Wayland High School
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Wayland High School | |
Established | 1960 |
School type | Public |
Religious affiliation | None |
Principal | Charles Ruopp |
Location | Wayland, Massachusetts, USA |
Color(s) | Orange/White/Black |
Mascot | The Warriors |
Homepage | Wayland High School |
Wayland High School is a secondary school located at 264 Old Connecticut Path, in Wayland, MA; its principal is Charles P. Ruopp. The style of the high school was inspired by college campuses: there are 8 separate buildings, each dedicated to one or more general areas of study. Construction of the school was finished in 1960. As of 2006 there were 920 students, slightly above its designed operating capacity of 900.[citation needed]
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[edit] Academics
Academically, Wayland High School is an excellent school: the New England Association for Schools and Colleges Accreditation (NEASC) wrote a report about the learning atmosphere at Wayland High and said, among other things:
Wayland High School is an excellent high school that has set a high standard for the learning of its students, collectively and individually. Of particular note is the deeply rooted commitment to exceptionally high academic expectations at Wayland High School and the commitment to making high achievement accessible to all students. The school is a positive and safe learning environment where safety measures are appropriately balanced with the need to have students assume increasingly expanded responsibility for their own decisions and behavior, contingent on their maturity and individual records of positive choices. The friendliness and openness of students in communicating with teachers, administrators, staff, other students, and with the visiting team, speaks eloquently to their appreciation for the opportunities they have at Wayland High School to grow as contributing citizens who are developing not only in intellect but also in character.
This academic environment is one of the main reasons the student body of Wayland High School is growing so rapidly: parents in the area want their children to have the opportunity to be taught in one of the best public schools in the state.
Wayland also is known to have an excellent theatre program, producing three seasons of theatre each year. (http://www.waylanddrama.org) Students can earn varsity jackets in performance art as well as in athletics.
Robert Anastas, a Wayland High School hockey coach, founded SADD at Wayland High School in 1981. Anastas founded the organization with his students after two Wayland High School hockey players were killed in separate car crashes.
Almost all WHS graduates attend a 2 or 4-year college; the percentage of college-bound graduates is upwards of 95%. Among the most popular colleges attended by graduates in recent years are University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Boston College, George Washington University, and University of New Hampshire.
[edit] Athletics
The athletics of the school are defined by the "Wayland Warriors," whose symbol is a flint spear with a feather tassel. This supposed racist emblem has received a fair amount of controversy.
Amongst the various sports are also collaborations with athletic rival Weston High School. The Wayland-Weston Crew team finished in third at states in 2004-2005, and in first place at both the fall and spring state championships in the 2005-2006 season. Led by coaches Tom Bohrer and Will Stevens (boys and girls respectively) the team has become a serious competitor in both the Massachusetts Public School league and the Northeast region of the country. One boys ltw 4+, one girls ltw 8+ and one girls 4+ traveled to U.S. Rowing Junior Nationals this year; the boys ranked second nationally. In 2006, led by coach Scott Parseghian, Wayland won the Division 1A State Championship (AKA "The Super Bowl") in football. It was the first time in 31 years that Wayland had even been to the playoffs. It is the first Super Bowl win for Wayland.
[edit] New High School
In 2004-2005 the Wayland School Committee and Superintendent Gary Burton tried to secure funding for a new high school. A special election ballot proposing additional funds for the project was rejected by Wayland voters in January 2005, by a margin of 2645 to 2005.[1] Those in favor of a new high school claim that the student body is continuing to grow and will soon be too large for the existing buildings. This claim is countered by those opposing the new school who say that the argument runs contrary to publicly available enrollment figures for all grades which indicated that the largest years were students born 1990-1992. Some hold that if the proposal for a new school had been initiated in time to be ready for these students it might have been looked on more favorably. A survey conducted by the High School Building Committee in June 2005 found that 64.5% of respondents thought that the current high school facilities were inadequate, but 68.2% thought that the overall proposed price ($57 million) of building a new high school was too high. [2]
[edit] Trivia
- In November 1973, Aerosmith played a concert at Wayland High School. Tom Hamilton, the band's bass player, is a graduate of the school.
- Wayland High School's open campus was designed by renowned architect Walter Gropius and John "Chip" Harkness of The Architects' Collaborative.
[edit] Notable Alumni
Alberto Salazar - Winner of the Boston Marathon and three time winner of the New York Marathon
Tom Hamilton - Bass Player for Aerosmith
Adam Ezra - Front man of band Adam Ezra Group (http://www.adamezra.com).
Ryan Sypek - Class of 2000, Actor (TV series "Wildfire")
Michael Weiss - Bassist and lead singer for the 80's phenomenon Cool Moon is a 1987 graduate
Gary Gray (I) - Host and producer of the Playboy TV series The Helmetcam Show.