Winston Churchill High School, often referred to as WCHS, Churchill High School, CHS or Churchill, is a public high school in Potomac, Maryland, United States, an unincorporated section of Montgomery County. It is the only public high school in Potomac.
The school is named after Winston Churchill, a British statesman and politician who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during World War II. Founded in 1964 as Potomac High School, the school's name was changed to "Winston Churchill High School" a year later.
Churchill belongs to the Montgomery County Public Schools system. Most of its students live in Potomac with a small portion in Bethesda.
Contents
History
Winston Churchill High School was established in 1964 as Potomac High School. The school was renamed to honor Sir Winston Churchill the following year.
From 1999 to 2002, Churchill underwent renovations to modernize and revitalize the facilities. There was a formal rededication ceremony on April 21, 2002. Along with the opening of the new facility, the school's auditorium was renamed to the Dr. Gertrude G. Bish Auditorium, to honor the first principal of Churchill High School when it opened in 1964. She was the first woman high school principal in Montgomery County.
In January 2010, a criminal investigation exposed a grade-changing scandal at Churchill. 46 students' grades were modified after 8 students hacked the school's grade system. The incident was treated by the police as a criminal investigation.
In 2016, controversy spiked in Montgomery County around racial incidents at Churchill. In November, two students put a sign reading "whites only" on a bathroom door, later telling authorities that they found the sign and wanted to see people's reaction. A month later, a few students allegedly entered a meeting of the school's Republican club, called the members racist, and wrote "Black Lives Matter" on the classroom whiteboard. In response, a club member supposedly said "White Lives Matter" directed to the non-club members. A Montgomery County Republican leader was hurt by this and told school district leaders after being informed by a parent. Chair of the education committee of the Montgomery County Republican Central Committee, Richard Jurgena was worried for the state of the club and called for a "complete, rapid and nonpartisan" investigation.
In 2017, after a basketball game between Winston Churchill High School and Walter Johnson High School, Walter Johnson High School students defaced Winston Churchill High School property with vulgar graffiti. This caused $100,000 in damage.
On October 13, 2021, a female Churchill student was assaulted by a 17-year old student from Walt Whitman High School. This incident occurred at the Churchill bus loop in the morning where the assailant brandished a knife and attacked the victim. The assailant subsequently fled the scene only to be later identified and taken into custody. The victim sustained minor injuries and "enhanced monitoring" was supposedly implemented during future dismissals.
Areas Served
Churchill students come from two feeder middle schools and six elementary schools:
Cabin John Middle School
Bells Mill Elementary School
Seven Locks Elementary School
Herbert Hoover Middle School
Beverly Farms Elementary School
Potomac Elementary School
Wayside Elementary School
Cold Spring Elementary School
School awards and academics
Churchill has been ranked in the top 100 high schools in the United States for years, climbing to 42 in 2007 and 75 in 2017. Churchill earned the 2007 Maryland Blue Ribbon Award and was selected by the U.S. Department of Education as a 2007 National No Child Left Behind Blue Ribbon School.
In 2012, Churchill was rated the best high school in Maryland and fifth among non-magnet schools nationally according to U.S. News & World Report. In 2016, the same report ranked Winston Churchill High School 94th in national ranking, 2nd in Maryland High Schools and 146th in STEM High Schools with 83.9 (out of 100) College Readiness Index. In 2017, Churchill was ranked the best high school in Maryland and 75th in the nation by U.S. News. As of 2024, Churchill has fallen to the 5th-ranked high school in Maryland and the 295th-ranked nationally, according to U.S News and World Report.
Currently Churchill is ranked number 402 in the US National Rankings and number 8 in the Maryland high school rankings according to U.S. News and World Report. Their current overall score is 97.75 out of 100. Throughout the 2020s, Churchill has consistently been one of the best academic public schools in the United States.
Churchill students average a score of 1299 on the SAT, with 640 on verbal and 659 on math.
Departments and programs
Churchill has nine academic departments: Art, Computer Science, English, Foreign Language, Mathematics, Performing Arts, Physical Education, Science, and Social Studies.
Autism Program
The Autism Program provides a program for students with low-functioning autism. These students learn how to improve their skills at undertaking certain tasks and also learn speech.
Signature Program
The Signature Program allows students to follow one of several course paths to specialize in a particular career field. The program comprises three academies: the Academy of Math, Science, & Technology; the Academy of International Studies; and the Academy of Creative and Performing Arts.
Bridge Program
The Bridge Program provides a program for adolescents and young adults with learning/emotional disabilities. The program intends to foster academic skill development and alter behaviors that interfere with academic learning. It is supervised by an interdisciplinary team intended to meet the needs of socially vulnerable middle and high school students who may be challenged by problem-solving abstract thinking, organizing and planning, interpreting social cues, establishing relationships with peers, coping with anxiety, changes in routine, and transitioning.
Performing arts
Many theater productions are put on regularly, including a night of one act plays. The One Acts Festival is student-produced, directed, and funded by the drama club. Churchill also has a choir program. Showstoppers is a mixed-gender show choir group, while Jazz Ambassadors is a mixed-gender choir. Both groups regularly compete within Montgomery County, regionally, and nationally. Churchill also hosts an annual show choir competition.
Churchill's choral music groups are Voice of a Generation (VOAG), Jazz Ambassadors, and Showstoppers.
Voice of a Generation is a non-audition group for students who like to sing and learn about the study of music. Students learn to sight-read, read music, and improve their performance skills.
Jazz Ambassadors is a coed ensemble selected through auditions, focusing on developing vocal technique. Most songs are challenging jazz music, but this is often stretched to arrangements of different kinds of music like pop or classical.
Showstoppers is an honors show choir group of students selected through auditions who previously held choir positions at Churchill. This group features musically challenging music. Most music is popular, but any musical style, including sacred and secular works, is rehearsed and performed.
In 2007, Churchill's fall production of Singin' in the Rain was nominated for six Cappies High School Theater Awards, winning Best Orchestra (for the third consecutive year), Best Cameo Actor, and Best Cameo Actress. Only one other school received more awards.
In 2009, Churchill's fall production of Rent: School Edition was nominated for four Cappies High School Theater Awards: Best Male Vocalist, Best Female Vocalist, Best Orchestra, and Best Song. Churchill won awards for Best Female Vocalist as well as Best Orchestra.
Many students form bands, typically of a rock variety, and the school occasionally facilitates this by sponsoring a battle of the bands or band performance. The school has sponsored day-long concerts on school grounds; the Merritthon, a fundraising event for Leukemia research, occurred annually from 2002 to 2004.
Publications
Churchill produces three publications, all of which have won awards: its newspaper, The Churchill Observer; its yearbook, Finest Hours; and its literary magazine, Erehwon.
Athletics
Legacy Cup
Winston Churchill High School Athletics compete with local high schools Walter Johnson High School, Walt Whitman High School, Thomas S. Wootton High School, and Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School in an annual athletics tournament for the Legacy Cup which started in the 2024-25 School year where the school with the most varsity sports wins would claim the cup for the following year. Winston Churchill High School won the first Legacy Cup.
Legacy Cup Victories: 2024-25, 2025-26
Football has a similar trophy called the Congressional Cup with the same schools but for whichever team won the series between the five schools during the regular varsity football season.
Winston Churchill High School offers the following sports:
Winston Churchill High School has the most MPSSAA state championships in Montgomery County with 48 MPSSAA state championships (not including the 8 Ice Hockey state championships as it isn't an official MPSSAA sport), they have the most golf state championships in MPSSAA and the most 4A State championships in MPSSAA.
Notable alumni
Jody A. Breckenridge née Hinchion, Vice Admiral of the US Coast Guard, Commander of the Pacific Area
Susan C. Lee (class of 1972), state senator, Maryland General Assembly
Samuel L. Stanley (class of 1972), President, Michigan State University
John F. Mulholland Jr. (class of 1973), U.S. Army officer
Elisa New (class of 1976), professor of English at Harvard University
Brian Holloway (class of 1977), professional football player, All-Pro, Stanford graduate, NFL first-round draft pick
Jeffrey Allan Kemp (class of 1977), NFL player, quarterback for Los Angeles Rams, Seattle Seahawks, San Francisco 49ers; son of Jack Kemp
Michael Hardt (class of 1978), philosopher, author
Cheryl Kagan (class of 1979), state senator, Maryland General Assembly
Kenny Kramm (class of 1979), entrepreneur, inventor of FLAVORx
Darren Star (class of 1979), television creator and producer (Beverly Hills, 90210, Melrose Place, Sex and the City, Younger)
Marti Leimbach (class of 1981), novelist
Paul Palmer (class of 1983), former NFL player, first-round draft pick and College Football Hall of Famer, and came second in Heisman voting, consensus All-America, and led nation in rushing all in 1986