Westside High School is a

secondary school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' secondary education, lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) ...

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

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. It serves grades 9 through 12 and is part of the

Houston Independent School District The Houston Independent School District (HISD) is the largest public school system in Texas, and the eighth-largest in the United States. Houston ISD serves as a community school district for most of the city of Houston and several nearby and ...

. The school is located at 14201 Briar Forest in

Houston, Texas Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

, in the 77077 zip code. Westside High School is outside of

Beltway 8 Beltway 8 (BW8), the Sam Houston Parkway, along with the Sam Houston Tollway, is an beltway around the city of Houston, Texas, United States, lying entirely within Harris County. Beltway 8, a state highway maintained by the Texas ...

, east of State Highway 6, inside State Highway 99 (Grand Parkway), and south of

Interstate 10 Interstate 10 (I-10) is the southernmost cross-country highway in the American Interstate Highway System. I-10 is the fourth-longest Interstate in the United States at , following I-90, I-80, and I-40. This freeway is part of the originally pl ...

(Katy Freeway) in the Briar Forest area. Westside is HISD's Magnet School for Integrated Technology. The program allows students to look at technology from one of five aspects: Fine Arts, Business, Media Relations, Applied Science/Health Science, and Computing Sciences. During the first year, all Magnet students take a technology survey course, a modular course that introduces them to the five strands of the program. The second year, students are asked to choose one of the five strands on which to focus their elective courses. The school's academic programs, ranked #463, #196, #230, #245, and #1,958th in ''

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis (businessman), Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print m ...

'' magazine's 2005, 2006 2007, 2008, and 2013 lists, respectively, of the top 2,000 high schools in the United States. many students in other parts of Houston ISD transferred to Westside to escape home schools that do not have a good academic performance, causing the attendance figures of those schools to suffer. Westside athletics compete as the Westside Wolves, and the school's mascot is Westley the Wolf.

History

Westside opened in 2000 as a brand-new fifty-million-dollar building, taking about 1,000 students from Lee High School (now

Margaret Long Wisdom High School Margaret Long Wisdom High School, formerly Robert E. Lee High School, is a publicly funded secondary school located in Southwest Houston, Texas, United States 77057. The Houston Independent School District, the 7th largest school district in the ...

), which was experiencing overcrowding.Viadero, Debra.
Personal Touches
" ''

Education Week ''Education Week'' is an independent news organization that has covered K–12 education since 1981. It is owned by Editorial Projects in Education (EPE), a nonprofit organization, and headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland in Greater Washington ...

''. June 16, 2004. Retrieved April 11, 2009. Westside planned to compete with Bellaire and Lamar high schools in Houston ISD for "premier" status. It initially had a reputation as a school that could attract private school students to a public school.Spivak, Todd.
The Also-Rans
" ''

Houston Press The ''Houston Press'' is an online newspaper published in Houston, Texas, United States. It is headquartered in the Midtown area. It was also a weekly print newspaper until November 2017. The publication is supported entirely by advertising ...

''. March 2, 2006. Retrieved April 20, 2009. When Westside opened, residents of the Lee attendance boundary were given the option to attend Westside instead of Lee, with no free transportation provided. The school at first had 1,772 students, including 340 students who, in the previous school year, were not enrolled in HISD.Hung, Melissa. "Going Public." ''

''. Thursday September 28, 2000. p
1
Retrieved on April 2, 2014. Westside is so-named because it is located in western Houston.School Histories: the Stories Behind the Names
." Houston Independent School District. Retrieved September 24, 2008. Scott Van Beck was the first principal of Westside. In 2005 he was promoted to being the West District head. Later in that year, Paul Castro became Westside principal; he was 29 at the time he had his first school principal job. - This content includes an interview with Castro That year about 300 students from New Orleans, displaced by

Hurricane Katrina Hurricane Katrina was a destructive Category 5 Atlantic hurricane that caused over 1,800 fatalities and $125 billion in damage in late August 2005, especially in the city of New Orleans and the surrounding areas. It was at the time the cost ...

, enrolled at Westside, causing overcrowding and making the overall student population over 3,000. According to the October 2006 HISD "For Your Information" newsletter, Westside was one of four high schools that took the most refugees from

. By March 2006, Westside had posted slightly lower

SAT The SAT ( ) is a standardized test widely used for college admissions in the United States. Since its debut in 1926, its name and scoring have changed several times; originally called the Scholastic Aptitude Test, it was later called the Schol ...

and graduation rates than Lamar and Bellaire. In a March 2006 ''

'' article, Dr. Robert Sanborn, the president and CEO of the organization Children at Risk, said that Westside's "slow progress", as paraphrased by the article's author Todd Spivak, was more disappointing than Lamar and Bellaire's dropout rates. In fall of the 2008–2009 school year, a petroleum academy by the name of Westside Engineering and Geosciences Academy was opened at Westside High School. In 2007, 6% of high school-aged children zoned to Westside chose to attend alternative Houston ISD schools. In 2010, Richard Connelly of the ''Houston Press'' said that Westside became "something of a success story for HISD." In 2010 Castro was transferred to become the new principal of Lee High School (now

).Radcliffe, Jennifer.
The two faces of Lee High
"

''

Houston Chronicle The ''Houston Chronicle'' is the largest daily newspaper in Houston, Texas, United States. , it is the third-largest newspaper by Sunday circulation in the United States, behind only ''The New York Times'' and the ''Los Angeles Times''. With it ...

''. February 8, 2010. Retrieved on March 3, 2010.

Recognitions

The Westside dance troupe Inertia Dance Co. has been featured in ''People'' magazine and on

Good Morning America ''Good Morning America'' (often abbreviated as ''GMA'') is an American morning television program that is broadcast on ABC. It debuted on November 3, 1975, and first expanded to weekends with the debut of a Sunday edition on January 3, 1993. Th ...

. At one point, a reality show was planned for the troupe. Westside won the Division II State Lacrosse title in 2004. Westside High School's

rugby Rugby may refer to: Sport * Rugby football in many forms: ** Rugby league: 13 players per side *** Masters Rugby League *** Mod league *** Rugby league nines *** Rugby league sevens *** Touch (sport) *** Wheelchair rugby league ** Rugby union: 1 ...

team incorporated with a public high school in the

. The Westside Wrestling program has won Districts for the past 10 years and has had four individual state champions. Westside High School won its first SECME State Competition in 2008.

Campus

Westside is on a campus,McClam, Erin.
Students adjusting after Hurricane Katrina
" ''

Seattle Times ''The Seattle Times'' is a daily newspaper serving Seattle, Washington, United States. It was founded in 1891 and has been owned by the Blethen family since 1896. ''The Seattle Times'' has the largest circulation of any newspaper in Washington st ...

''. Sunday November 13, 2005. Retrieved on November 3, 2013. - Also in the ''

Eugene Register-Guard ''The Register-Guard'' is a daily newspaper in the northwestern United States, published in Eugene, Oregon. It was formed in a 1930 merger of two Eugene papers, the ''Eugene Daily Guard'' and the ''Morning Register''. The paper serves the Eugene- ...

'' as "Katrina's kids learn to improvise", Sunday November 13, 2005, p
A4
located along Briar Forest Road, near

Texas State Highway 6 State Highway 6 (SH 6) runs from the Red River, the Texas–Oklahoma state line, to northwest of Galveston, where it is known as the Old Galveston Highway. In Sugar Land and Missouri City, it is known as Alvin-Sugarland Road and runs per ...

.Hung, Melissa. "Going Public." ''

''. Thursday September 28, 2000. p
2
Retrieved on April 2, 2014. Several gated communities are in proximity to the school. The school was built for $50 million. The school has one auditorium, two theaters, four athletic fields, 11 music practice rooms, an orchestra hall, a band hall, a broadcast studio, a ceramics studio, and computer labs. Melissa Hung of the ''

'' wrote in 2000 that "The eating area resembles a college food court more than a high school cafeteria."

Athletics

Westside High School's sports' mascot is the "Wolf". The girls' teams are sometimes known as the "Lady Wolves". Sports at the school include: *American football *Baseball *Basketball (boys & girls) *Cheerleading *Cross-country (boys & girls) *Golf (boys & girls) *Lacrosse (boys & girls) *Rugby (boys) *Soccer (boys & girls) *Softball *Swimming/diving (boys & girls) *Tennis (boys & girls) *Track & field (boys & girls) *Volleyball *Water polo (boys & girls) *Wrestling (boys & girls)

Organizations and clubs

Westside has about 50 clubs and organizations in addition to its athletic programs.

Special interest

Asian Cultural Society, Bike Club, Black Student Union, BSA Advancement, BPA, Chinese Club, Christians on Campus,

Close Up A close-up or closeup in filmmaking, television production, still photography, and the comic strip medium is a type of shot that tightly frames a person or object. Close-ups are one of the standard shots used regularly with medium and long ...

, Drone Club, Ecology Club, EOE Step Club,

Fellowship of Christian Athletes The Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) is an international non-profit Christian sports ministry founded in 1954 and based in Kansas City, Missouri. It has staff offices located throughout the United States and abroad. History FCA was found ...

, Fitness Club, FRC, French Club, Friends Club,

Future Farmers of America National FFA Organization is an American 501(c)(3) youth organization, specifically a career and technical student organization, based on middle and high school classes that promote and support agricultural education. It was founded in 1925 at Vi ...

, Future Teachers of America, Gaming/Anime Club, Gay-Straight Alliance,

Guitar Hero ''Guitar Hero'' is a series of music rhythm game video games first released in November 2005, in which players use a guitar-shaped game controller to simulate playing primarily lead, bass guitar, and rhythm guitar across numerous songs. Player ...

Club, History Club, HOSA, Hot Air Balloon Club, Howlin' Respect, Humanities, Investment Club, Kite Flying Society, Korean Pop Culture Club (K-Pop), Latin Club, Math Club, Mental Health Awareness Club, Movie Buffs, Name That Book, Theatre Production, Technical Theatre, Playwrighting They Say Literacy Magazine Club, SECME,

Ultimate Frisbee Ultimate, originally known as ultimate Frisbee, is a non-contact team sport played with a frisbee flung by hand. Ultimate was developed in 1968 by AJ Gator in Maplewood, New Jersey. Although ultimate resembles many traditional sports in its ath ...

, Young Democrats,

VEX robotics VEX Robotics is a robotics program for elementary through university students, and a subset of Innovation First International. The VEX Robotics competitions and programs are managed by the Robotics Education and Competition Foundation (RECF). In ...

, Young Liberal Minds of America

Young Republicans The Young Republican National Federation, commonly referred to as the Young Republicans or YRNF, is a 527 organization for members of the Republican Party of the United States between the ages of 18 and 40. It has both a national organization ...

, W.O.R.D.

Performing arts

Art Club (2D and 3D Animation, Drawing and Painting), National Thespian Honor Society, Orchestra, Band, Speech and Debate Team, Tri-Music Honor Society, Westside Choir, Westside Pride Dance Team, JV Inertia Dance Company, Inertia Dance Company, Colorguard, and Marching Band.

Academics and honors

Asian Honor Society,

National Honor Society The National Honor Society (NHS) is a nationwide organization for high school students in the United States and outlying territories, which consists of many chapters in high schools. Selection is based on four criteria: scholarship (academic achi ...

Spanish National Honor Society Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...

, Quiz Bowl
Westside Engineering and Geosciences Academy
and the Academic Scientific Demonstration Club

Service and spirit

Cheerleaders, Drill Team, Ecology Club,

Interact Club Rotary International is one of the largest service organizations in the world. Its stated mission is to "provide service to others, promote integrity, and advance world understanding, goodwill, and peace through hefellowship of business, prof ...

Key Club Key Club International, also called Key Club, is an international service organization for high school students. As a student-led organization, Key Club's goal is to encourage leadership through serving others. Key Club International is the hig ...

, JROTC, L.I.F.E, Recycling Club, S.A.V.E. Club, SADD, Marching Band and Colorguard

News

''Canidae'' (yearbook), ''The Howler'' (newspaper)

Outback program

Westside has a three-year entrepreneurship program designed by the National Restaurant Education Foundation to teach students about how businesses run.

Outback Steakhouse Outback Steakhouse is an American chain of Australian-themed casual dining restaurants, serving American cuisine, based in Tampa, Florida. The chain has over 1,000 locations in 23 countries throughout North and South America, Asia, and Australia ...

sponsors the program and helped build a full-scale commercial kitchen and dining hall directly into the school. The school utilizes the restaurant as part of an entrepreneurship course, titled "Entrepreneur 101: Realizing the American Dream.""The main course." (Food for Thought).(Outback Steakhouse Inc., Westside High School, Entrepreneur 101: Realizing the American Dream, Houston, Texas)(Brief Article) '' Restaurants & Institutions'', April 1, 2003, Vol.113(8), p.24(1). The course, using a curriculum designed by the Texas Restaurant Association Education Foundation (TRAEF), involves classroom study for first year (freshmen) students and restaurant operation performed by second year (sophomore) and third year (junior) students, supervised by Outback general managers and teachers. As of 2003 there were six classes with a combined total of 140 students. Students learn the production aspect of the restaurant business in addition to basic business principles and cooking methods in the first year of the program, culminating in ServSafe certification by the end of the second year. Aside from the program itself, the restaurant is open to students and the general public during lunchtime hours in the school year. Outback also caters exclusively for school functions.

Areas served

When Westside opened in 2000, it relieved the former Lee High School of about 1,000 students that year.Grossman, Wendy. "Tee Time." ''

''. Thursday November 13, 2003. Retrieved December 8, 2010
1
The Westside High School zoneWestside High School Attendance Zone
" Houston Independent School District. covers small portions of the Westchase district that are north of Westheimer and the South Eldridge Parkway portion of the

Houston Energy Corridor The Energy Corridor is a business district in Houston, Texas, located on the west side of the metropolitan area between Beltway 8 and the Grand Parkway. The district straddles a stretch of Interstate 10 (the Katy Freeway) from Kirkwood Road west ...

. Westside also covers several other neighborhoods, including Ashford Hill, Ashford West, Ashford South, the Houston ISD part of Ashford Forest, Walnut Bend, Briar Oaks, Briargrove Park, Briar Village, Briarhills, Lakeside Enclave, Lakeside Forest, Lakeside Landing, Lakeside Place,

Parkway Villages Parkway Villages is a 577-lot,newspaper service accessible with a library card number and PIN. The original plan called for 464 lots. From February to October 1993, the first 43 houses in the development were sold. Ralph Bivins of the ''Houston C ...

, Reflections, Shadowbriar, and April Village. Several gated communities, including Lakes of Parkway, are zoned to Westside High School. Students residing in the

Margaret Long Wisdom Margaret is a female first name, derived via French () and Latin () from grc, μαργαρίτης () meaning "pearl". The Greek is borrowed from Indo-Iranian languages, Persian. Margaret has been an English name since the 11th century, and r ...

(Lee) attendance zone,Wisdom High School Attendance Zone
Houston Independent School District. including the Uptown district, the neighborhoods of Briargrove, Briarcroft,

Larchmont Larchmont is a village located within the Town of Mamaroneck in Westchester County, New York, approximately northeast of Midtown Manhattan. The population of the village was 5,864 at the 2010 census. In February 2019, Bloomberg ranked Larc ...

, Briar Meadow,

Tanglewood Tanglewood is a music venue in the towns of Lenox and Stockbridge in the Berkshire Hills of western Massachusetts. It has been the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra since 1937. Tanglewood is also home to three music schools: the T ...

Gulfton Gulfton is a community in Southwest Houston, Texas, United States that includes a group of apartment complexes that primarily house refugee and immigrant populations. It is located between the 610 Loop and Beltway 8, west of the City of Bellaire ...

, Tanglewilde, Shenandoah, Sharpstown Country Club Estates, Woodlake Forest, West Oaks, Jeanetta, and St. George Place (Lamar Terrace) and small portions of Westchase east of Gessner, may go to Lamar High, Margaret Long Wisdom High, or Westside High School. Small portions of the city of

Hunters Creek Village Hunters Creek Village is a city in Harris County, Texas, United States, part of the metropolitan area. The population was 4,385 at the 2020 census. It is part of a collection of upscale residential communities in west Houston known as the Memor ...

and

Piney Point Village Piney Point Village is a city in Harris County, Texas, United States. The population was 3,125 at the 2010 census. Piney Point Village is the wealthiest place in Texas, as ranked by per capita income. It is part of a collection of upscale resident ...

are zoned to Margaret Long Wisdom with Lamar and Westside as options.Home page
of Lee High School, as of May 9, 2005. In late 2005, the school absorbed more than 200 refugees from

who had moved into the Westside zone. residents of the Westside zone are eligible for a transfer to Lamar High School.

Feeder patterns

Feeding from the Westside boundary

Elementary schools that directly feed into Westside include: *Ashford (Pre-K through 2)Ashford Elementary Attendance Zone
"

. *Askew (Kindergarten through 5)Askew Elementary Attendance Zone
" Houston Independent School District. *Barbara Bush *Daily * Walnut Bend *Emerson (partial) (the rest of Emerson indirectly feeds into Westside)Emerson Elementary Attendance Zone
" Houston Independent School District. Middle schools that directly feed into Westside include all of West Briar and parts of Revere.Revere Middle Attendance Zone
" Houston Independent School District. Residents of the Westside attendance zone and the Revere attendance zone may apply to West Briar. Residents zoned to Ashford, Askew, Bush, Daily, Emerson, and Walnut Bend may attend Shadowbriar Elementary School; therefore it is a feeder school for Westside.Energy Corridor Boundaries

Archive
.

. Retrieved on March 18, 2016. Residents of the Emerson Elementary School attendance zone may apply for th
Briarmeadow Charter School
so the K-8 school feeds into Westside.
." Briarmeadow Charter School.

Feeding from the Margaret Long Wisdom boundary

Other schools also feed into Westside, since students zoned to Margaret Long Wisdom High School have the option to go to Westside High School or Lamar High School. * Briargrove *Benavidez *Piney Point *Rodriguez (portions) *Braeburn *Condit *Cunningham *Emerson *St. George PlaceSt. George Place Elementary School Attendance Zone
" ''

''. Retrieved on April 20, 2009. *Sutton Middle schools that feed into Lee (and therefore also feed into Westside) include: *Grady Partial: *Long * Pershing *Revere K-8 schools that feed into Lee (and therefore also feed into Westside) include: *Pilgrim All pupils zoned to Long and Pershing Middle Schools may attend

Pin Oak Middle School A pin is a device used for fastening objects or material together. Pin or PIN may also refer to: Computers and technology * Personal identification number (PIN), to access a secured system ** PIN pad, a PIN entry device * PIN, a former Dutch ...

. Accordingly, Pin Oak also feeds into Lee High School. Residents of the Briargrove, Emerson, Pilgrim, and Piney Point elementary attendance zones may apply for th
Briarmeadow Charter School
so the K-8 school feeds into Lee. Residents zoned to Emerson may attend Shadowbriar Elementary School; therefore it is a feeder school for Wisdom (and therefore, Westside).

Feeding from magnet schools

Some students who graduate from

T. H. Rogers School Thomas Horace Rogers School is an alternative primary and secondary Public school (government funded), public school and part of the Houston Independent School District. The school is at 5840 San Felipe in Houston, Texas, Houston, Texas, United ...

in the 8th grade choose to go to Westside.

Feeding from private schools

Students of some private schools, such a
Grace School
John Paul II School, and

Presbyterian School Presbyterian School is a private, coeducational Christian PreK-8 day school in the Museum District, Houston. Presbyterian School is composed of three divisions: an Early Childhood division, Alpha through Pre-kindergarten, a Lower School divis ...

, matriculate to Westside.Beyond PS
," ''Presbyterian School''

Transportation

Houston ISD provides

school bus A school bus is any type of bus owned, leased, contracted to, or operated by a school or school district. It is regularly used to transport students to and from school or school-related activities, but not including a charter bus or transit bus ...

es for students who live more than away from the school or who have major obstacles between their houses and the school. Students are eligible if they are zoned to Westside or are in the Westside magnet program. A

METRO Metro, short for metropolitan, may refer to: Geography * Metro (city), a city in Indonesia * A metropolitan area, the populated region including and surrounding an urban center Public transport * Rapid transit, a passenger railway in an urba ...

bus stop (Briar Forest Drive @ Briar Home Drive) is located next to the school. Bus line 153 (Downtown/Galleria) stops at Briar Forest and Briar Home.

Notable people

* Sydney Colson - WNBA player and NCAA national champion with

Texas A&M Aggies women's basketball The Texas A&M Aggies women's basketball team represents Texas A&M University (TAMU) in NCAA Division I women's basketball. The team is coached by Joni Taylor, entering her first season; she replaced Gary Blair, who retired after 37 years as a c ...

* Germain Ifedi - NFL offensive lineman * Martin Ifedi- NFL player *

Daniel Mengden Daniel Joseph Mengden (born February 19, 1993) is an American professional baseball pitcher in the Kansas City Royals organization. He has previously played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Oakland Athletics and Kansas City Royals, and in th ...

MLB Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

pitcher *

Cierra Ramirez Cierra Alexa Ramirez (born March 9, 1995) is an American actress and singer. She is best known for playing Mariana Adams Foster in the Freeform television series '' The Fosters'' and reprising her role in the spin-off series '' Good Trouble'', w ...

- actress on hit TV show '' The Fosters'' * Natalie Rial – voice actress, sister of

Monica Rial Monica Jean Rial (born October 5, 1975) is an American voice actress and ADR script writer affiliated with Funimation and Seraphim Digital/Sentai Filmworks. She provides voices for English language versions of Japanese anime films and televisi ...

* Payton Turner - NFL defensive end

References

External links

Westside High School
* (Archive) {{authority control Educational institutions established in 2000 Houston Independent School District high schools Magnet schools in Houston Public high schools in Houston 2000 establishments in Texas