Westside High School, which serves grades 9 through 12, is part of the Houston Independent School District. Its current principal is Paul Castro, who has been in the position since the beginning of the 2005-2006 school year; Castro had been principal at West Briar Middle School prior to becoming the principal of Westside. Westside has only had one other principal, Scott VanBeck, who opened the school in 2000 and is currently the Superintendent of HISD's West District. It is located at 14201 Briar Forest in Houston, Texas, in the 77077 zip code area. Westside High School is outside of Beltway 8 in the Briar Forest neighborhood.
Westside is known for the Inertia Dance Company, a dance troupe which has been featured in People magazine and on Good Morning America. At one point, a reality show was planned for the troupe, but the idea was later scrapped because of technical issues.
Westside High School is also known for its exceptional academic programs, ranking #196 in Newsweek Magazine's 2006 list [link] of the top 1,200 high schools in the United States. Among the school's faculty is the 2005 Houston Independent School District Secondary Teacher of the Year, Nobuo Cedric French.
Westside High School has multiple state-ranked athletics programs. Westside won the Division II State Lacrosse title in 2004. Westside High School also is a haven for nonconventional athletics programs, as it has the only rugby team incorporated with a public high school in the Houston Independent School District.
Westside High School has Houston ISD's magnet program for integrated technology.
Westside High School once had a widely printed monthly school newspaper "The Howler" from 2001 to 2005. The newspaper was notable from 2002 to 2004 for controversial articles and OP/ED pieces on unconventional topics such as abortion, racism, homosexuality, and sex in schools (normally censored or admonished topics in high school periodicals [link][link]). The Howler wasn't financially supported by the school and generated revenue from ad placement and a small charge (25¢), eventually switching to being a free paper.
Areas served
When Westside opened in 2000, it relieved Lee High School of about 1,000 students that year alone.
The Westside High School zone covers small portions of the Westchase district that are north of Westheimer. Westside also covers several other neighborhoods, including Ashford Hill, Ashford Park, Ashford West, Ashford South, the Houston ISD part of Ashford Forest, Walnut Bend, Briar Oaks, Briargrove Park, Briar Village, Briarhills, Parkway Villages, Reflections, Shadowbriar, and April Village.
Several gated communities, including Lakes of Parkway, are zoned to Westside High School.
Students residing in the Lee attendance zone, including the Uptown district, the neighborhoods of Briargrove, Larchmont, Briar Meadow, and St. George Place, and small portions of Westchase east of Gessner, may go to Lamar High, Lee High, or Westside High School.
In late 2005, the school absorbed more than 200 Hurricane Katrina refugees who had moved into the Westside zone.
Transportation
Houston ISD provides school buses for students who live more than two miles 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 bus stop (Briar Forest Drive @ Briar Home Drive) is located next to the school. Bus line 53 (Downtown/Galleria) stops at Briar Forest and Briar Home.
Feeder patterns
Elementary schools that directly feed into Westside include:
Ashford (Pre-K through 2)
Askew (Kindergarten through 4)
Barbara Bush
Shadowbriar (3 through 5)
(partial)
Walnut Bend (the rest of Walnut Bend indirectly feeds into Westside)
Middle schools that directly feed into Westside include all of West Briar and parts of Revere. Daily Elementary School will feed into Westside when it opens in fall 2006.
Other schools also feed into Westside, since students zoned to Lee High School also have the option to go to Westside High School or Lamar High School.
Elementary schools that feed into Lee (and therefore also feed into Westside) include:
Briargrove
Benavidez
Emerson
Pilgrim
Piney Point
Rodriguez
(partial)
Condit,
Cunningham
Neff
Sutton
Walnut Bend (the rest of Walnut Bend directly feeds into Westside)
White
Middle schools that feed into Lee (and therefore also feed into Westside) include all of Grady, and parts of Long, Pershing, Revere and Sharpstown. All pupils zoned to Long and Pershing Middle Schools may attend Pin Oak Middle School; therefore Pin Oak also feeds into Lee High School and Westside High School.
Controversies
On June 22, 2005 a prank attack involving Molotov cocktails thrown at the building in the middle of the night resulted in minor damage. One classroom sustained a broken window and fire damage. As it was during summer break, no school activities were interrupted.[link]
Westside High School used to be notable for a yearly senior prank ritual that involved the incoming Senior class filling the Commons area and hallways with toilet paper and overturned chairs and tables on the first day of school. The ritual was slightly sanctioned by the principal and staff often either by them lightly participating or simply ignoring it. However in the fall semester of 2003 controversy erupted when the senior prank went overboard and resulted in excess trash indoors and outdoors. This normally wouldn't have been an issue since a part of the prank was cleaning it up but only a small number of students returned to clean up and this resulted in a frustrated custodial and administrative staff and an end to the senior prank. [link]
