Hayfield Secondary School

Hayfield Secondary School is the oldest secondary school in the Fairfax County Public Schools system of Virginia. It opened its doors in 1968 and graduated its first seniors in 1971.

History

The land that Hayfield Secondary sits on was at one time part of George Washington's Mount Vernon estate. Because of a small natural spring underneath the school, the land served as a hay field. The land itself changed hands numerous times, until 1956 when developers constructed the nearby Hayfield Farm Community, the first of many housing developments in the region. Hayfield Secondary opened its doors to middle school (7th and 8th grade) students as well as 9-10th grades during the 1968-1969 school year, while still under construction. Floyd W. Worley was the first Principal.

The school is erroneously mentioned in Remember the Titans as being "all white." While at the time of the desegregation of the City of Alexandria's T.C. Williams High School, a large majority of Hayfield's students were white, it was racially integrated from the day of its first opening in 1968, drawing the majority of its students of color from the children of military men and women at nearby Fort Belvoir, home to the U.S. Army's Corp of Engineers. The desegregation encouraging word "Diversity" even headed a section of the '73 yearbook, the fifth volume of the "Harvester." ^[2]

As the region which it serves grew, overcrowding became a major issue at Hayfield, and by the late 1990s it routinely exceeded its intended capacity with 4000+ students. A renovation of the school began in 2002 and was completed in 2005. Further helping to relieve the pressure on Hayfield was the opening of South County Secondary School, also in 2005. However, due to overcrowding at South County in its second year of operation and under-utilized capacity at Hayfield, Hayfield accommodated more students again from a boundary change with South County approved for the 2007-2008 school year.^[3]

Academics

Hayfield is a secondary school, meaning it serves grades 7 through 12, but the high school and middle school students are generally kept segregated. The middle school has an honors program and the high school offers both honors and Advanced Placement courses. As of Spring 2007, the number of exams on which a score of 3 or higher was achieved (on a scale of 1-5) rose to 57% from 46% the previous year, the best results found on record for Hayfield.

Hayfield has an It's Academic Team and a Robotics Team that has been in the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC). Hayfield's Varsity Science Olympiad team competes in several regional tournaments. The school competes in the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair.

Hayfield also has an orchestra, a band and a choral group.

Athletics

Hayfield's high school teams compete in the AAA National District of the AAA Northern Region of the Virginia High School League. The school's mascot is the hawk and the school colors are orange and white. Sports offered include:

Notable alumni

• Larry Asante, class of 2005. Football safety for the Oakland Raiders of the National Football League At Hayfield, he earned all-league honors as a running back in the AAA Patriot Division.^[7]
• Murielle Ahouré, class of 2005. Sprinter for Ivory Coast.^[8]
• Matthew Ashford, Actor best known for portraying the role of Jack Deveraux on the NBC soap opera Days of Our Lives.
• Mike D'Orso, non fiction writer
• Tony Mayberry played football for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers from 1990 to 1999.

Facility

Hayfield's Rebecca S. Wilburn Auditorium is one of the largest auditoriums in Northern Virginia, and includes an orchestra pit elevator lift built into the front of the stage that allows that portion of the stage to act as either an orchestra pit or stage extension. Technical support for the Wilburn Auditorium is supported by a student organization, the Hayfield Audio and Lighting Technicians ("HALT").

Planetarium

Hayfield Secondary's Planetarium opened its doors in 1969. The main instrument of the planetarium is the Spitz A-4 projector. Many special effect projectors are also used to demonstrate certain astronomical and atmospheric phenomena, such as lunar and solar eclipses, different types of lightning, auroras, and the phasing of the moon. The planetarium is also equipped with three Kodak Ektograph projectors, and a slide dissolve system which is used to show previously produced slide programs and to create special slide programs on current astronomical topics. The most recent additions to the equipment list is a video projector and a special effects projector.

References