Wells Community Academy High School is a 4-year public high school

High school

High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....

 located in the West Town

West Town, Chicago

West Town, located in Chicago, Illinois, northwest of the Loop, is one of 77 officially designated Chicago community areas. Its name may refer to Western Avenue, which was the city's western boundary at the time of West Town's settlement, but more likely was a convenient abstraction by the creators...

 neighborhood in Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

, Illinois

Illinois

Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...

. Wells serves grades 9

Ninth grade

Ninth grade is the ninth post-kindergarten year of school education in some school systems. The students are 13 to 15 years of age, depending on when their birthday occurs. Depending on the school district, ninth grade is usually the first year of high school....

 through 12

Twelfth grade

Twelfth grade or Senior year, or Grade Twelve, are the North American names for the final year of secondary school. In most countries students then graduate at age 17 or 18. In some countries, there is a thirteenth grade, while other countries do not have a 12th grade/year at all...

, and is a part of the Chicago Public Schools District 299

Chicago Public Schools

Chicago Public Schools, commonly abbreviated as CPS by local residents and politicians and officially classified as City of Chicago School District #299 for funding and districting reasons, is a large school district that manages over 600 public elementary and high schools in Chicago, Illinois...

. Wells is named after William Harvey Wells (1812-1885), Superintendent of the Chicago Public Schools from 1856-1864, and President of the Chicago Board of Education.

History

Wells was established in William Harvey Wells's honor approximately a year after his death in 1886. The current building opened in 1935 on the site of the original school with extra ground at the north. Originally, the city of Chicago planned for Wells to open as a junior high school in 1930; construction of the school was delayed.

Wells Academies

Wells is divided into 5 Smaller Learning Communities:

• Freshmen Academy
• Law & Public Safety Academy (LPSA)
• Logistics Academy
• Chicago Urban Teachers Academy
• TeraU Program

Notable Alumni

• Curtis Mayfield
  Curtis Mayfield
  Curtis Lee Mayfield was an American soul, R&B, and funk singer, songwriter, and record producer.He is best known for his anthemic music with The Impressions during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960's and for composing the soundtrack to the blaxploitation film Super Fly, Mayfield is highly...
  
  , (attended), R&B singer
• Jerry Butler
  Jerry Butler (singer)
  Jerry Butler is an American soul singer and songwriter. He is also noted as being the original lead singer of the R&B vocal group, The Impressions, as well as a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee.Butler is also an American politician...
  
   , singer, politician
  Politician
  A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...