South Forsyth High School

South Forsyth High School is a public high school, built in 1989, located in Cumming, Georgia, United States, a suburb northeast of Atlanta. It is one of seven public high schools in the Forsyth County School District, and serves students who live in parts of unincorporated Cumming, Alpharetta, and Suwanee. In 2017, South Forsyth High School was ranked #416 on US News' "Best High Schools Ranking".[6] The school has been given an "A" rating and Platinum status by the Governor's Office of Student Achievement for more than five years.[7] South Forsyth High School has offered the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme and the Career-Related Programme since 2000 and 2012, respectively.[8]

Main Hall at South Forsyth High School opened in July 2016.
South Forsyth High School
Address
585 Peachtree Parkway

Cumming
,
Georgia

United States
Information
TypePublic school
MottoConnect to Achieve; Lead to Inspire.[1]
Established1989
PrincipalLaura Wilson[2]
Teaching staff146 (FTE)[3]
Grades9-12
Enrollment2,600 (2018-19)[3]
Student to teacher ratio17.81[3]
Campus size10 acres[4]
Color(s)Royal blue, silver, black, and white        
MascotWar Eagle
RivalLambert High School
National ranking416 (national), 13 (state)[5]
AffiliationForsyth County Schools
WebsiteSouth Forsyth High School

History

South Forsyth High School first opened in 1989 as both a middle and high school, named South Forsyth Junior High. An additional building, East Hall, was later added to allow the high school and middle school to operate separately. In 1998, a new middle school, South Forsyth Middle School, was built on a separate property, allowing the high school to utilize the entire campus. After this, students were moved from Forsyth County High, now Forsyth Central High School, to alleviate overcrowding.[4] Eventually South Forsyth High School experienced its own overcrowding, which prompted the construction and opening of West Forsyth High School in 2007,[9] Lambert High School in 2009,[10] and Denmark High School in 2018.

Renovations

As a result of district-wide overcrowding at all of the middle schools, such as Lakeside Middle School, Piney Grove Middle School, and South Forsyth Middle School, a $195 million bond referendum was passed, which included significant improvements to South Forsyth High School.[11] These included a new cafeteria, a new 42,000 square foot competition gym, improved traffic flow, a new administration center, 23 new classrooms, a new front façade, and a new courtyard in front of East Hall featuring walkways to connect the several separate buildings on campus.[12] The renovations were designed by Manley Spangler Smith Architects. Balfour Beatty was selected as the construction manager, with a maximum of $25.7 million budgeted for the project. In July 2016, the new additions were opened to the public. The new additions include administrative offices, nine new classrooms, a large dining hall, a competition style gym, and the South Forsyth Plaza.[13]

Athletics

South Forsyth currently competes in Region 6-AAAAAA (Area 3 AAAAAA for lacrosse),[14] and has since 2012.[15][16] SFHS has seven varsity sports for boys and girls. The school fields junior varsity teams for most sports and freshmen teams in football and volleyball. The school is a member of the Georgia High School Association. South Forsyth is currently the region champion in football for Region 6-AAAAAA.

In 2015, the varsity football team finished with a school high 11-2 record, beating rival school Lambert by a long shot, winning the Region 6-AAAAAA Championship and making it to the quarterfinals of the GHSA Playoffs until ultimately losing to Colquitt County High School.

The school has won state championships in competition cheerleading in 1997 and 1999, girls' cross country in 2016, boys’ cross country 2018, and Men's Quartet in 2009.[17][18][19]

Other studies

South Forsyth High School offers a fairly wide selection of Advanced Placement (AP), and International Baccalaureate (IB) accredited classes.[20] South Forsyth is currently the only school in the Forsyth County School District to offer the IB program.[21] South Forsyth also offers other study alternatives, including Work Based Learning and Dual Enrollment. The former allows students to work during part of the day for the variety of companies, while the latter allows students to take college classes for both college and high school credit at either the Lanier Technical College, University of North Georgia (UNG), or Georgia Institute of Technology. Through the Move On When Ready program, some students take all their classes at a college (typically UNG) and never come to South Forsyth's campus, save for the occasional counselor visit.

Additionally, the school offers Distance Learning (DL) courses in association with the Georgia Institute of Technology in courses such as Genetics, Linear Algebra or Multivariable Calculus for students who have met the necessary requirements.

Clubs and organizations

South Forsyth offers a multitude of student clubs and organizations in addition to athletics. These include FBLA, Academic Bowl, HOSA, MDJunior, TSA, FCA, Drama, Debate, Band, and DECA.

FBLA

FBLA is the co-curricular student organization for Business and Computer Science students but is open to all students that wish to join. FBLA allows students to gain leadership skills by participating in chapter events (fundraisers, membership drives, community service), working on chapter teams (website management, promotion), becoming a chapter/region/state level officer, and competing in business and computer science events. Students in the Programming & Computer Science Pathway and the Entrepreneurship & Human Resource Management Pathway learn about and participate in FBLA activities in class. FBLA is the largest and oldest business student organization in the world. South Forsyth FBLA is one of the largest FBLA chapters in the world and has been the Georgia FBLA Chapter of Year for two years in a row (2016–17,2017–18). The chapter currently has over 400+ members and is one of the biggest student organizations on campus. http://southforsythfbla.com/chapter/about-us/

DECA

South Forsyth is home to the "World's second Largest DECA Chapter" and "Georgia's Largest DECA Chapter." The chapter was started in 1999 and has since grown to almost 1,500 members. In DECA, students can compete against other students from around the world in fields such as business, marketing, finance, and hospitality.[22]

TSA and Robotics

South Forsyth created a Technology Student Association (TSA) chapter in 2010. With the exception of the first year, South Forsyth has ranked in the top 10 statewide every year. In 2011 they were ranked 7th, from 2012-2015 they were ranked 3rd, in 2016 they were ranked 2nd, and in 2017 they were ranked 1st in the state, overtaking the previous state champion Parkview. TSA host over 70 competitive events, including website design, dragster design, engineering, biotechnology, fashion design, and coding.

In addition to TSA, South Forsyth boast a wide variety of robotics, including Vex Robotics (Team 1961), BEST Robotics (Team 119), and FIRST Robotics (Team 4112). South Forsyth has consistently seen performance among the best in the state at all types of robotics, including several state championship and even ranking third in the world at the 2014 Vex World Championship with team 1961C, the number which was thusly retired. South Forsyth commonly competes with the name "Eaglebots" across all types of robotics. In 2017 Vex Competition season, South Forsyth had the highest scoring season in TSA history gaining a total of 22 trophies in the one-year period, more than all the other years combined.

Student data

Students are drawn from Piney Grove Middle School, Lakeside Middle School, and South Forsyth Middle School. South currently serves students in grades 9-12. Students can also ask to transfer to South from other schools in order to participate in the competitive IB program or specified sports programs if they fill out an out-of-district form.[23]

Notable alumni

1990 Hostage stand-off

On September 7, 1990, Randy Floyd Addis entered the school with a rifle, a shotgun and a semi-automatic pistol. After a teacher wrestled the rifle away from him, he used the pistol to hold many of his classmates hostage. Most of the students were released over the course of the morning. In the early afternoon, Floyd became dizzy and gave himself up, releasing the final 9 children. No one was injured. [24][25]

References
  1. "Mission, Vision, Motto." Forsyth County Schools. Web. 20 July 2015 http://www.forsyth.k12.ga.us/Page/39694
  2. "SFHS Leadership Team." Forsyth County Schools. Web. 20 July 2015 http://www.forsyth.k12.ga.us/domain/2005
  3. "South Forsyth High School". National Center for Education Statistics. Retrieved May 5, 2020.
  4. "Welcome to the home of the War Eagles!" Forsyth County Schools. Web. 20 July 2015 http://www.forsyth.k12.ga.us/domain/2004
  5. "South Forsyth High School". U.S. News & World Report. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
  6. "High School Rankings" US News Education. Web. 1 May 2018 https://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/georgia/districts/forsyth-county/south-forsyth-high-school-5903
  7. https://schoolgrades.georgia.gov/south-forsyth-high-school
  8. International Baccalaureate http://www.ibo.org/en/school/001242. Retrieved 1 September 2017. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  9. "West Forsyth High School" Forsyth County Schools. Web. 20 July 2015 http://www.forsyth.k12.ga.us/domain/2064
  10. "School History" Forsyth County Schools. Web. 20 July 2015 http://www.forsyth.k12.ga.us/page/24758
  11. "2014 Bond" Forsyth County Schools. Web. 20 July 2015 http://www.forsyth.k12.ga.us/2014bond
  12. "Designs completed for North, South Forsyth high schools" Forsyth County News. Web. 20 July 2015 http://www.forsythnews.com/section/3/article/27450/
  13. "FORSYTH COUNTY SCHOOLS 2014 CAPITAL PROGRAM TIMELINE" Forsyth County Schools. Web. 20 July 2015 http://www.forsyth.k12.ga.us/cms/lib3/GA01000373/Centricity/Domain/61/Copy%20of%202014%20BOND%20TIMELINE%20-%20May15.xlsx
  14. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2015-09-15. Retrieved 2015-06-03.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  15. "GHSA Region Alignment". GHSA. Archived from the original on 2010-06-20. Retrieved 2009-07-24.
  16. "GHSFHA South Forsyth Yearly Region Standings". GHSFHA. Retrieved 2009-07-24.
  17. http://www.ghsa.net/node/1700
  18. "Athletics / Cheerleading." Forsyth County Schools. Web. 24 August 2011. <http://www.forsyth.k12.ga.us/page/22454>.
  19. <http://ga.milesplit.com/articles/195733>.
  20. "Advanced Studies - AP,IB,Gifted / Advanced Studies." Forsyth County Schools. Web. 24 August 2011. <http://www.forsyth.k12.ga.us/page/22298>.
  21. "The International Baccalaureate Programme" Forsyth County Schools. Web. 20 July 2015 http://www.forsyth.k12.ga.us/domain/2019
  22. "About Us - South Forsyth DECA". South Forsyth DECA. South Forsyth High School. Retrieved 1 August 2016.
  23. "2014 - 2015 Feeder Patterns, Forsyth County Schools" Forsyth County Schools. Web. 20 July 2015 http://www.forsyth.k12.ga.us/cms/lib3/GA01000373/Centricity/Domain/64/FY2015FeederPattern.pdf
  24. "TEEN GIVES UP AFTER 5-HOUR HOSTAGE ORDEAL". www.deseret.com. Deseret News. Retrieved 1 February 2021.
  25. "Teen Charged With Kidnapping 53 in School Hostage Situation". www.apnews.com. AP News. Retrieved 1 February 2021.

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