Enloe High School

William G. Enloe High School was originally organized as two different schools that shared athletic facilities between adjacent campuses—William G. Enloe Senior High School (named after Raleigh Mayor William G. Enloe) and Charles B. Aycock Junior High. The original Enloe campus was opened in 1962 as the first integrated secondary school in Raleigh[3] for the education of students participating in grades seven through twelve and served as the secondary educational institution for the Longview Gardens community.[4] Enloe's mixed population was drawn from the white student body at Needham B. Broughton High School and the black one at John W. Ligon High School. It was deemed undesirable to pull Broughton's upcoming seniors out, so Enloe had only 160 juniors for its highest class out of a student body of 910 during its first year.[5][6] George A. Kahdy was the school's first principal. He held the post for five years.[7]

Three years after Enloe opened, Aycock was created on an adjacent campus as a junior high school to educate students in the seventh through ninth grades, taking the place of recently shuttered Hugh Morson Junior High.[8] Enloe became a senior high school with concentrated education for grades ten through twelve. In 1973, Enloe became the first fully integrated high school in Raleigh to hire a black principal.[9] Enloe absorbed the Aycock campus in 1979, becoming a modern high school focused on educating ninth through twelfth grade students. The Aycock building became the East Building, while the original Enloe complex became the West Building.[10]

In 1980, Enloe began providing magnet courses for "gifted and talented" students in Wake County. Around 300 students participated in the first two years of the program's existence.[4] The school was promoted to full magnet status in 1982. Until the mid-1990s, Enloe was the only magnet high school in the Wake County Public School System, leading to a high concentration of academically talented students. The 1993 graduating class included 42 National Merit Semifinalists, a number that remains a state record.

In July 1997, Enloe became an IB World School, allowing students to pursue the challenging International Baccalaureate Programme. Enloe IB students are occasionally invited to attend special events or trips through their involvement in the IB Programme. Enloe IB students participated in exchanges with high schools in China (2004–2005)[11] and Germany, and started a relationship with students at a high school in Turkey through the use of video conferencing technology (2005–2006).[12]

Enloe was the first high school in the state of North Carolina to accommodate a student Gay-Straight Alliance.[13]

The new building under construction in 2006

In 2006, Enloe finished the construction of a new building adjacent to the West Campus and consequently closed the 50-year-old, outdated East Campus for renovation.[14] Almost all of the classes migrated from the East Campus to the new building, reducing the need to share classes with its larger capacity. The East Campus was reopened on January 22, 2008 at the start of the second semester. It included autotech classes, the new East Gym, student services, healthful living classrooms, and other classrooms. The next stage of Enloe's renovation was completed in January 2009, and involved the locker rooms in the West Gym being converted to house the audio-visual classrooms as well as the television studio.

Front entrance of West Campus

The Wake County School Board considered removing the International Baccalaureate and magnet status from Enloe in 2008, but this decision was overturned due to the intense lobbying of students and their parents.[15]

On June 29, 2010 historian Timothy Tyson and North Carolina NAACP President William Barber II spoke before the Wake County Public School System Board about racial segregation, arguing that Mayor William G. Enloe had been in favor of it. As result, the school board announced it would review its school naming policy. Many students and alumni from Enloe High School feared the name of the school would be altered, and quickly organized to protest any potential moves to do so.[16] Wake County Commissioner Stan Norwalk accused the school board of attempting to retaliate against Enloe students for opposing its decision to eliminate the county's diversity policy.[17] NAACP officials later clarified that the mentioning of Enloe was intended to bring in historical context, and that they did not desire for the school's name to be changed.[16] In the face of growing criticism, board member John Todesco stated that the board would not remove Enloe's name from the school unless something "horrid" about him was uncovered.[18]

As of 2016, Enloe had 35 AP courses and 24 IB courses.[19][20]

In between March 14 and 15, 2019 the school was vandalized with racist and homophobic graffiti.[21] Some of the messages were targeted at the school's principal, William Chavis.[21] The damage was discovered on the morning of March 15 and school officials had the messages covered.[22][23]

Front of West Campus

From 1994–1995, Enloe teachers were trained in the use of computers and technology. Instruction occurred in two phases. The first phase involved basic computer skills, word processing, data management, email, and multimedia (including handling of laserdisc players, Quicktake cameras, and camcorders), while the second focused on educating teachers on technology that could be specifically applied to their curriculum.[38]

In 2008, a team from Enloe won the Team America Rocketry Challenge.[39]

As of 1997, Enloe had the largest arts facilities of any school in Wake County.[40] The school was one of only three high schools in the United States to host a production of the play Miss Saigon in the Spring of 2015.[41]

As of 2011, Enloe was the only school in the state to offer a Russian language course.[42]

Enloe's track and practice field as seen from the East campus

Enloe's sports image was designed by the Broughton sophomores allotted to attend the school their junior year in 1962. During a meeting in Broughton's gymnasium, it was decided that the mascot would be an eagle, the colors would be the same as the Green Bay Packers', the football helmets would be all gold in the style of the University of Notre Dame's Fighting Irish, and the fight song would be University of Michigan's The Victors.[5]

Enloe's current sports teams are as follows:

The men's swimming & diving team won nine consecutive state championships from 1999 to 2007 and had additional wins in conference and regional championships.[53]

Enloe's historical rival in athletics is Needham B. Broughton High School.[54][55]

In 2012, the school posted the sixth highest average SAT score in the Raleigh Durham area: 1692 with 77.1% of students taking the test.[56]

Until 2010, Enloe was ranked in the top 100 high schools in the U.S. according to Newsweek magazine's annual rankings:

Enloe was recognized in 2014 as a School of Distinction by Magnet Schools of America.[57]

For the 2014–2015 school year, Enloe's graduating class received over $15.4 million in scholarships, the highest of any high school in the Wake County Public School System.[58][59]

In 2015, according to the U.S. News & World Report, Enloe was ranked 854th in the nation, 18th in North Carolina, and 112th in the nation for magnet schools.[60]

In 2016, according to the Washington Post, Enloe ranked seventh in the state and 280th nationally for most challenging high schools.[19][61]

• Enloe High School website