George Washington High School is a

public high school State schools (in England, Wales, Australia and New Zealand) or public schools ( Scottish English and North American English) are generally primary or secondary schools that educate all students without charge. They are funded in whole or in ...

in Charleston,

West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the ...

, United States. The school was nicknamed "The Hill", as it is located in the South Hills neighborhood, and has been referred to as "GeeDub" dating back at least to the 1970s.

District

The school serves the South Hills neighborhood of the city and several incorporated areas nearby. It is one of eight public high schools in

Kanawha County Kanawha County ( ) is a county in the U.S. state of West Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 180,745, making it West Virginia's most populous county. The county seat is Charleston, which is also the state capital. Kanawha Cou ...

History

The school, which opened in 1965, based on a plan developed by local educators, members of the West Virginia Department of Education, and faculty from Ohio State University. The school's ideals of "self-direction", flexible scheduling and independent study, were intended to provide students with opportunities to direct themselves and to prepare them for college academic life. The high school's first graduating class (who attended high school entirely at George Washington High) included fifteen

National Merit Scholar The National Merit Scholarship Program is a United States academic scholarship competition for recognition and university scholarships administered by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC), a privately funded, not-for-profit organizat ...

finalists. In 1974 George Washington High School became involved in a notable textbook controversy, the so-called "Battle of the Books" . In order to comply with a 1970 mandate to provide multicultural reading material, the board of education for Kanawha County took up a motion to purchase 300 different titles of new language arts textbooks. The titles included '' Soul on Ice'' by

Eldridge Cleaver Leroy Eldridge Cleaver (August 31, 1935 – May 1, 1998) was an American writer and political activist who became an early leader of the Black Panther Party. In 1968, Cleaver wrote '' Soul on Ice'', a collection of essays that, at the time of i ...

and '' The Autobiography of Malcolm X''. After a public outcry, the board decided to not purchase the books, but community was still in turmoil.Provenzo, Eugene F. ''Religious Fundamentalism and American Education'' (Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press: 1990), pp. 20-24. In September, students at George Washington High School began a 30-day walk out in protest of the removal of the books. By November the school voted that all but one of the books be returned to the schools. During the 1983-84 school year, the United States Department of Education recognized the high school as a National School of Excellence in the President's Search for Excellence in Education. George Washington High School made national headlines in 1992, when, during an illegal off-campus Senior Skip Day party with students from

South Charleston High School South Charleston High School is a public high school in West Virginia serving grades 9 through 12. It is located south of the Kanawha River, west of the city of Charleston, West Virginia, Charleston, in the city of South Charleston, West Virginia ...

, two students were fatally shot in an argument over payment for a keg of beer.

Academics

The school's average SAT scores for Math and Verbal were 480 and 495, as of 2020. In 2005, it was the only high school in

to win a blue ribbon for excelling in

No Child Left Behind The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) was a U.S. Act of Congress that reauthorized the Elementary and Secondary Education Act; it included Title I provisions applying to disadvantaged students. It supported standards-based education ...

requirements. The school offers a wide array of

Advanced Placement Advanced Placement (AP) is a program in the United States and Canada created by the College Board which offers college-level curricula and examinations to high school students. American colleges and universities may grant placement and course ...

courses to students such as English Literature and Composition, English Language and Composition, Biology, Physics, Chemistry, Calculus, Statistics, Computer Science, US History, US Government and Politics, Art History, Music Theory, World History,and Spanish.

Extracurricular and co-curricular activities

George Washington High School has many extra curricular and co-curricular activities, including baseball, softball, JROTC, football, volleyball, swimming, soccer, cross-country, golf, basketball, tennis, wrestling, lacrosse, and track teams, many of which consistently compete for state championships. Music programs are also important at GW. The band is under the direction of Mark Hartmann. The award-winning band is the 2020 West Virginia Music Educators Association State Honor Band, an award held by the band every other year since 1992. The GW marching band has won the Gazette-Mail Kanawha County Majorette and Band Festival Grand Championship numerous times (1986, 1991–92, 1994, 1996, 1998–2000, 2017-2022), and has had five girls named Miss Kanawha Majorette (in 1989, 2010, 2012, 2015, 2016, 2021).

Notable alumni

The school's noted alumni include: * Shawn Clark,

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football in the United States, American football rules first gained populari ...

head coach, currently at

Appalachian State Appalachian State University (; Appalachian, App State, App, or ASU) is a public university in Boone, North Carolina. It was founded as a teachers college in 1899 by brothers B. B. and D. D. Dougherty and the latter's wife, Lillie Shull Doug ...

* Jennifer Garner, actress *

Danny Jones Daniel Alan David Jones''Births, Marriages & Deaths Index of England & Wales, 1984–2005'' (born 12 March 1986) is an English singer-songwriter and musician who is one of the lead vocalists and the lead guitarist for pop-rock band McFly. Jone ...

, former Mayor of

Charleston, West Virginia Charleston is the capital and most populous city of West Virginia. Located at the confluence of the Elk and Kanawha rivers, the city had a population of 48,864 at the 2020 census and an estimated population of 48,018 in 2021. The Charlesto ...

Conor Knighton Conor Knighton (born February 1, 1981) is an American actor, television host, host, and television producer. He is currently a correspondent for ''CBS Sunday Morning''. In 2016, Knighton launched "On The Trail," a year-long, cross-country look a ...

actor An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), lit ...

and television host *

Ann Magnuson Ann Magnuson (born January 4, 1956) is an American actress, performance artist, and nightclub performer. She was described by ''The New York Times'' in 1990 as "An endearing theatrical chameleon who has as many characters at her fingertips as Lil ...

, actress *

Ryan Switzer Ryan Switzer (born November 4, 1994) is a former American football wide receiver and punt returner. Switzer played college football at North Carolina and was drafted by the Dallas Cowboys in the fourth round (133rd overall) of the 2017 NFL Draf ...

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...

wide receiver and

return specialist A return specialist or kick returner is a player on the special teams unit of a gridiron football team who specializes in returning punts and kickoffs. There are few players who are exclusively return specialists; most also play another position ...

for the Cleveland Browns of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the majo ...

(NFL) * Sam Trammell, actor *

Anne White Anne White (born September 28, 1961) is an American former professional tennis player from Charleston, West Virginia. She is most famous for wearing a white body suit at Wimbledon in 1985. Early life White attended John Adams Junior High School ...

, a former professional

tennis player Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball cov ...

* Bob Wise, former Governor of West Virginia *Matt Nelson, owner and operator of

WeRateDogs WeRateDogs is a Twitter account that rates people's dogs with a humorous comment about the dog. The account was started in 2015 by college student Matt Nelson, and has received international media attention both for its popularity and for the atte ...

twitter

References

External links

Official websiteOnline community for alumni
(link not functioning as of 8/26/16) {{authority control Buildings and structures in Charleston, West Virginia Schools in Kanawha County, West Virginia Public high schools in West Virginia Educational institutions established in 1965 1965 establishments in West Virginia