The Woodlawn Program begins With the
alternative education movement in full stride in the late 60s and 70s, there was growing demand for such a school in Arlington. In 1969 Experiments in Free-form Education (EFFE) were conducted at each of the Arlington high schools, in response to the dissatisfaction many students, parents, and teachers had expressed with the current policies. Ray Anderson and Mary McBride were two of the teachers at
Wakefield to participate in this program. The following year there was a request from many students for a "student bill of rights," including Jeffrey Kallen, a highly involved student at
Washington-Liberty. When Ray Anderson announced a proposal to start an alternative school in one of the closing elementary schools, there was overwhelming support. Soon after the Citizen's Committee for the New School was established, a more detailed memorandum was submitted to the school board. By the end of that May, the proposal had been further refined, endorsed by the superintendent, and accepted by the school board. The school was housed in what had been the Woodlawn Elementary School, and what is now the Hospice of Northern Virginia
Merger The Hoffman-Boston Program (founded in 1972) and the Woodlawn Program (founded in 1971), contained junior high and high school programs respectively, which both embraced the idea of
alternative education. Originally, Hoffman-Boston had some 169 students. Woodlawn had 69 students, grades 11 and 12, in its first year of operation, adding 10th grade and expanding to some 169 students in the second year. Donald Brandewie was the founding principal of Hoffman-Boston and served for three years, after which Margery Edson became principal. Woodlawn, which was then a haven for "anti-establishment" types, had no principal. Ray Anderson served as Head Teacher and served as administrator for the program. With dwindling school populations in Arlington County in the mid-1970s, there was a belief that 9th grade should be moved up from the (then) Junior High Schools to the High Schools. This move would have impacted negatively on the two programs, so a movement started to merge, which was ordered by the School Board to take place in the fall. After a year of careful planning, discussion, and hard work by the administration, staff, students, and alumni of the two programs, a comprehensive merger plan and combined philosophy was adopted, and this document served as the "blueprint" for the initial years of the combined program. The two schools joined in the former
Stratford Junior High School building on Vacation Lane in the fall of 1979. (On an unrelated note, Stratford Junior High School was the first racially integrated school in Arlington, bringing an end to "Massive Resistance" in the state in the 1960s). The Stratford Junior High School building was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places.
Relocation to Rosslyn In 2014, the Arlington School Board identified a need for additional middle school capacity in the north-central area of the county. After contentious public debate over various options, it was determined that the Stratford building was the best location for a new middle school, and another location would be chosen for H-B Woodlawn. On December 18, 2014 the School Board voted to construct a new building for H-B Woodlawn in the
Rosslyn neighborhood of Arlington, Virginia, on property that was formerly home to Wilson School and Rosslyn Highlands Park. The Wilson School was demolished in 2017, and construction began on the new building at 1601 Wilson Blvd. (See side panel for full address). The new building was mostly completed and ready for use in late summer 2019. It featured 7 levels (basement, ground, 1–5), of which the basement and ground floors are underground, with the rest in a fanning shape above ground. Schooling began in the new building in the 2019–2020 school year, starting September 3, 2019, with some students happy about the change and others not. The building was completed at a cost of $100 million. == Student rights ==