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Silas High School

Public high school in Tacoma, Washington, US

Summary

Public high school in Tacoma, Washington, US

Field	Value
name	Silas High School
motto	"Developing Confident,
Contributing Citizens"
established	1958
type	Public High School
us_nces_school_id
principal	Bernadette Ray
teaching_staff	48.20 (FTE)
ratio	23.57
enrollment	1,136 (2023–2024)
grades	9–12
streetaddress	1202 N. Orchard St.
city	Tacoma
state	Washington
zipcode	98406
country	U.S.
coordinates
district	Tacoma Public Schools
colors	Red, White & Blue

nickname	RedSilas
mascot	Rams
free_label	Emblem
yearbook	NOVA
website

Contributing Citizens" Secondary education

Silas High School is a four-year public secondary school in Tacoma, Washington. It is one of five traditional high schools in the Tacoma Public Schools and is located at the intersection of Orchard Street and 11th Street. Silas' current principal is Bernadette Ray. The school was formerly named Woodrow Wilson High School from its founding in 1958 until July 2021 after a wave of name changes following the 2020 racial protests that swept the world.

Its attendance boundary includes Ruston.

HillTop artists

Dale Chihuly, a glass artist who graduated from the school, established HillTop Artists, a glass-working program at Silas. For a $20 fee, students can blow glass, make glass beads, and participate in kiln work. This program is run by glass artists who trained with Chihuly at the Pilchuck Glass School.

Daffodil Festival

Every year, Silas participates in the Pierce County Daffodil Festival. A competition is held in-house to select the Silas Princess. The Princess must have at least a 3.5 GPA and must be a senior. She will go on to compete against other regional schools for the Daffodil Festival Queen title. The Queen title is considered the highest honor of the regional festival. In April, the Silas band accompanies the Princesses on a float in the annual parade.

Name change

In 2020, two Tacoma Public Schools principals proposed renaming Woodrow Wilson High School and other schools in response to public outcry due to their association with controversial historic figures. Woodrow Wilson, the school's namesake, was a segregationist who had sympathized with the Ku Klux Klan and held pro-Confederacy views. A public survey circulated to 3,900 respondents in September 2020 was returned with 43 percent in favor of renaming the school and 57 percent in favor of retaining Wilson's name. On February 11, 2021, Tacoma Public Schools Board of Directors approved a plan to rename the school for Dr. Dolores Silas, the first Black woman to serve as a school administrator and city council member in Tacoma. The official renaming to Silas High School took effect on July 1 and is planned to take 18 months to fully transition, at a cost of $400,000 to replace signage and uniforms.

Sports

Silas participates in Cross Country, Girls' Soccer, Football, Girls' Swimming, Boys' Tennis, Girls' Volleyball, Boys' Water Polo, Boys' Basketball Girls' Basketball, Boys' Swimming, Girls' Bowling, Wrestling, Project Unify, Boys' Baseball, Girls' Fastpitch, Boys' Soccer, Girls' Tennis, Golf, Girls' Water Polo, and Track. The Silas Boys Swimming and Diving team has won 29 State titles, with 24 consecutive titles between 1960–1983. The Boys Water Polo Team has won 4 state Titles. The Girls Bowling team has won 3 State Titles. The Boys Track And Field Team has won 6 State Titles. The Baseball team won 1 State title in 1977. The Boys Golf Team has won 2 State titles.

Notable alumni

Name	Grad Class	Category	Best Known For	Dale Chihuly	1959	artist	glass artist	Ted Bundy	1965	serial killer	American serial killer (1946–1989)	Kaye Hall	Athletics	1968 Olympic gold and bronze medalist in women's swimming	Leo Randolph,	Athletics	1976 Olympic gold medalist in boxing	Joey Gjertsen	2000	Athletics	midfielder for the San Jose Earthquakes	Xavier Cooper	2010	Athletics	defensive tackle for the Cleveland Browns.	Dick Hannula	Athletics	former swimming coach, won 24 consecutive state swimming titles, 1960-1983	Darrell Robinson	Athletics	holder of the 400-meter national high school track record (44.69 seconds) since July 24, 1982	Geoff Tate	lead singer of the Grammy-nominated band Queensrÿche	Desmond Trufant	Athletics	cornerback for the Chicago Bears, first-round selection in 2013 NFL draft	Isaiah Trufant	Athletics	former cornerback for the Cleveland Browns	Marcus Trufant	Athletics	former cornerback for the Seattle Seahawks	Clyde Werner	Athletics	former linebacker for the Kansas City Chiefs	John Zamberlin	Athletics	former linebacker for the New England Patriots and Kansas City Chiefs; former head coach at Idaho State University

References

"School Boundaries". [[Tacoma Public Schools]].
U.S. Census Bureau Geography Division. (December 23, 2009). "2020 Census – School District Reference Map: Pierce County, WA". U.S. Census Bureau.
Needles, Allison. (July 16, 2020). "Name change process underway for Tacoma schools amid racism concerns". [[The News Tribune]].
Needles, Allison. (February 12, 2021). "It's official: Tacoma's Woodrow Wilson High School will get a new name". The News Tribune.
Needles, Allison. (January 29, 2021). "Here's the proposed new name for Wilson High School in Tacoma". The News Tribune.
(2018-10-25). "Tracing the infamous Ted Bundy’s Tacoma roots - The Trail". The Trail.
"Summer Olympics Individual Gold Medalists from Washington".
(2016-06-15). "A Geoduck in the big time".
"Football Recruiting - Xavier Cooper - Player Profiles - ESPN".

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

high-schools-in-pierce-county,-washington schools-in-tacoma,-washington public-high-schools-in-washington-(state) 1958-establishments-in-washington-(state)

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