Westinghouse High School (Pittsburgh)
Encyclopedia
Westinghouse High School is a public school in the Homewood neighborhood of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh is the second-largest city in the US Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. Regionally, it anchors the largest urban area of Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley, and nationally, it is the 22nd-largest urban area in the United States...

, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...

, USA, or The Academy at Westinghouse named for Pittsburgh resident George Westinghouse
George Westinghouse
George Westinghouse, Jr was an American entrepreneur and engineer who invented the railway air brake and was a pioneer of the electrical industry. Westinghouse was one of Thomas Edison's main rivals in the early implementation of the American electricity system...

.

The school has an enrollment of 707 students, 99% of whom are African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...

.

Westinghouse is one of ten high schools in the Pittsburgh Public Schools
Pittsburgh Public Schools
Pittsburgh Public Schools is the public school district in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA and adjacent Mount Oliver.The combined land area of these municipalities is with a population of 342,503 according to the 2000 census. In August 2005, the superintendent became Mark Roosevelt. His tenure ends...

. Westinghouse High School is a 6-12 school, one of four created in Pittsburgh Public Schools
Pittsburgh Public Schools
Pittsburgh Public Schools is the public school district in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA and adjacent Mount Oliver.The combined land area of these municipalities is with a population of 342,503 according to the 2000 census. In August 2005, the superintendent became Mark Roosevelt. His tenure ends...

. Girls in one building, Boys in another part of the building with Faison joining Westinghouse High School on a separate floor if the board approves. In the 2011-2012 school year, Westinghouse High School will get some of the closing Peabody High School
Peabody High School
Peabody High School is a public school in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, in the neighborhood of East Liberty, The school opened in 1911 after the renovations of a former elementary school and was rededicated after Highland Park doctor Benjamin Peabody. After 100 years in operation the school...

's students that live East of Negley.

Curriculum and academies

In the past, Westinghouse offered Culinary Arts and Cosmetology
Cosmetology
Cosmetology is the study and application of beauty treatment. Branches of specialty including hairstyling, skin care, cosmetics, manicures/pedicures, and electrology....

 as part of its school-within-a-school programs.

The Science and Math Academy (SAM) allows students to develop skills in math and the sciences. A summer program allows students in the Academy to work with several colleges and universities

The Business and Finance Academy teaches students the skills needed in the financial services
Financial services
Financial services refer to services provided by the finance industry. The finance industry encompasses a broad range of organizations that deal with the management of money. Among these organizations are credit unions, banks, credit card companies, insurance companies, consumer finance companies,...

 field, preparing students for further work in college or in the job market. Students are provided with training in the computer skills used most frequently in the business world.

Notable alumni

  • Billy Strayhorn
    Billy Strayhorn
    William Thomas "Billy" Strayhorn was an American composer, pianist and arranger, best known for his successful collaboration with bandleader and composer Duke Ellington lasting nearly three decades. His compositions include "Chelsea Bridge", "Take the "A" Train" and "Lush Life".-Early...

    , jazz composer, known for "Lush Life
    Lush Life (song)
    "Lush Life" is a jazz standard with lyrics and music written by Billy Strayhorn from 1933 to 1938. However, the song was only performed privately by Strayhorn until he and vocalist Kay Davis performed it on November 13, 1948 with the Duke Ellington Orchestra at Carnegie Hall...

    " and "Take the "A" Train".
  • Erroll Garner
    Erroll Garner
    Erroll Louis Garner was an American jazz pianist and composer known for his swing playing and ballads. His best-known composition, the ballad "Misty", has become a jazz standard...

    , jazz pianist and composer
  • Ahmad Jamal
    Ahmad Jamal
    Ahmad Jamal is an innovative and influential American jazz pianist, composer, and educator. According to Stanley Crouch, Jamal is second in importance in the development of jazz after 1945 only to Charlie Parker...

    , jazz pianist
  • Frank Cunimondo
    Frank Cunimondo
    Frank Cunimondo is an American jazz pianist and educator based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.-Biography:He was born in Pittsburgh and began playing music at the age of 6 studying classical piano. As a teenager he made a transition to jazz. He attended George Westinghouse High School, where other...

    , jazz
    Jazz
    Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

     pianist
    Piano
    The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...

    .
  • Maurice Stokes
    Maurice Stokes
    Maurice Stokes was an American professional basketball player in the 1950s, whose career was cut short by a debilitating injury...

    , Basketball Hall of Fame
    Basketball Hall of Fame
    The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, located in Springfield, Massachusetts, United States, honors exceptional basketball players, coaches, referees, executives, and other major contributors to the game of basketball worldwide...

     who led WHS to the Pittsburgh City Championship in both 1950 and 1951. He won the NBA Rookie of the Year Award
    NBA Rookie of the Year Award
    The National Basketball Association's Rookie of the Year Award is an annual National Basketball Association award given since the 1952–53 NBA season, to the top rookie of the regular season. The winner receives the Eddie Gottlieb Trophy, which is named in honor of the Philadelphia Warriors head...

     in 1955 and played in the NBA All-Star Game
    National Basketball Association All-Star Game
    The National Basketball Association staged its first All-Star Game in the Boston Garden on March 2, 1951. From that year on, the game has matched the best players in the Eastern Conference with the best players in the Western Conference....

     every year of his career, before an in-game injury in 1958 resulted in permanent paralysis and ended his career.
  • Wendell H. Phillips
    Wendell H. Phillips
    Wendell Harrison Phillips was an American politician who served in the Maryland House of Delegates and was the first African American chairman of the Baltimore City Delegation...

    , member Maryland House of Delegates
    Maryland House of Delegates
    The Maryland House of Delegates is the lower house of the General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Maryland, and is composed of 141 Delegates elected from 47 districts. The House chamber is located in the state capitol building on State Circle in Annapolis...

    , (1979–1987)
  • Erroll B. Davis Jr. Chancellor, University of Georgia
    University of Georgia
    The University of Georgia is a public research university located in Athens, Georgia, United States. Founded in 1785, it is the oldest and largest of the state's institutions of higher learning and is one of multiple schools to claim the title of the oldest public university in the United States...

    , WHS class of 1961
  • Chuck Cooper, first black drafted in the NBA
    National Basketball Association
    The National Basketball Association is the pre-eminent men's professional basketball league in North America. It consists of thirty franchised member clubs, of which twenty-nine are located in the United States and one in Canada...

  • Bill Nunn, Jr., journalist and American football scout
  • Caroline Bright Smith, mother of actor Will Smith
    Will Smith
    Willard Christopher "Will" Smith, Jr. , also known by his stage name The Fresh Prince, is an American actor, producer, and rapper. He has enjoyed success in television, film and music. In April 2007, Newsweek called him the most powerful actor in Hollywood...

    , class of 1955.

See also: Westinghouse "Wall of Fame"

2011-2012 School Year

In the fall of 2011, Westinghouse High School closed and reopened as two single gender 6-12 Schools -- one being the Young Men's Academy and the other the Young Women's Academy at Westinghouse. Many students arrived from the closing Peabody High School
Peabody High School
Peabody High School is a public school in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, in the neighborhood of East Liberty, The school opened in 1911 after the renovations of a former elementary school and was rededicated after Highland Park doctor Benjamin Peabody. After 100 years in operation the school...

 as well as some closed K-8 schools (Lincoln and Faison schools) which moved grades into Westinghouse.

The major changes in the fall of 2011 at Westinghouse faced some community conflict because laws dictate that students can not be forced to go to a Single Gender school as a 'feeder pattern school.' Hence, Pittsburgh Public Schools
Pittsburgh Public Schools
Pittsburgh Public Schools is the public school district in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA and adjacent Mount Oliver.The combined land area of these municipalities is with a population of 342,503 according to the 2000 census. In August 2005, the superintendent became Mark Roosevelt. His tenure ends...

 board decided that students living East of Negley will attend Westinghouse but can opt out in 30 days and attend the default Pittsburgh Milliones, University Preparatory School
Pittsburgh Milliones, University Preparatory School
University Prep 6-12 is a secondary magnet school in the Sugar Top neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. University Prep is one of ten high schools in the Pittsburgh Public Schools.-History:...

 which faced increased enrollment. Projected enrollment for Westinghouse was to be 750 students. But in the early fall of 2011, 450 students have signed up.

By November 2011, the three principals that started the school year at Westinghouse were gone and the district also made an announcement that the single-gender operations would end in early 2012. The ACLU and others made threats of looming legal challenges and rather than go to court, the district decided that changes were the more prudent pathway for the future of the school.

External links

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