Tuscarora High School (Virginia)


Tuscarora High School is a public secondary school located in Leesburg, a town in Loudoun County, Virginia, United States, and is part of Loudoun County Public Schools. The school opened in the 2010–2011 school year and consists of students from Leesburg and Lucketts.

History

Tuscarora opened in time for the 2010–2011 school year. The school was originally planned to open for the 2008–2009 school year but because of site acquisition delays the school opened a few years late. Until the 2012–2013 school year with the opening of John Champe High School in Aldie, Tuscarora was the largest high school in Loudoun County with a capacity of 1,800 students. The school opened with most of its students coming from the Loudoun County High School attendance area which include towns north of Leesburg along the US 15 corridor. Some of its students also came from Heritage High School and Stone Bridge High School. Tuscarora High School serves Northern Leesburg, Lucketts and Lansdowne due to overcrowding in Ashburn area schools. Pamela Croft is the first and current principal at Tuscarora.
On October 13, 2016, all students were evacuated due to a bomb threat.

Academics

Tuscarora High School received the "accredited with warning" rating in the 2014–2015 school year for achieving below the standard on math benchmarks. This is the second time since 2010, where the school missed full accreditation for receiving a 61 percent on the math portion of the state standardized tests. For the school to earn full accreditation, the pass rate must be 75 percent or above, which they earned in 2016.
At Tuscarora High School, students have the opportunity to take Advanced Placement courses and Dual Enrollment with Northern Virginia Community College. The participation rate at Tuscarora High School for these classes is 64 percent. The student body makeup is 52 percent male and 48 percent female, and the total minority enrollment is 41 percent. Tuscarora High is 1 of 18 high schools in Loudoun County Public Schools.

Band

Tuscarora High School has a medium sized Band program. The marching band, known as the Tuscarora Marching Huskies, has been around since the school opened. Awards and Honors include SVMI 2014 Champions, US Bands Marine Corps 2014 Invitational Champions, Straight Superiors at Marching State assessment, 2015 Virginia Honor Band, and representing the Commonwealth and State of Virginia in the 2015 Pearl Harbor Day Parade in Honolulu, Hawaii. Other programs, including the Winter Color Guard and Winter Indoor Drumline, have also had success.
Winter Color Guard won the 2015 AIA Winter Guard Championships in the Scholastic A1 category.
During the 2014-15 season, the Color Guard took Gold at Atlantic Indoor Association. In the 2014-15 season, the Color Guard remained undefeated in the Atlantic Indoor Association and Winter Guard International circuit, and ending the season with taking Gold at Atlantic Indoor Association Championship finals, beating their competition by 10 points, resulting in a 90.06. They were the only Color Guard at Atlantic Indoor Association Championships to exceed a score of 90.
The Indoor Drumline, won the AIA Championships in the Scholastic Division. During the 2014-15 season, the Winter Indoor Drumline took championships at the Atlantic Indoor Association Finals Competition. In the 2015-16 season, the Drumline moved up one division, from Percussion Scholastic Regional A to Percussion Scholastic A.

Sports

In Fall 2014, the Tuscarora Girls Cross Country team won the first ever state championship for the school. In November 2017, the girls won their 3rd Class 5A State Title in 4 years. Tuscarora's Football team is first in Division 5A in the state of Virginia. After the loss of one of their coaches, Adam Fortune, the school dedicated the field to him naming it Fortune Field and placing a stone below the scoreboard in his memory. During that season, the Huskies won the region championship and advanced to the state finals with a 14–0 record where they lost to LC Bird 22-19 ending their season at 14–1. The Tuscarora Golf team won the 5A North Region championship in 2014 to earn them a place in the Virginia state golf tournament, where they finished in 4th place.

Enrollment history

Due to the attendance of Lansdowne students at Tuscarora because of overcrowding at Stone Bridge, the enrollment numbers reflected fast-approaching over-crowding at Tuscarora. When Riverside High School in Lansdowne opened in 2015, the enrollment dropped by about 300 students.