Woodward HS

About Our Namesake

Charles W. Woodward High School is named for Judge Charles W. Woodward (1895–1969), a man whose career left a lasting mark on Montgomery County long before the school ever bore his name.

Born in Jackson, Georgia, Woodward moved to Montgomery County in 1915 to teach at the old Briarly Hall Military Academy. He served with the U.S. Army during World War I, rising from private to infantry captain, and later graduated from George Washington University Law School in 1922, going on to practice law in Rockville. In 1925, at just 37 years old, he was named to the Montgomery County Circuit Court, making him the youngest person ever appointed to that bench.

Judge Woodward's defining case came in 1937, when a young Thurgood Marshall argued before him in Gibbs v. Broome, challenging the fact that MCPS paid its Black teachers roughly half of what white teachers earned. The case, involving William B. Gibbs Jr. (for whom Clarksburg Elementary School is named), led to MCPS agreeing to fully equalize salaries for Black and white teachers. Marshall would go on to use that same ruling as a template to win similar equal-pay cases across Maryland and 14 other states, work later credited with helping expand the Equal Protection Clause in ways that fed directly into Brown v. Board of Education.

Known on the bench as tough but scrupulously fair, Woodward held himself to high standards of honesty and impartiality. When the original Woodward High School opened its doors, he coined its founding motto, reframing the traditional "three Rs" into three guiding principles for the school: Rights, Respect, and Responsibility (as shared above).

The Woodward Campus

The building at 11211 Old Georgetown Road has worn several names and served several communities across six decades. The Board of Education named the school for Judge Woodward in 1965, while it was still under construction; during that time, it was known internally by the placeholder name "Montrose High School." Woodward opened its doors in 1966 and operated as a comprehensive high school for 21 years, building its own identity around the Wildcats mascot and purple-and-white school colors.

Facing declining enrollment, the Board of Education merged Woodward into Walter Johnson High School in 1987. The building went on to serve other purposes over the following decades: first as swing space while Springbrook High School was renovated, and then, starting in 1991, as the home of Tilden Middle School for nearly 30 years.

When Tilden moved to its newly renovated building in the summer of 2020, the original Woodward/Tilden building was demolished, clearing the way for an entirely new facility. Construction of the new building's core structure ran from January 2021 through August 2024, at which point Northwood High School moved in as a holding school while its own campus was rebuilt. Northwood will remain in the building through the 2026–2027 school year, as the final phases of construction, including the athletic fields, auxiliary gym, auditorium, and performance spaces, are completed. Charles W. Woodward High School will officially reopen in fall 2027, forty years after its original closure, welcoming its first new class of students.