Stephen Pool Waltrip High School, a part of Houston Independent School District, opened in l959 at 1900 West 34th Street. The area, which grew up after World War II was previously served by Reagan H. S. Waltrip's boundaries joined Reagan, Scarborough, Williams and Washington high schools.

Students were enrolled in grades ten through twelve, and later, ninth was added. Enrollment reached about twenty-five hundred students, and in l967, Scarborough Jr-Sr. High School opened to relieve Waltrip and F.M. Black Junior High. Feeder junior high schools were Black, a part of Hamilton, and later Clifton. Feeder elementary schools were Oak Forest, Garden Oaks, Stephens, Sinclair, Smith, and later, Durham. At opening, the student population was majority white, and remained predominantly so until the middle 1980's. Enrollment in the mid 1990's was around thirteen hundred fifty students of nearly equal White, Hispanic, and Black populations.

Waltrip's building was characterized by a drive around entry, columns, covered porch, wide tiled halls, three stories of 90 classrooms, equipped laboratories, storage, showcases, high ceilings, terrazzo floors, generous commons areas, pool, auditorium, comfortable lounges, sufficient restrooms, and ample grounds. Additions were air-conditioning, academic wing, library, counseling center, parking lot, patio, fence, technology, Houston Community College, and an HISD district office.

Curriculum offerings of English, history, mathematics, science, physical education, languages, fine arts, practical arts, occupational, gifted and talented, special education, and other homogeneously grouped academic endeavors were continuous and sequential. Newspaper, yearbook, band, choir, drill team, R.O.T.C., and athletics were and remain integral parts of the instructional program. Numerous clubs, leadership organizations, activities, as well as, parent involvement groups provided enrichment.

Principals have been: Gordon Cotton, Ivy Hollister, Perry Pope, Paul Ofield, Jim Prewett, Glenwood Prenzler, Ray Morgan, and currently Steve Siebenaler.

• The Waltrip Band played for President Kennedy the night before his assassination.
• The actor Patrick Swayze Graduated from Waltrip in 1971.
• Texas Senior Senator John Whitmire graduated from Waltrip in 1968.
• Waltrip is the only high school in Houston to win the city championship in football and basketball in the same school year, 1966 -1967. Only two boys played on both of those two teams Tim Duff and David Yaege.
• Shelley Duvall was born in Houston, Texas, July 7, 1949.  She is a 1967 Graduate of Waltrip High School.  Duvall's film career began when Robert Altman discovered her in Houston while filming Brewster McCloud in 1970. He gave her a small part in the film. Duvall was given larger roles in later Altman films including McCabe and Mrs. Miller, Thieves Like Us, Nashville, 3 Women, and Popeye.
• The professional wrestler known as The Undertaker graduated from Waltrip in 1983 as Mark Calaway. He was a member of the basketball team.
• Congratulations on the opening of Julia W. Kahla Middle School in Cy-Fair ISD  The dedication was Sunday, October 9, 2005.  Mrs. Kahla was Waltrip's speech teacher when the school opened.  She then went on to be a teacher and an administrator in C-Fair I.S.D.  The 1963 graduating class of Waltrip has donated $100.00 to the library at Kahla Middle School in her name.
• Barbara Olson, a conservative commentator on CNN. Graduated from Waltrip High School 1972. Barbara Olson was killed on September 11, 2001, when the airplane she had just boarded for Los Angeles was hijacked by terrorists and crashed into the Pentagon.