Wilton High School is a public high school in Wilton, Connecticut, USA, considered "one of Connecticut’s top performers" in various measures of school success in 2007, including scores on standardized mathematics and reading tests. In 2016, U.S. News and World Report ranked Wilton as the 7th best public high school in Connecticut and 386th in the United States.The school's present, permanent location did not open until 1971. Since then the school has experienced rapid population growth. From the height of the 1970s to 2006, the student body grew 7.5 times. In fall 2001, a major multimillion-dollar construction project was completed, significantly expanding the square footage of the school. Growth from 2001 to 2006 increased 29 percent.The demographics of the school are unusual for Connecticut. Compared to other high schools in the state, the student body of Wilton High School is more affluent and substantially less diverse:The school's current principal is Robert O'Donnell, who in 2011 replaced long-time-principal Timothy H. Canty, himself a Wilton graduate. Canty was involved in several high-profile free speech disputes with students before transferring to the Board of Education for two years and then announcing his departure from the school district in 2013.History of secondary education in townBefore 1959Even though Wilton became an independent town in 1802, separating from Norwalk, its education system was highly unorganized until the late 1950s.In the early and mid-20th century, Wilton students went to high schools in Westport, New Canaan, Norwalk (until 1930), Danbury and Ridgefield. Since the schools in these communities were becoming overcrowded with population growth, a regional high school for Wilton was proposed in 1935 but was vetoed by the state governor. In the following year, Wilton, Weston and Redding began a joint study, which rejected the idea again. Instead, the committee recommended that Wilton wait for population to increase enough to support a high school, and in the meantime buy enough land for the school. In 1940, a town meeting approved the purchase of the Harbs Farm property, a 65acre tract near the intersection of School and Danbury Roads. In 1944, a regional high school was proposed again, and again the idea was rejected, this time by the town of Redding, which killed the proposal. A consultant hired by Wilton town officials recommended in 1948 that town population growth could support a high school in less than a decade. The regional high school idea was then permanently dropped.
