Oshkosh West High School

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Oshkosh West High School
Type	Public secondary
Principal	Peter Cernohous
Students	1,971 [as of 2007]
Grades	9–12
Location	Oshkosh, Wisconsin, USA
Oversight	Oshkosh Area School District
Colors	Royal blue and white
Mascot	Wildcat
Yearbook	Notebook
Newspaper	Index
Website	Oshkosh West High School

Oshkosh West High School is a public school located in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, and is a part of the Oshkosh Area School District. As of 2007, the school has 1,971 students, and the building consists of 51 rooms. in grades 9 through 12.

1 Extracurriculars and Athletics
2 School Pride and Related Facts
3 Restructuring
- 3.1 Smaller Learning Communites
4 External links

[edit] Extracurriculars and Athletics

Over the 2007-2008 school year, Oshkosh West High School had 38 student club and many sports[1], eleven for males and eleven for females, all of which are offered in conjunction with the Fox Valley Association, a league of schools and their sports teams.

[edit] School Pride and Related Facts

The mascot of the Oshkosh West High School is the Wildcat*, as depicted in the school logo, in which a feline paw slashes through the capital letter "W." The school theme song is On Wisconsin.

Previous to 2000, the school mascot was the Indian. Due to recent controversies regarding having Native American mascots, OWHS decided to change their mascot to something more acceptable. The students were asked to vote for a new mascot, and subsequently the Wildcat was chosen.

West was the 2006-07 State Basketball champions. They have not lost a regular season game in two years.

Former West basketball coach Stephen Randall was featured in a Sports Illustrated article honoring his son for filling his empty shoes.

[edit] Restructuring

[edit] Smaller Learning Communites

In accordance with the No Child Left Behind Law, and with grant money received in 2003, Oshkosh West High School is restructuring their class structures so as to create "Smaller Learning Communities," (SLC) where students will fit into a smaller set of the school population. In achieving SLC, West has begun phasing in "Freshman Core Teams," a system by which freshman students are assigned to classes within groups, such that all the students within a core team will have the same teachers for their core subjects. According to the Oshkosh Area School District website, the core system has been shown to cut the freshman failure rate (the percentage of students who fail at least one class) from 28% to 14%. While core teams are already in action, how they will be implemented in the upper classes has not been made public, and it is possible that the plan has not fully been ironed out.