Poolesville_High_School

Poolesville High School

Poolesville High School

Public magnet high school in Poolesville, Maryland, United States

Poolesville High School is a public magnet high school located in Poolesville, Maryland, United States. It is part of the Montgomery County Public Schools system.

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In 2023, U.S. News & World Report ranked Poolesville as the #1 high school in Maryland and #140 nationwide. It is the only all-magnet high school in Montgomery County, although Montgomery Blair High School also has a magnet program.

History

The core of the building was built in 1911 as an elementary school,[3] and as of 1912 the school was the only consolidated (middle and high school) in Montgomery County.[4] Poolesville's first graduates were seven students in 1920.[5]

Poolesville High School circa 1912

The current school building dates back to 1953,[3] but has had over 22 additions made since then,[6] with the last major revision happening in 1978.[3][7] The building housed Poolesville's middle school and high school up until 1997 when John Poole Middle School was built.[3]

By 2013, Poolesville residents were campaigning for a reconstruction of the school building, due to issues such as overcrowding, poor infrastructure and design, fumes from asbestos in the walls, and overall delapidation. The major renovation was included in MCPS' 2013-2018 Capital Improvement Program, until it was shelved in 2017 following county budget cuts, to the frustration of Poolesville parents and students.[8][9] Campaigns for a renovation continued until the Board of Education eventually planned and funded the project again in 2021.[7] Construction started in 2022 and is expected to finish by the start of the 2024-25 academic year. Once complete, the new high school building will be about 234,000 square feet and will have an increased capacity of 1,500 students from the current 1,100.[10]

Mascot

From its inception until 2002, the school's mascot was an Indian, and its logo was the profile of an Indian warrior in a full headdress.[11] In 2001, amid some controversy, the school's students and Poolesville Community voted on whether to keep the mascot or to change it to a falcon. Although the students and community elected to keep the Indian as the mascot, at the beginning of the 2001–2002 school year, the Montgomery County Board of Education, under pressure from the Maryland Bureau of Indian Affairs, overruled the vote. Beginning in the 2002–2003 school year, the students voted to change the school's mascot to a falcon.

Admissions

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Curriculum

Starting in the 2006–2007 school year, honor students in northern Montgomery County ("upcounty") have the opportunity to become a part of one of three magnet programs called "houses": Global Ecology; Humanities; or Science, Math, and Computer Science. Students test into high school during their last year of middle school, and if accepted and enrolled, they are "certificate" students and are required to take the standard courses for their specific program. As Poolesville is considered a whole magnet high school, resident students (if they do not apply and join one of the other programs) automatically become part of a fourth program called the Independent Studies program or ISP but are "non-certificate" and can choose to take specialized courses. The Independent Studies Program is specifically for Poolesville resident students only and cannot be applied for by out-of-district students.

Poolesville was ranked Washington Post's #1 Most Challenging High School in Maryland in 2016,[12] U.S. News' #1 Best High School in Maryland,[13] and Newsweek's #1 Top High School in Maryland in 2015.[14] The school's science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) program was ranked #121 in Newsweek's 2019 nationwide survey of US high schools.[15]

Athletics

Poolesville fields teams in the following sports:

Notable alumni

References

  1. [1]
    "Search for Public Schools - Poolesville High (240048000897)". National Center for Education Statistics. Institute of Education Sciences. Retrieved 23 February 2023.
  2. [2]
    "Poolesville High School". 2023-2024 Best U.S. High Schools. U.S. News & World Report. Retrieved 1 October 2023.
  3. [3]
    "Town of Poolesville Comprehensive Master Plan" (PDF). December 5, 2011. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2018-03-02.
  4. [4]
    Wilson, Warren H.; Taft, Anna B. (1912). A Rural Survey in Maryland, made by the Department of Church and Country Life of the Board of Home Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the USA. p. 68. Retrieved 21 July 2022.
  5. [5]
    Jewell, E. Guy (1976). From One Room to Open Space: A History of Montgomery County Schools from 1732 to 1965. Rockville, Maryland: Montgomery County Public Schools.
  6. [6]
    Lindsay, Jordan (2019-10-21). "Poolesville Residents Express Need for New High School Facility". MyMCMedia. Poolesville. Retrieved 2022-07-20.
  7. [7]
    Pollak, Suzanne (2021-02-08). "Board of Education Approves Major Building Plans at Burnt Mills Elementary, Poolesville High". MyMCMedia. Retrieved 2022-07-20.
  8. [8]
    Coffin, Cori (November 30, 2017). "Parents frustrated after school district scraps much-needed repairs at Poolesville High School". Fox 5 DC. Retrieved January 17, 2024.
  9. [9]
    Lewis, Kevin (November 20, 2017). "Parents begging MCPS Board of Education for new Poolesville High School". WJLA. Retrieved January 17, 2024.
  10. [10]
    Shahzad, Maryam (June 7, 2022). "New Poolesville High School Under Construction". MyMCMedia. Retrieved January 17, 2024.
  11. [11]
    Libit, Howard (2001-12-27). "In effort to save 'Indians,' Poolesville hasn't given in". Baltimore Sun. Archived from the original on 2021-06-21. Retrieved 2022-07-20.
  12. [12]
    "Maryland Schools - The Washington Post". apps.washingtonpost.com. Retrieved 2017-02-28.
  13. [13]
    "Maryland Best High Schools". Archived from the original on 22 April 2020.
  14. [14]
    "America's Top High Schools 2015". Newsweek. 2015-08-19. Retrieved 2017-02-28.
  15. [15]
    "The Top 500 STEM High Schools". Newsweek. November 8, 2019. Retrieved November 20, 2019.
  16. [16]
    Heim, Joe. "This white nationalist who shoved a Trump protester may be the next David Duke". The Washington Post. Retrieved 20 September 2018.
  17. [17]
    Eberly, Tim (January 21, 2001). "Poolesville Sizes 'Em Up". The Washington Post. in the past 30 years, only one former student, 1985 graduate Irvin Smith, has earned a full athletic scholarship to a major Division I college (Smith started at defensive back at Maryland).
  18. [18]
    Ousley, Parkes. "Cloud9 Blaber: "I don't take my time with Svenskeren for granted... That's when I learned the most."". Inven Global. Retrieved 27 November 2021.
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