Thomas Sprigg Wootton High School

Thomas Sprigg Wootton High School is a high school in Rockville, Maryland. Its namesake is Thomas Sprigg Wootton, the founder of Montgomery County. The school was founded in 1969 and is part of the Montgomery County Public Schools system. The majority of the students come from Robert Frost Middle School or Cabin John Middle School. The principal since July 2003 is Dr. Michael Doran.

Extra-curricular activities

Clubs

On February 26, 2005, the Wootton Science Bowl team won the Maryland/Delaware Regional Science Bowl. At the National Science Bowl on April 30 through May 2, 2005, the Wootton Science Bowl team won fifth place out of sixty-three schools competing nationwide, all of which had won their respective regional event. Source (archived on Wikipedia)

Also, in March of 2005, the Wootton Programming Team got eighth place out of the thirty-two schools competing in the University of Maryland Computer Science Competition. (Source (http://www.cs.umd.edu/Outreach/hsContest05/scores.html))

Performing arts

Wootton is known throughout Maryland for its oustanding theater department, due to its unually large number of gay students. Their production of the musical Songs For A New World was chosen as the featured show at the 2005 Maryland High School Theater Festival.

Cross Country

The boys team made states for the first time in 20 years during the 2000 season. After a one year set-back, they made it again. In 2003, led by Nicholas Jachowski, and his younger brother, Daniel- Wootton finshed 4th in states.

The girls team has been more consistent making states every year for the past 5 years except one. Michele Levy, a current junior, was the first real superstar of the Wootton team. Veronica Salcido is gaining fame and finshed 1st in the 1600 during regionals

As a result of their sucess, they partied too much during the 2003 campaign,in which a intrusive mother phoned the coach which led to multiple supsensions.

Sports

Overall, besides cross country, Wootton is good at the "country club" sports of tennis and golf. The school's football team is usually below expectations, despite the fact they were runner-ups in 1990.

Academics

In 2005, Wootton was named the 17th best high school in the United States by Newsweek. The only school from Montgomery County to beat it was Richard Montgomery High School, which placed 11th. There are 27,468 high schools in the United States. The rankings have come into question however because of the controversial methodology used by Newsweek magazine which does not evaluate schools based on performance on the AP/IP tests, but rather only on the number of students that take the tests (regardless of the scores). "Public schools are ranked according to a ratio devised by Jay Mathews: the number of Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate tests taken by all students at a school in 2004 divided by the number of graduating seniors." (Source 1 (MSNBC) (http://msnbc.msn.com/id/7723397/site/newsweek/) and Source 2 (archived on a Wikipedia user page).

Notable recent events

In 2001 the band O.A.R., which includes four alumni, performed at the James A. Coles Field before they reached stardom.[1] (http://db.etree.org/shninfo_detail.php?shnid=10449)

In 2002, President George W. Bush visited Wootton and spoke with the senior class about a Veterans Day program [2] (http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/10/images/20011030-7.html)

In September of 2002, a freshman let off a smoke bomb in the school. He was caught because he failed to change his shirt after the incident.

In early 2005, the Wootton cheerleading squad was caught in a scandal when pictures of cheerleaders in uniform in provocative poses made their way to pornographic sites. The story made the national media, including the Washington Post[3] (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A1945-2005Jan11.html)

Statistics

Ethnicity

The ethnicity in percentages for Thomas Sprigg Wootton High School, on the left, and the state of Maryland, on the right, for grades nine through twelve are:

Standardized testing

According to the Maryland School Assessment in 2003, 85% of 10th graders met the state standards in mathematics and 92% in reading. The results of a passing score on the MSA in this school according to race and economic status are shown below:

Notable alumni

• Chris Culos, rock musician
• Benj Gershman, rock musician
• Richard On, rock musician
• Marc Roberge, rock musician
• Carlos Horcasitas, CEO of Mid-Atlantic Petroleum Properties
• Richard Scanlan, Tony Award-Winning Broadway Lyricist

External links

• Wootton High School website (http://www.mcps.k12.md.us/schools/woottonhs/)
• Common Sense (http://www.woottoncommonsense.org/), the Wootton High School newspaper
• Thomas Sprigg Wootton High School data (http://www.greatschools.net/modperl/browse_school/md/966/) at greatschools.net
• Thomas Sprigg Wootton High School aerial (http://terraserver.microsoft.com/image.aspx?T=4&S=9&Z=18&X=3111&Y=43275&W=1) at Microsoft Terraserver
• Article about Wootton cheerleaders on porn site (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A1945-2005Jan11.html) from The Washington Post
• Photograph of President George W. Bush at Wootton (http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/10/images/20011030-7.html)

Categories: High schools in Maryland | Public schools in Montgomery County, Maryland