WINTER PARK HIGH SCHOOL

'Winter Park High School' is a School in Winter Park, Florida and one of seventeen public high schools in Orange County. Winter Park High School is a magnet school for the International Baccalaureate program.

Contents

History

Sports

Athletic teams (as of 2006)

School rankings

Naval Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps

Naval Science Instructors

Performing arts

Drama

Orchestra

Chorus

Band

References in Popular Magazines

External links

History

Winter Park High School was constructed at 528 Huntington Avenue in 1923. It was one of the first high schools in Orange County, Florida. The school remained in this location until construction began in 1969 at the present location. Renovations at the main campus began in 2004 and are completed. The original campus remains in use to this day as the Winter Park High School Ninth Grade Center, a campus exclusively used by ninth-grade students.

Sports

Athletic teams (as of 2006)

★ Baseball

★ Basketball

★ Cheerleading

★ Crew

★ Cross Country Running

★ Flag Football

★ Football

★ Golf

★ Lacrosse

★ Soccer

★ Softball

★ Swimming

★ Tennis

★ Track and Field

★ Volleyball

★ Water Polo

★ Weightlifting

★ Wrestling

School rankings

For the second year in a row, Winter Park High School was awarded a "B" rating for the 2006-2007 school year. This may be considered an honor seeing that out of all of the Orange County high schools, a "B" was the highest grade awarded. The Florida Department of Education gave the school a "B" rating in the 2005-2006 school year. Previously, the school had an "A" rating in 2000-2001, 2001-2002, 2002-2003, 2003-2004 and 2004-2005.

Naval Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps

The Naval Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps unit at Winter Park High School is the largest campus organization with over 200 members actively participating. The unit has been honored as an Area Seven distinguished unit for all but one of its thirteen years in existence. The unit's competition teams consistently are state finalists.

Naval Science Instructors

Commander David Haynes, U.S. Navy (Retired)
Senior Chief Petty Officer Joel Matthias, U.S. Navy (Retired)

Performing arts

Winter Park High school has a notable performing arts program. In 2003-2004, it was named a Performing Arts Demonstration School by the Florida Music Educators Association. The Band, Orchestra, and Choral programs consistently receive superior ratings at state festivals and all three are recognized nationally as top rate public high school performing arts programs. In addition, Winter Park has in the past had a top-rated Speech and Debate program. The Performing Arts Department Chair is Joel Moody.

Drama

'Director'
Kit Haskett
'President'
Lor Bridwell
The Winter Park High School Drama department is directed by Christopher Haskett. Many students participate, often crossing over from the other performing arts disciplines. The two most recent plays, M
★ A
★ S
★ H and To Kill A Mockingbird, were both enormous successes. In addition to school wide plays, students enroll in daytime drama classes where they learn the essentials of acting and of stagecraft. Many students excelled at their District performances this year, earning the superior ratings necessary to move on to state.

Orchestra

'Director'
Laurie Bitters
'President'
Zena Patel
The various ensembles in the WPHS Orchestra program have a long history of superior ratings at both State and District Music Performance Assessments sponsored by the Florida Orchestra Association. The program consists of four orchestras: Concert Orchestras, which is a ninth grade orchestra, Chamber Orchestra, which is open to all 10-12 grade students, Winter Park Philharmonic ("Park Phil"), which is available to 10-12 grade students by audition, and Lyric Strings, which is available to 10-12 grade students by audition. Freshmen who are selected to be in the Park Philharmonic must take another music class, usually the Concert orchestra but a band or chorus class in some cases. Under the direction of Charles Laux, the Winter Park Philharmonic was selected to perform at the 60th Annual Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic in Chicago in December 2006.

★ wporchestra.org - Official WPHS Orchestra Website

Chorus

'Directors'
Matthew Swope and Sherlee Huang
'President'
Danielle Smith
The Choral Department at Winter Park High School comprises six choirs and various ensembles. The non-auditioned choirs are the Freshman Women’s Chorus, the Wildcat Men’s Ensemble, and Cantabile. There are three advanced level choirs in the Choral Department: Park Singers, Belle Chanson, and Concert Choir. It is commonly believed that without the superb leadership skills of the President and chorus officers the chorus would not perform to the caliber that it currently achieves.

Band

'Director'
Joel Moody
'President'
Grant Lewis
The band Department at Winter Park High School comprises the Concert Band, Symphonic Band, Wind Ensemble, Jazz Ensemble, Visual Performance Ensemble, and the 165-member ''The Sound of the Wildcats'' Marching Band. "The Sound of the Wildcats" holds the distinction of being on of the few high schools in the country to have its own unique fight song(most bands borrow college fight songs). The Band has consistently received straight superior ratings at the Florida Bandmaster's Association Music Performance Assessment with the Marching Band, Jazz Ensemble, and Wind Ensemble. ''The Sound of the Wildcats'' Marching Band has participated in many events, including the 2000 Sylvania Alamo Bowl, the 2002 Fiesta Bowl National Band Championship and Fiesta Bowl Parade, and the 2005 Autozone Liberty Bowl at which the band was featured pre-game. The Wind Ensemble has received Straight Superior Ratings at the District and State FBA Assessments, has performed at the 2002 Bands of America National Concert Band Festival, and was one of the performing ensembles at the 60th Annual Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic.

References in Popular Magazines

In 2006, Winter Park High School was listed at 291 in Newsweek's 1,200 Top U.S. Schools, with the criteria being which schools have the largest percentage of students taking Honors AP or IB exams. In 2005 WPHS was also named the number one party high school in the nation.

External links

★ Winter Park High School official website

★ Winter Park High School IB Program

★ FCAT scores for Winter Park High School by Grade

★ Demographic breakdown of Winter Park High School

★ wpchorus.com - Official WPHS Chorus Website

★ wporchestra.org - Official WPHS Orchestra Website

★ - Official WPHS Cross Country Website