Westhill Senior High School

Westhill Senior High School is a public high school located in the western suburbs of, and immediately adjacent to, the City of Syracuse, New York. It serves grades 9 through 12, primarily from the neighborhood of Westvale (located in the Town of Geddes), as well as portions of the Onondaga Hill area (located in the Town of Onondaga). Westhill Senior High School is part of the Westhill Central School District.

Overview

Established in 1963 as Westhill Junior-Senior High School serving grades 7-12 at the time, Westhill High School maintains a local reputation in the Syracuse area for having a high graduation rate, a large percentage of graduates attending college, and a successful athletic program.

Westhill's athletic program mascot is the "Warrior". Recently the mascot was changed from a Native American to a Spartan-like character.

Educational achievement

More than 95% of Westhill graduates go on to college. According to the school's website, 98% of June 2006 Westhill graduates earned a Regents Diploma. In June, 1776 Regents Examinations, with approximately 1450 exams administered, Westhill students had an overall pass rate of 99%.^[1][2]

In the second year of the higher standards culminating in the Regents Diploma with Advanced Designation, 93% of Westhill’s graduates in June 2006 reached such a level of achievement, and an additional 98% were awarded a Regents Diploma.

Co-curricular programs

Westhill High School offers an extensive co-curricular program, including over 25 different clubs and activities. The Drama Club presented "A Christmas Carol" in the fall of 2007. In the spring of 2008, Westhill had its very first student-run production in which the musical "Godspell" was directed, produced, choreographed, music directed, pit conducted, costumed and featured sets, all by Westhill High School students. The production performed for two extremely successful nights in late May 2008. Both of these shows were presented in the school's newly renovated auditorium. In the spring of 2009 the drama club put on one of the first showings of High School Musical 2 in the country; this ended up being incredibly successful.

The high school newspaper, The Glass Corridors, earned high honors from several organizations including a first place evaluation award from the American Scholastic Press Association. The high school literary magazine received a second place evaluation award.

The Symphonic Band, Wind Ensemble, Jazz Ensemble & Percussion Ensemble have performed at the Heritage Music Festival in Chicago. The Symphonic Band received a Silver Medal and the Wind Ensemble and Percussion Ensemble both received first place with Gold ratings. The Jazz Ensemble finished in third place with a Silver rating. More recent than that the same groups performed in Walt Disney World at Festival Disney. It was a very successful trip also.

The Choral Department traveled to Annapolis, Maryland in April, 2009. They competed with five groups (Concert Choir, Westhill Singers, Women's Ensemble, Men's Ensemble, and Westhill Swingers), all of which were awarded gold, while the whole department was awarded "best choral department". A few years before, the Concert Choir auditioned and was invited to sing the National Anthem at Shea Stadium in New York City for the New York Mets versus the Atlanta Braves game in front of 35,000 people.

The Groovy's Film Festival and Award Show was started in 2008 by students Sean Selbach and Mike Epifani as a method to raise funds each year for Junior Prom. The first year's massive success has encouraged the school to keep the festival as a new Westhill tradition. The show is made up of short student films. The awards given away are meant as comical breaks in between films. Past awards have included Most Likely to Meet Their Spouse on Facebook, etc.

Athletic programs

Westhill's interscholastic sports program offers 35 teams at various levels serving 24 varsity sports. With nearly 56% of Westhill high school students participating in interscholastic athletics, and with an overall varsity winning percentage of nearly 80%, Westhill teams won 2005-06 league championships in Boys Cross Country, Girls Tennis, Girl's Indoor Track, Boys' Basketball, Girl's Basketball, Girls Outdoor Track, and Baseball. Section III Class B Championships were won by the Girl's Tennis, Boy's Cross Country (under the coaching of Jerry Smith), Boys Basketball, and Girls Indoor Track teams.

Fifteen out of twenty varsity teams won New York State Public High School Athletic Association Academic Awards for maintaining the required number of students on the roster and having composite GPA’s of 90% or higher. Fifteen Westhill seniors participated in all three varsity sport seasons, while collectively maintaining an overall GPA of more than 90%.

The Westhill Athletic Department has also laid claim to several State Championships, including:

• Girls Soccer 1993, 1995, 1996, 1999
• Boys Soccer 1992
• Girls Basketball 1989, 1996
• Boys Basketball 1997, 2010, 2014
• Baseball 2009, 2010

Note: Westhill competed in Class C until 1995, and has been Class B since then. The Cross Country and Track teams, upon merging with Bishop Ludden High School, were in Class A for the 2010-2011 school year. They returned to Class B before the 2011 Cross Country season.

Notable alumni

• Keith B. Alexander, the head of the National Security Agency (NSA)^[3]

References

External links

• Official website