State of the School Address

West Ashley High School enters the 2016-2017 Academic Year prepared to build upon last year’s accomplishments to generate this year’s success stories. The Class of 2016 graduated in June posting nearly a 78% on-time graduation rate while earning $8 million in scholarships. That performance, coupled with these graduates successfully completing more than 200 college credit-bearing courses through advanced placement and dual enrollment courses created a sum total of nearly $10 million in college savings for families at West Ashley High School. During the 2015-2016 school year 40 percent of our students exceeded our school-wide expectation of an 85 or higher in every class, every day and posted Honor Roll performances.
All our athletic teams finished in the top four in region play and earned playoff berths. Most notably, our football team finished second in Region 7-AAAA and hosted a home playoff game for the first time in school history. Our boys basketball team built upon the momentum of a second place region finish to make a deep playoff run before losing to Irmo in the AAAA Lower State Championship Game.
Our Robotics Team won the 2015 South Carolina VEX State Championship, while their colleagues in Culinary Arts won the 14th Annual SC ProStart Invitational as well. All our Fine Arts programs achieved Superior Ratings and CCSD supported the renovation of the West Ashley Career & Technology Education Wing, while also updating the interior painting of the entire campus. Now having said all this, what can Wildcat Nation look forward to accomplishing in during the 2016-2017 school year after so many accolades and success stories were written last year?
This school year, WAHS will focus on academic growth, literacy improvements, and continued co-curricular competitive success in all programs. Our new goal of an 87 or higher in every class, every day sets the standard for every Wildcat to meet one of the primary requirements of the South Carolina LIFE Scholarship Program by establishing a cumulative grade point average of 3.7 or higher on the South Carolina Uniform Grade Scale.
Expansion of our partnership with Trident Technical College in dual enrollment courses will afford students the possibility to graduate this Spring with their undergraduate math and english requirements for post-secondary degrees complete. Our newest literacy plan, “Read To Succeed”, built upon the CCSD Literacy Plan, sets a goal for every student to read 25 or more books annually.
For the first time in state history, South Carolina has a AAAAA Classification in athletics making the Wildcats’ sports schedules among the most competitive region battles in the Lowcountry on a nightly basis.
Our goal is to prepare 1,700 young people to be competitive, productive, and well-educated individuals. To accomplish these endeavors we need every household from the banks of the Ashley River to the shores of the Stono to engage and support our community’s flagship school. The return on this investment will be the success of our community through our students, thus sustaining the guarantee for a bright future in our area as leaders of tomorrow are shaped today.
We appreciate the support from our community, as well as the privilege to represent arguably the most diverse and wonderful geographic area in our Lowcountry and city. To our many parents, thank you for investing in our school. To our community, thank you for taking the time to explore our programs, support our endeavors, and collaboratively launch with us the most successful school year to date – this year!
— Lee Runyon,
Principal at West Ashley High School