Highland Park High School (University Park, Texas)
| Highland Park High School | |
|---|---|
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| Address | |
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4220 Emerson University Park, Texas, (Dallas County) 75205 USA |
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| Coordinates | 32°50′50″N 96°48′27″W / 32.84735°N 96.80761°WCoordinates: 32°50′50″N 96°48′27″W / 32.84735°N 96.80761°W |
| Information | |
| Type | Public |
| Motto | "Enter to Learn, Go Forth to Serve" |
| Established | 1922 |
| School district | Highland Park Independent School District |
| Principal | Walter Kelly |
| Faculty | 134 |
| Grades | 9-12 |
| Gender | Coeducational |
| Enrollment | 2,026 |
| Color(s) | Blue, Gold, and White |
| Athletics conference | UIL Region 2 District 15-5A |
| Mascot | Fighting Scots |
| Newspaper | The Bagpipe |
| Yearbook | The Highlander |
| Band | Highlander Band |
| Drill Team | Highland Belles |
| Website | hs.hpisd.org |
Highland Park High School is located in University Park, Dallas County, Texas. It is a part of the Highland Park Independent School District. It serves all of the city of University Park, most of the town of Highland Park, and portions of Dallas.
The school was established in 1915. Before 1915, Highland Park students who were ready for high school rode the trolley down Cole Avenue to Dallas to attend Bryan Street High School. When the new high school opened in January, 1915, pupils in eighth and ninth grade attended school at Armstrong Elementary School in Highland Park in half-day sessions until the building was ready for occupancy. They returned to Armstrong for lunch the remainder of that year. Those who had cars filled them to capacity for the "trip to lunch", and the other students walked.
The tenth grade was added in the fall of 1922, and the eleventh grade a year later. In 1924, thirty-three students became the first graduating class of the Highland Park Independent School District (at that time, only eleven years of school were required prior to college admittance; it was not until 1937 that the twelfth grade was added.)
It was this first location on Normandy east of High School Street that became the middle school in 1937 when the current Highland Park High School building was erected on Emerson Avenue. The old building become the Highland Park Junior High School, which in later years was renamed Arch H. McCulloch Middle School. The school added the fifth grade and split into Highland Park Middle School for grades 7 and 8 and Arch H. McCulloch Intermediate School for 5th and 6th graders upon moving to a new facility after which the old building was demolished.
Ben W. Wiseman, Sr. served as Principal for 34 years, retiring in 1962. A plaque bearing Mr. Wiseman's profile is situated inside the entry of the high school with the quotation by Ralph Waldo Emerson; "an institution is the lengthened shadow of a man." He was the Dean of Weatherford College in Weatherford, Texas before accepting the job as Highland Park High School Principal. Mr. Wiseman was a decorated Captain in the United States Army and served in combat during World War II. Mr. Wiseman was a nationally recognized public educator when in 1960 his picture appeared in Look Magazine's May edition with his photo and that of 23-year-old Charles Otstott of the U.S. Naval Academy and 22-year-old Alton ("Butch")Thompson, ex-school mates at Highland Park High School. The significance of the photograph was that both Otstott and Thompson had just graduated from their respective military academies at the top of their class. Otstott and Thompson were dubbed in the article as "Wiseman Boys." Wiseman is credited for developing the first language laboratory in a public school in the United States. Convinced that students learned quickly by what they heard, he solicited funds from several prominent Highland Park businessmen to provide the reel-to-reel tape recorders needed to record and re-play the daily lesson plan. He then wired small secluded booths for each of the 20 students who wore headsets and listened to the lesson plan of the day. Each student repeated the Spanish or French words/phrases out loud into their individual headset microphones. The language teacher then could eavesdrop on each student individually and make suggestions to the students as need be. Mr. Wiseman recruited the woodshop teacher to build the booths as the cost of such a progressive learning tool was not in the school budget. In addition to foreign languages, Mr. Wiseman had the first remedial reading classes in a public school in the United States. Noting that many of his students were very bright but had problems reading and reversing letters when they wrote, he created reading classes for these special students. Mr. Wiseman called this condition being "left-eyed." Known today as dyslexia, Mr. Wiseman tutored his own grandson, John Phillip Brosseau, Sr., a student in one of Highland Park's elementary schools, Hyer Elementary and that grandson successfully reversed his condition and graduated from Highland Park and from Texas Tech University. Wiseman was fluent in French and Spanish; was a master woodcarver; built his own greenhouse in which he grew African violets; was so physically fit that he could perform hand stands at age 55. Born in 1890, Mr. Wiseman died of heart failure in 1963 at his modest home in Highland Park.
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