View source for Spring Woods High School

{{Use American English|date=September 2025}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2025}}
{{Infobox school
| name           = Spring Woods High School
| logo           = 
| image          = SpringWoodsHighSchoolHouston.JPG
| motto          = Success With Honor and Spirit
| location       = 2045 Gessner Rd.
| city           = [[Houston]], [[Texas]]
| zipcode        = 77080
| country        = United States
| coordinates    = {{Coord|29.81086|-95.54764|type:edu_region:US-TX|display=inline,title}}
| schooltype     = [[Public school (government funded)|Public school]] (U.S.)
| established    = 1964
| district       = Spring Branch Independent School District
| principal      = Stephanie Meshell
| grades         = 9–12
| enrollment     = 2,068 (2023–2024)<ref name=NCES>{{cite web|url=https://nces.ed.gov/ccd/schoolsearch/school_detail.asp?Search=1&DistrictID=4841100&SchoolPageNum=3&ID=484110004696|title=SPRING WOODS H S|publisher=National Center for Education Statistics|access-date=January 21, 2025}}</ref>
| staff          = 140.31 (FTE)<ref name=NCES/>
| ratio          = 14.74<ref name=NCES/>
| mascot         = Tuffy the Tiger
| nickname       = Tigers
| rival          = Northbrook Senior High School
| newspaper      = The Regit
| yearbook       = Safari
| colors         = Black and gold {{color box|black}} {{color box|gold}}
| website        = https://swh.springbranchisd.com/
}}

'''Spring Woods High School''' is a public [[secondary school]] in [[Spring Branch, Houston|Spring Branch]], [[Houston, Texas]], United States.<ref>"[http://sbmd.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/sb_schools.pdf Spring Branch Schools]" ([https://web.archive.org/web/20140518083430/http://sbmd.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/sb_schools.pdf Archive]). [[Spring Branch, Houston|Spring Branch Management District]]. Retrieved on May 18, 2014.</ref> The school, serving grades 9 through 12, is operated by [[Spring Branch Independent School District]] (SBISD).

Spring Woods serves several neighborhoods, including Campbell Woods, Royal Oaks, Spring Meadows, Shadow Oaks, and a portion of Spring Shadows. A section of the [[Memorial City, Houston|Memorial City]] district is within the school's attendance zone.<ref name="MemorialCityMap">[http://www.memorialcitydistrict.org/img_popup.asp Memorial City Management District Boundary] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110727080434/http://www.memorialcitydistrict.org/img_popup.asp |date=2011-07-27 }}." ''[[Memorial City District]]''. Retrieved on January 25, 2009.</ref>

Founded in 1964, Spring Woods was built to accommodate the rapid population growth in Houston’s western suburbs and has grown into one of the oldest high schools in the district.  The campus occupies the former grounds of the Spring Branch Country Club.

==History==
Spring Woods High School opened in 1964 during the population boom in the western suburbs of Houston on the former grounds of the Spring Branch Country Club. It opened within a year of the openings of [[Spring Oaks Junior High]] (now Spring Oaks Middle School) and Westwood Elementary School, all immediately adjacent on the same former golf course. Currently the second-oldest functioning high school in the Spring Branch ISD, Spring Woods serves the northwest part of the district, roughly an area north of Interstate 10 and west of Gessner Road. Expanded and renovated several times, the Spring Woods campus has wide courtyards in which classrooms face inwards, yet with passages that are open to the outside air, a different approach than [[Northbrook High School]] and [[Stratford High School, Houston|Stratford High School]], the two newer schools in the district, which are mostly enclosed but are still kept dry and warm when weather becomes an issue. Spring Woods opened about the same time and with a similar design as Westchester High School, which closed in the 1980s and is currently home to a district-run [[charter school]] called [[Westchester Academy for International Studies]].

In 1992 the school's student body was 25% Hispanic, 13% Black, and 13% Asian. In May 1992, 25 12th grade students vandalized the school by spray painting racial slurs, placing the [[Flags of the Confederate States of America|Confederate flag]] on the flagpole, placing a dead raccoon and a dead opossum in two empty lockers, and drew an image of a black person being impaled on a cross. The principal of Spring Woods, Perry Pope, said that the students took their prank "too far."<ref>"[http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=DM&p_theme=dm&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0ED3D23FD339E2C0&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM Teens draw fire for prank involving race slurs]." ''[[The Associated Press]]'' at ''[[The Dallas Morning News]]''. Thursday May 28, 1992. State News 32A. Retrieved on November 28, 2011.</ref>

Spring Woods was named a 1997–98 [[National Blue Ribbon School]].<ref>{{Cite web| title=Blue ribbon schools program | url=http://www.ed.gov/programs/nclbbrs/list-1982.pdf | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030922031724/http://www.ed.gov:80/programs/nclbbrs/list-1982.pdf | archive-date=2003-09-22}}</ref>

Spring Woods has been represented by a costumed tiger mascot since the 1960s. The first female to wear the costume was in the early '80s. The tiger goes by the name of Tuffy and has a sister (if there are 2 people costumed) named Tilly the Tiger. Sometimes Tuffy and Tilly have been accompanied by a third mascot Baby Tiger.

Student Mason Kalkofen felt compelled to wear a [[hazmat suit]] in December 2020 after he was obliged to take his final exams in person, because his mother had a high risk of contagion with [[COVID-19 pandemic in Texas|COVID-19]]. The school, which has had 17 student and eight employee infections, said it was taking an abundance of caution.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Polus |first1=Sarah |title=Student with mom who's high risk for COVID-19 takes exams in hazmat suit |url=https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/530893-student-with-mom-whos-high-risk-for-covid-takes-exams-in-hazmat-suit |access-date=December 18, 2020 |work=[[The Hill (newspaper)|The Hill]]|date=18 December 2020 |language=en}}</ref>

In 2003, two students were awarded the prestigious Gates Millennium Scholarship, which is awarded each year to only 1,000 graduating seniors across the United States. In 2007, Spring Woods had two students qualify for National Leadership Conference at New York City. Students advanced through Area and State competitions to earn a spot at the National Leadership Conference.

==Feeder patterns==
Elementary schools that feed into Spring Woods include:<ref name="multiple">{{Cite web |url=http://www.springbranchisd.com/schools/maps/feederschools.htm |title=Feeder schools at SBISD.com |access-date=2007-06-26 |archive-date=2007-06-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070627200842/http://www.springbranchisd.com/schools/maps/feederschools.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref>
* Shadow Oaks
* Spring Branch
* Westwood
* Woodview
* Pine Shadows (partial)
* Sherwood (partial)
* Terrace (partial)

Middle schools that feed into Spring Woods include:<ref name="multiple"/>
* Spring Branch Middle School (partial)
* Spring Oaks Middle School (partial)
* Spring Woods Middle School (partial)

==Notable alumni==
{{More citations needed section|date=November 2011}}
* [[Tate Armstrong|Tate (Michel Taylor) Armstrong]] - basketball player, Olympic gold medalist 1976, NBA's [[Chicago Bulls]] 1977–1979; played college basketball for [[Duke Blue Devils]]
* [[Mike Arthur]] - former NFL player
* [[Kurt Brecht]] - musician, songwriter, vocalist for D.R.I. (Dirty Rotten Imbeciles)
* [[Roger Clemens]] - Major League Baseball pitcher, Boston Red Sox, Toronto Blue Jays, New York Yankees, Houston Astros; 11 x All Star, 2 x World Series, 7 x Cy Young winner, active 1984–2007
* [[Chris Duliban]] - former NFL player
* [[Mica Endsley]] - [[Chief Scientist of the United States Air Force]]<ref name=TTUEngineer>{{cite web|title=Distinguished Engineer Citations|url=http://www.depts.ttu.edu/coe/alumni/de/bios.php?name=Mica%20Endsley,%20Ph.D.,%20P.E.|website=TTU.edu|publisher=Texas Tech University|access-date=5 December 2014}}</ref>
* [[Robert Ferguson (American football)|Robert Ferguson]] - former NFL and UFL wide receiver (Green Bay Packers, Minnesota Vikings, Omaha Nighthawks)
* [[John Goodson]] - former NFL player
* [[Frank Helmick|Frank G. Helmick]] - Army lieutenant general
* [[Greg Koch]] - former NFL tackle and guard (Green Bay Packers, Miami Dolphins, Minnesota Vikings)
* [[Beth Moore]] - author, teacher of bestselling Bible studies and books for women, founder of Living Proof Ministries, popular speaker
* [[Ted Poe]] U.S. Representative - served as Harris County Chief Prosecutor and Judge before becoming Congressman representing Texas' 2nd Congressional District in 2005
* [[Chris Snyder]] - MLB catcher, Arizona Diamondbacks, Pittsburgh Pirates, Houston Astros, Baltimore Orioles; active from 2004-2013
* [[R. C. Thielemann]] - former NFL guard (Washington Redskins, Atlanta Falcons)
* [[Kimberly Tomes]] - Miss USA 1977

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*[http://swh.springbranchisd.com/ Spring Woods High School]

{{SpringBranchISD}}
{{Spring Branch, Houston}}
{{Houston High Schools}}

{{authority control}}

[[Category:1964 establishments in Texas]]
[[Category:Educational institutions established in 1964]]
[[Category:Public high schools in Houston]]
[[Category:Spring Branch Independent School District high schools]]