Weston High School, Massachusetts
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Weston High School is a high school (grades 9-12) in Weston, Massachusetts, a suburb 12 miles west of Boston. The school is located at 444 Wellesley Street in Weston. In 2004-5 it had 685 students. It is accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges.
| Principal | Anthony Parker |
| Assistant Principal | Natalie Cohen |
| School type | High School |
| Religious affiliation | None |
| Location | Weston, MA |
| School Population | 685 (2004-2005) |
| Sports teams | Red Tide, Wildcats |
In September 2004, Boston Magazine rated Weston High the number one public high school in Massachusetts.
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[edit] Mission Statement
The mission of Weston High School is to challenge all students to excellence, promote a climate of respect and support, and encourage and facilitate the growth, abilities, and talents of students, so they will live healthy lives characterized by reflection, responsibility, wonder, daring, and enthusiasm for life-long learning.
[edit] Academic Day
The academic day starts at 7:35 am and ends at 2:50 pm, with five block periods in a day. The periods are each 79 minutes long, with the middle period divided into three lunches. Students have 8 periods A through H, most of which are classes. The days are on an 8-day rotating schedule, with a half day on the first Wednesday of every month that includes class and school assemblies in the morning.
The school year starts roughly in first week of September, and ends in the third week of June. Seniors end classes in mid May to start internships, and later graduate in June. Seniors often celebrate this last day of classes by riding through the Highschool and Middleschool campuses, which are closely situated.
Weston High School is part of the History Consortium, a class between Weston High School, Middlesex School, Concord Carlisle High School, and Concord Academy that takes place in the fall. In 2006, students Ardy Farhadi, Lauren Selame, and Will Newell were representatives of Weston at the Consortium at Concord Academy.
[edit] The Campus
Weston High School is a large brick building, surrounded by trees and sports fields. There are several fields, tennis courts, baseball diamonds, and a large track, shared by the Middle School, which is located on an adjacent campus.
The building itself consists of a large gymnasium, weight room, library, theater and tech center, dance studio, music rooms, auditorium, computer labs, and many classrooms. The building is split into different wings for the many departments. The Science Department has its own wing near the middle school fields on the first floor. The Math Wing is also located near the middle school fields. The photography lab and the Art Room are located on the first floor directly across the cafeteria. The Art studio room is located in the Math Wing, and the Video Production room is located in the science wing. The Language and additional Math classrooms on the second floor. English and history classes are spread throughout a wing below the Library and in the library itself.
[edit] Sports
Weston High School is a member of the Dual County League (DCL) for all sports except for football. Most of the sporting teams compete in Division III MIAA, but girls field hockey is Division I , boys and girls swimming Division II, and boys and girls cross country Division IV. Football is listed as Division VI Independent. The school's strongest perennial sports are wrestling, field hockey, swimming, track, dance, and soccer. Weston High's principal rival is the neighboring Wayland High School. Additionally, there is a co-operative crew program between the two towns, which has won, in recent seasons, both the Massachusetts State competition and New England Regional competition. The team has also won a Silver Medal in the Boys Lightweight 4 (Coxed), a 5th place finish for the Girls Lightweight 8+ and 10th place for the Girls Varsity 4+ at the National Youth Rowing Championships in Cincinnati.
[edit] 2005-2006-2007 Seasons
In the 2005 fall sports season Weston Boys Soccer finished second place in the Dual County League with a 15-5-1 record, and were Div. III North Sectional Finalists. Team captain Drew Crowley was named Div. III State Player of the Year, and now plays at Washington & Lee University.
The fall 2005 season also saw the Weston Cross Country team become the Division IV Easterm Massachusetts finalists, finishing second to Hanover in a very close race. Additionally, they finished 4th place in the Dual County League, quite an accomplishment considering the size and caliber of many schools in that league; indeed, all of the schools finishing ahead of Weston are Division I schools.
A new sport in the 2005-2006 winter season at Weston High is boys' hockey. The school has not had a hockey team since 1988, and early signs indicate the starting of a successful program as the team qualified for the state tournament in its first season of play. In the first state tournament in Weston hockey history, Weston acquired the ninth seed, but lost to Malden Academy 2-1 in the first round. In their 06-07 season, led by captains Batter, Benson, and Marlow, they won the Dual County League Title with a record of 19-1-2. The team finished as Division III North Sectional Finalists after a fantastic tournament run. After crushing their initial opponents, they were finally beaten by Savio Prep with a score of 3-2 in overtime. The featured a, literally, last minute goal by Savio to tie the score, with Seniors Pomerance and Benson scoring Weston's two goals. Weston was beaten in overtime by Savio, a dissapointing finish to a strong season.
The spring 2005-2006 season also saw the boys' outdoor track team win the Division IV relay meet, and finish third in the Division IV Championship meet.Captain's Craig Lynch and Seamus McGuire led their team in points and guided the team to a successful season. The 2007 Indoor Track team scored second places in both the MIAA Div. IV relay meet on the boys side and Div. IV state meet on the girl's side, leaving the girls Division IV State finalists.
The Spring boys baseball team was lead by Senior Captains Eric Archambault and James Stone. They finished the season 13-10 and advanced to the third round of the Massachusetts Div. III Baseball Tournament. Other notable players included Juniors Ben Benson, Harrison Miller, Tommy Cassell, Tyler Skenderian along with Connor Hedges,and Alex Marlow, all pitching in with extraordinary hitting abilities. Pitching was led by Freshman Sahil Bloom and Junior Johnny Batter. Bloom was 5-0 and Batter was 4-2. Coach Jon Beverly was recognized by the Boston Globe as the Div. III baseball Coach of the Year. With a good amount of students coming back for the spring season, Weston, Lincoln Sudbury, along with Concord Carlisle, will be the contenders for the DCL crown
Amongst the various sports are also collaborations with former rival Wayland 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. In addition, they took home the silver medal in the Junior National Championship in the Boys Lightweight 4+ category. The girls placed 5th and 10th in the Lightweight 8+ and Open 4+, respectively. They also finished 9th in the Women's Youth 8+ and 19th in the Women's Youth 4+ event at the 2006 Head of the Charles Regatta, the world's largest two-day rowing event. Currently coached by two-time Olympic Silver Medalist Tom Bohrer, the boys team is hoping to even further increase their already substantial gains.
Another spring sport is Lacrosse. The Weston lacrosse team, though weak in the past due to internal problems, is beginning to develop into a strong team.
In the 2005-06 school year a new sport alliance gave birth to the Weston-Wayland Girls' Hockey Team.
The Weston Red Tide are Weston's other premiere sports team. The Red Tide has claimed over 15 state championship titles, and has been the male state champions every year since 1998.
Weston High also has a club [Ultimate Frisbee] team, which is not recognized as a Varsity sport. The team operates intramurally in the fall and competitively in the spring.
In addition to that, Weston's dance team (led by all-star dancer ) has been number one in New England for two consecutive years, and competed for the national title in February placing in the top 60 teams in the Nation. The competition was be aired on ESPN2.
Weston Boys basketball team won the state championship and ranked # 1 in the state of Massachusetts in 1998, as well as a top 20 team in the Country.
[edit] Music
Weston has an outstanding music program under the direction of Mr. Christopher Memoli. Dr. Therese Provenzano directs the chorus. Weston also offers an AP Music Theory Class, taught by Ms. Colleen Toland. 31 students were accepted to the MMEA Northeastern Sr. Districts Festival in January 2007, and 13 students were accepted to the MMEA All-State Conference.
The High School Chorus, along with the Community Chorus and InCoro Novo, has a performance at Regis College every year when they perform a selection from the vocal repertoire. In 2006, the work was Bach's Magnificatand in 2007, the work was Mozart's Requiem. The large chorus is accompanied by selected high school orchestra members and adult musicians.
Starting in Februrary, 2007, the high school music department started implementing http://moodle.learningnetworks.com/ into its curriculum. This site allows students to submit prerecorded playing tests that are graded and used to determine seating in band/orchestra/wind ensemble.
Weston's Music Department also runs the Weston Friends of Music, a parent group that has regular meetings and helps collect tickets during concerts and other tasks that help contribute to the well-being of the weston school music department.
