Coordinates: 34°8′5.69″N 118°42′11.94″W / 34.1349139°N 118.7033167°W
| Arthur E. Wright Middle School | |
| Location | |
|---|---|
| 4029 North Las Virgenes Road, Calabasas, California, USA |
|
| Information | |
| Type | Public, middle |
| Established | 1951 |
| Principal | Kimmarie Taylor |
| Grades | 6–8 |
| Enrolment | 900 |
| Website | http://www.aewrightmiddleschool.net/ |
Arthur E. Wright Middle School (typically abbreviated to A.E. Wright or simply Wright) is a middle school in the western section of Calabasas, California. It is publicly run and follows the three-year model. It is located within the Las Virgenes Unified School District.
Contents |
Las Virgenes School, as Wright was then known,[1] was built in 1951 as an elementary school, for students from pre-school through to the eighth grade.[2] It was the first public school in the district and was located on the grounds of the old Las Virgenes School, an independent school open from 1884 until the 1940s.[2][3] Prior to its establishment, the majority of seventh and eighth grade students in the district were sent to high schools in the valley.[2]
In the late 1950s the school changed to a middle school, although the facilities were not expanded to cope with taking in new students.[2] According to Alice Stelle, a longtime member of the district school board, there was a "big controversy" at the time over whether to create a unified district, which includes all grades, or to join the Los Angeles system, which has separate high school and elementary school districts.[3] Most board members were in favor of a unified district, and the entire building fund was put towards constructing new schools at the other levels.
The issue of overcrowding was not resolved until 1963, when local residents banded together and personally raised enough money for the construction of a high school, Agoura High, and three new elementary schools.[3] The school was redesignated a grade 6-8 middle school and was officially renamed A.E. Wright Middle School.[1] The facilities were expanded with the installation of portable classrooms.
The school was finally renovated in 1990, at a cost of $5 million.[2] Two large two-story buildings containing nineteen classrooms were built, giving the school capacity for up to fifteen hundred students, and twelve classrooms in the old building were refurbished.[2] The school also built eight new science laboratories, a new library-media center and a conference center.[4]
The school is named after Arthur Edward Wright, an English immigrant who was one of the founders of the present school district.[1]
| Years | Las Virgenes Elementary School |
|---|---|
| 1951-1963 | ??? |
| Years | A.E. Wright Middle School |
| 1963-??? | ??? |
| 1973-1990[5] | Robert Fraisse |
| 1990-1994 | James Christianson |
| 1995-??? | Michael Botsford |
| 2003-2008[6] | Steve Rosentsweig |
| 2008-present[7] | Kimmarie Taylor |
In September 1992, the school changed its hours.[8] First period, which used to begin at 9 am like most other public schools, was rescheduled to begin at 8 am. Consequently, the school day finished an hour earlier at 2:15 instead of 3:15 pm.
| Enrollment trends, 1989–present | ||
|---|---|---|
| Year | Student body size | References |
| 1989-1990 |
1155
|
[9] |
| 1990-1991 |
1225
|
[2] |
| 1991-1992 |
1347
|
[2][10] |
| 1992-1993 |
???
|
|
| 1993-1994 |
>1500
|
[11] |
| 1994-1995 |
1500
|
[12] |
| 1995-1996 |
???
|
|
| 1996-1997 |
???
|
|
| 1997-1998 |
???
|
|
| 1998-1999 |
???
|
|
| 2000-2001 |
???
|
|
| 2001-2002 |
???
|
|
| 2002-2003 |
1850
|
[13] |
| 2003-2004 |
1700-1750
|
|
| 2004-2005 |
~900
|
[14] |
| 2005-2006 |
???
|
|
| 2006-2007 |
884
|
[15] |
| 2007-2008 |
900
|
[16] |
| 2008-2009 |
???
|
|
| 2009-2010 |
900
|
[17] |
Throughout the 1990s, Wright served sightly more than half of the middle school students in the district. Students living in eastern Calabasas attended Lindero Canyon Middle School. In 1989, there were 1,155 students enrolled at Wright compared to 1,091 at Lindero Canyon.[9]
By 1999, enrollment at Wright had exceeded its maximum capacity for fifteen hundred students.
By 2002, enrollment had risen to over eighteen hundred students and the campus was becoming seriously overcrowded so a new school, Stelle Middle School, was built.[13] It opened in September 2003 with nine hundred students, meaning Wright lost around half its students in a single year.[14]
Wright was designated a California Distinguished School in 1996 and again in 2009.[18]
A central part of the curriculum at Wright is the language arts/social studies (LASS) study block. Because all sixth grade students are required to take LASS, regardless of whether they have done the subjects before, the study is programmed to ensure they are with the same teacher, in succession, for both subjects.[19] The study combines the traditional areas of both subjects, reading and thinking about a variety of texts, while extending the students' knowledge of the ancient world and setting complex, high-school level projects to be completed.
For a year the school ran an alternative education program in a purpose-built facility, the Las Virgenes Community Learning Center.[20] Located on the southwest corner of the campus, the center was used to mix grade levels with students from local elementary schools. The program had little success in Calabasas, and the center was moved to Sumac Elementary School in Agoura Hills in August 2008.[21]
Wright has a widely acclaimed physical education department.
Under the leadership of Jean Flemion, the school's athletics program was restructured in the 1980s to grade students based on their personal best, rather than how they perform in competitive sport. The department also wanted to encourage participation and recruited parents to take students on after-school outings to sports centers.[22] Eventually all sixth grade students were involved in some form of sport at the intermediate level.
Flemion's most notable contribution was the introduction of individualized P.E. programs in the mid-1980s. Units on things such as juggling, stair-climbing machines and rowing machines made the Wright curriculum unique amongst Californian schools.[22] Today, many other schools have moved away from only teaching interscholastic sports. Flemion has since gone even further, organising a circus club at the school in 2000.[23]
Flemion has spent a lot of time teaching his methods to other schools and in 1990 he was recognised as one of the top six P.E. instructors in the country by the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance.[24]
Local softball teams play at the school's baseball field on Sundays.
|
|
Wikis
Search
