GEORGE WASHINGTON HIGH SCHOOL (DANVILLE, VIRGINIA)

'George Washington High School' is a secondary school of Danville, Virginia. It is a member of the AAA Western Valley District. The school has approximately 2,000 students and 200 staff. The school mascot has been the eagle since 1970-71 school year (previously being the cardinal), upon the school's integration.

Contents

History

Athletics

Fight Song

References

History

The current address of George Washington is 701 Broad St. as it has been since September 1956 when the current facility opened. In 1910 due to an increased enrollment, the high school moved into a building on Grove St. The high school served the city until 1927 under the name of Danville High School.
Superintendent G.L.H. Johnson recommended the name change from the Danville High School to the George Washington High School “in line with the modern tendency in the United States to name high schools in the larger cities after patriotic Americans.” George Washington High School was the first high school in the South and the second in the nation to honor the first President in this way.
The Rison Park School was enlarged before it housed the high school. L.B. Flora and Sons were contracted under a bid of $175,525 to improve the building for the junior-senior high school. To the existing 16 classrooms, 24 extra classrooms, and a then standard size gymnasium, a library/study hall and an auditorium to seat 1,000 were added. The new name of George Washington High School did not appear on the outside of the building, but a quotation from Washington’s Farewell Address along with a facsimile of his signature was inscribed over the front entrance. The school grounds were still referred to as Rison Park.
1956 saw the completion of the present George Washington High School building. Contracted to John W. Daniel Company, Inc. under the contract price of $2,090,314, the installation, built on the 60-acre campus, is designed for 1,920 students. The auditorium can seat 1,125, and the cafeteria will hold 500. Additions were made to this building in 1963. The A-wing annex provided 16 supplementary classrooms and the Industrial Arts Building was constructed.
During this time, the Danville school system operated with segregated schools. In 1900, there were one white and two black public schools on the southside and one white and one black public school on the northside. The first black high school separate from the elementary department was established in 1925. The high school was an annex to the black public school on Holbrook Street.
In 1936 the John Mercer Langston High School was constructed. Professor E. A. Gibson served as its principal until his death in 1948. Under a public schools building program, black high school students were afforded a much needed modernized facility. John M. Langston High School was relocated to a new complex on Cleveland Street in 1958. The merger of John M. Langston High School with George Washington High School in 1970 brought to Danville, once again, the existence of one city high school.
In 1971 the citizens of Danville voted in favor of a 1.4 million-dollar school bond referendum to finance the addition of a vocational wing to GWHS, which was completed in 1974. A four-classroom addition to the science wing was completed in 1993.
In the fall of 1997, the Danville Public Schools opened four focus schools at the high school level (Business Partnership Academy, Excel, Global Village School and Global Studies through Arts & Technology). A focus school is a small, self-governed school of choice that is organized around a central theme. Each focus school is semi-autonomous in that it has a high degree of control over its internal governance while it continues to function under the administrative umbrella of George Washington High School. Two additional focus schools have been added since 1997, Health Careers Academy and Technology Academy.
Reputed to be a “great education center” in a report published in 1915, Danville’s school system has been subject to many and diverse changes. Serving Danville as school superintendents have been, in order, Dr. G.W. Dame, J.R. Herndon, Abner Anderson, William H. Davis, F.H. Wheatley, W. C. Griggs, G.L.H. Johnson (1925-48), O.T. Bonner (1948-71), Dr. Zane Eargle (1971-75), Dr. Thomas E. Truitt (1975-87), Dr. Larry E. Leonard (1988-89), Mr. Guy K. Yeatts (Interim 1989), Dr. Eric J. Smith (1989-92), Dr. Mark Edwards (1992-94), Dr. N Andrew Overstreet (1994-2002), Mr. Ralph Warren (2002-2003 interim), Dr. William Torok (2003 – 2004), and Dr. Susan Davis (2004-present).
Since 1941 George Washington High School has had only nine principals: J.T. Christopher (1941-69), Everett L. Motley (1969-74), Robert W. Haskins (1974-89), Charles H. Lackey (1989-96), Joel R. DeBoe (1996-2003), Sherri Huffman (2003-2005), former NFL player, Kenny Lewis and Dr. Ron Sieber, (co-principals for 2006-2007), and presently Christopher Carter (2007-). ^[1]

Athletics

GW boys and Girls Basketball team won the Western Valley district championship numerous times. The Boys Basketball team went on to Become Runner up's in State Basketball in 2006. They also won the Western Valley championship in Football in 2006

Fight Song

Onward Danville, Onward Danville,
Fight, fight, fight, fight, fight.
Silver and blue will pull us through
So, come on boys, let’s give ‘em thunder!
Onward Danville, Onward Danville,
Fight ‘em to the end.
We’ve got that fighting spirit;
We will WIN!

References

1. Danville Public Schools. ''GW HANDBOOK''. 2007. [1]