Edmonds Woodway High School

History and facilities

Edmonds-Woodway was formed when Edmonds High School and Woodway High School, both schools in the city of Edmonds, merged in 1990. They combined the Edmonds and Woodway High School colors (gold, purple, orange and green), although purple and green are the dominant colors used. The school used the old Woodway High School building until construction on a new facility at the old Edmonds High School site.

The new school, which opened in 1998, is located close to Highway 99 and is accessible from Interstate-5. It is designed around a central courtyard with a separate theater building and classrooms organized in small learning communities. It received several regional and national design awards, including the 1990 Masonry Institute of Washington's Masonry Excellence Award for the use of masonry throughout the project, as well as the national annual design award of the Council of Educational Facilities Planners International, the 1999 James D. MacConnell Award for outstanding new educational facilities. Bassetti Architects of Seattle was the architectural firm for the new building.

IB Program

In 1996, Edmonds-Woodway became an International Baccalaureate (IB) World School, offering the IB Diploma Programme. The Edmonds-Woodway IB program is one of the largest in the Pacific Northwest, with 22 IB classes, over 400 IB-enrolled students and over 70 full-IB Diploma graduates (2013–14). Because of enrollment limitations on the program, in-district students whose home high school is not Edmonds-Woodway may participate in the program only through an application process. Students whose home high school is Edmonds-Woodway may participate as partial-IB students (Course Candidates), taking as many (or as few) IB classes as they choose. IB candidates take IB tests in a variety of IB subject areas, qualifying them for college credit at over 1,600 colleges and universities. Since 2011 the school's IB Coordinator has been David Quinn.

AP Program

In addition to its 22 IB courses, Edmonds-Woodway offers three Advanced Placement (AP) courses: AP Statistics, AP Calculus, and AP Studio Art Photography, for which students can also gain college coursework credit. The current school AP Coordinator is Paul Sevig.

National student recognition

In 2009, Edmonds-Woodway student Sally Chu was named as the school's first US Presidential Scholar. In 2005, the school had eight National Merit Scholar finalists, the most of any high school in the state. In 2006 the Edmonds-Woodway Deaf Academic Bowl Team competed for the first time. It was the first team in the history of the Academic Bowl to win a Regional competition their first year.

Deaf community

Edmonds-Woodway has the largest deaf and hard-of-hearing student population in the Edmonds School District, due to programs offered for deaf and hard-of-hearing students. Deaf students attend from surrounding school districts, who may decide to contract with ESD for their students to attend the EWHS program in cases where they cannot offer a comprehensive program to meet the needs of their deaf students. The school offers an American Sign Language (ASL) program. Four years of instruction in ASL are offered to students who are not deaf or hard-of-hearing. These students can take ASL to fulfil the world language requirement for high school graduation. Some students pursue careers as deaf interpreters or as DHH Teachers (Teachers of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing).

Lifeskills program

In addition to its Deaf and Hard of Hearing program, Edmonds-Woodway has a Lifeskill Program for students with "mild to moderate developmental disabilities." The Lifeskills Program is run by Debbie Sand, Amory Cable, Debra Herold and Donna Spencer. Lifeskills students at Edmonds-Woodway, coached by paraeducator Becki Bell, often take part in the annual Washington State Special Olympics. During the 2011 Winter Games in Wenatchee, Edmonds-Woodway students brought home awards. At the beginning of the 2011-2012 school year, Edmonds-Woodway cheerleaders invited Lifeskills students to participate on the school cheer squad, backed by the Sparkle Effect program, which encourages cheer squads throughout the United States to include students with disabilities. Three students accepted the invitation and took part on the EW cheer squad that year.

ASB

The school's Associate Student Body organizes events and dances. There are eight ASB officers: a president, vice president, secretary, treasurer, clubs officer, publicity officer, historian, and technology officer. Each grade has their own set of officers; the seniors have eight and the other three grades have six. ASB sponsors events such as Homecoming, Winter Wishes, and Spring Fling. Sherri Webster had been the Activities Coordinator for fourteen years; Becky Heckinger took over starting with the 2010-2011 school year and Bruce Mindt will be taking over as director during the 2014-2015 school year.

Athletics

The school hosts the Edmonds School District Stadium, which is the home field for all high schools in the Edmonds School District. EW's traditional in-district athletics rival is Meadowdale High School. Girls' volleyball, girls' tennis, boys' basketball and football programs have either made it deep into state tournament or won state tournaments. The girls' basketball team took 5th in state in 2010. In 2008, the boys' tennis team, under coach Dan Crist, won state in doubles tennis and the team took third. The football team took 3rd places in 4a football twice in the 2006/07 and 2007/2008 seasons. The Varsity Cheer Squad placed 3rd in state in 2015.

Music program

EWHS Music Department is a comprehensive traditional music program with a focus on large ensemble performance. Three instructors include Jake Bergevin (department chairperson/band/jazz), Karen Helseth (orchestra/IB) and Charlotte Reese (choir/guitar).

The school's music program is best known for its Jazz Program. The Jazz Ensemble I is known throughout the greater Seattle area, and has been accepted into the Essentially Ellington jazz festival on four occasions, in 2003, 2007, 2010, and 2013. The band also participates regularly in Starbuck's Hot Java Cool Jazz performance held at the historic Paramount Theater in March each year. They have also attended the Portland Jazz Festival (Portland, Oregon where the two outstanding soloists of the festival (band and choir) were both EWHS students. They have also participated regularly in the University of Idaho Jazz Festival Moscow, Idaho at the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival, where they won the 4A Big Band Division in 2014. The program has a thriving jazz combo culture and has supported winning jazz combos several times. In 2009 they were invited to take part in the Swing Central jazz festival in Savannah, Georgia.

Edmonds-Woodway supports three concert bands: Concert Band, Symphonic Band, and Wind Symphony, the last of which requires an audition. Choirs include Bel-Canto, open to all students, and Mello-Aires, a small auditioned ensemble that performs and competes. Orchestral groups include three orchestras including Concert Orchestra, Symphonic Orchestra and the auditioned Philharmonic Orchestra. For select concerts, the Full Orchestra includes advanced wind and percussion players from the Wind Symphony group. One academic music course is also offered: IB Music, which teaches music theory and music history.

Jazz Alley

Spring Jazz Night is a celebration of senior jazz band performers and is held at Jazz Alley in Seattle. All current jazz bands perform as well as an alumni band with several notable professional jazz alumni.

Craft Fair

On the first Saturday each December, the EWHS Music Boosters hold a holiday craft fair. Held in the Great Hall since 1993, this is a fundraiser for the music program. Over 75 crafters participate, with a review committee choosing holiday arts and crafters from applications. Student groups from the orchestra, choir and wind programs perform, and music students also volunteer.

Big Band Dance

Held every year in spring, the dance is set entirely to live swing music, mostly from the 1920s to 1950s. The school's jazz bands perform, as well as the College Place Middle School jazz band and Madrona Middle School's jazz band. Nearly all five hours of the dance are set to live music, with a half-hour of professional swing dancing lessons held before the dance. Swing dance lessons are generally offered after school once a week beginning a month before the dance to help students prepare. The dance is open to the public.

Notable alumni