Established 1905 Grades 9-12 School color(s) Maroon and White Founder Joseph Byrne Lockey Lowest grade Ninth grade | Principal David Williams Gender Coeducational Phone +1 850-595-1500 Founded 1905 | |
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School type Comprehensive Public High SchoolMagnet High School District | ||
Pensacola high school band
Pensacola High School is a secondary school located near downtown Pensacola, Florida, United States.
Contents
- Pensacola high school band
- Pensacola high school senior video 1998 99
- Origins
- International Baccalaureate
- Communities served
- National recognition and prominence
- Extracurricular programs
- References
The school celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2001 and graduated its 100th class of seniors in 2005; however, the school has not always been at its current location. It was moved to Maxwell Street in 1952. In 1969, a fire gutted the previous school building on Lee Square, prompting its demolition. Currently, it is the oldest secondary school in Pensacola.
The school is part of the Escambia County School District. A former principal, Norm Ross, is the Deputy Superintendent of Schools for the county. Currently, the principal is David Williams, who previously served as Assistant Principal of Grounds and Maintenance.
After Hurricane Ivan, which struck the Pensacola area on September 16, 2004, Pensacola High School was damaged. While large renovations were needed, the school remained open and in operation. The gymnasium, which had only recently been remodeled, was demolished in June 2005. The auditorium was rebuilt in the spring of 2007, and the gymnasium was rebuilt in time for the 2008-2009 school year.
Pensacola high school senior video 1998 99
Origins
The first public school for boys in Pensacola was organized in 1870. A two-story building on Wright Street was erected by the School Board in 1875. It was known as the Pensacola Academy and its principal was John Wilmer. In 1886, a new building was erected on Lee Square, known as Public School No. 1. Its first graduating class consisted of Albert Reed and J. Whiting Hyer.
In 1905, Pensacola Senior High School was organized in the Public School No. 1 building. The school was a four-year high school, and its first principal was J. B. Lockey. PHS's first graduating class consisted of Dudley Barrow and Nell Richards.
International Baccalaureate
Pensacola High School is the only school in the county to have an International Baccalaureate program. The International Baccalaureate program was introduced in 1986 as a last-ditch effort to keep the school open; many students had performed poorly, and there were high dropout rates. The school district gave the PHS administration the ultimatum of improving the numbers. With the introduction of the IB program, the higher test scores helped bring up the average and kept Pensacola High open.
Communities served
Sections of Pensacola are served by Pensacola High School. Pensacola Beach is also within the attendance boundary, but most students in Pensacola Beach attend Santa Rosa County School District schools in Gulf Breeze for middle and high school grades: Gulf Breeze High School is the high school of the district in Gulf Breeze.
National recognition and prominence
In the news magazine Newsweek's published list of America's Top Public High Schools, Pensacola High School ranked as follows:
2003 - #188
2005 - #8
2006 - #38
2007 - #38
2008 - #42
2009 - #54
2010 - #22
2016 - The Washington Post named Pensacola High School in the top 10% of the hardest schools in America, ranking it number 35 out of several thousand.
Extracurricular programs
PHS currently features two academic extracurricular activities which have enjoyed great success on the county/northwest Florida/state level:
The school's newspaper, the Prowler, has not been published intermittently since 2008. It was again restarted, in February 2012, and is still in the process of being built. It is a completely online publication, found at phsprowler.org.
Pensacola High School has had a chess team since 2009. PHS Football team has the distinction of being the oldest football program in the state: pro, college or high school. The first game was played in 1905. In 2009 the PHS Football team won the Class 3A State Championship.
PHS also features a variety of athletic programs. Those are boys' football, weightlifting, and golf and girls' volleyball, basketball, soccer, softball, cross country, track and field, swimming and diving, and tennis.
In addition to many athletic programs, PHS also has a student band and cheerleading team, as well as a Student Government Association and AFJROTC unit FL-12.