Berkmar High School
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Berkmar High School | |
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Address | |
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405 Pleasant Hill Road Lilburn, Georgia, 30047 USA |
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Information | |
School district | Gwinnett County Public Schools |
Principal | Kendall Johnson |
Enrollment |
~ 3,000 |
Faculty | ~ 400 |
Type | public |
Grades | 9–12 |
Campus | suburban |
Athletics conference | 8A in Class AAAAA (GHSA) |
Accreditation(s) | SACS |
Mascot | patriot |
Color(s) | Red, White, and Blue |
Established | 1966 |
Homepage | [1] |
Berkmar High School is an American high school located in Lilburn, Georgia in Gwinnett County. Its mascot is the Patriot. It holds the largest campus for any public school in Georgia with over 470,000 sq. feet. (44 000 m²) It is also one of the most heavily populated high schools in Georgia with over 3,000 students and over 400 faculty members. Berkmar is the second most diversified school in Georgia, second only to nearby Meadowcreek High School in Norcross, Georgia.[citation needed]
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[edit] History
Berkmar opened its doors in 1966 to help overcrowding at nearby schools due to the overwhelming growth of Gwinnett County.
Berkmar is led by principal Kendall Johnson, now in his 9th year at the school and his 4th as principal.
[edit] Campus
Berkmar serves a very transient and diversified community. Berkmar is surrounded by many shopping plazas, restaurants, and other commercial markets. In 2002, Berkmar received a much-needed renovation with a whole new front entrance to the school, a new state-of-the-art gym, a new 2-story building to hold offices, classrooms, and a media center, and an improved parking lot. Berkmar has 3 different buildings to hold classrooms, along with two gyms, a theatre, and a small number of portable classrooms. Berkmar also has the largest capacity football stadium in Gwinnett County with stands on both sides of the field to hold upwards of 10,000 people.[citation needed] Adjacent to the football field is a baseball field, hitting facility, softball field, and practice field.
[edit] Extracurricular activities
Berkmar High School is known to have one of the best choral programs in the county.[citation needed] The students put on many shows during the course of the year. In October, the choirs put on a fall concert performance that includes classical choir pieces.
The Academic Decathlon team has seen success at the state level. The team has held the title of Georgia State Championships for five consecutive years (2003 – 2007) defeating Parkview High School.[citation needed] At the national competition in 2007, two of the team members won 3rd place for their speech segment of the competition with speeches on "Pokemon" and litigation. Another team member won a bronze medal for her music score.
[edit] Athletics
Berkmar competes in Region 8-AAAAA. AAAAA is the highest classification for Georgia high schools. Region 8 also includes Brookwood High School and Parkview High School
Berkmar football has a strong record of success in the county and region, the team has been to the state playoffs twice in 2004 and 2005 both with wins over Parkview. In 2006, Berkmar fell one game short of going to the playoffs. The football coach was voted county Coach of the Year for 2004 after the football team made its first state playoff trip in school history.[citation needed]
In 2004-2005, Berkmar was the only school in the county to have both is football and basketball teams go on to the state playoffs.[citation needed]
A Cross country runner finished ninth at the High School Footlocker National race in 2006.[1]This represents the best finish by any runner from Georgia at the Footlocker meet.[2]
After A 10 year streak of bad luck since winning runner up in 5A Cheerleading Berkmars' varsity Co-ed Team placed 13th in the state in 2007.[citation needed]
Berkmar High School has also established a golf team, a first in its school history starting in 2007. Chuka Okafor is Berkmar High Schools' first African-American golfer in its history.[citation needed]
Berkmar's wrestling team is also rising up to other schools. In the past since the school was opened, it has had hundreds of wrestlers go to state, many place in it and a few win it multiple times. Recently, Robert Smith in the school year 2007-08 has placed 5th in it and unforunatly is graduating. The current coaches of Berkmar high school's wrestling team are coaches Mike Lancaster, Marty Bozoine, and Coach Paul Mahaphy.