History
In 2004, the Collier County School District created a task force of educators, school board members, and local business representatives to explore various school models that moved away from the traditional comprehensive high school and integrated technical training and college prep academics. The task force traveled within Florida and Massachusetts to visit schools leading the way in rigorous and relevant curriculum. The model selected was Florida's 2005 model high school, which combined "college prep" academics with postsecondary technical certification through a dual enrollment partnership between the technical high school and the district's adult, postsecondary technical center.
In 2005, the new school's principal was selected, and given the task of working with district departments to design the program, hire the staff, and recruit the first group of students who would enter its ninth grade class.
After engaging the community and incoming students in the process of suggesting school names, the School Board unanimously voted to name the new high school after Lorenzo Walker, reflecting both Mr. Walker's lifelong dedication to career education, and the unique and important relationship between the high school and the postsecondary institution it would partner with, Lorenzo Walker Technical College. The incoming students, through a voting process, then named the Mustang as the campus mascot, and black, silver, and white as the school colors.
In August 2006, the doors of Lorenzo Walker Technical High School opened with the Lorenzo Walker campus principal and principal's secretary joined by eight instructors, a guidance counselor and secretary, a dean, and 150 ninth graders ready to take the challenge. Each year thereafter, as this first group of students moved up a grade level, another group of incoming freshmen, and the additional staff members to teach and support them, joined the campus, so that in the school's fourth year - 2009 - 2010 - all four grade levels were finally present in the school.
For the first two years, classes were held in portables located on the Lorenzo Walker Technical College campus. In August 2008, the high school's new building opened on the LWTC campus, providing a three-story, 60,000 square foot modern facility to house all of the high school's academic and high school required courses, a state-of-the-art fitness facility, and the offices of the high school's administration and support services.
LWTHS's inaugural group of students began their senior year in August 2009, ushering in the addition to the school of typical senior-year traditions such as Prom, Grad Nite, and Senior Superlatives. Those students became LWTHS's first alumni, graduating on June 4, 2010, in a combined ceremony celebrating the graduations of both LWTC and LWTHS students. Because these LWTHS seniors were dually-enrolled for two years in adult programs at LWTC, many of the members of the Class of 2010 made history, becoming Collier County's first students to graduate from two schools - both LWTHS and LWTC - on the same day.
