Palm Bay High School

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Palm Bay Senior High School
Location
Melbourne, Florida, United States
Information
Principal	John G. Thomas
Enrollment	2604
Students	Grades 9-12
Type	Public
Motto	To educate and inspire students for the challenges of today and tomorrow.
Mascot	Pirate
Color(s)	Black, Red, Silver
Established	1958
Information	(321) 952-5900
Data from 2004-05 NCLB School Public Accountability Reports
Homepage	http://www.palmbay.hs.brevard.k12.fl.us

Palm Bay Senior High School is a public high school located in Melbourne, Florida, several thousand feet north of the boundary of Palm Bay, Florida. It is part of the Brevard County School District.

Contents 1 Campus 2 History 3 Athletics 4 Academia 5 Robotics 6 Controversy 7 Notable Alumni 8 Footnotes 9 External links

[edit] Campus

The campus consists of a several main buildings that house administration and classrooms, as well as a gymnasium and auditorium. A multi-million dollar^{[citation needed]} outdoor athletic facility is located on campus. In 2007 the school added a separate law academy. There are a number of "portable" classrooms. Campus buildings have hallways that are open to the outside and lockers are outdoors.

In 2006, the school became one of the first high schools in Florida to have an artificial turf football field.^[1]

[edit] History

The school originally opened as Southwest Junior High School in the 1950s, in an area near what is now the Florida Institute of Technology and a historically Black neighborhood in the south Melbourne area. At the time, Stone Middle School was serving as a school for Black students in the area, serving multiple grades. As desegregation progressed, the schools were re-purposed in 1976: Stone became a middle school, and Southwest became Palm Bay Senior High. Southwest Junior High was reconstituted within Palm Bay in 1988.

In 2006-7, Palm Bay had the highest reported incidence of problems within the school district's traditional high schools. This could be due to high reporting standards which could vary among schools.^[2]

[edit] Athletics

• Football State Champions in 2000 and 2002
• Girls basketball district champions 2006-07^[3]
• Wrestling district champions 2006-07^[4]

In 2008, the 2007 local papers "Girls Basketball Player of the Year," was arrested and charged with thefts during a game at Viera High School.^[5]

[edit] Academia

The school has been one of the "A" schools in the county, for several years in a row.^{[citation needed]}

During the 2004-2005 school year, the school received a private donation which was used to expand the library. The school created more classrooms within the same building for classes in Criminology, law, forensics and other social sciences. The building was renamed to reflect the benefactors and law studies. There are rooms modeled after American courtrooms in which school's law classes perform mock trials.

[edit] Robotics

The Palm Bay Senior High School Engineering program, dubbed PiraTech Robotics, has a group of robotics teams that compete in various FIRST Competitions.

In January of 2008, the FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) Team 508 part of PiraTech Robotics stood first at the Florida Regional held in Tampa, Florida. FTC Team 509 as with Piratech Robotics won the "Amaze" award for their Omni Directional Robot.^{[citation needed]}

FIRST Robotics Challenge (FRC) Team 2023 also won the award for best website design at the Orlando regional competition.^[6]

[edit] Controversy

There was some controversy regarding the school's chosen graduation venue in 2005, which was an auditorium in a local Calvary Chapel facility which featured a large cross shape carved into the wall behind the stage. A suit was filed in court by the families of two Palm Bay Senior High students, in an attempt to block the usage of the religious facility for a secular public school ceremony in favor of a secular venue. The judge presiding over the case ruled that it was too late to change the venue (and thus that the 2005 graduation ceremony of Palm Bay Senior High School, as well as those of several other local high schools, would proceed as planned in the Calvary Chapel facility), but that in following years the Brevard County public schools would have to find a secular venue for graduation ceremonies.^[7]

[edit] Notable Alumni

• Deanne Bell 1997 - an American reality television show host known for PBS's Design Squad and Discovery Channel's Smash Lab.
• Xavier Carter 2004 - former Louisiana State University football player and Professional Track and Field athlete. ^[8]
• Joe Cohen 2003 - Senior defensive tackle, from the 2006 National Champion Florida Gators football team, who was drafted by the San Francisco 49ers in 2007^{[9] [10]}
• Reggie Nelson 2003 - Junior safety, from the 2006 National Champion Florida Gators football team, who was drafted by the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2007^{[11] [12]}
• Sean Wideberg 2004 - former starting quarterback for the Pirates, current pitcher for the University of South Carolina's baseball team. ^[13]
• Jeff Lett attened for two years (?) (class of 1998?) - Bass Player for Epic Records' Cartel
• James McGriff 1998 - high school All-American running back; tragically drowned at the beach on "Senior Skip Day" just days before Senior Prom^[14][15][16]

[edit] Footnotes

[edit] External links

• Palm Bay Senior High School

Coordinates: 28°2′56.47″N 80°37′8.44″W / 28.0490194, -80.6190111