WEST ANCHORAGE HIGH SCHOOL

'West Anchorage High School' is a public high school in Anchorage in the U.S. state of Alaska and part of the Anchorage School District.

Contents

History

Building

Auditorium

Eagle emblem

Academics

International Baccalaureate

School Through the Arts

Kanakngaq Program

Graduation requirements

Extracurriculars

Newspaper

Yearbook

Drama, debate, and forensics

Theatre

Sports

See also

External links

References

History

Established in 1953 as 'Anchorage High School', it is attended by approximately 2,000 students in grades 9-12 instructed by roughly 125 faculty. Its mascot is the eagle and the school's colors are orange and black. Each class also has its own colors; freshmen always are yellow while sophomores, juniors, and seniors rotate through blue, green, and red respectively, with any given graduating class keeping its color for the entirety of its last three years.
Originally the school's colors were green and gold, but after the establishment of Service High School in 1971 (which picked green and yellow as its colors) the official colors were changed to the present orange and black.
West's current principal is Rick Stone.

Building

West High School is connected to Romig Middle School and they share a library and a track.
West High School survived the Good Friday Earthquake of March 28, 1964, though the second floor was mostly demolished and the first floor tile was damaged. Cracks are still visible in tile.
A science wing was added in 1992 with an indoor astronomy globe and eight science classrooms with attached labs.
A major renovation to add a new hallway, classrooms, pool and additional lockers was completed around 2000.

Auditorium

West is also home to an 2,000 seat auditorium — the largest of any high school in Alaska. At the time of its construction in 1954 and for 30 years after, it was the largest meeting space in the city. It hosted many events and concerts including the Grateful Dead, The Paul Taylor Dance Company, and ''A Prairie Home Companion''and even Ozzy Osbourne. The West High Alumni Association and the Anchorage Community Foundation are currently fundraising in order to refurbish the seats, rigging, and carpet of the much worn auditorium.^[1]

Eagle emblem

An original 1953 floor tile bearing the school seal (eagle logo and name) is kept well-preserved. It remains protected with a chain barrier to prevent people from walking on it. This chain barrier was erected to obviate a hazing ritual. It the long past, it was tradition that any one caught stepping on the seal had to clean it with a tooth brush. There were obvious difficulties with this tradition and to both honor the tradition and avoid hazing, the barrier was erected.
Another tradition was to "jump" the eagle during dryland training. The running of four laps around the halls approximates one mile and during this all freshman running were directed by upperclassmen to "jump" the chained area surrounding the eagle. If this task was completed they passed, if not they were alienated or if their legs didn't clear the barrier they ended up with the cleaning task.
Currently the West High track team holds their practices in the hallways during the winters. They remove this barrier so as to avoid any injury to the runners. The team members must still either run around the tile or jump over it, however if someone accidentally steps on it, there is no punishment.

Academics

International Baccalaureate

West High is currently the only high school in the Anchorage School District with an International Baccalaureate program and is one of two in the State of Alaska (Palmer High School is the other). The first class of 8 IB Diploma recipients graduated in 2006. Currently there are 9 full diploma students set to graduate in May of 2007.

School Through the Arts

West is also home to the School Through the Arts Program (STTA) which integrates the study of arts into high school courses. Freshmen take history and English classes with other STTA students, as well as a requisite STTA art studio course. Sophomores take STTA history and English course, but continue with other non-STTA arts classes. Upperclassemen are only required to continue taking arts classes and take their history and English classes with the rest of the school population.

Kanakngaq Program

Until the second semester of the 2006-2007 school year, West has housed the Kanakngaq Native Education program funded by The Cook Inlet Tribal Council. Recently CITC cut funding to Kanakngaq program so it will no longer be able to operate. The Kanakngaq Program was housed in the "cove," a large addition to West High containing a large open area with several smaller classrooms and a computer lab.

Graduation requirements

As with all schools in the Anchorage School District, students must complete 22.5 credits (1 semester = .5 credits), as well as pass the state mandated High School Graduation Qualifying Exam.^[2]

★ 'Language Arts': 4 credits (including one semester of composition)

★ 'Social Studies': 4 credits (one semester each of: Alaska Studies, Economics, U.S. Government, an Area Studies, and a history elective)

★ 'Mathematics': 2.5 credits (must complete Algebra I material or over)

★ 'Sciences': 3 credits (two semesters of; life sciences, physical science, and another science)

★ 'Physical Education': 1.5 credits (must pass Lifetime Personal Fitness test or take class, waivers offered for full season of school sponsored sports)

★ 'Electives': 7.5 credits

Extracurriculars

Newspaper

The school newspaper, the ''Eagle's Cry'', is part of the High School National Ad Network.

Yearbook

The school's yearbook, ''The Anchor'' has been continually published since 1917.

Drama, debate, and forensics

West's competitive DDF (drama, debate, and forensics) team is also one of the best in Alaska, and has won the overall state tournament in the Alaska School Activities Association's state championship 4A division for nine out of the past 11 years.

Theatre

West's theatre program was recently nominated and accepted as a representative of the American High School Theatre Festival at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August of 2007, where they performed ''Moby Dick, The Musical''. West is considered one of the premiere high school troupes in Alaska and presents more mainstage shows annually than any other high school in the Anchorage School District.
The threatre department's 2006-'07 season included: ''Eagle's Dare'', a night of improvisational comedy, Harper Lee's ''To Kill a Mockingbird'', a night of student-directed one-acts, ''Annie'', ''Much Ado About Nothing,'' and Moby Dick: The Musical.

Sports

West High School participates in all 18 sports sanctioned by the Alaska Schools Activities Association as well as bowling, which is sponsored by Anchorage Scholastic Bowling League. Students from Steller Secondary School often compete alongside students from West because Steller does not offer interscholastic sports.

See also

★ List of high schools in Alaska

External links

★ Official site

★ West High School's theatre homepage

★ West High School's alumni association

References

1. West Anchorage Auditorium website: "About." Retrieved March 21, 2007.
2. Anchorage School District: [
"Graduation requirements." Retrieved March 21, 2007.