Fairhope High School
Encyclopedia
Fairhope High School is a public secondary school located in Fairhope
Fairhope, Alabama
Fairhope is a city in Baldwin County, Alabama, on a sloping plateau, along the cliffs and shoreline of Mobile Bay. The 2010 census lists the population of the city as 16,176....

, Alabama
Alabama
Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...

. Fairhope High School is a part of the Baldwin County Public Schools system. They service grades 9
Ninth grade
Ninth grade is the ninth post-kindergarten year of school education in some school systems. The students are 13 to 15 years of age, depending on when their birthday occurs. Depending on the school district, ninth grade is usually the first year of high school....

-12
Twelfth grade
Twelfth grade or Senior year, or Grade Twelve, are the North American names for the final year of secondary school. In most countries students then graduate at age 17 or 18. In some countries, there is a thirteenth grade, while other countries do not have a 12th grade/year at all...

.

History

Fairhope High School first became accredited in 1924, a step necessary to allow students in the area to enter college without examinations. Plans were immediately put in place for a new building to house high school students; construction was begun in early 1925. Teachers' Institute was held in Bay Minette on September 7 and 8; opening day was September 9. The building was not yet ready at this point; the actual move occurred on December 10, 1925. The building featured physics and chemistry laboratory equipment and was spacious enough for a faculty of five and a student body of 105. They fielded teams in boys' and girls' basketball and tennis during the year. A senior class of nine students, six girls and three boys, graduated on May 28, 1926. All are prominently featured in the first "annual" Bay Breeze, which is still the name of the yearbook today.

The school continued to flourish throughout the remainder of the Roaring Twenties and through the Great Depression and World War II. By 1953, a larger building was needed. The initial building, however, is still in existence and currently serves as the Fairhope K-1 Center, the first of five schools students living in Fairhope attend. It is located at 110 Church Street in downtown Fairhope. The 1953 school year found area students moving to a new site on Section Street to attend high school. This became the new academic home to approximately 245 tenth, eleventh, and twelfth grade students and ten teachers. At the end of the first year, sixty seniors received diplomas. This facility is now home to Fairhope Middle School, serving grades 6-8. It is one of two feeder schools in the Fairhope attendance zone. The other is J. Larry Newton School, which is on Hwy 32 in the southeast quadrant of the Fairhope area. **In 2010, the 1st grade classes moved from the original high school building to the new elementary school located at the property on Section Street that was formerly Fairhope High School and later Fairhope Middle School. In 2011, the kindergarten classes were also moved to the new elementary school. The original high school still exists, but it is unknown what will become of this building. The Baldwin County Board of Education closed the building at the end of the 2010-2011 school year.

During its proud history, the school has undergone numerous grade level organizational changes. It was previously based on the bored game called "get your fairhope" Initally, finances limited construction to a facility for tenth, eleventh, and twelfth grades only. The school gradually absorbed the seventh, eighth, and ninth grades from the elementary-junior high school, relieving their overcrowded condition. In 1970, with the construction of a new middle school for grades six, seven, and eight, our school narrowed its attention to serve senior high school students more effectively. In 1989, the student population had grown so much that a new high school was built in neighboring Daphne to serve students who resided in that area, thus ending Fairhope's 64-year-reign as being the only high school on the eastern shore.

After thirty-eight years at the Section Street campus and with no additional room for expansion, a new high school built outside of town on Highway 98 was opened at the beginning of the 1993 school year. Changes have also taken place in the school’s curriculum. Some courses have been modified to meet the changing needs and interests of students; others, such as computer education, have been added to prepare students for technological challenges. The school meets the students’ varying academic requirements through regular, advanced, academic resource, and special education classes. Health and the revised home economics program address problems that confront students today. Art not only adds a new dimension to the curriculum, but also satisfies a long-standing community demand. The inclusion of marine science demonstrates continuing efforts to offer subjects of contemporary concern. Humanities is an integration of art, philosophy, music, and literature, all of which add diversity to the curriculum.

Currently enrolled at Fairhope High School are approximately 1300 students, 250 of whom are seniors.

Clubs and Organizations

Among the numerous traditional clubs are the yearbooking staff and the Key Club
Key Club
Key Club International is the oldest and largest service program for high school students. It is a student-led organization whose goal is to teach leadership through serving others. Key Club International is a part of the Kiwanis International family of service-leadership programs...

. Besides those is a unique organization formed by a group of ambitious students called the Cat Club. This club involves students working to promote a more health-oriented lifestyle for the local felines, both young and old. The Club's efforts include hosting an annual "Adopt A Friend" event during the springtime to encourage possible pet owners to spay and neuter their cats, as well as adopting rescue pets from local havens. Though only operating locally, the Cat Club has received numerous forms of recognition and commendation from several esteemed kennel clubs throughout the United States, most notably, a "Plaque of Good Values for Furry Friends" awarded by the American Cat Fanciers Association
American Cat Fanciers Association
The American Cat Fanciers Association is an American non-profit organization formed with the intent of allowing for greater flexibility in the development of pedigreed cats....

.

Athletics

The Pirates compete in the AHSAA's largest classification, 6A. Fairhope annually fields teams in football, baseball, basketball, soccer, track, volleyball, cross country, golf, tennis, and swimming.

Football

Each year, the football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...

 team plays Foley High School
Foley High School
Foley High School is in Foley, Alabama and is part of the Baldwin County Public Schools System.-Alumni:*Ken Stabler is a former football quarterback in the NFL for the Oakland Raiders , the Houston Oilers , and the New Orleans Saints . Julio Jones, Robert Lester, and D.J Fluker are all football...

 for the Blue-Gold trophy and the Daphne Trojans for the Jubilee Cup. Fairhope's biggest rivals are Foley and the Trojans of Daphne High School
Daphne High School
Daphne High School is a secondary school located in Daphne, Alabama. The school, which serves grades 9-12, is a part of the Baldwin County Public Schools district. Students at the school live in the city of Daphne and its surrounding unincorporated areas and the city of Loxley...

. Prior to division of student talent with Daphne High School, Fairhope was a perennial contender in many team sports and earned several state titles.

The 2006 win-loss record for the Fairhope Pirates football team was 3-8. The Pirates were 7-4 in 2004 and 6-5 in 2008. In 2009, the Pirates finished the regular season 10-0, with wins over both Daphne and Foley. However, Fairhope lost in the second round of the AHSAA 6A State Playoffs, finishing the season 11-1.

Soccer

Fairhope has an established boy's and girls' soccer program with winning traditions. Fairhope's boys soccer team won the 6A Alabama State Championship in 2009.

Baseball

Fairhope is a perennial powerhouse in class 6A baseball. The Pirates have gone to the AHSAA playoffs eight years in a row and won state championships in 1983 and 1984. The Pirates have also claimed the 6A Area 2 Championship two years running and finished this season 36-8, losing in the semi-finals of the playoffs to the eventual state champions of Auburn High.

School uniform

All Baldwin County Public School students are required to wear school uniform
School uniform
A school uniform is an outfit—a set of standardized clothes—worn primarily for an educational institution. They are common in primary and secondary schools in various countries . When used, they form the basis of a school's dress code.Traditionally school uniforms have been largely subdued and...

s. http://images.pcmac.org/Uploads/BaldwinCounty/BaldwinCounty/Divisions/DocumentsCategories/Documents/Uniform%20Policy%20(New%20-%20Revised)%202006-2007%20School%20Year%20.pdf

Notable alumni

  • Leon Lett
    Leon Lett
    Leon Lett, Jr. , nicknamed The Big Cat, is a former American football defensive tackle in the National Football League who played for the Dallas Cowboys and the Denver Broncos , after playing college football at Emporia State University. Lett was a two-time Pro Bowler, with selections in 1994 and...

     - NFL Football
    American football
    American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...

     Cowboys
    Dallas Cowboys
    The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football franchise which plays in the Eastern Division of the National Football Conference of the National Football League . They are headquartered in Valley Ranch in Irving, Texas, a suburb of Dallas...

    , All-Pro
    All-Pro
    All-Pro is a term mostly used in the NFL for the best players of each position during that season. It began as polls of sportswriters in the early 1920s...

  • Daryl Norris - NCAA Baseball Athlete Mississippi State University 1st Baseman/Pitcher

Feeder patterns

Schools that feed into Fairhope High include:
  1. Fairhope Middle School (6-8), 642 students, Principal Deadra Lamar Powe.
  2. J. Larry Newton School (K-6), 731 students, Principal Suellen Brazil.
  3. Fairhope Intermediate School (4-5), 397 students, Principal Carol Broughten.
  4. Fairhope Elementary School (2-3), 278 students, Principal Terry E. Beasley.
  5. Fairhope K-1 Center (K-1), 459 students, Principal Pat Carlton.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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