Dropping Enrollment @ WOS

[Guest Ozen]

That's what i meant, you have to have the right people in ADMIN that will not bring the School or Athletics down.

[stangchain]

LOL.  Just checking to make sure we are on the same page.

[adminbaberuth]

Put Cornell as the Principal and Coach Anderson as Mr Dauphine and problems solved.

[Guest Buford T. Justice]

Dauphine is not the problem. 

[AggiesAreWe]

Ok, no one else will say it, so I will. What the heck are Silsbee people doing on a public message board making defamatory assumptions about a school district that they have absolutely no clue about? I have a child who will be a senior this year and I can give you an EDUCATED opinion that the school is far more concerned about academics than they are athletics and more specifically, football. In fact, the principle, who is a detriment to the school, does nothing to help athletics and does more to hurt them. He is the same guy who has been there for at least 6 years and is not on the same page with anyone. Coaches, teachers or students.

As for your assumptions that, because WO-S is still successful in FOOTBALL, that they are only concerned with athletics. A healthy academic environment goes hand in hand with a healthy athletic program... See South Lake Carol, Katy, Austin West Lake and WO-S in the 80's. The list goes on and on. The only reason that the WO-S "perception" is what it is, is because people make assonine assumptions about it in public or they are jealous because the program or coach gets more attention then their precious local bowl game. That's the fault of the local media, not WO-S or it's coach. Some of these statements are freakin ridiculous.

As for the "mystery" behind our students compared to our population (as compared to Silsbee's). Silsbee has 6,300 people and one highschool with 840 people. Since the world revolves around Silsbee, I'll guess that the standard is that any town should average 840 students per 6,300 people. Orange has 3 highschools. WO-S @ 717, LCM @ 1,160 and Orangefield @ 515. This is a total of 2,392 students. 2,392/840= 2.85. 2.85 X 6,300= 17,955 people. Don't want any of you trying to dig up hidden students or anything or blowing a fuse trying to figure the population mystery out. Next thing you know is that we will be trying to sandbag our enrollment to gain an advantage in football.

The bottom line is that WO-S is still successful in football because of great coaching and hard work. Contrary to popular belief, it is not a football factory that farts out super human athletes that do not have to pass and have only one purpose and that is to play football. However, football is the one bright spot at a school riddled with problems that the community and students can cling to. If things don't get turned around in a hurry, those people who still believe and work their asses off will be gone and you just watch how fast that last bright spot falls into shambles. THE LAST thing this school needs are uneducated people going into a public forum and dragging the efforts of so many through the mud even more. Get your facts right or stay out of it.

I did not realize that the city limits of Orange included the communities of Mauriceville, Little Cypress and Orangefield. I thought they were their own communities, towns or cities, which is why they have their own school districts. Sorry for my bad assumptions.

[stangchain]

I stated in an earlier post that there are areas of the city of Orange that the LCM school district incorporates. The city has also just annexed a portion of the Little Cypress area.  there are areas SOUTH of the interstate that are in the LCM school district.

[WOS87]

[Guest Buford T. Justice]

Well said, Gasilla.  Fact is, there are some in the administration that are so jealous of the football program's success that they are willing to bring it down along with the rest of the district.  Some of them can't understand how the football program can get the kids to act right, study, and pass.  They don't realize the tradition of the Mustang program.  WHY?  Because they are outsiders!  They are not FROM WOS and instead of building off what the football program does to be successful (making the kids do right), they are jealous and do whatever they can to hurt the program.  Coaches WALK players to tutorials.  I've heard that the only kids IN tutorials are the football players.  Nobody seems to understand how the coaches get the students to cooperate.  Who are the adults here?  You MUST have discipline within the school or it will fall apart.  They are letting kids get away with some things and punishing them for others.  If a parent complains, they don't seem to back up the teachers.  Kids have threatened teachers and the administration sends them back to class the next day.  Until the white house gets enough guts to talk to the teachers to find out what the problems are, or the district finds a new president that can handle the problems, guess what?  There are STILL going to be problems.  And how right you are, Gasilla....I didn't know Silsbee had a dog in the fight!

Hopefully the Admistration and Principal will start making the right decisions.

[stangchain]

Thanks WOS87.  Chart shows LCM in the Brownwood area, but may need to show the city limits of Orange for those outsiders who are questioning the population.  I think we already had a post that the two schools should merge and maybe that is what should happen!

[WOS87]

Thanks WOS87.  Chart shows LCM in the Brownwood area, but may need to show the city limits of Orange for those outsiders who are questioning the population.  I think we already had a post that the two schools should merge and maybe that is what should happen!

The actual city limits snake along most of the major roads leading away from the city like bicycle spokes so that would be an extremely confusing graphic.  I will say that there are parts of the Orange or West Orange City limits that are in Bridge City ISD, LCM ISD, Orangefield ISD and of course WOCCISD.

Here's the view showing the 4 closest high schools to Orange and the school district boundaries (blue lines)

[stangchain]

What bothers me is, if the kids can see it, WE can see it, the teachers can see it....why can't the administration see it?  They are either blind or they just flat out don't care.

[skipper]

i wounder of this kind of stuff goes on at other schools that have  good football programs  schools like SLC are  MOJO in west texas are eaven aroundy houston

[stangchain]

i wounder of this kind of stuff goes on at other schools that have  good football programs  schools like SLC are  MOJO in west texas are eaven aroundy houston

How do you think Friday Night Lights came about?  LOL.  There have always been exaggerations regarding successful football progams.....bottom line is, though, there have been more jealousies that have brought football programs down. 

Jealousies at WOS stem from way back.  A lot of folks didn't like the merger to start with and are determined to bring it down.  They don't understand the success of the football program and they do not like it.

[stang4life]

Honestly, I believe that the number one reason for declining enrollment at WO-S is that there is not land in our school district that can be developed...not like in BC, OF, LC-M, Lumberton, Silsbee.  If you look at many of these "booming" towns, you should notice that they have houses going up everywhere.  So, when families are tired of there old homes and want to upgrade, guess what?  They generally have to leave the city limits.  Orange encompasses more than what folks think so it would be helpful if people spouting off about student:citizen enrollment ratios...understand that Orange has students in BC, OF, LC-M school districts (I probably missed some).

WO-S is generally known for their football program, but I don't agree that that is all it has been known for.  As far as the education, I have chosen for my boys to attend WO-S and not other surrounding districts.  I can tell you that my oldest two boys got as much as anyone attending other local school districts from WO-S and they were just as prepared as anyone else to hit college.  I think that the difference is that WO-S has more single-parent households, lower-income families, and issues associated with those two things than our surrounding districts, but I hate to get on here and see so many on the outside stereotyping these kids and their families based on the fact that they aren't like ALL of the great parents in other districts.  That's bullcrap.  Sure there are some parents that just don't care, some that just don't know HOW to care, and some that just do the best that they can...just like everywhere else.

I have said this so many times...WO-S' football program is an awesome asset to many of these kids because they teach them much more than plays on the field.  These coaches were my boys' father figure and they were awesome.  They teach these kids respect, discipline, kinship.  And, I'm here to tell that for the kids that can endure the program, have gained something very special.  I'll also say that many who cannot hack it end up at LC-M.

Well, I gotta go.  Headed to Hackberry to crab!!!

[CATMAN]

The population of Orange may be increasing but it is people without children. Today's families are smaller than they were in the past. Four or Five children per family was common at one time. Now there are a lot of just one or two children families.

    TERRIER YOU ARE SO RIGHT,THAT WHY PASADENA TX. HAS 5 5A HIGH SCHOOL

[Gasilla]

As the GURU of SETX, I know a little about this topic!  The Pricipal at WOS like several others that work in admin positions in that district, could probably not hold the same title at ANY other school in this state.  One of the biggest problems I see over at the corral is the hiring of some absolute TERRIBLE employees that NOBODY else will hire, and the crazy thing is those are the people that are "Running the District".  Until the board stops hiring ANYBODY'S and NOBODY'S then that situation will stay the same.  Another problem at the corral is the money!  Teachers are underpaid, coaches are underpaid, and I believe that ENRON has managed their money better over the last 15 years than the administration has at WOS.  Ironically, the Principals and Administrators have not seemed to suffer from the same low salaries as the rest of the district.  Greed and Ignorance have run this school into the ground!!

Very well said.

[Guest Pounce]

i wounder of this kind of stuff goes on at other schools that have  good football programs  schools like SLC are  MOJO in west texas are eaven aroundy houston

it happens in houston. took yates awhile to realize they were too small for 5a and finally made the move.

[Guest Kelly Football]

As the GURU of SETX, I know a little about this topic!  The Pricipal at WOS like several others that work in admin positions in that district, could probably not hold the same title at ANY other school in this state.  One of the biggest problems I see over at the corral is the hiring of some absolute TERRIBLE employees that NOBODY else will hire, and the crazy thing is those are the people that are "Running the District".  Until the board stops hiring ANYBODY'S and NOBODY'S then that situation will stay the same.  Another problem at the corral is the money!  Teachers are underpaid, coaches are underpaid, and I believe that ENRON has managed their money better over the last 15 years than the administration has at WOS.  Ironically, the Principals and Administrators have not seemed to suffer from the same low salaries as the rest of the district.  Greed and Ignorance have run this school into the ground!!

AMEN!

[stangchain]

As the GURU of SETX, I know a little about this topic!  The Pricipal at WOS like several others that work in admin positions in that district, could probably not hold the same title at ANY other school in this state.  One of the biggest problems I see over at the corral is the hiring of some absolute TERRIBLE employees that NOBODY else will hire, and the crazy thing is those are the people that are "Running the District".  Until the board stops hiring ANYBODY'S and NOBODY'S then that situation will stay the same.  Another problem at the corral is the money!  Teachers are underpaid, coaches are underpaid, and I believe that ENRON has managed their money better over the last 15 years than the administration has at WOS.  Ironically, the Principals and Administrators have not seemed to suffer from the same low salaries as the rest of the district.  Greed and Ignorance have run this school into the ground!!

Very well said, Guru.  Just a couple of months ago it was made very public that the superintendent TURNED DOWN an offer of a raise from the school board!  He was very proud of that yet no raise was offered to the coaches or teachers.  Furthermore, the school board president in March publicly stated that the "district is financially stable at this time" at the groundbreaking of the new elementary.  All of a sudden, there's NO MONEY!  Perhaps all of it was just a ploy to make the superintendent look good.

[Guest Kelly Football]

As the GURU of SETX, I know a little about this topic!  The Pricipal at WOS like several others that work in admin positions in that district, could probably not hold the same title at ANY other school in this state.  One of the biggest problems I see over at the corral is the hiring of some absolute TERRIBLE employees that NOBODY else will hire, and the crazy thing is those are the people that are "Running the District".  Until the board stops hiring ANYBODY'S and NOBODY'S then that situation will stay the same.  Another problem at the corral is the money!  Teachers are underpaid, coaches are underpaid, and I believe that ENRON has managed their money better over the last 15 years than the administration has at WOS.  Ironically, the Principals and Administrators have not seemed to suffer from the same low salaries as the rest of the district.  Greed and Ignorance have run this school into the ground!!

Can you guys do anything?

[WOS87]

Can you guys do anything?

This may open another whole can of worms but my parents had the choice of sending me to private or public school and there was no question that I would get the better education at WO-S back in the 1980's.  I'm very proud to be an alumnus of the school and as the #1 graduate from the 1987 Class I feel I was more than prepared to enter the real world from the education I received there. In 1987 the superintendent may have been different but the vast majority of the administration was pretty much the same.  Teachers were just as underpaid then as they are now. The football program was just as jealously regarded then by the academic departments (if not more so) than it is now.  In my opinion the #1 reason WO-S has lost enrollment is plain old simple "white flight".  As someone very astutely figured out several posts ago, the amount WO-S has lost in the past 20 years almost exactly equals the amount LC-M, OF and BC have gained over the same period.  The City of Orange may have lost population but if you look at the actual US Census Population figures, Orange County has continuously INCREASED in population.  The school had it's peak enrollment in its very first year (1977) and has steadily decreased in size ever since.  With 4 school districts being so close geographically I imagine many of the old West Orange opponents to the merger gradually moved over to the BC and OF school districts while quite a bit of the remainder of the city (including all 3 of my siblings) moved up to Little Cypress. 

All sad, but true!

[wos4ever]

wos87, if you don't mind me asking, why did your siblings switch to mlc?