Wayland High School
Encyclopedia
Wayland High School is a secondary school located at 264 Old Connecticut Path in Wayland, Massachusetts
Wayland, Massachusetts
Wayland is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 12,994 at the 2010 census.For geographic and demographic information on Cochituate, which is part of Wayland, please see the article Cochituate, Massachusetts.-History:...

. Its principal is Patrick Tutwiler. The style of the high school was inspired by college campuses: there are 8 separate buildings, each dedicated to one or more general areas of study. Construction of the school was finished in 1960. As of the 2010-2011 school year, there are 898 students, just at its designed operating capacity of 900. In 2009, Wayland voters approved a new, $70.8 million, two-building campus that will replace the existing one and be ready for occupancy in the fall of 2011. Construction will be finished in November 2011, with occupancy by the student body beginning January 3, 2012.

History

In the 1950s, Wayland, like many other suburban towns, had grown a great deal in terms of population. With this new wave of residents came many well-educated individuals: doctors, lawyers, businessmen, who wanted an education for their children that was parallel to their own experiences. This factor, combined with the high school's lack of space to accommodate the large number of students and the insistence from the School Building Committee that the town take action, led to the construction of the new school.

In his 1957 annual report, superintendent Edward J. Anderson cited Sputnik as the reason why math and science were receiving more attention in the U.S.

Anderson also pressed for the town to pay more taxes for the school's construction. In a letter from The Wayland-Weston Town Crier, he said, "Because of spiraling costs, all we're doing now educationally is holding our own and hanging on to what we have. At this rate we're not going to make any dramatic improvements. And yet, the taxes we pay for our schools are certainly high enough."

The Town Crier added,
Cambridge Consultants, Inc. of Boston, Educational Consultants, were hired to help the town determine what educational changes and structural changes were needed to make the new high school better than the last.

Architecture and construction

Wayland High School's open campus was designed by Herbert Gallagher and John "Chip" Harkness of The Architects' Collaborative
The Architects' Collaborative
The Architects' Collaborative was an American architectural firm formed by Walter Gropius and seven younger architects in 1945 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The other partners were Norman C. Fletcher , Jean B. Fletcher , John C. Harkness , Sarah P. Harkness , Robert S...

; the two were assisted by the renowned architect
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...

 Walter Gropius
Walter Gropius
Walter Adolph Georg Gropius was a German architect and founder of the Bauhaus School who, along with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier, is widely regarded as one of the pioneering masters of modern architecture....

. The School Building Committee interviewed 10 architectural firms before finally making its decision.

Construction was carried out by the N.D.C. Construction Company Inc., headed by James Cazanas, who was a resident of Wayland. Another construction company, Post Products, Inc., headed by J.O. Post, provided the acoustical tiles for the school. The groundbreaking ceremony was held on April 25, 1959.

Said Cazanas of the project in The Town Crier, "I was very much upset when I saw the plans for the new High School...The plans, for a series of single story buildings, seemed to contradict all the usual rules of economic construction. On top of this, a circular field house: circular, on both horizontal and vertical planes."

Despite his surprise of the High School's structure, Cazanas was confident of the school's innovation: "There won't be another school anywhere around like this one...There is so much there to interest everyone that it will be a center of activities in Wayland as well as a High School." He even claimed, "This site is a contractor's dream. I don't expect to see another like it."

The Town Crier even noted how the project was the "cheapest per square foot building his company [had] built since the war."

The High School was expected to accommodate 800 students and be able to expand to address the needs of as many as 1200 students.

Interestingly enough, the constructors first poured the concrete for the floors and then the roofs on top afterwards, separating the two with separating membrane. They then jacked up the roofs.

Structure

When the new high school opened in the fall of 1960, it was hailed for its innovative design. The school consisted of six buildings, five of which were academic centers for math and science, social studies and business, English and language, arts, and physical education. The last building housed the cafeteria, administrative offices, and the guidance office.

There were many aspects of the architecture of the campus that were especially fascinating to the public. For one, the physical education building, or the field house, was a circular structure with a domed roof. Inside, the field house was furnished with a basketball court and dirt track. On the sides were areas separated by walls for weight lifting, wrestling, and other such activities. The field house, with its collapsible bleachers, could easily be converted to accommodate school assemblies or town meetings and was (and still is) used for these purposes.

In addition to the field house, there were three large lecture rooms at Wayland High School which were tiered in the style of amphitheaters.

The idea of a campus for the high school helped to cut down on costs; corridor space was reduced from 15% to 7% of the total building area since the "hallways" were now outdoors. With each square foot of the school costing $12.40, Wayland managed to complete its present high school for about $2,300,000. Construction, including architectural fees, equipment, and furnishings, came to $1,754,187, around $45,000 less than expected. The money saved allowed the school to install playing fields; otherwise, the town would have had to construct the fields itself through grading and seeding.

The costs saved can be attributed to the advance thinking on the part of the architects and the chairman of the School Building Committee, Allan R. Finlay. The materials used and the structure of the school helped the town use its money more effectively.

The reason why most of the school has only one story is because a study in Connecticut found that schools with 800 or less students were more efficient with only one level.

Educational System

While it awaited the completion of the new school, the town began to implement the system of team teaching in 1959, the year preceding the new high school's opening. It became one of the first schools nationwide to do so. The team teaching system grouped teachers according to area of academics. Each group was led by a team leader (a "department head") who organized lessons and led the other teachers, which eased the work of the superintendent, who simply contacted these team leaders to learn what was going on in each department. Before this change was integrated into the education system, teachers were assigned rooms and did not have much contact with their colleagues. With this new system, they were able to better interact with one another and organize themselves more effectively and efficiently.

The change in educational system of Wayland High School was just as significant as that of the architecture. In addition to the team-teaching system, the school now attempted to individualize the students' learning.

While students previously had been assigned to classes according to a loose evaluation of their abilities, a new system of large, medium, and small sized classes provided a means for students to learn at their own pace. In a large class, a teacher, typically the most skilled in the department, would teach a large group of students the basic facts and fundamental ideas in a topic. With this foundation of knowledge, students would attend medium-sized classes of around 8-15 students to discuss in detail what was taught in the large class. The teacher guiding the discussions would be one skilled in attending to each student's progress in learning. Finally, small sized classes consisted of one or two students and allowed for more specific and individual questioning with a teacher. Classroom sizes mimicked this system.

Additionally, each student was assigned a teacher who would guide them throughout their years in high school.

The aim of this new high school was to produce students who were self-propelled and independent enough that they would seek answers for themselves out of an interest of learning.

Although the advent of Sputnik focused the nation on math and science, Wayland did not forget the importance of the humanities. The December 12, 1957 edition of The Town Crier noted, "Anderson said that in any school system the humanities must continue to hold equal status with the sciences, because our children must be well grounded in both if they are to furnish the leaders of tomorrow."

Achievement in the papers

Wayland High School received an enormous amount of attention from the press. Featured in Life
Life (magazine)
Life generally refers to three American magazines:*A humor and general interest magazine published from 1883 to 1936. Time founder Henry Luce bought the magazine in 1936 solely so that he could acquire the rights to its name....

 magazine, Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...

 magazine, The Architectural Forum, The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

, and The Boston Globe
The Boston Globe
The Boston Globe is an American daily newspaper based in Boston, Massachusetts. The Boston Globe has been owned by The New York Times Company since 1993...

, it was identified as a leader of the advancement of education.

In 1987, the town received the Red Book Award for its excellent educational system.

Changes up until today

While the school today still looks much as it did fifty years ago, there have been many changes. The first was the addition of an English Building (now the Math/English building) in 1966 because of increased enrollment. It was also around this time that the small, medium and large group model was eliminated for a number of reasons with a few exceptions. The school went back to the traditional system of teaching, although it is still departmentalized. An Administration–Library building was added in 1972 and the previous library in the arts building was converted into an art room. The dirt track has been paved over. The amphitheater behind the arts building, which was only used twice, has disappeared, and the offshoots of the library in academic buildings have also vanished due to inconvenience. The school has also gone through renovations, including converting the lecture hall in the science building into Special Education space. In 2009, the lecture hall in the language building was converted into a black-box theater, which is used for some plays, as well as some theater classes. The open spaces in the centers of the history and language buildings have been closed off. The middle room in the history building is called the "tomb room". It is used to store books and DVDs, to conference on student papers and for teachers to work. The middle room in the language building is a Language and classical literature classroom. Recently, the school has been installing digital projectors into the ceilings of almost all of the classrooms. They are connected to the classroom's computer so the teacher can show videos on a screen over the board. The variety of classroom sizes hasn't changed, and Wayland High School retains its reputation for its quality education.

Academics

This academic environment is one of the main reasons the student body
Students' union
A students' union, student government, student senate, students' association, guild of students or government of student body is a student organization present in many colleges and universities, and has started appearing in some high schools...

 of Wayland High School is growing so rapidly: parents in the area want their children to have the opportunity to be taught in one of the best public schools in the state. While students are under pressure to do well, Wayland students are not particularly competitive with one another. Many students are highly self-motivated and push themselves to excel. The Advanced Placement classes are always full and students have intelligent and varied conversations in and out of the classroom.

Wayland also is known to have an excellent theatre program, producing three seasons of theatre each year. Students can earn varsity jackets in performance art as well as in athletics.

As well as a chorus and concert choir, Wayland High School is home to three a cappella
A cappella
A cappella music is specifically solo or group singing without instrumental sound, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. It is the opposite of cantata, which is accompanied singing. A cappella was originally intended to differentiate between Renaissance polyphony and Baroque concertato...

 groups, a mixed gender group, called the Madrigals, an all male group, The Testostertones (T-Tones), and an all female group, The Muses.

Every year since 2001, US history students have researched and contributed to the Wayland High School History Project, a five-volume digital archive that examines how 20th century trends and developments played out in the community.

Robert Anastas
Robert Anastas
Robert Anastas - is a former hockey coach and teacher at Wayland High School, in Wayland, Massachusetts. Anastas founded SADD in 1981 at the school following the deaths of two students in nonrelated drunk driving accidents....

, a Wayland High School hockey
Ice hockey
Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...

 coach, founded SADD at Wayland High School in 1981. Anastas founded the organization with his students after two Wayland High School hockey players were killed in separate car crashes.

Almost all WHS graduates attend a 2 or 4-year college; the percentage of college-bound graduates is upwards of 95%. Among the most popular colleges attended by graduates in recent years are University of Massachusetts Amherst
University of Massachusetts Amherst
The University of Massachusetts Amherst is a public research and land-grant university in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States and the flagship of the University of Massachusetts system...

, Boston College
Boston College
Boston College is a private Jesuit research university located in the village of Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, USA. The main campus is bisected by the border between the cities of Boston and Newton. It has 9,200 full-time undergraduates and 4,000 graduate students. Its name reflects its early...

, George Washington University
George Washington University
The George Washington University is a private, coeducational comprehensive university located in Washington, D.C. in the United States...

, Brown University
Brown University
Brown University is a private, Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1764 prior to American independence from the British Empire as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations early in the reign of King George III ,...

, Brandeis University
Brandeis University
Brandeis University is an American private research university with a liberal arts focus. It is located in the southwestern corner of Waltham, Massachusetts, nine miles west of Boston. The University has an enrollment of approximately 3,200 undergraduate and 2,100 graduate students. In 2011, it...

, Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

, Syracuse University
Syracuse University
Syracuse University is a private research university located in Syracuse, New York, United States. Its roots can be traced back to Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, founded by the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1832, which also later founded Genesee College...

, University of Vermont
University of Vermont
The University of Vermont comprises seven undergraduate schools, an honors college, a graduate college, and a college of medicine. The Honors College does not offer its own degrees; students in the Honors College concurrently enroll in one of the university's seven undergraduate colleges or...

, and Boston University
Boston University
Boston University is a private research university located in Boston, Massachusetts. With more than 4,000 faculty members and more than 31,000 students, Boston University is one of the largest private universities in the United States and one of Boston's largest employers...

.

Athletics

The athletics of the school are defined by the "Wayland Warriors," whose symbol is a flint
Flint
Flint is a hard, sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as a variety of chert. It occurs chiefly as nodules and masses in sedimentary rocks, such as chalks and limestones. Inside the nodule, flint is usually dark grey, black, green, white, or brown in colour, and...

 spear with a feather tassel.

Amongst the various sports are collaborations with athletic rival Weston High School, including the Wayland-Weston crew team and the girls' hockey team. The Wayland-Weston Crew team is currently ranked as the #2 high school crew team in the nation.

In 2006, led by coach Scott Parseghian, and Division 1-A player of the year, Quarterback Ben Sherry, Wayland won the Division 1A State Championship ("The Super Bowl") in football. The team completed this by beating Marshfield High School, 28-0. It was the first time in 31 years that Wayland had been to the playoffs. It is the first Super Bowl win for Wayland. 2006 graduate and All-State quarterback Alex Jenny holds virtually every game, season and career passing record in Wayland football history, including 47 career touchdown passes and 4,679 career yards passing.

Wayland Wrestling has a fine winning tradition with over 30 league championships and multiple state championships, the most recent in 2010. Most of the championships were led by legendary Coach Moyer, and most recently Coach Gary Chase (Wayland alum). Chase's son, Sean took over the team in 2008. Joe Manley holds records for most pins in a career (80), as well as most pins in a season (35). Mike Testa holds the record for most wins in a season (43) and in 2008 passed Manley's mark of 121 wins to become the career leader. Jarad Doyon is third in career wins (117) and Wayland's only four-time state place winner.

Wayland Lacrosse recently won the 2007 DCL championship, led by Head Coach Tom Cavanaugh, who was awarded his second career Massachusetts coach of the year honor, in addition to garnering his 6th DCL coach of the year award.

Wayland Swimming and Diving has been highly competitive under Coach Mike Foley and Keith Meliones winning many league, sectional, and state championships. In 2009 and 2010, both the boys and the girls won Div. II State titles, becoming the first school in Massachusetts history to win championships in the same year (2009). The 2009 victory was the boys first ever state title, and for the girls it was their 4th consecutive state championship and 5th overall (1973, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009).

New high school

In 2004-2005 the Wayland School Committee and Superintendent Gary Burton tried to secure funding for a new high school. A special election ballot proposing additional funds for the project was rejected by Wayland
Wayland, Massachusetts
Wayland is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 12,994 at the 2010 census.For geographic and demographic information on Cochituate, which is part of Wayland, please see the article Cochituate, Massachusetts.-History:...

 voters in January 2005, by a margin of 2645 to 2005,http://www.waylandschoolcommittee.org/whs/hsbc/index.htm but passed in a later meeting when a larger majority of the town was made aware it was up for a vote. Those in favor of a new high school claim that the student body is continuing to grow and will soon be too large for the existing buildings, as evidenced by the modular classrooms
Modular classrooms
Modular Classrooms are prefabricated buildings constructed off-site in a factory. Most modular classrooms are portable, and are sometimes called temporary classrooms or relocatable classrooms, but permanent modular classrooms are becoming a common option. Modular classrooms are also built to all...

 already in use. This claim is countered by those opposing the new school who say that the argument runs contrary to publicly available enrollment figures for all grades which indicated that the largest years were students born 1990-1992. Some hold that if the proposal for a new school had been initiated in time to be ready for these students it might have been looked on more favorably. Though 70.8% of Wayland residents do not have children in the public school system, a survey conducted by the High School Building Committee in June 2005 found that 64.5% of respondents thought that the current high school facilities were inadequate, but 68.2% thought that the overall proposed price ($57 million) of building a new high school was too high.

Beginning in 2007, the High School building Committee has once again been pursuing a high school project. With the promise of the State of Massachusetts reimbursing 40% of the cost of a project, Wayland has been developing a proposal (all new construction with renovated field house) that must meet guidelines in accordance with the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA). On November 17, 2009, voters overwhelmingly approved the high school project (70% in favor), and again at Town Meeting the following night (1481 in favor, 95 opposed). Construction on the new school began on June 22, 2010. The switch between the current high school and the new one is scheduled for January 3, 2012.

Trivia

  • In November 1973, Aerosmith
    Aerosmith
    Aerosmith is an American rock band, sometimes referred to as "The Bad Boys from Boston" and "America's Greatest Rock and Roll Band". Their style, which is rooted in blues-based hard rock, has come to also incorporate elements of pop, heavy metal, and rhythm and blues, and has inspired many...

     played a concert at Wayland High School. Tom Hamilton, the band's bass player, is a graduate of one of the elementary schools in town (Claypit Hill) -- he moved to the neighboring town of Weston
    Weston, Massachusetts
    Weston is a suburb of Boston located in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States in the Boston metro area. The population of Weston, according to the 2010 U.S. Census, is 11,261....

     after elementary school and graduated from Weston High School.
  • In the 1990s, Wayland's boys' indoor track team had a record of 62-0, and went eight years without losing a DCL meet.
  • The new high school costs $70,800,000, with 40% of the cost covered by the State of Massachusetts

Notable alumni

  • Samuel Adams Wisner
    Samuel Adams Wisner
    Samuel Adams Wisner is an American rapper, and recording artist from Cambridge, Massachusetts.-Personal life:...

    , class of 2006, rapper
  • Harley Yanoff
    Harley Yanoff
    Harley Yanoff is an American-born theater and film actor.He is a member of SAG/AFTRA/AEA....

     (stage name Harley Harrison), class of 2004, actor (movie Don McKay)http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2591867/
  • Daniel Bowhers, class of 2002, co-owner Picture Planet studios/movie director (movie This is Don http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3921143)
  • Taylor Schilling
    Taylor Schilling
    Taylor Schilling is an American actress.She is the daughter of Robert Schilling, a prosecutor, and Tish Schilling. She grew up in West Roxbury and Wayland, splitting time between her parents, who are divorced....

    , class of 2002, actress (TV series Mercy)
  • Ryan Sypek
    Ryan Sypek
    Ryan Sypek was born on August 6, 1982 in Boston, Massachusetts. He graduated from Wayland High School in 2000. While attending Boston University, Ryan spent a semester in London at LAMDA...

    , class of 2000, actor (TV series Wildfire
    Wildfire (TV series)
    Wildfire is a US television series that aired on ABC Family, which was produced by Lions Gate Television, Piller2 and The Segan Company . The show premiered June 20, 2005; its fourth and final season ended May 16, 2008 due to low ratings...

    )
  • Sarah Hurwitz, class of 1995, speechwriter to Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.
  • Gary Gray
    Gary Gray (author)
    Gary Gray, born , is an American television host, producer, and author currently living in Los Angeles.- Education :After graduating from Wayland High School in Wayland, Massachusetts he went on to Skidmore College where he graduated with a BA in Psychology....

    , host and producer of the Playboy
    Playboy
    Playboy is an American men's magazine that features photographs of nude women as well as journalism and fiction. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. The magazine has grown into Playboy Enterprises, Inc., with...

     TV series The Helmetcam Show
    The Helmetcam Show
    The Helmetcam Show is a television series created by Gary Gray. The series ran for four years on Playboy TV from 1996 to 2000. A total of 80 episodes were produced during the show’s run, ending with the final live broadcast on July 19, 2000....

  • Gregg Kavet
    Gregg Kavet
    Gregg Kavet is a writer and director who worked on NBC's Seinfeld for several seasons with collaborator Andy Robin. The team wrote episodes including "The Jimmy", "The Hot Tub", "The Caddy", "The Bottle Deposit", "The Fatigues", "The Comeback", "The Nap", and "The Slicer"...

    , writer and co-executive producer, Seinfeld
    Seinfeld
    Seinfeld is an American television sitcom that originally aired on NBC from July 5, 1989, to May 14, 1998, lasting nine seasons, and is now in syndication. It was created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld, the latter starring as a fictionalized version of himself...

  • Scott Levin, class of 1981, Television news anchor for WGRZ Buffalo, NY (NBC Affiliate)
  • Alberto Salazar
    Alberto Salazar
    Alberto Salazar is an American marathon runner of the 1980s. Born in Cuba, Salazar emigrated to the United States with his family. They ultimately moved to Wayland, Massachusetts, where Salazar competed in track and field in high school...

    , class of 1976, winner of the Boston Marathon
    Boston Marathon
    The Boston Marathon is an annual marathon hosted by the U.S. city of Boston, Massachusetts, on Patriots' Day, the third Monday of April. Begun in 1897 and inspired by the success of the first modern-day marathon competition in the 1896 Summer Olympics, the Boston Marathon is the world's oldest...

     and three-time winner of the New York City Marathon
    New York City Marathon
    The New York City Marathon is a major annual marathon that courses through the five boroughs of New York City. It is one of the largest marathons in the world, with 45,103 finishers in 2010...

  • Elliott Francis
    Elliott Francis
    Elliott Francis is a Washington, D.C.-based television journalistElliott Francis spent 7 years as a report and weekend co-anchor at WJLA, the ABC news affiliate in Washington, D.C...

    , class of 1971, Television/Radio news anchor (CNN, FOX, NPR)
  • David Lipton, class of 1971 - First Deputy Managing Director (second-in-command), International Monetary Fund
    International Monetary Fund
    The International Monetary Fund is an organization of 187 countries, working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world...

     (2011–); United States National Economic Council (2009–11); United States National Security Council
    United States National Security Council
    The White House National Security Council in the United States is the principal forum used by the President of the United States for considering national security and foreign policy matters with his senior national security advisors and Cabinet officials and is part of the Executive Office of the...

     (2009–11); former Undersecretary for International Affairs, Treasury
    United States Department of the Treasury
    The Department of the Treasury is an executive department and the treasury of the United States federal government. It was established by an Act of Congress in 1789 to manage government revenue...

  • Craig Thompson, class of 1971, noted cancer researcher and President/CEO of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
    Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
    Memorial Sloan–Kettering Cancer Center is a cancer treatment and research institution founded in 1884 as the New York Cancer Hospital...

  • Douglas Jabs
    Douglas Jabs
    Douglas Jabs, M.D., M.B.A., is an American ophthalmologist and an expert in clinical research in the fields of ophthalmology and uveitis.Jabs is currently the Chief Executive Officer of the Mount Sinai Faculty Practice Associates, Dean for Clinical Affairs, and Professor and Chair of the Department...

    , class of 1969, an expert in clinical research in the fields of ophthalmology and uveitis
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