and went on to represent the State of Virginia at the Southeastern Theater Conference and placed First there as well. Two years later, the Centreville Theater again won the top prize in the State of Virginia for an original work entitled, "Alpha and Omega."

[edit] Choir

Centreville's choral department is directed by Lynne L. Babcock and offers five choral classes and two after-school groups.

Ensembles include...

Men's Ensemble (beginning Men's Chorus), Women's Ensemble (beginning Women's Chorus), Concert Choir (intermediate Mixed Chorus), Belle Voce (intermediate/advanced Women's Chorus), Symphonic Choir (advanced Mixed Chorus), Madrigal Ensemble (after-school)(the ones with the funky costumes) , and Women's A capella Group (after-school).

The department is growing in might and now has well over 170+ members. The choirs perform Winter which is wed Dec 20 2006 and Spring Concerts (Broadway Pops), as well as participating in Festival Competitions and take a spring trip each year to compete with choirs around the country. Many choral students from Centreville participate in District and All-State Honor Choirs.

Centreville is home to one of the best and strongest choral departments in the county, and it's choirs have gained a superior reputation in past years under the direction of Lynne Babcock. The Choral Department, along with the rest of the Performing Arts Department, is something the community and school takes pride in.

[edit] Sports

Part of the stadium at Centreville

Centreville plays in the AAA Concorde District of the AAA Northern Region.

In 2000, Centreville won the Virginia AAA Division 6 State Football Championship.

Centreville's Mens Track team swept the Concorde District winning the Indoor and Outdoor Track and Field AAA Concorde District titles in 2005. The indoor team also won the AAA Concorde District and AAA Northern Region titles in the winter of 2006.

During the Fall 2005 football season, the Wildcats were unable to defeat the Westfield Bulldogs, but they did defeat the then-number-one-ranked-in-the-state school, Robinson Secondary School.

The Women's Soccer team made it to the semi-finals of the VHSL state tournament after beating Lake Braddock Secondary School for the Northern Region title.

Centreville has one of the largest high school football stadiums in the county, surpassed only by a few larger schools such as Robinson Secondary School. This is understandable because Robinson is a secondary school, while Centreville is a high school. In fact, Centreville's stadium (the William e. Trussell, Junior Stadium), with a capacity of about 7,000, is larger than Christopher Newport University's football stadium which has a capacity of 4,200 people.

[edit] Notable alumni

• Kristi Lauren Glakas, Triple Crown winner, Miss Virginia Teen USA 1999, Miss Virginia USA 2004 and Miss Virginia 2005 (3rd runner-up to Miss America 2006)
• Jayson Blair, former New York Times journalist accused of plagiarism. Blair won several awards for excellent journalism for Centreville's newspaper, the Sentinel.
• Will Montgomery, selected by the Carolina Panthers in the seventh round (234th overall) of the 2006 NFL Draft.
• Blake Warren, Virginia Tech Football Player, Linebacker, #40.
• Lindsay Czarniak After graduating Centreville High School, Lindsay Czarniak attended James Madison University and is currently a sports reporter for WRC-TV (NBC4) in Washington, DC.

[edit] Trivia

Centreville Sports Logo

• Centreville is often nicknamed "CVille" by its students and others in the county, usually while talking about sports but also in writing.
• Centreville is serviced by 30+ buses daily. FCPS has the largest bus system in the United States.
• The former principal, Peter Noonan, was recently promoted to Cluster Superintendent. Mike Campbell, current principal of Westfield High School, will become the new principal in school year 2006-2007.
• The joke across the county is that the pool is on the fourth/fifth floor of Centreville. Of course, there is no pool; Centreville is not that tall.
• Most schools in FCPS are only one or two stories tall. Centreville is three stories tall, and the only school in FCPS to be that tall.
• The asbestos-laden soil excavated during the construction of the school was trucked to Vienna for the construction of the I-66/Nutley Street interchange.
• Centreville was ranked 98th in Newsweek's listing of the top 1200 schools in America.
• Centreville was the home of summer school for the western half of the county for summer of 2006

[edit] References

1. ^ "Centreville HS technology inventory", FCPS, June 2006.
2. ^ "Cappies through the years", Theatre Centreville, June 2006.

[edit] External links

• Centreville High School
• Centreville Athletics
• Centreville Baseball
• Centreville Football
• Centreville Theatre
• Wildcat Band
• FCPS School Profile

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