The Westminster Schools
The Westminster Schools is a Kindergarten–12 private school in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, founded in 1951.
Not to be confused with Westminster Christian Academy (Georgia).The Westminster Schools
And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and favor with God and man (Luke 2:52)
1951; traces origins to 1878
William L. Pressly
Keith Evans
not reported[1]
Kindergarten through 12[1]
1,873 (2017-18)[1]
not reported[1]
Forest green and white
GHSA Region 6-AAAA
Wildcats
The Westminster Bi-Line
Lynx
$306 million[2]
History[edit]
Westminster originated in 1951 as a reorganization of Atlanta's North Avenue Presbyterian School (NAPS), a girls' school and an affiliate of the North Avenue Presbyterian Church. Dr. William L. Pressly of Chattanooga, Tennessee's McCallie School served as Westminster's first president. The school moved to its current campus in 1953 as the result of a land grant by trustee Fritz Orr.
Also in 1953, Washington Seminary, another private school for girls, founded by two of George Washington's great-nieces in 1878,[3] merged with Westminster. The resulting school was coeducational until the sixth grade, with separate schools for boys and girls continuing through the twelfth grade, a practice that continued until 1986 and provided the basis of Westminster's plural name.
In the mid-1950s, Westminster became a test site for a new advanced studies program that would later become the College Board's Advanced Placement program. In 1962, the administration building, later named Pressly Hall, was constructed, bringing the number of permanent buildings on campus to four.
In the early 1960s, the school barred black students and only rarely allowed African-Americans on campus.[4]
In 1965, the school's trustees voted to adopt a nondiscriminatory admissions policy.[5]
Until 1978, the school also operated as a boarding school, using Tull Hall as a dormitory.
In 2006 the school ran a campaign attempting to raise $100 million to further increase its endowment size. The campaign was at the time the third-largest ever for an independent school in the United States.[6]
Athletics[edit]
Westminster fields 84 athletic teams, including baseball, basketball (boys' and girls'), cheerleading (football and basketball), crew, cross country (boys' and girls'), football, golf (boys' and girls'), gymnastics, lacrosse (boys' and girls'), soccer (boys' and girls'), softball, swimming and diving (boys' and girls'), tennis (boys' and girls'), track and field (boys' and girls'), volleyball, squash, and wrestling.
For the 2012–13 school year, Westminster was named the nation's best overall sports program for its eleven state championships and four second-place finishes.[9] Nearly a decade later, for the 2021-22 school year, Westminster was again named the nation's best overall sports program with ten state championships, two second-place finishes, and a final four appearance from the boys' soccer team.[10]
These teams have won 290 state championships since 1951, including seven in the 2016–17 school year. Westminster has received the Georgia Athletic Directors' Association Director's Cup in its respective classification in 17 of the 18 years it has been awarded, 2000–2008 and 2010–2017.[11] The varsity boys' tennis team won the Georgia State High School AAA State Championship in ten seasons in a row, 1999–2009. The boys' team has yielded many Division 1 NCAA scholarship tennis players over the years, and it has won several regional tournaments as well. The men's and women's swimming & diving teams have won 34 state championships under former coach Pete Higgins, whose accolades through 51 years of coaching include membership in the Georgia Aquatics Hall of Fame, recognition of January 5, 1990 as Pete Higgins Day by the City of Atlanta, among others. Westminster fields the sole varsity squash team south of Woodberry Forest School in Virginia featuring full interscholastic competition; the team placed 16th in the 2004 U.S. National High School Team Championships, held at Yale University, and the Squash Cats also won the title in 2012, 2016, and 2018.
In 2014, Westminster moved up a class from AA to AAA. In 2015, Westminster's football team won the AAA state championship for the first time in 37 years against rival Blessed Trinity Catholic High School in overtime, with a final score of 38–31. In 2016, Westminster's baseball team won the AAA state championship for the first time in 41 years, also against Blessed Trinity Catholic High School, sweeping the championship series in a pair of one-run victories. Westminster's boys and girls soccer teams have won the most state championships in Georgia High School history. The 2019 boys team also finished the season ranked #1 in the nation by MaxPreps meanwhile the 2021 girls team finished as the unanimous #1 team in the nation and again by MaxPreps in 2022.[12]
Extracurricular activities[edit]
WCAT[edit]
WCAT, the school's broadcast program, streams events and school activities online. In the 2016–17 school year, more than 45 students from all three divisions helped stream more than 220 events. Since its inception in 2010, the program has won 8 awards and 7 honorable mentions from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Southeast division.[13] In 2017, WCAT won its first-ever National Student Production Award from NATAS for Best Sports – Live Event Broadcast.[14]
Policy debate[edit]
The Policy Debate team has won 16 state championships as well as many large national tournaments, including the national Tournament of Champions five times.[15] The team also won the National Debate Coaches' Association Championships in 2007, 2014, and 2017.[16]
Robotics[edit]
The robotics team at Westminster began in 2008 and is identified as FRC Team 2415, the WiredCats. The team has qualified for the FRC international championships every year since their inception, more than any other team in the state.[17] They placed 5th at the Houston International Championships in 2017 after winning their subdivision at the International Championships, being one of few teams in Georgia to have made it to the Einstein Field Bracket.[17] The team won the Peachtree District Championship in 2018 and 2019.[17] They have other accolades including ten regional/district event wins in 2009, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2023, the chairman's award in 2010, the engineering inspiration award in 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2017, and 2018, and the creativity award in 2024.[17]