Wenonah High School

Wenonah High School
	Birmingham City Schools
Years	1948–present
Location	2916 Wilson Rd SW, (map) Wenonah
Grades	9-12
Principal	Regina Carr-Hunter
Enrollment	740 (2010)
Colors	Old Gold and white
Mascot	Dragons
Website	birmingham.schoolinsites.com

Wenonah High School (opened in 1948) is a high school in the Birmingham City Schools system. It is located at 2916 Wilson Road Southwest in the Wenonah community. The principal is Regina Carr-Hunter.

The school was constructed after a 1946 fire destroyed the former Wenonah School, which had been established by Tennessee Coal Iron & Railroad Company at the Wenonah mining camp in 1917 and was later turned over to Jefferson County Schools. TCI donated a 16-acre parcel for construction of a new high school and elementary school and construction began in late 1946.

The new school plant was built at a cost a cost of $500,000 and included 15 classrooms, administrative office, lunchroom, athletic room, shoe repair, upholstery and radio repair shop, cosmetology, foods and clothing labs.

In January 1948, the 9-12 grade students at the elementary school, Powderly School and students from surrounding areas of Jefferson County as far away as Shades Valley and McCalla attended classes in the building led by Principal Leon Kennedy. In May 1948, the first senior class graduated from Wenonah High School.

In 1956, seven classrooms, a library and gym were added to the school plant.

In August 1968, the dream of having a Wenonah Area Vocational School became a reality and its doors were opened to students that September.

In the spring of 1970, a new facility was erected by the Jefferson County Board of Education at a cost of $300,000 to house the Wenonah Area Vocational School. The building was located on the southwest side of the old Wenonah High School campus.

In 1973, Wenonah High School was annexed into the city of Birmingham. Administration of Wenonah was taken over by the Birmingham Board of Education.

In 1981, a new gym was constructed and equipped at a cost of more than $1 million.

2007 campus

In 2005, construction began on a new Wenonah High School, just northeast of the 1948 school campus. On August 13, 2007, classes began in portions the new $40 million school. Construction was led by Doster Construction and architectural services were provided by McCauley Associates.

The new Wenonah High School replaced the 1948 building with a 183,000 square foot facility that is built for 1,200 students. It includes a 750 seat auditorium with theatrical lighting and sound systems. The main academic building features a state-of-the art media center, computer laboratories and classrooms for science, math, social studies, English and other subjects.

The career-technical wing contains an electronics classroom with lab areas, a classroom and fully equipped commercial kitchen for the schools well-known culinary arts program and a family and consumer science classroom. There are also classrooms and labs for welding and cosmetology. Band and chorus classrooms also are part of the career-tech wing, which includes the cafeteria.

The new campus includes a gymnasium for practice and physical education classes. The "new gym" that was part of the old school, a free-standing building, was renovated and expanded into a 1,400 seat competition gym.

A new 4,500 seat football stadium with a six lane track, concession stands, restrooms and irrigation system was also built on the campus. All construction was completed in January 2008.

In the summer of 2008 environmental science teacher Ruayyah Aqeel invited representatives of the Fruit Tree Planting Organization in San Diego, California to help students plant a small orchard on campus.

In 2011, Wenonah became the home of the city's "Academy of Hospitality and Tourism" under Superintendent Craig Witherspoon's plan to establish career academies in the city's high schools.

Principals

• Leon Kennedy, 1948-1966
• William Jackson, 1966-1967
• William Hawes, 1967-1991
• Sidney Moore, 1990-2002
• Regina Hunter (interim), 2002
• Regina Carr Hope, 2003–present

Notable alumni

• Ralph Cook (1961), Alabama Supreme Court Justice
• Alonzo Ephraim (1999), professional football player
• Lawrence Jackson (1968), former professional baseball player
• Ron Jackson (1971), professional baseball player and coach
• Lagarius Jennings (1996), professional football player
• Lamar Johnson, (1968), professional Baseball player with Chicago White Sox and Texas Rangers.
• Johnny McDaniel (1969), professional football player
• Sandra Mixon Little-Brown (1973) Jefferson County Commissioner
• Moody Duff (1976), Deputy Chief of the Birmingham Police Department.
• Sam Shade (1991), professional football player
• Wardine Towers Alexander, (1973) Birmingham School Board member, District 7
• Chad Kelton Williams (1998), professional football player
• Joe Webb (2005), UAB Blazers and NFL Carolina Panthers

References

• "Wenonah High School." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 24 Sep 2007, 00:35 UTC. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 20 Dec 2007 [1] .
• Kent, Dawn (January 25, 2008) "Doster Construction wraps up work on new Wenonah High." Birmingham News
• Wilstach, Nancy (July 6, 2008) "A tree grows at Wenonah High, well, actually a whole orchard." Birmingham News

External Links

• Wenonah High School Grand Alumni Association (WHSGAA) website
• Wenonah High School Sports History from ahsfhs.org website