Venice High School (Venice, Florida)

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Venice High School is a secondary school located in Venice, Florida which educates students in grades 9-12.

1 History
2 Student Body
3 Programs and Alumni
4 Notable alumni
5 Issues
6 External links

[edit] History

Venice High School, which was built in the late 50s, has been criticized for its aged buildings for students but has recently built a new music building and there is talk of building a new high school. However, Riverview High School, which is also in Sarasota County, is currently building a new high school. This has pushed the possibility of getting a new high school many years back.

In 2006 Venice High School was named an "A" school by the Florida Department of Education. The school has increased its grduation rate from 63.9% in 1999 to 84.7% in 2004.

[edit] Student Body

As of 2006, the school principal is Candace Millington. Venice High School enrolls over 2,200 students annually, in contrast to the state average of 750. Of those in attendance, 95% of the student body is Caucasian, 2% Hispanic, and 1% Asian and 1% African American. The school also has a significantly lower percentage of students eligible for the free or reduced lunch program compared to the state, 14% compared to 45.4%. [1] The mascot of the school is the Indian.

[edit] Programs and Alumni

The school is noted for its exceptional Advanced Placement program. In past years, students have attended colleges such as Florida State University,George Washington University, Vanderbilt University, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, New York University, Wake Forest University,Northern State University. and the University of Florida.

[edit] Notable alumni

Notable alumni of Venice High School include:

Greg Pitts, Office Space Movie Actor [2]
Mark Guthrie, Major League Baseball player [3]
Jon Knott, baseball player for the San Diego Padres [4]
Jack Voigt, Major League Baseball player [5]
Blake Roberts, Official Blue Jays Mascot "Ace"[6]
Sean Cw Johnson, TV Actor [7]
Michael Danski, Football Legend

[edit] Issues

Venice High has been noted as well as Sarasota County as a whole has having drug problems with several expulsions in the 2004-2005 school year. However the school worked hard and with several methods they addressed this issue at school creating the Indian Pledge that has been quite successful around the community.

Venice High has facility issues with a lack of adequate science labs, ill equipted portables, and aging classrooms. Some of these problems are being addressed currently with new construction that is occurring during the 2005-2006 school year. This construction was originally scheduled to be completed before school started in August 2005. This late construction has over 350 students in science classes without any lab facilities or running water.