Whitewater High School (Georgia)

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Whitewater High School
Established	2004
Type	Public secondary
Principal	Greg Stillions
Students	1,900+
Grades	9–12
Location	Fayetteville, Georgia USA
Campus	Suburban
Colors	Maroon and Silver
Mascot	Wildcats
Website	[1]

Whitewater High School is one of five high schools as part of the Fayette County School System (Georgia) in Fayette County, Georgia. WHS officially opened in Fall 2004, and began running classes for freshmen and sophomores, with the idea of adding a new grade level each year after. All classes have now been added.

Whitewater's team mascot is the Wildcats. They have a full high school sports curriculum including football, softball, baseball, basketball, soccer, volleyball, track-and-field, tennis, cheerleading, golf, and swimming, and lacrosse.

The school is estimated to have cost $29 million and is one of the most advanced schools in Fayette County, if not the entire state of Georgia (U.S. state). The school comes complete with LCD projectors in every room, a very advanced security system, and Bluetooth technology running throughout the building.

The 2006-2007 year is the first year that a senior class is enrolled in the school. With that will come the first alumni in the spring of 2007.

1 Facilities
2 Fine Arts
3 In the news
4 See also
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Facilities

The school is situated next to Sara Harp Minter Elementary School, and a short distance south of Whitewater Middle School. Just south of the high school campus is the Kiwanis Fairgrounds, the site of the annual Fayette County Fair. The building itself is over 300,000 square feet in size, making it the largest government building in the county. It is laid out in a convenient grid pattern, with the cafeteria, gymnasium, fine arts rooms, auditorium, and a few classrooms on one side of the building. On the other side are four main hallways, which are all intersected by three perpendicular cross halls. The arrangement of the hallways allows for quick and painless access to any room in the building in a short time. The main hallways are numbered 700 through 1000, and the cross hallways are number 100-300. The 500 hallway houses the bandroom, chorus room, drama room, and the auditorium, as well as a few classrooms on the other side of the gymnasium. The gymnasium, curiously enough, is numbered as a 600 room, even though it splits the 500 hall. The gymnasium itself can seat over 2100 people, making it easy to fit the entire student body into the area for pep rallies and assemblies. Outside, there is the student parking lot. On the other side of the school is the senior parking lot and the bus loop. The football stadium has modern concession stands on both sides, as well as the standard stadium equipment. The Highway 85 entrance has been plagued with traffic jams resulting from a bottleneck created by the senior parking lot, bus loop, and elementary school parking lot converging on one small two-lane driveway. The school has another entrance on Goza road.

[edit] Fine Arts

WHS has a fine arts program consisting of Art, Band, Chorus, Drama, and Orchestra. The art program has a high tech specialized art suite. Many students display their talents through painting, drawings, and various forms of art. The band program is made up of three performing groups: Concert Band, Symphonic Band, and Wind Ensemble, as well as a marching band. All bands perform in festivals and competitions. The marching band was invited to march in the London New Years' Day Parade. In October 2006, the marching band took the Grand Champion title at the St. Augustine Ancient City Presentation of Bands. The chorus program regularly sends students to the prestigious All-State Chorus event. The chorus program is divided into several groups, each based on a different skill level. The drama program puts on high-quality plays and events and consistently entertains their audiences. The orchestra program is divided into several groups, just like band and chorus.

[edit] In the news

On August 7, 2006, a student (Robin Kittrell, 17) was caught with a competition rifle, a Carbine rifle, a six-inch revolver, and a handgun stashed in the trunk of his vehicle, as well as a ninja knife and 25 flex-cuffs also in the vehicle. It was later learned that Mr. Kittrell was in possession of weapons on school property for as long as three weeks prior to his arrest as he attended marching band practice.^[1] This incident brought scrutiny upon Principal Stillions and Fayette County school officials when it became known that Mr. Stillions had received information 3 months earlier that the student planned to bring weapons onto school property, but failed to act upon the information until the first day of school.^[2] On January 9th, 2007 Mr. Kittrell was sentenced to 10 months detention plus a lengthy period of probation ^[3]