William G. Enloe High School

William G. Enloe High School
Location
128 Clarendon Crescent Raleigh, North Carolina  United States
Information
Founded	1962
Dean	Shanora Kingsberry
Principal	Scott Lyons[1]
Vice principal	Becky Foote Tiffanny Scott Jose Espinal Monica Sawyer Joseph Eno Joshua Mallory
Staff	148
Enrollment	2,678
Classes offered	Arts, Humanities, Sciences
Schedule	Hybrid, 8-periods with optional 0 and 9th periods
Mascot	Edgar the Eagle
Yearbook	Quotannis
Degrees	IB Diploma
Programs	IB Programme GATE Medical Bioscience Academy Business Alliance Teach Prep
Website	enloehs.wcpss.net

William G. Enloe GT/IB Center for the Humanities, Sciences, and the Arts, also called Enloe High School, is a public magnet high school offering Gifted & Talented and International Baccalaureate programs located in eastern Raleigh, North Carolina. It is operated under the Wake County Public School System. The school is named after William Gillmore Enloe, the Mayor of Raleigh at the time the school was opened. It was the first integrated public high school in the city of Raleigh.^[2]

History

William G. Enloe High School was originally organized as two different schools that shared athletic facilities between adjacent campuses – William G. Enloe Senior High School and Charles B. Aycock Junior High. The original Enloe campus was opened in 1962 as the first integrated secondary school in Raleigh for the education of students participating in grades seven through twelve.

Three years after Enloe opened its doors, Aycock was created on an adjacent campus as a junior high school to educate students in the seventh through ninth grades, and Enloe became a senior high school with concentrated education for grades ten through twelve. Enloe absorbed the Aycock campus in 1979, becoming a modern high school focused on educating ninth through twelfth grade students. The Aycock building became the East Campus, while the original Enloe complex became the West Campus.^[3]

In 1980, Enloe began providing magnet courses for "gifted and talented" students in Wake County. The school was promoted to full magnet status in 1982. The "magnet" designation means that Enloe offers many courses that other Wake County schools do not, and provides services to its students that are not available to them at their "base" schools. At Enloe, like many magnet schools, the majority of the student body uses publicly provided transportation to shuttle them to school, though Enloe retains its own "base" population. Until the mid-1990s, Enloe was the only magnet high school in the Wake system, leading to high concentration of academically talented students. The 1993 graduating class included 42 National Merit Semifinalists, a number that remains a state record.

In July 1997, Enloe became an IB World School, allowing students to pursue the challenging International Baccalaureate Programme. Enloe IB students are occasionally invited to attend special events or trips through their involvement in the IB Programme. In the recent past, Enloe IB students have participated in exchanges with high schools in China (2004–2005)^[4] and Germany (2005–2006), and have begun a relationship with students at a high school in Turkey through the use of video conferencing technology.^[5] In 2006, Enloe finished the construction of a new building adjacent to the West Campus and consequently closed the 50-year-old, outdated East Campus for renovation.^[6] Almost all the classes have migrated from the East Campus to the new building, reducing the need to share classes with its larger capacity. The East Campus has now been reopened as of January 22, 2008, the start of the second semester. It has the autotech classes, the new East Gym, Student Services, Healthful Living classrooms, and other classrooms. The next stage of Enloe's renovation was completed in January 2009, and involved the locker rooms in the West Gym being converted to house the audio-visual classrooms as well as the Television Studio.

Enloe currently offers 28 AP courses in addition to several IB courses.^[7]

The Wake County School Board considered removing the International Baccalaureate and magnet status from Enloe, but this decision was overturned due to the intense lobbying of students and their parents.^[8]

Security and crime

Following a gang fight involving 30 students in September 2008 school security has been updated.^[9] Police and school security were beefed up in December 2008 following the armed robbery of a student and the assault of another student while both were walking to school.^[10]

On January 16, 2009 assistant principal Carrie Jacobs was mugged getting out of her car before school. She was struck by her attacker and her purse was stolen. She was not seriously injured.

On May 22, 2009 three shots were fired into an empty car parked on a neighboring street. The shots were fired 30 minutes before school had begun; the school was never officially put on lock down. No students were involved. ^[11]

Evangelist controversy

In February 2007, the school came under fire from Muslim advocacy groups and the ACLU after history teacher Robert Escamilla invited Kamil Solomon, a Coptic Christian evangelist and head of Kamil International Ministries, to speak about his experiences with Christianity and Muslims. The Council on American Islamic Relations and parents of Muslim and secular students accused the school of breaching federal civil rights laws and promoting hate in a public school.^[12] Escamilla was suspended with pay for 90 days while the school district investigated the complaint. He was later transferred to an alternative school and reprimanded by Superintendent Del Burns. In addition, Burns apologized to Muslims for Solomon's visit. And he issued new guidelines that require guest speakers to sign forms saying they will not denigrate any culture, race, gender, national origin or religion. Escamilla appealed the punishment, but the grievance was rejected by the school board.^[13] In a controversial move, the school board voted to release part of Escamilla's confidential personnel file to justify its decision.^[14] Escamilla has filed a lawsuit asking to be transferred back to Enloe.^[15] Escamilla and the school district reached a settlement in which Wake agreed not to punish him any further over the evangelist controversy.^[16]

Demographics

Enloe has approximately 2,640 (according to the 2008–2009 Quotannis Yearbook, Enloe has 2,648) enrolled students.^[17] Of this population, 12% are of Asian descent – the largest population of students with Asian ancestries found in any school in Wake County. The remainder of Enloe's student population is composed of students with ancestries of White (42%), African (35%), and Hispanic (9%) descent. There are 148 members of the Enloe teaching staff, and many support personnel employed in administration, guidance and similar positions.^[18] Enloe prides itself on a skilled and accredited faculty, of which 25 members are nationally certified by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards and 39% possess an advanced degree (Masters or PhD) in their respective fields.^[19]

Technology

At Enloe, 100% of instructional classrooms have reliable connections to Internet resources. In addition to full-campus technological connectivity, Enloe provides nearly one computer console terminal for every two students, compared with the state average of more than three students per terminal. Made possible through various private, corporate, local, state, and federal grants, Enloe's facilities provide three open-access computer labs for use by students and classes, several "mobile labs" consisting of two dozen laptops, and an additional half-dozen labs devoted to specific courses and subject are as. Specialized computer labs are provided for classes taught in several subject areas, including computer science, drafting, and graphic arts.

In 2007, three Enloe students, Vivek Bhattacharya, Hao Lian, and Daniel Vitek, placed second nationally in the Siemens Competition for their work on a computer model of gene sequencing.^[20]

They also have an award winning television program that wins numerous National Academy Television Student Awards for the Nashville Midsouth Chapter,^[21] most recently winning a NSTAE for a food drive promotion. Having one of the best video and audio production classes in Wake County, Enloe High School has also won many emmys. Enloe also has its own control room, and live broadcast desk where they produce their live television news show, Loe Down

part of West Campus

Rankings

The school posted the sixth highest average SAT score in the Raleigh Durham area: 1692 with 77.1% of students taking the test.^[22]

Through 2010, Enloe was ranked in the top 100 high schools in the U.S. according to Newsweek magazine's annual rankings:

Athletics department

Enloe High School has many sports teams, and is very well known for its volleyball, swimming & diving, and gymnastics teams, who have all won many conference and state championships. The Men's Swim Team especially has historically been regarded as a powerhouse program, following a stretch of nine (9) consecutive state championships from 1999 to 2007 and many more conference and regional championships.^[23]

Enloe's sports teams include:

• Football
• Cheerleading
• Men's and women's basketball
• Men's and women's lacrosse
• baseball
• Softball
• Men's and women's tennis
• Men's and women's golf
• Gymnastics
• Men's and women's swimming & diving
• Men's and women's track and field
• Men's and women's cross country
• Men's and women's soccer
• Volleyball
• Wrestling

Notable alumni

References

External links

• Enloe High School website

Coordinates: 35°47′02″N 78°36′10″W / 35.783877°N 78.602886°W / 35.783877; -78.602886