Yorktown High School (Arlington County, Virginia)

Yorktown High School is a public high school located in Arlington County, Virginia. There are around 240 teachers and 2100 students as of 2019.[2] In 2014–15 school year, there were 1,933 students. Yorktown's attendance area makes up the northern third of Arlington County.[3]

Not to be confused with York High School, in Yorktown, Virginia.
Yorktown High School
Address
5200 Yorktown Blvd

Arlington
,
Virginia
22207
Coordinates38.903458°N 77.139151°W / 38.903458; -77.139151
Information
School typePublic, high school
Founded1960
School boardArlington Public Schools
School districtArlington Public Schools
PrincipalDr. Kevin Clark
Asst. principalsEmmet Conroy, William Lomax, Suzanne Evans, Scott McKeowen
Faculty130.77 FTEs[1]
Grades9–12
Enrollment2,190 (as of 2017–18)[1]
Student to teacher ratio16.75[1]
LanguageEnglish
CampusSuburban
Color(s)Columbia blue & white   
MascotPatriots
RivalWashington-Liberty High School
Wakefield High School
Athletic conferencesNational District
Northern Region
Websitehttp://apsva.us/yhs/

Yorktown is an accredited high school based on Virginia's Standards of Learning (SOL) examinations, and is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. The school is ranked among the top 100 schools in the nation according to Newsweek.[4]

History

The school building opened in January 1950 as an elementary school, The Yorktown School, and it served the community as such until it was converted into a high school. It was called Yorktown from its opening. At that time it was a one-story building and only housed the elementary students.

The school opened for the first time for the 1960–61 school year, with only sophomores and juniors.[5] The first graduating class was in 1962. The building was originally an elementary school, which was converted into a high school to relieve crowding at Washington-Liberty High School.

The school was threatened with closure in 1982 due to declining enrollment, but remained open due to community support. To boost the school's population, the attendance boundary between Washington-Liberty and Yorktown in the northeastern portion of the county was redrawn in 1983. Portions of the Donaldson Run, Cherrydale, Woodmont, Dover Crystal, and Old Dominion neighborhoods were transferred into a larger Yorktown district.

In the 1990s its boundaries expanded once again to serve the communities of Rosslyn, Courthouse, Clarendon, Westover, Halls Hill/Highview Park, and portions of Dominion Hills. An entirely new Yorktown facility opened for the 2013–14 school year, after several years of construction. The replacement campus was designed by Ehrenkrantz Eckstut & Kuhn Architects.

Original front entrance of Yorktown High School, prior to 2010 rebuilding
Post-renovation picture, taken from the same perspective as the photo above

Building structure and location

Additions have been made, enlarging the school, but leaving many of the older sections still incorporated within the walls, often still being used as classrooms. Yorktown is placed on a small parcel of land. The School Board does not own the adjacent athletic grounds, Greenbrier Park, which belong to Arlington County. Construction and renovation has been completed on Greenbrier Park. Individual softball and baseball fields have been installed along with a new turf field to be used for football, field hockey, soccer, and lacrosse. A rubberized track was added.

First a square, three-floor building was built and connected by a hallway to the old building. Over the next summer a long section of the new building was completed and attached directly to the first phase, and most of the old building was demolished leaving only a small section of science and music classrooms. The newest wing of the new building, the pool, and the gymnasium were then opened over winter break of the next year and the final section of the old building was demolished. As of the 2013–14 school year, the last wing was completed along with the courtyard.

Renovation

Arlington proposed a Bond Package, approved by voters in 2000. As a result, in 2003, the school added an external wing to the school, containing classrooms and computer lab.

On May 8, 2006, the Arlington County School Board approved a preliminary design to rebuild the building. Voters approved about $25,000,000 for the project in the 2006 elections and $75,000,000 is on the ballot for next year. On February 1, 2007, the School Board unanimously approved the schematic design for the new Yorktown High School.[6]

A new school building opened in September 2004. The athletic fields were renovated in 2007.[7]

In January 2012, Phase II of the construction was completed, including three floors of classrooms, an eight-lane pool with diving well, a wrestling room, weight room and new main gym.

As of March 7, 2018, plans have been approved to go ahead with another renovation to increase the buildings capacity to 2,189 seats. The conversion will add at least 6 classrooms. The project will cost approximately $4,000,000.[8]

Demographics

As of the 2015–16 school year, the school had an enrollment of 1,947 students and 123.16 classroom teachers (on a full-time equivalent basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 15.81:1. There were 191 students (9.8% of enrollment) eligible for free lunch and 65 (3.3% of students) eligible for reduced-cost lunch.[1]

The school's demographic breakdown of the 2017–2018 school year was as follows:[9]

The vast majority of the school's students reside in the area of the county commonly called "North Arlington" which is the portion of the county north of Arlington Boulevard (US Route 50). The attendance area covers the high rise neighborhood of Rosslyn, which borders Georgetown, all the way to the more suburban neighborhoods of North Arlington bordering Falls Church and McLean.[10] A small portion of McLean (22101) and a small portion of Falls Church (22046) within Arlington County are under the jurisdiction of the Arlington Public Schools and its students attend Yorktown. Many of the neighborhoods in the Yorktown attendance area are also zoned to Washington-Liberty High School. High school boundary changes between the two schools historically have occurred at least once every decade.

Academics

Performing arts

Yorktown's winter guard has won gold medals in the Atlantic Indoor Association Championships in 2009 and 2010.[11][12] After 2009 championships, they were promoted to the A3 class; in 2010 to A2.

The school has won Best Color Guard at the 2009 and 2010 USSBA State Championships.

Yorktown's Theatre Arts Program has won various awards. It received the Virginia Theatre Association (VTA) award in 2010. It was a finalist to compete in the Southeastern Theatre Conference. The 2011 and 2012 performances won both ensemble and acting awards from VTA. In 1999, their show ranked 1st in the state.[13][14][15]

The Yorktown Sentry

The school's newspaper, The Yorktown Sentry, has been in publication since 1959.[16]

Sports

The school mascot is the Patriots.

Pool and stadiums

Yorktown has a public partnership with Arlington County to use the athletic facilities of Greenbrier Park for softball, baseball, and track & field events.

The Yorktown swimming pool is operated by Arlington Public Schools. During the week, it is used for the high school physical education program of Yorktown and for students of neighboring elementary schools. The school's swim and dive teams use the facility.[17]

Starting in 2002, the Arlington County School Board intended to spend over $700,000 on the installation and maintenance of new FieldTurf in various athletic fields and stadiums. In 2006, Yorktown's outdoor stadium was the last of the three Arlington high schools to undergo installation.[18]

Football

The Yorktown High School football team's head coach has been Bruce Hanson since 1984.[19]

State champions since 2005
Virginia State Championships
Year Sport/Competition School
2005 AAA Girls Swimming and Diving Yorktown
2006 AAA Debate Yorktown
2006 AAA Girls Swimming and Diving Yorktown
2007 AAA Girls Swimming and Diving Yorktown
2007 AAA Debate Yorktown
2008 AAA Debate Yorktown
2009 Boys rowing Yorktown
2010 AAA Forensics Yorktown
2017 6A Girls Soccer Yorktown
2019 Class 6 Girls Soccer Yorktown

Notable alumni

References
  1. School data for Yorktown High, National Center for Education Statistics. Accessed November 14, 2019.
  2. "Yorktown High Report Card". Virginia Dept. of Education. Retrieved November 29, 2016.
  3. https://nces.ed.gov/globallocator/sch_info_popup.asp?Type=Public&ID=510027000115 accessed 11 October 2017
  4. Dan Brillman and Gina Pace (2008). "The Top of the Class". Newsweek. Archived from the original on October 18, 2007. Retrieved September 11, 2008.
  5. [email protected]. "Yorktown High School". yorktown68.myevent.com. Retrieved 2019-04-01.
  6. "schematic design" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on September 29, 2011.
  7. "Greengrocer Park – Construction Updates". Retrieved September 6, 2007.
  8. "Yorktown High School Modifications Set For Approval". ARLnow.com - Arlington, Va. Local News. 2018-03-07. Retrieved 2018-03-29.
  9. K-12 Civil Rights Statistics By School October 21, 2017
  10. "High School Boundary Map (School Year 2018-19)" (PDF). Arlington Public Schools.
  11. 2009 AIA Championships recaps Archived March 12, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
  12. 2010 AIA Championships recaps Archived March 12, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
  13. "CarolCadby.com". CarolCadby.com. Retrieved 2017-03-24.
  14. "YHS Theatre Awards - Yorktown Theatre Arts Parents (TAP)". Yhstheatre.org. Retrieved 2017-03-24.
  15. "YHS Theatre Program Shows - Yorktown Theatre Arts Parents (TAP)". Yhstheatre.org. Retrieved 2017-03-24.
  16. "General Information – Yorktown Sentry". Retrieved 2019-04-01.
  17. https://www.apsva.us/aquatics/yorktown-aquatics-center
  18. "Arlington and Synthetic Turf Fields". Arlingtonva.us. Archived from the original on March 10, 2014. Retrieved January 2, 2013.
  19. Dalton, Sofie. "Bruce Hanson: A Yorktown Legend". Yorktown Sentry. Retrieved 2019-04-01.
  20. Grenadier 1974 - Yorktown High School. Hunter Publishing Company. p. 28.
  21. "David M. Charlebois | Pentagon Memorial Fund". Pentagonmemorial.org. Retrieved 2017-03-24.
  22. Grenadier 1974 - Yorktown High School. Hunter Publishing Company. p. 120.
  23. Grenadier 1974 - Yorktown High School. Hunter Publishing Company. p. 22.
  24. Greg Garcia (producer)
  25. Eric Schmidt
  26. http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CDOC-107sdoc16/pdf/CDOC-107sdoc16.pdf
  27. Rich Lowry
  28. Tom Dolan
  29. "Hall of Fame 2014 | the Alumni & Friends of Yorktown High School".
  30. "Hall of Fame 2008 | the Alumni & Friends of Yorktown High School".
  31. "Hall of Fame 2004 | the Alumni & Friends of Yorktown High School".
  32. "Yorktown grad M.J. Stewart leads locals selected in 2018 NFL draft". www.washingtonpost.com. Retrieved 2018-08-15.
  33. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EeEGJg6vXCg
  34. https://ataripodcast.libsyn.com/antic-the-atari-8-bit-podcast-paul-laughton-interviewhttps://ataripodcast.libsyn.com/antic-the-atari-8-bit-podcast-paul-laughton-interview
  35. https://www.science.vt.edu/magazine/stories/fall-2020/2020-hall-of-distinction.html
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