Westchester Academy for International Studies
| Westchester Academy for International Studies | |
|---|---|
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| Location | |
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901 Yorkchester, Houston, TX United States |
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| Coordinates | 29°46′51″N 95°35′01″W / 29.780831°N 95.583537°W |
| Information | |
| Established | 1967–1985; 1987–2000; 2001–present |
| School district | Spring Branch Independent School District |
| Director | Dr. Pamela Butler |
| Staff | 35 |
| Faculty | 70 |
| Grades | 6–12 |
| Number of students | 1000 |
| Color(s) | Blue, orange, green |
| Mascot | Wildcat |
| Yearbook | Miacis |
| Website | https://cms.springbranchisd.com/wais/ |
The Westchester Academy for International Studies (WAIS) is a public charter school in the Spring Branch Independent School District in Houston, Texas. It serves grades 6–12 and is an International Baccalaureate continuum school, authorized for Middle Years, Career-related, and Diploma Programmes. As of 2017[update] Dr. Pamela Butler is the head of the school.
Due to the expanding enrollment of Memorial High School the school district built Westchester High School in 1967. The school opened with an enrollment of one thousand eight hundred students. After seven years the school had increased to nearly four thousand students. The campus could not support the numbers, and as such Stratford High School was built in close proximity to Westchester, opening in 1974.
Due to the oil bust in the early 1980s, the destruction of nearby apartment complexes, and many original home owners keeping their homes after their children had grown, enrollment in all SBISD high schools dropped dramatically. By 1985, the resulting decreases in enrollment forced the school board to close Westchester and relocate its former students to Memorial and Stratford High Schools. Most Westchester students ended up attending Stratford High School, which for many years kept a permanent display case dedicated to Westchester memorabilia.
During a thirteen-year period the campus was leased to Houston Community College.
In 1987 about 30 students from SBISD and the Houston Independent School District gathered at Westchester High to study Japanese on every Saturday.
After this duration Spring Branch ISD made plans for the campus that resulted in a massive amount of construction and improvement on the pre-existing campus. In 1999 it reopened its doors as "Westchester Academy for International Studies". The school would eventually cap at one thousand students spanning across grades 6-12th. During the 2004-05 school year, the campus was shared with Stratford, due to renovations occurring on Stratford's campus. It is notable for being the only high school in Spring Branch ISD to offer the International Baccalaureate Diploma program at grades 11 and 12, an authorized Middle Years IB Program for grades 6-10, and has been recently authorized for the IB Career-related Programme. In 2014, Westchester was ranked in the top twenty-five high schools in Houston.
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