Principals Webpage

Matthew Arnold

Principal

[email protected]
phone 407-622-3200


 Our vision this year is to be the top producer of successful students in the nation. We define success as students graduating and going forth to be helpful and productive citizens. Our mission is to lead students to success with the support and involvement of families and the community. The following are our five goals (1) an intense focus on student achievement (2) a high-performing and dedicated team (3)a safe learning and working environment (4) efficient operations (5) sustained community engagement.

I am particularly drawn to our students graduating and going forth to be helpful and productive citizens. This definition of success emphasizes that each student is very important and that they do have an impact on others. Being a helpful and productive citizen positively impacts our families, friends, communities, state, and nation. It speaks to being a dependable family member, a positive student at school, a hard working employee, an active volunteer, a good-hearted leader, or a caring friend. Our students will go on to have many leadership roles, and it is important that they lead well in a helpful and productive way.

Winter Park High School is a school that has a strong heartbeat. We are a school of character solidified by many incredible graduating classes that have established a Tradition of Excellence. Wildcats respect one another, value each other, and care about people. Wildcats embrace persity and work to have a safe, supportive, and encouraging school culture. Wildcats also work together to learn, grow, and be good citizens.

Orange County Public Schools is providing laptop computers for all of our students this year. District approved textbooks will be accessible through the laptops and students will use the laptops for class work, homework, and testing. Class sets of hard cover textbooks will exist in most classrooms. AP and IB books will still be in paper form and not available electronically. With any new rollout, there will be unexpected challenges that arise. A few points of good practice follow:

1. Laptops need to be charged each night and ready to go for the next day. A fully charged laptop is vital!

2. Avoid loss or theft by storing laptops in a safe and secure location when at home. A laptop left on the seat of a parked car is a temptation to those with bad intent.

3. It is important to care for the laptop and accessories so that the device is long lasting and functions well.

4. It can be tempting to use the laptop to cheat or plagiarize which of course is completely unacceptable.

We also will be utilizing the Khan Academy software program this year. KhanAcademy.org prepares students for the SAT exam and at the same time supports the learning of many state standards. It is worthwhile for a student to invest time in KhanAcademy.org from any computer on or off campus.

Communication this year will take place through our weekly electronic newsletter and our phone call-out system. If you ever change your phone number, please stop by our guidance office to have your contact number updated. If you do not receive our weekly newsletter, send a text message to 22828. Enter the following text message content: WPHS. A prompt will then be sent asking for your email address.