Woodrow Wilson High School is a public secondary school located at 100 South Glasgow Drive in the Lakewood neighborhood of East Dallas, Texas (USA) in the ZIP code 75214. It was named in honor of former U.S. president Woodrow Wilson, who died just three years before the school building was completed. The structure is a Dallas Landmark,[1] as well as a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark,[2] "the highest honor the state can bestow on a historic structure."[3] It has been called a "Historic School Success Story" by the National Trust for Historic Preservation [4]
Woodrow enrolls students in grades 9-12 and is a part of the Dallas Independent School District. In 2009, DISD authorized Woodrow to apply to become certified the first Dallas school to be authorized as an IB World School offering the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme,[5] a/k/a the IB Degree. (All Texas colleges and universities are required by law to grant 24 semester credit hours to an entering freshman who has successfully completed the IB Degree.)[6] It earned its official designation as an IB World School on March 18, 2011.
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Designed by noted Dallas architect Mark Lemmon, the school opened in 1928 and was constructed in the Elizabethan style.[7] At the cornerstone-laying ceremony in April 1927, a piece of the wedding cake of Woodrow Wilson's second daughter, Jessie, was included in the cornerstone "in memory of Mr. Wilson."[8] At US$700,000, the school's cost exceeded that of the district's previous four high schools by at least $100,000.[9] The ornamental lighting was made by Potter Art Metal Studios of Dallas; a 90 year company still in existence. Special features of the building included a gymnasium boasting "one entire wall of glass windows" and an auditorium that was to be the "best equipped and best lighted" in the district, with footlights and a separately ventilated orchestra pit.[10] A theater organ was later placed in the pit and pipes put in special lofts on the third level. Also on the third floor was 'the largest eating place in Dallas', the school cafeteria; in previous Dallas high schools the cafeteria was at grade level, so at the new high school a special elevator was installed to service the eating facility. The September, 1928, Dallas Herald said the school "presents a rare spectacle from afar." Photos and the original blueprints of the school building were featured in an exhibition celebrating the works of Mark Lemmon at The Meadows Museum.[11]
The school has been colloquially called "Woodrow" by students and community members from its beginning, fostered by first principal G.L. "Pop" Ashburn, who led the school until 1956. The mascot of the school is the Wildcat. A Parent Teacher Association chapter was formed for the school even before its 1928 opening.[12]
Until 1957 (when Bryan Adams High School opened), Woodrow was the only "East Dallas" high school. Woodrow still serves most of the upper east side of East Dallas, including Swiss Avenue, Mount Auburn, Junius Heights, Lakewood, Munger Place, Peaks Addition and Hollywood Heights.
In 1981, interiors for the movie Crisis at Central High starring Joanne Woodward, were filmed at the school.[13] Many students, including the late Lance Bircher '83 (cited for his scene by imdb.com), were used in the filming. Woodrow students had trouble understanding both the concept of separate schools for blacks and whites and the struggles that it caused elsewhere, as the school was cited by the Supreme Court as a model for natural integration during the Dallas desegregation case. Of course, Woodrow students (actually the old alumni) were thrilled to receive a visit from Miss Woodward's husband, Paul Newman.
In 2004, thousands attended Woodrow's 75th Anniversary celebration, which included a parade (from Lakewood to the school, with Congressman Sam Johnson as Grand Marshal, chauffeured in a new Ford Mustang by fellow alumnus Carroll Shelby, the legendary auto designer and builder), followed by an auditorium-packed program. Scores of "mini-reunions" also were held during that day in assigned rooms throughout the school.
In 2006, Newsweek named Woodrow one of the top high schools in the nation based on the numbers of AP and IB - this result placed the school in the top 3% of all high schools in the United States. Local publication D Magazine ranked it the top comprehensive high school in Dallas. In 2008 and 2009 the school remained in the top half of the Newsweek list. In 2010, the school moved up 215 places on the Newsweek list. In 2011, the list switched to The Washington Post where Woodrow finished at 588 out of the top 1,900 high schools in the nation.[14]
Around 2008 Woodrow parents launched "Choose Woodrow," a program aimed towards attracting families in the Lakewood neighborhood towards Woodrow. Rod Dreher, a politically conservative columnist in The Dallas Morning News, argued that the program was unfair. Dreher argued that even if the campaign attracted more White students who would raise the school's test scores overall, it would not help lower performing minority students who are enrolled at Woodrow.[15]
In October, 2007 the school was cited as one of 39 model schools in Science and Math by the Texas Public Policy Foundation [16]
In December, 2009 it earned the Texas ACT College Readiness Award,[17] the only Dallas comprehensive high school to receive that honor.
In the fall of 2009, Woodrow became one of four high schools in Texas to be designated as candidates for designation as an IB World School. [18]
In March 2011, the school earned the IB designation after a rigorous, three-year application process, including an extensive site visit by the IB Organization.
The Woodrow Wilson High School Community Foundation opened in 2009. Its purpose is to raise funds, grants, and scholarships. It also exists to cultivate other programs and projects.[19]
In September, 2011 a Dallas Morning News analysis by education reporter Holly Hacker showed that Woodrow Wilson High School ranks high in college readiness. The survey took socio-economic levels and other statistics into account to show true performance among high schools with differing student populations. Woodrow was one of only twenty schools in the North Texas area to be found "exceeding expectations" by the analysis. It was one of only two Dallas comprehensive high schools to make the list.[20]
In 2009, Woodrow celebrated its 80th Anniversary. In honor of Carroll Shelby's selection to be its Grand Marshal, scores of non-Woodrow graduates joined the parade — most showing off their Ford/Shelby Mustangs or Cobras, but a few were driving their Dodge Vipers (another vehicle Shelby helped develop). During the ceremony in the school's packed auditorium, the Alumni Association inducted twenty more individuals into Woodrow's Hall of Fame. The celebration concluded with an "Alumni Band Roundup" at Eddie Deen's Ranch that evening, where hundreds of Woodrow alums ate, drank, and enjoyed each other while listening and dancing to music played by eight bands, each composed of Woodrow Alums (with a few ringers here and there) from various classes between 1960 and 2008. A documentary was produced by Michael Barnes and Kathy Kilmer Moak, both from the class of 1967. It featured historical photographs and interviews with many alums interspersed with clips of the 80th Anniversary Celebration. It premiered at the Lakewood Theater in the fall of 2009.
In 2011 the school made the Texas Education Agency's list of the worst-performing schools in the state. Jon Dahlander, a DISD spokesperson, said that despite the school being on the list, the IB program at Woodrow is still an example of having "excellent teachers, successful students and solid academic programs".[21]
A ground-breaking ceremony for the new science/performing arts wing at Woodrow was held on May 23, 2011.
The $14 million, 40,000-square-foot (3,700 m2) structure was authorized in a 2008 DISD bond election.
It is only the third extension of the school in its 83-year history. A boy's gym was added in 1953 and another addition was opened in 1979 in time for the school's 50th anniversary.
The addition will be three-stories and located at the rear of the 7-acre (28,000 m2) campus near "Downtown Lakewood". It will house the new Performing Arts Academy and three state-of-the-art laboratories for the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) Academy. They are part of the school's redesign into four college prep academies which began implementation in the fall of 2010 as a four-year roll-out.
The building is designed by Brown Reynolds Watford Architects with offices in Dallas, Houston, College Station and San Francisco. Principal Craig Reynolds is a current Woodrow parent. It will feature two story separate choir and drama rooms. The choir room will have practice rooms and the drama room will feature a black-box theater, costume shop and prop facilities. A large dance rehearsal hall will also be on the first floor. Three large science labs will be on the third floor, along with new restroom facilities. The building replaces part of the 1979 wing, which cost $1 million. The areas replaced are former wood and metal shops - no longer needed with the school's new college-prep curriculum. The rest of that addition will be remodeled into a larger band hall and athletic facilities. There is room for a competition-size gymnasium to connect to this area.
Woodrow's main 1928 building will have its original windows restored and HVAC replaced, including new air exchangers in the auditorium courtyards. The first-floor restrooms will be restored to the historic marble and wood and the second and third level facilities gutted and replaced with modern fixtures. Electrical fixtures and computer lines throughout the campus will also be brought up to current standards. Drainage and landscaping are also included in the construction, along with resurfacing of the parking lots and the Tim Brown-Davey O'Brien Track.
Completion is expected in the summer of 2012.
The Texas Education Agency campus profiles state that the funds spent per student at Woodrow are similar in amount to those spent per student at Highland Park High School.[22] Woodrow depends on financial support from the alumni and its parent teacher organization. As of 2011, due to budget cuts, the school ended its "Professional Learning Community" and reduced its custodial staff to two employees.[19]
Woodrow has been called the "High School Home of the Heisman" because it was the first high school in the nation to be the alma mater of two Heisman Trophy winners: Davey O'Brien (1938) and Tim Brown (1987), and it remains the only 'PUBLIC high school in the U.S. to have that distinction. As a relatively small inner-city Dallas public school that is coeducational and builds its athletic teams from the ethnically and economically diverse students within its tight attendance zone, Woodrow was proud to remain unparalleled among ALL public and private U.S. high schools as to the number of its graduates who won the Heisman among until 1995, when Eddie George's Heisman Trophy win allowed Fork Union Military Academy in Virginia (a private school that build teams from "[y]oung men, from around the country and the world")[23] to share the distinction with Woodrow. And in 2004, private, Catholic, Mater Dei High School of Santa Ana, California gained its second Heisman Trophy winner in Matt Leinart. Nevertheless, Woodrow achieved this distinction FIRST and it remains the only public high school in the U.S. with two Heisman winners.
Notwithstanding Tim Brown's efforts, from about the 1980s until fairly recently, Woodrow's football program struggled. However, the Wildcats made the state playoffs in 1991, 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2005, advancing to the second round in 2003, 2004, 2005, and 2006. Previous Woodrow teams made state semi-finals in 1951 and 1969, and even earlier teams of the 1930s and 40s were successful and produced such stars as O'Brien, I. B. Hale '35, Mal Kutner '38, Herschel Forester '48, and Bill Forester '49.
Woodrow's basketball team won state back in 1938, and later produced Alton Lister '76, a pro player on five different teams. Recent Woodrow graduate Anthony Randolph was one of the nation's top recruits, according to Rivals.com. He was a small forward for the LSU Tigers during his freshman year in college. Currently, Randolph is a professional basketball player for the New York Knicks. He was selected as the 14th overall draft pick in the 2008 NBA Draft by the Golden State Warriors. The 2011 basketball team lost in the Regional Quarterfinals to Kimball 62-57, after leading most of the game. Kimball then won the state championship. The Wildcats, however finished ahead of Kimball with the number one total team offense in Dallas Morning News rankings. [24]
1953, Woodrow Wilson won the city and state golf championships with brothers Gene and Ross Teter.[25]
In 2007, Woodrow's athletics program was ranked No. 6 out of all 4-A high schools in the Dallas Morning News All-Sports competition. The Wildcats' score of 81 was better than 95 other local 4-A and 5-A high schools. That year, seven Woodrow football players made the state all-academic team: Thomas Simpson, Sam Ashbrook, Ian Mackinnon, and Jared Muston on the first team; and Ryan Gunter, Jack Hlavaty, and Preston Richmond on the second team.[26]
In 2010, Woodrow placed 19th in 4-A All Sports Award competition sponsored by The Dallas Morning News - out of 62 4-A schools. Its score of 74 was higher than that of 88 4-A and 5-A schools. The girl’s volleyball team and the boys basketball team went deep into state playoffs with the basketball team being ranked 7th in the state. The tennis team, girls swimming and both golf teams also did well in playoffs.[27] In 2011 the school moved into the top ten out of 70 ranked schools from Wichita Falls to Texarkana. Its score of 91 points ranked ahead of 133 4-A and 5-A schools. [28]
Bill and Herschel Forester were Wildcats who played college football at SMU as well as in the pros. Dallas' Forester Field was named for their father, Herschel, who taught at Woodrow from the opening of the school until the late 1950s.
In March, 2010 Freshman Grace Choi was ranked first in Texas in girls golf.[29]
From the school's beginning, a Junior ROTC program has been part of Woodrow's high school program.[30] In the 1930s, '40s, and early '50s, the school had the largest JROTC program in the nation, with 16 different companies and an ROTC band; a May 1941 article declared the program "largest of its kind in the world."[31] During World War II, students at the school raised enough money to buy the Navy a Wildcat fighter plane.
The Performing Arts Department got its start from a member of the original faculty, H. Bush Morgan. Mr. Morgan was also sponsor of the Senior Publication. J. William Brown, a math teacher who started in 1952, subsequently took that sponsorship until the late 1980s. Morgan originally produced class plays and in 1929 "Giants Stairs" swept all the city contests. In the 1940s some musical productions were added, such as "Best Foot Forward". In the 1957-58 school year drama teacher Helen Eckleman started producing Broadway musicals each year with the first being "Oklahoma". She continued until 1971 when choir teacher Jerry McKinney took over the productions with "Calamity Jane". Marca Lee Bircher took over from McKinney in 1975-76 with her first production "Oliver!". She continued for 28 years, assisted by choreographer Patricia Hardman.
The Bircher-Hardman era went from flying monkeys in "The Wizard of Oz" to a real rain storm onstage for "Singing in the Rain". In 1979 Bircher formed the school's award winning show choir, Variations. The group was originally formed to perform at the school's 50th Anniversary celebration but continues to this day. Bircher and Hardman finished out in 2003 with a book-end production of the school's first annual musical, "Oklahoma". "School Zone Dallas" did an extensive television show on this production and the history of the duo's reign. Many of their students moved to New York and Los Angeles to pursue careers in theater, writing and acting.
Woodrow's Mock Trial Team, formed in 1979, regularly advances to state competition. In 2006, Woodrow Mock Trial Team Member Thomas Simpson received "Best Advocate" at the state competition and, in 2008, the 2008 team finished first in Dallas area competition and second in the state competition. That team went on to compete at Harvard University in December, 2008. The 2011 team won area competition and will compete in the state finals on March 4 and 5, 2011. Brian Tepera and Harvey Tovar were voted as Outstanding Advocates of the Year in 2011, while Kristen Arnold received the "Needs Improvement" award, the only one in Texas.
Woodrow's Debate team went to the state competition in March, 2010 and also to a national competition in New York City, where it won the Breakout Award.
As of 2011, 80% of the students are racial and ethnic minorities,[22] and 55.9% live in low income households. Many of the students, as of 2011, cannot afford the fees required to participate in the International Baccalaureate program; of that year the cost for registrations and examinations was $750. In November of that year the school stated that it would receive grants from the Jacobus Folz Fund for IB Financial Assistance, which would help cover costs of 15 students enrolled in the IB program. By 2011 a The Dallas Morning News report stated that 47% of Woodrow students were "college-ready" (ready to attend post-secondary educational institutions).[19]
Students are required to wear school uniforms.[32] The Texas Education Agency specifies that the parents and/or guardians of poor and minority students zoned to a school with uniforms may apply for a waiver to opt out of the uniform policy so their children do not have to wear the uniform; parents must specify "bona fide" reasons, such as religious reasons or philosophical objections.[33]
As of 2008, J. L. Long Middle School (6-8) feeds into Woodrow Wilson.[34]
Oran M. Roberts (PK-5) north of I-30, Lakewood (PK-5), Robert E. Lee (PK-5), and Stonewall Jackson (K-5) Elementary Schools feed into Woodrow Wilson High School. William Lipscomb (PK-4) and Mount Auburn Elementary School (PK-3) feed into Eduardo Mata Elementary School (4-5), which in turn feeds into Woodrow Wilson High School.[34] Lipscomb is adding fourth and fifth grade and will feed directly into J.L. Long and then to Woodrow in the next two years.
| Dallas Independent School District | |
|---|---|
| High schools | … full list Bryan Adams | Adamson | Carter | Conrad | Hillcrest | Jefferson | Kimball | Lincoln | Madison | Molina | North Dallas | Pinkston | Roosevelt | Samuell | Seagoville | Skyline | South Oak Cliff | Spruce | Sunset | Wilmer-Hutchins | W. T. White | Wilson |
| Middle schools | … full list Anderson | Hill | Marsh | Quintanilla |
| Elementary schools | … full list Hooe | Lakewood | Milam | Preston Hollow |
| Magnet schools | Townview magnets: Government, Law, & Law Enforcement | Science and Engineering Magnet | Talented & Gifted | Business and Management | Education and Social Services | Health Professions Other High Schools: Washington HS for Performing and Visual Arts | Gilliam Collegiate Academy | Lincoln Humanities/Communications Magnet | Skyline | Smith New Tech Middle/High: Obama Male | Rangel Young Women's | PreK-8: Dealey Montessori | Stone Montessori | 4-8: Travis Academy/Vanguard |