Oak Harbor High School (Washington)


Oak Harbor High School is a public grade 9-12 high school that is located in Oak Harbor, Washington, United States, on Whidbey Island. The school is in the Oak Harbor School District #201. Nathan Salisbury is the Principal. Nathaniel Shepherd and Arnie Otterbeck are the Associate Principals.

History

Oak Harbor's first high school was housed in a building on the waterfront, where the upstairs was used both as a school room and as a community hall for social functions. In the lower story, hay and freight were stored as they came off the steamers of the Puget Sound Mosquito Fleet.
In 1911 a new school was built on property donated by Will Izett, where, until 2006, the old Memorial Stadium stood. The high school students used the basement and lower floor, and the elementary grades were housed on the top floor. Only the basement of this building remains and is now used to house maintenance services.
In 1934 with the aid of WPA labor, a school was built to house secondary students. This brick building was a great source of pride to the community and housed high school students until 1956.
In 1956 another new high school was completed and initially contained 330 students in grades 9-12 and an eighteen-member staff. This building contained the high school program until June 1974 at which time the enrollment was 975 students in grades 10-12.
In 1968 planning for the current high school began. It was to be located on a site near 800 Avenue West and Heller Road. It was built to house 1200 students initially and be expandable to accommodate an enrollment of 1800 student grades 10-12. The facility was built with a brick exterior, steel frame throughout except for the field house dome which consists of laminated wood beams and a wood roof deck. This facility was completed in 1975. In 1991, the school was expanded to include ninth grade, reaching a capacity of 1,700 students.
By 2006 the school was at the end of its planned life, meaning that the infrastructure - plumbing and roof - were considered worn out or outdated to the point of being costly. In addition, the school was not well-suited for modern technology and undersized for the number of students.
On May 16, 2006, voters approved a plan to modernize the high school. Designed by NAC Architecture, the project was phased and completed in September 2010. The redesigned campus focused on bringing daylight to all classrooms, widening corridors, updating technology and consolidating the school into three buildings.

School information

The current high school facility, initially constructed during the 1970s, rests on in northwest Oak Harbor. The school was remodeled with the addition of the Student Union Building and the Career & Tech building opening in 2009. In 2008, North Campus was opened in the old Clover Valley Elementary School. Students in grades 9 and 10 had their core classes at North Campus and were then bussed back to the main campus for lunch, electives, and lab sciences.

A-Wing

Departments
Departments
Departments
Departments
Departments
Oak Harbor High School offers Advanced Placement courses in Art, Calculus, Statistics, US History, Government, Biology, Economics, Spanish, Literature and Composition, Language and Composition, and Chemistry.
Foreign languages available are French and Spanish. For those students whose first language is not English, ESL classes are offered.

Cable channel

Available to most Comcast Cable subscribers on Whidbey Island, is Oak Harbor High School's student-run Public-access television cable TV channel. Operational since 2005, it features programs ranging in topic from the Island County Fair to Drama Club theatrical performances. Students in Chris Douthitt's Video Productions and Broadcast Communications classes create content for the channel.

Sports

OHHS is a member of the Western Interscholastic Conference and plays within the 3A division.

Wildcat Memorial Stadium

A new stadium to replace the aged Memorial Stadium was constructed in 2007 on the west end of the OHHS campus. The new stadium, dubbed "Wildcat Memorial Stadium," had its grand opening on September 7, 2007, eight months after construction began in January. The Wildcat Memorial Stadium was built by Ebenal General Contractors of Bellingham. The facility has a covered main grandstand with 2,500 home seats and a smaller covered grandstand with 500 visitor seats. The playing field is a FieldTurf surface and is encircled by a track and field oval. The stadium includes locker rooms, bathrooms, a concession area, and storage space.
The entrance to the stadium has a memorial to veterans of the five branches of the military. The main spire is a pentangle with the seals of the Navy, Army, Air Force, Marines, and Coast Guard mounted on the five sides. At the top, as a tribute to the active Navy personnel stationed at NAS Whidbey, there is a ship's bell. The bell is rung on special occasions and after every Wildcat touchdown. The memorial was designed by Carlos Sierra of Sierra-Martin Architects.

Football

Oak Harbor High School football achieved great success during the 1977-78 season during its first year in the WESCO Conference. The team consisted of 26 players and thrived under the direction of Coach "Duck" Daugherty. It was expected that the new school to the conference, from Whidbey Island, would be trounced in every game during the season. During the season, the team shut out 5 teams, won 8 of 9 games, and ended the season ranked 4th in the state.
The football team made it to state in the 2006 season. Playing in the Tacoma Dome, the Wildcats defeated Bothell High School 21-14 to win the Washington Class 4A State Championship.

Fight song

Oak Harbor High School Alma Mater

Glory and pride of every heart.
Loyal forever doubt us never
Alma mater hail hail hail!

Alumni