Yorktown High School (Virginia)

History

The school opened for the first time for the 1960–61 school year, with only Sophomore and Junior . The first graduating class was in 1962. The building was originally an elementary school, which was converted into a high school to relieve crowding at Washington-Lee High School (W-L).

The school was threatened with closure in 1982 due to declining enrollment, but because of strong community support, the idea was nixed. To boost the school's population, the attendance boundary between W-L and Yorktown in the northeastern portion of the county was redrawn in 1983. Portions of the Donaldson Run, Cherrydale, Woodmont, Dover Crystal, and Old Dominion neighborhoods were transferred into a larger Yorktown district.

In the 90s its boundaries expanded once again to serve the communities of Rosslyn, Courthouse, Clarendon, Westover, Halls Hill/Highview Park, and portions of Dominion Hills. An entirely new Yorktown facility opened for the 2013-14 school year, after several years of construction. The replacement campus was designed by Ehrenkrantz Eckstut & Kuhn Architects.

Building structure and location

The school building opened in January 1950, as a brand new elementary school and served the community as an elementary school until it was converted into a high school. It was named Yorktown from its opening. At that time it was a one-story building and only housed the elementary students. Greenbrier Elementary School was a different building which has since been renamed Campbell Elementary School and is located near Carlin Springs Road.

Additions have been added, enlarging the school, but leaving many of the older sections still incorporated within the walls, often still being used as classrooms. Yorktown is placed on a small parcel of land. The School Board does not own the adjacent athletic grounds, Greenbrier Park, which belong to Arlington County. Construction and renovation has been completed on Greenbrier Park. Individual softball and baseball fields have been installed along with a new turf field to be used for football, field hockey, soccer, and lacrosse. A rubberized track was added.

First a square, three-floor building was built and connected by a hallway to the old building. Over the next summer a long section of the new building was completed and attached directly to the first phase, and most of the old building was demolished leaving only a small section of science and music classrooms. The newest wing of the new building, the pool, and the gymnasium were then opened over Winter Break of the next year and the final section of the old building was demolished. As of the 2013-2014 school year, the last wing was completed along with the courtyard.

Renovation

Arlington proposed a Bond Package, approved by voters in 2000. As a result, in 2003, the school added an external wing to the school, containing classrooms and computer lab.

On May 8, 2006, the Arlington County School Board approved a preliminary design to rebuild the building. Voters approved about $25,000,000 for the project in the 2006 elections and $75,000,000 is on the ballot for next year. On February 1, 2007, the School Board unanimously approved the schematic design for the new Yorktown High School.

A new school building opened in September 2004. The athletic fields were renovated in 2007.

In January 2012, Phase II of the construction was completed, including three floors of classrooms, an eight-lane pool with diving well, a wrestling room, weight room and new main gym.

Demographics

The school's demographic breakdown of the 2012–2013 school year is as follows:

The vast majority of the school's students reside in the area of the county commonly called "North Arlington" which is the portion of the county north of Arlington Boulevard (US Route 50). The attendance area covers the high rise neighborhoods that border Washington, DC like Rosslyn, Courthouse and Clarendon in the northeastern part of the county to the neighborhoods of single family homes in the northern and western parts of the county adjacent to the City of Falls Church, McLean and Upper Northwest (DC). A small portion of McLean (22101) within Arlington County is under the jurisdiction of the Arlington Public Schools and its students attend Yorktown. Many of the neighborhoods in the Yorktown attendance area are also zoned to Washington-Lee High School. High school boundary changes between the two schools historically have occurred at least once every decade.

Performing arts

Yorktown's winter guard has won gold medals in the Atlantic Indoor Association Championships in 2009 and 2010. After 2009 championships, they were promoted to the A3 class; in 2010 to A2.

The school has won Best Color Guard at the 2009 and 2010 USSBA State Championships.

Yorktown's Indoor Drumline won the Atlantic Indoor Association's (AIA) Percussion Scholastic A class (PSA) silver medal in 2009, and the AIA PSA gold medal in 2010 and 2011. In 2012, Yorktown Indoor Percussion was promoted to Open Class (PSO) where they finished 4th at the 2012 AIA Championships. In the fall season, the Yorktown Drumline was awarded "Best Percussion" at US Bands regionals and at the US Bands Virginia State Championship.

Yorktown's Theatre Arts Program has won various awards. It received the Virginia Theatre Association (VTA) award in 2010. It was a finalist to compete in the Southeastern Theatre Conference. L The 2011 and 2012 performances won both ensemble and acting awards from VTA. In 1999, their show ranked 1st in the state.

Sports

The school mascot is the Patriots.

Pool and stadiums

Yorktown has a public partnership with Arlington County to use the athletic facilities of Greenbrier Park for softball, baseball, and track & field events.

The Yorktown swimming pool is owned by Arlington County and operated by the Parks, Recreation and Community Resources Division. During the week, it is used for the high school physical education program of Yorktown and for students of neighboring middle and elementary schools. The school's swim and dive teams use the facility.

Starting in 2002, the Arlington County School Board intended to spend over $700,000 on the installation and maintenance of new Fieldturf in various athletic fields and stadiums. In 2006, Yorktown's outdoor stadium was the last of the three Arlington high schools to undergo installation.

Sports Teams

Football: The Yorktown Patriots are notorious for being good in sports. One of the most popular ones, however, is that of football. The Yorktown Patriots football team have been a well-known program since the arrival of coach Bruce Hanson. Coach Hanson took over in the early 90's. After finishing his first season as head coach with a record of 2-8, coach Hanson quickly turned the program around with a record of 7-3 and the district championship the next year. Since then the Yorktown Patriots have been a powerhouse in Division 5 football in the Northern Virginia area. In 1999, the team went 9-1 and won the regional championship. They then lost in the quarterfinals for the state championship. In most recent years, the team has come into its own. The Patriots, in the 2000s, won 8 of 10 district championships. The most recent success of the program happened after the year 2011. In the 2012 season, the team went undefeated in the regular season. They then continued that streak and won the next two playoff games against McLean High School and Thomas Jefferson High School. After an undefeated season and two key playoff wins, the team then lost 42-13 against South County High School in the regional championship game that same year. The following year, 2013, the team went undefeated again in the regular season, winning yet another district championship and making it again to the regional championship. The regional championship game that year was against Stonebridge High School. The final score of that game was 66-58, another loss in a regional championship game. The following year the school was forced to move up a division into Division 6, due to the amount of students at the school. The 2014 season did not end as well as the previous two had. The team went 8-2 with losses only to Langley High School and Washington and Lee High School. The 8-2 record was not enough to win the district championship, and thus the streak of district championships had come to a close. The team that year, however, did win against a strong Fairfax team by a score of 13-6. The next game did not go as well as the Patriots could have hoped though. The game was Lake Braddock and ended in a 42-7 loss for the Patriots. The 2015 season ended the same way the 2014 season did, an 8-2 record with no district championship. The only difference between the two seasons was that of no playoff win. The 2015 team had lost in the first round to Stonewall Jackson High School. The following year did not end with a record in the Patriots favor. They ended the season with a 3-7 record and missed the playoffs as well as another District title.

Notable alumni