Western Guilford High School

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Western Guilford High School is located in Greensboro, North Carolina, and is the academic flag-ship high school of the Guilford County school system. The school has 1440 students and its sports teams are the Fighting Hornets.

In September 2002, Western Guilford was renovated via public bond. The design of the new addition integrates different components of the campus by introducing new circulation patterns. A new entry gallery at the front entry to the school was designed; along with art and classroom additions form an internal courtyard. The addition consists of four basic elements: Classroom addition to the vocational building, a cafeteria expansion and gym, a 2 story classroom addition and a single story art addition.

The school's mascot is the Fighting Hornet and the school colors are Black and Gold. Western is a member of the Triad 3A Conference. The principal, as of 2006-2007, is Richard Armstrong who replaced the former principal, Dr. Randy Shaver. The school now operates on a "Traditional Schedule," which uses 6 classes per day (all year long) as opposed to the old "Block Schedule" of 4 classes a day (for only one semester).

The change was brought on by local schools, who were on the traditional schedule, sending failing juniors and seniors to Western Guilford so they could take advantage of the extra classes to graduate. In effect, Western's test scores dropped. The Guilford County School Board and the principal at the time, Dr. Randy Shaver, made the change to Traditional Scheduling, much to the dismay of parents, students, and staff. During the last Block Schedule school year, an automated telephone poll was used to get the general consensus of the parents' opinion of the schedule change. Even though 72% of parents wanted to stay on Block schedule, and only one teacher voted for Traditional, the change was made.

The 2006-2007 school year is the first time that Western is operating on the traditional schedule in many years.

Recetly a mishap has fallen up the hallways as a slur of bookbags being put inside out and zipped up has taken place, although teachers and students alike have not found a responsible party for the incident yet, many students come to find much dismay when they have found that their book bags are inside-out and their books have been zipped up inside.

[edit] Western Guilford Marching Band

The Western Guilford Marching Hornets Band is a fairly new band that consists of roughly 55 volunteer members as of the 2006 season. They have only been competing for two years. In 2005, their show was called "Fuego" (with three movements: Corrado, Perfidia, and Flight of the Condor). In 2006, the Marching Hornets (now under the direction of new band director, Nathan Street and drum majors Jamie Carter (senior) and Kendall Tetsworth (junior)) are competing with the show "Mask of Zorro" by James Horner which has three movements: Mask of Zorro, Diego's Goodbye, and Mask of Zorro - Finale.

The Western band program has received local notoriety after many instruments were stolen from the lockers in the band room, with the cost of instruments totalling about $10,000.