Suncoast Community High School

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Suncoast Community High School
Established 1955
Type Public (magnet) secondary
Principal Dr. Gloria Crutchfield
Students 1367
Grades 9-12
Location Riviera Beach, Florida United States
District Palm Beach County School District
Campus Suburban
Colors Green and gold
Mascot Chargers
Yearbook Renaissance
Band The Chargersonic Sound
Accreditation Southern Association of College and Schools

Florida State Department of Education
International Baccalaureate Organization
State and National Association of College Admissions Counselors
Blue Ribbon Schools Program
Website suncoasths.palmbeach.k12.fl.us

Suncoast Community High School is a public, magnet high school for grades 9-12 located in Riviera Beach, Florida. The school is considered to have one of the top academic programs in the southern United States. The campus was built in 1955 as Riviera Beach High School.

Renamed in 1970, Suncoast became a magnet school in 1989. All students belong to one or two of the school's four magnet programs:

Suncoast was not listed in the 2005 Newsweek list of the "100 Best High Schools in America" due to its status as magnet but was included as #7 in the 2006 Newsweek "Top 100" list. Jay Mathews, the compiler of the Newsweek list and education columnist for the Washington Post, included Suncoast in an unranked list of the nation's 38 best magnet schools in 2006. [1]

Contents

[edit] History

Suncoast's campus was built in 1955 as Riviera Beach High School. During the 1950s and '60s, Riviera Beach High School had a well-deserved reputation for the quality of its teachers, its strong academic programs and the fervid support of its students, alumni and their families. In athletics, the Riviera Beach High "Hornets" were particularly strong in men's basketball, with games against arch-rival Palm Beach High School routinely drawing packed crowds of 1000+ to the school's gym. While Riviera Beach High School had been desegregated during the 1960s (by the end of the decade the school's student population was approximately 15 percent black and 85 percent white), a federal court-ordered program to desegregate all Palm Beach County district schools resulted in nearby J.F. Kennedy High School, where the student body was almost entirely African-American, being converted to junior high (now J.F. Kennedy Middle School). Beginning in 1970, black students who had been going to J.F. Kennedy High School, or who had anticipated going there, were forced to attend what had been the mostly white Riviera Beach High -- now renamed Suncoast High School, home of the "Chargers."

The result was chaos. Suncoast High's first year was marred by major riots that received national media coverage, with law enforcement using tear gas and helicopters to break up rock-throwing and fights between mobs of black and white students. Racial tensions remained high at the school over the next several years, and while there were no more riots on the scale of 1970-71, there was a gradual exodus of white students from Suncoast High as their families either enrolled them in private or parochial schools, or moved. By the late 1980s, the racial makeup of Suncoast's student population was more segregated than it had been 20 years before.

In 1989 Suncoast became a magnet school under principal Kay A. Carnes, who remained Suncoast's principal for 15 years before stepping down at the end of the 2004 school year. Suncoast's history of academic success and of a motivated and talented student body is often attributed to Carnes' intial ability (granted to her by the Palm Beach County School District) to choose her own faculty from schools around the county.

The introduction of the IB program improved greatly racial balance at the school; in this year of the introduction of the magnet program 71 percent of Suncoast's students were black (despite improving its racial balance by 19.3 percent that year) and Suncoast was the target of an investigation by the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights.[1]

[edit] Academics

Students apply to Suncoast via the Palm Beach County School District's Magnet and Choice School Application Form. Applicants apply for a specific program or programs and are admitted into the school by a selective lottery after the top 10 percent of applicants (based upon Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) scores, teacher recommendations, and grades) are admitted.

All students belong to one or more of the school's four magnet programs:

Each Program is led by a Faculty Member:

  • Mr. David Hale (IB), English Department.
  • Mr. Brian Murray (MSE), Science Department Chair.
  • Mr. John Slattery (CS), Computers/Technology Department Chair.
  • Mrs. Francis Wilson (IDP), English Department.

The College Board named Suncoast the "Exemplary AP Comparative Government and Politics" program among schools with 1000 students or more, with the largest percentage of mastery scores in the world for that AP exam. [2] (This course is no longer taught at Suncoast).

Brian T. Murray, physics teacher and MSE coordinator, won the 2006 Network of Educators in Science and Technology Distinguished Teacher Award. This is an award given by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Sonja Kelly, a former English teacher, was named 2005 Teacher of the Year in Palm Beach County.

Suncoast's National Physics Competition, Academic Games, Speech and Debate, and Mu Alpha Theta teams are ranked nationally.

[edit] Athletics

Suncoast is a member of the Florida High School Athletic Association (FHSAA), and competes in the 4A division. Varsity Sports offered include Basketball, Baseball, Football, Tennis, Soccer, Roller Hockey, Volleyball (both boys' and girls'), Golf, Lacrosse, Cross-Country, Track, and Swimming. In 2006, the girls' varsity volleyball team won the State 4A Championship. In 1981, the football team reached the state finals, but lost to Palatka 42-2. The football team was the district champion in 1984 and 2002. The boys' cross-country team qualified for the state meet for five consecutive years from 1998-2002. The girls' track team was the state champion for four years in a row from 1999-2002. The boys' basketball team won state championships in 1984, 1985, and 1990. The 1990 team, led by future NBA point guard Anthony Goldwire, went 36-0. Former wide receiver Anthony Carter was a 3 time All-American for the University of Michigan and was inducted into the College Hall of Fame eventually playing in the NFL for the Minnesota Vikings and the Detroit Lions. Devin Hester, Class of 2002, currently plays for the Chicago Bears, and has received praise for his punt-returning abilities.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Mailander, Jodi. "69% of county schools mostly segregated." Palm Beach Post. 5. Dec. 1989.

[edit] External links

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