West Lafayette Junior-Senior High School (also informally known as West Side High School or simply West Side) is the only high school within the West Lafayette city limits, and is administered by the West Lafayette Community School Corporation.
The school district which this school belongs to covers central portions of West Lafayette municipality.
West Lafayette Junior-Senior High School was constructed in 1939 of cream brick and glass at a cost of $225,000, and was remodeled in the late 1990s. It underwent major renovations and additions beginning in the late 2010s, including a new library and aquatic center. The school is located near Purdue University, and the children of many Purdue faculty and staff attend West Lafayette Junior-Senior High School. In 2012, the school was ranked as the 2nd and 4th best public high school in Indiana by U.S. News & World Report and Newsweek, respectively. As of 2021, the high school was ranked in U.S. News & World Report as 2nd in Indiana and 239th nationwide.
Students at West Lafayette Junior-Senior High School exhibit strong performance in academics, demonstrating an average of 63% for mathematic proficiency and 73% on average for reading proficiency as of 2021.
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Athletics
The school offers athletic programs including football, baseball, basketball, cheerleading, cross country, soccer, wrestling, golf, track and field, swimming, tennis and volleyball. The teams play under the nickname of the Red Devils and belong to the Hoosier Athletic Conference. The Red Devils have won 7 state championships.
Notable alumni
Sonia Y. Angell (Class of 1983), public health leader
Moungi Bawendi (Class of 1978), winner of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Chemistry and professor at MIT
Katie Bouman (Class of 2007), imaging scientist
Greg Christopher (Class of 1984), athletic director
Neil Eggleston (Class of 1971), White House Counsel
Paul Eremenko (Class of 1997), innovator and technology executive
Bob Friend (Class of 1949), pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates
Gen Fukunaga (Class of 1979), founder of Funimation Entertainment
George Karlaftis (Class of 2019), NFL football player
Tom Kelly (Class of 1967), songwriter
Joseph Lee (Class of 2006), actor
Philip Low (Class of 1965), chemist [1]
Jay McDowell (Class of 1987), bassist for country music band BR549
Gavin Mikhail (Class of 1991), singer-songwriter
Sameer Mishra (Class of 2012), won the 81st Scripps National Spelling Bee
Tom Moore (Class of 1961), director
Toby Moskowitz (Class of 1989), financial economist