King's Fork High School

King's Fork High School
Kings Fork High School
Address
351 Kings Fork Road Suffolk, Virginia, 23434 United States
Information
School type	Public, high school
Founded	2003
School district	Suffolk City Public Schools
Superintendent	Dr. Deran R. Whitney
Principal	Dr. Stenette Byrd, III Ed.D.
Assistant principals	Bryan Thrift Jason Allison Elke Boone
Grades	9–12
Enrollment	1,524 (2006-07)
Language	English
Campus	Suburban
Color(s)	Maroon and Vegas Gold ██
Athletics conference	Virginia High School League AAA Eastern Region Southeastern District
Mascot	Bulldogs
Rival	Lakeland High School Nansemond River High School
Feeder schools	King's Fork Middle School John F. Kennedy Middle School
Website	Official Site

King's Fork High School is a fully accredited public high school located in Suffolk, Virginia. It is administered by Suffolk City Public Schools. The school colors are maroon and Vegas gold, and the official mascot is the Bulldog.

King's Fork was founded in 2003, and was designed by the architectural firm of Ripley Rodriguez Maddox Motley. It was commissioned by Suffolk City Public Schools due to a widespread economic expansion in sprawl in the western Hampton Roads area.

Due to rezoning, students at King's Fork High are drawn from the Northwestern quadrants of the city, including the King's Fork area, Crittenden, and Hobson. Students are also drawn from the southern Nansemond Parkway/Wilroy Road area, and shares Downtown neighborhoods with Lakeland High School.

Building design

According to Ripley Rodriguez Maddox Motley, "Each house contains space for assistant principal, guidance counselor, teacher work areas, general classrooms, science labs, and resource spaces in addition to two to three specialized career/technical subjects. A guidance suite was also included near Administration for flexibility in future guidance arrangements. Science labs are designed as generically as possible with only Chemistry having a necessary uniqueness. Each pair of science lecture spaces shares a wet lab and preparation partitions. Specialty subjects such as Agriculture, Work/Family Studies, Health, JROTC, and Liberal Arts that are not suited for location within houses are properly placed according to need and required access. Instructional areas typically share a small computer lab. The small lab requires less building area but offers more computers per classroom when time-sharing is utilized."

Curriculum

King's Fork High School offers an extensive range of courses at core, honors, and Advanced Placement levels, in addition to various dual enrollment classes offered through the Hobbs campus of Paul D. Camp Community College, also located in Suffolk, and through Tidewater Community College. In addition to academic courses, King's Fork High offers a range of agricultural and resource management courses.

Due to the nature of student interests at the school, only certain core subjects are offered at the AP level at King's Fork, and the arts department often has too few students for courses in music theory or other such classes. However, beginning in the 2008-2009 school year, King's Fork will offer courses beginning at the freshman level through the IB (International Baccalaureate) program, in addition to its current curriculum.

Extracurricular activities

King's Fork High has an athletic program; however, due to the school's relative new status, few of the programs have yet to build up to a successful level. The most notable of these are men's and women's varsity basketball teams, which have broken through to the district and regional level. The 2008-2009 men's varsity basketball team won the AAA state championship.

The first extracurricular program to achieve statewide recognition from King's Fork was the drama program, which won second place at the 2006 AAA VHSL Theater Festival, under the direction of former drama teacher Clyde Berry.

The King's Fork High School Mighty Marching Bulldogs have risen to regional, statewide, and national prominence while becoming the Group 1 Champion for The Tournament of Bands Chapter XII (All of Virginia and North Carolina) back to back in 2006 and 2007. This honor has qualified them as a National Finalists both years at the Atlantic Coast Championships in Scranton, PA (2006)and Dover, DE (2007). In August 2009, Mr. Jason Taylor was named the Director of Bands at King's Fork.

References

International Baccalaureate Schools in Virginia Annandale High School Atlee High School Carlisle School Clarke County High School Edgar Allan Poe Middle School Ellen Glasgow Middle School William Fleming High School Galileo Magnet High School Gar-Field Senior High School George C. Marshall High School George H. Moody Middle School George Mason High School Granby High School Hampton High School Hanover High School Henrico High School J. E. B. Stuart High School James River Elementary School King's Fork High School Robinson Secondary School Langston Hughes Middle School Lee-Davis High School Martinsville High School Midlothian High School Mount Vernon High School Mountain View High School Oscar F. Smith High School Plaza Middle School Princess Anne High School Robert E. Lee High School Salem High School South Lakes High School Stonewall Jackson High School Thomas Edison High School Trinity Episcopal High School Virginia High School Warwick High School Washington-Lee High School York High School

Coordinates: 36°47′4.3″N 76°35′34.2″W / 36.784528°N 76.592833°W / 36.784528; -76.592833