WC's Unstoppable Rise

9 schools             8,108 students                 453 teachers

Here is how it all started. In 1890 to 1893, the first class of the West Clermont school district consisted of just 5 students and 1 teacher. Compared to today's amount West Clermont has come to be what the founders of that first school dreamed of. That first class didn’t have an official school building; they had to do class at the Amelia Methodist Church. How did we get from 5 students and 1 teacher, to 8108 students and 453 teachers is the real question.

After the first graduating class they began to expand, which brought us some new schools. Some of these schools are familiar to our community today because ,while the buildings have evolved, the names have stuck all these years. The first schools were and are known as Tobasco school which today is Withamsville-Tobasco Elementary, Mt.Carmel school and while it is no longer in our district it is still an area and school, and there is also Willowville Elementary which to this day is still an elementary school, just with a new and improved building. While the district has evolved we still have many things, small and big, from the original district. Then the district started coming together. There were 3 districts: Amelia, Withamsville-Tobasco, and Glen Este Mt.Carmel. There were more but those were the bigger districts at the time. The 3 districts then consolidated to become the West Clermont Local Schools in 1957.

The original Amelia High School , just one step closer to the district today. 1957 to 1961

Then came the new Amelia. The new Amelia building would end up being our current middle school; it even has the same layout. The district's population skyrocketed and moved us one step closer to the district we are now. After some time we brought in Glen Este because of how many people were moving into our district.

 Then came the football stadiums that brought a start to our hometown's favorite sport and the amazing team that has grown over the years. The start of football brought us an annual Amelia versus Glen Este football game with the trophy that is our beloved bell that was at one point on top of Mt.Carmel school and is now resting inside of our current West Clermont High School. This was one of the biggest events of the year and it was known as “The Bell Game” with up to 4,500 people attending it each year and plenty more there that just couldn’t get in. 

Over the next years the district will rest on the big moves and changes but will end up adding lots of new classes and extracurricular activities to bring everyone in the district together because there was something for everyone there.Next came the renovations including new gyms and auditoriums that are still used to this day. 

But after a long break it happened. The last graduating class of Amelia and Glen Este in 2017 before they combined the summer after, creating the West Clermont High school and middle school we have now instead of separate schools and districts. Today we have many teachers from both schools working together in one district. There are even some right next door. 

A social studies teacher from Amelia that was there for the merge says , “The merge was a big move but the district and staff tried hard to prepare us for it. We worked as a team to get to know each other and make the combination smoother for everyone..”. It shows how are big group of people in this district works hard to welcome everyone because there isn’t one person running all of our schools; we work together as a team to keep everything running smoothly and everyone getting the best education and experience possible. Another amazing social studies teacher from Glen Este said during his interview that, “The district does a pretty good job at showing where we have come from and representing who we are and why we are the school to go to and how we have come so far from where we were originally”. Towards the end of both of the conversations I had with these teachers both mention that, “The district works on bringing us together to work as a team no matter what is happening in the district”.

That same building is now the West Clermont middle school in our current district.-2025

All of the things that the district has gone through are what have brought us together. Each thing that has happened whether it was negative or positive, brought us together one step at a time until we got to the amazing district we have now. While like everything we do have our problems and we make our mistakes , we learn from them and use it to help us move forward. The history of our district is just one of the many things that go into the past of this town.