The school serves the South Hills neighborhood of the city and several incorporated areas nearby. It is one of eight public high schools in Kanawha County.
History
The school, which opened in 1965, based on a plan developed by local educators, members of the West Virginia Department of Education, and faculty from Ohio State University. The school's ideals of "self-direction", flexible scheduling and independent study, were intended to provide students with opportunities to direct themselves and to prepare them for college academic life. The high school's first graduating class included fifteen National Merit Scholar finalists. In 1974 George Washington High School became involved in a notable textbook controversy, the so-called "Battle of the Books". In order to comply with a 1970 mandate to provide multicultural reading material, the board of education for Kanawha County took up a motion to purchase 300 different titles of new language arts textbooks. The titles included Soul on Ice by Eldridge Cleaver and The Autobiography of Malcolm X. After a public outcry, the board decided to not purchase the books, but community was still in turmoil. In September, students at George Washington High School began a 30-day walk out in protest of the removal of the books. By November the school voted that all but one of the books be returned to the schools. During the 1983-84 school year, the United States Department of Education recognized the high school as a National School of Excellence in the President's Search for Excellence in Education. George Washington High School made national headlines in 1992, when, during an illegal off-campus Senior Skip Day party with students from South Charleston High School, two students were fatally shot in an argument over payment for a keg of beer.
Academics
The school's average SAT scores for Math and Verbal were 480 and 495, as of 2020. In 2005, it was the only high school in West Virginia to win a blue ribbon for excelling in No Child Left Behind requirements. The school offers a wide array of Advanced Placement courses to students such as English Literature and Composition, English Language and Composition, Biology, Physics, Chemistry, Calculus, Statistics, Computer Science, US History, US Government and Politics, Art History, Music Theory, World History, Human Geography, and Spanish.
Extracurricular and co-curricular activities
George Washington High School has many extra curricular and co-curricular activities, including baseball, softball, JROTC, football, volleyball, swimming, soccer, cross-country, golf, basketball, tennis, wrestling, lacrosse, and track teams, many of which consistently compete for state championships. Music programs are also important at GW. The band is under the direction of Mark Hardman. The award-winning band is the 2012 West Virginia Music Educators Association State Honor Band, an award held by the band every other year since 1992. The GW marching band has won the Gazette-Mail Kanawha County Majorette and Band Festival Grand Championship nine times, and has had four girls named Miss Kanawha Majorette.
