Jackson-Reed High School (founded as Woodrow Wilson High School) is a public high school in Washington, D.C. It serves grades 9 through 12 as part of the District of Columbia Public Schools. The school sits in the Tenleytown neighborhood, at the intersection of Chesapeake Street and Nebraska Avenue NW. It primarily serves students in Washington's Ward 3, but nearly 30% of the student body lives outside the school's boundaries.
Opened in 1935, the school was originally named for Woodrow Wilson, the 28th president of the United States. It was renamed in 2022 for Edna Burke Jackson, the school's first African American teacher, and Vincent Reed, a former principal. The school building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2010 and extensively renovated in 2010–2011.
The school's motto, "Haec olim meminisse juvabit," is a Latin phrase from Virgil's Aeneid; after a storm, Aeneas tells his men that "In days to come, it will please us to remember this."
History
Early years
What is now Jackson-Reed High School was built on a patch of land acquired in 1930, known by the neighboring Tenleytowners as "French's Woods". In March 1934, the D.C. commissioners awarded the contract to build the school to the lowest bidder: McCloskey and Co. of Philadelphia. It was built for a total cost of $1.25 million.
The school opened its doors to students on September 23, 1935, as an all-white school named for Woodrow Wilson, the 28th president of the United States, the sixth DC Interhigh school. The school started with 640 sophomores and juniors, many of whom had transferred from Central and Western. Western had been running double shifts (9 a.m. to 5 p.m.) to accommodate the students from the Wilson neighborhoods. The first principal was Norman J. Nelson, formerly assistant principal at Western.
Wilson High School graduated its first students in February 1937. Chester Moye was class president of the February graduation class. The school held its first spring commencement exercises, on June 23, 1937, for 290 students. The class president was Robert Davidson.
Subsequent years
In September 1955, Wilson was integrated for the first time, enrolling two black students in the 10th grade. The same year, Edna Burke Jackson (for whom the school was later renamed) became one of the school’s first two black teachers.
In the spring of 1970, about 400 students, almost all black, gathered in the school auditorium to protest inequalities in the school. Jay Childers, the author of The Evolving Citizen: American Youth and the Changing Norms of Democratic Engagement (2012), wrote that this indicated racial tension in the school.
Stephen P. Tarason became the school's 11th principal in January 1999, when he succeeded Wilma Bonner. Bonner spent a brief time working at the main DCPS office before accepting a job at Howard University School of Education.
In mid-2006, Woodrow Wilson High School was proposed to be a charter school. However, the superintendent asked the school to hold off in exchange for being granted control over certain areas of autonomy, especially facilities.
Jacqueline Williams became interim principal in 2007, after Tarason left to become a middle school principal in Hagerstown, Maryland. The following year, DCPS chancellor Michelle Rhee appointed as principal Peter Cahall, a former teacher and administrator with the Montgomery County Public Schools.
The school building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2010.
For the 2006–07 school year, Woodrow Wilson was one of 11 U.S. schools selected by the College Board for the EXCELerator School Improvement Model program, which was funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
2010s
Along with several other D.C. public schools, the campus was renovated in 2011, bringing it to the LEED Gold standard. For the 2010–11 school year, Wilson held classes in a temporary space at the University of the District of Columbia. The renovated school reopened in October, and festivities included a 75th anniversary celebration.
Childers wrote that the school had been "increasingly troubled" before 2012.
In June 2014, Cahall came out as gay to his students during the school's gay pride day. He said that his students inspired him to come out. The Westboro Baptist Church had stated that it was going to protest against that pride day.
Cahall left his post in December 2014, in the middle of the school year, after DCPS announced that his contract would not be renewed. Cahall said that his contract was not renewed due to low test scores. In 2015, Cahall became the principal of Thomas Edison High School of Technology.