Established 1855 Average class size 13 Mascot Big Red President Joseph A. Lennertz | Faculty 28 teachers Phone +1 920-356-2120 Number of students 220 | |
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Type Independent, coeducational boarding/day school Motto Knowledge and Character Enrollment 220 students
(72% boarding, 28% day) Address 101 N University Ave, Beaver Dam, WI 53916, USA Similar Beaver Dam High School, Dodgeland School District, Horicon High School, Fall River High School, Columbus High School Profiles | ||
Wayland Academy is a private, coeducational college preparatory boarding high school located in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, United States. The student population at the beginning of the 2011-2012 school year was 220.
Contents
History
Wayland Academy was chartered as Beaver Dam Academy by the legislature of Wisconsin Territory in 1847, by a group which included Parker Warren (soon to be elected to the legislature of the newly admitted State of Wisconsin) and other local dignitaries. The charter provided that no religious test could be required of any officer or trustee of the corporation, or of any student.
It was founded as a Baptist university, though it is now a non-denominational high school. The cornerstone of Wayland Hall was laid in 1855, marking the beginning of a new institution aimed at increasing the number of Midwestern students at Baptist seminaries.
Wayland was closed twice, once during the Civil War, and once during the Great Depression. During the 1960s, it became known as Wayland Junior College. After including a middle school in the 1980s, Wayland became the college preparatory high school that it is today. It celebrated its sesquicentennial in 2005.
Camp Beaver Dam, a WWII POW camp, was constructed in the summer of 1944 on the grounds of what is now the Wayland Academy field house. The POW camp held 300 German prisoners of war in a tent city encampment.
Campus
Wayland's 65-acre (260,000 m2) campus is located near downtown Beaver Dam. It consists of north and south halves divided by Hwy. 33. North Campus, the school's original land, is home to most of the campus buildings. It has separate buildings for different academic faculties, dormitory space, administration, and student life. South Campus, a former fairgrounds, consists of athletic fields and the school's field house.
Academic facilities
The Academic Building and Swan Library are the newest buildings on campus, completed in 1989. The Academic building houses the departments of mathematics, English, history, and modern and classical languages. Swan Library contains a student computer lab in addition to the 21,000 volume collection, including roughly 60 periodicals, and having first issue copies of several major magazines such as National Geographic.
In recent years Kimberly Chapel has served primarily as home to the music department and as a meeting place for the student body. Built in 1958, the chapel is used for weekly assemblies and chapel services, as well as the annual Festival of Lessons and Carols, modeled after the original service at King's College in Cambridge, England. The chapel contains practice rooms and music studios on the lower level, while the chapel proper, with a Steinway Model B piano and a three-manual Moeller pipe organ, often functions as a music performance space,.
Discovery Hall was dedicated in 1971 and is home to the science department. In addition to laboratories and classrooms, it contains a lecture hall and an observatory.
Residence halls and student life facilities
The oldest building on campus is Wayland Hall. Originally constructed in 1855, it was for a time the sole building serving the school, and housed classrooms, bedrooms, a chapel, and a kitchen. It has been remodeled several times, and now serves as a dormitory for first-year and sophomore boys. The building was renovated in 2009, creating a modernized dorm with more comfortable living spaces for its residents. This building remains the school's most recognizable structure due to its four large Corinthian pillars, each of which represents a fundamental element in the Wayland community: Scholarship, Faith, Health, and Service.
Wayland Hall is the first building along the campus's semicircular drive; the second is the Lindsay Gymnasium complex. The original gymnasium dates from 1899 and has since been converted to a student union, dance hall, and art studio. The Sol Wolfe 1934 Memorial Pool and a newer gymnasium housing the school's theater are adjacent to the original gym building.
Warren Cottage was originally constructed as a girls' residence hall in 1888 and has since received several additions and renovations. It is still a dormitory for first-year and sophomore girls, and its lower level contains Pickard Dining Hall, a day students' lounge, and the bookstore and post office.
The twin dormitories, Glen Dye and Ella Dye, opened in the 1960s and house junior and senior students; the men live in Ella Dye and the women in Glen Dye. Student rooms are arranged in a suite-like fashion, with two rooms connected by a private bathroom. Both dorms recently underwent extensive interior remodeling and furniture replacement.
Completed in 1901, Roundy Hall was originally a music building and chapel built partially from funds donated by the Roundy family of Roundy's Foods. It now houses administrative offices, including the president's office, the Office of Admissions, the CFO, and the Vice-President of Development.
Other buildings on North Campus include the President's House and Schoen House, the student health center.
The primary building on the 26-acre (110,000 m2) South Campus is the field house, built in 1967. Adjacent to it are the school's eleven tennis courts and athletic fields. An additional field, Brown Field, is located on North Campus and is used for football and field hockey.
Academics
Wayland's academic program focuses on preparing its students for undergraduate colleges and universities upon graduation. The class schedule consists of eight 45-minute periods whose order rotates daily. Classes are offered on three levels: college preparatory, honors, and advanced placement (AP). Graduation requirements include four years of English, and three years each of mathematics, social science/history, natural sciences, and languages. Languages offered include Spanish, German, and advanced study in Latin and Greek. Additionally, all students must have at least one year of Latin instruction to graduate. Students must also complete the equivalent of one year's study of fine arts through music or studio art courses or lessons. The school offers 15 classes at the advanced placement level, and approximately 80% of its faculty have attained advanced degrees in their fields.
In 2015 the school joined the Hybrid Learning Consortium. It creates a globalized learning community offering a diverse variety of online courses to students around the world.
Student life
Roughly 15% of Wayland's student body are students are racial minorities, and roughly 20% of Wayland students are international students.
Wayland's dress code includes dress clothes during the school day and on formal occasions. Wayland provides its boarding students with 19 meals weekly, and traditionally holds formal or family style meals every few weeks. Students eat at least one meal a week with their faculty mentor, a faculty member who serves as an academic and all-purpose adviser to help students with concerns ranging from homework to social issues.
Extracurricular activities are offered. Organizations include concert band, pep band, strings chamber ensemble, Thespian Society, student newspaper, student literary magazine, and student government. In addition to the required weekly chapel service, an optional weekly prayer service and a breakfast bible study exist for students with a stronger spiritual life.
Traditions
Criticism and Disrepute
In 2015, Adam Hechimovich was convicted on multiple counts of felony sexual assault of a sixteen year old student while teaching at Wayland Academy. According to local newspaper Daily Citizen, "Head of Wayland Academy Joseph Lennertz confirmed that Hechimovich’s employment was terminated in December of 2015. He declined to make any other comment."
Athletics
In lieu of physical education courses, all Wayland students participate in extracurricular athletic activities in each season of the year. In addition to offering an alternative activities program, the following team sports are offered: