Alfred E. Beach High School


Alfred Ely Beach High School is one of the oldest public high schools in Savannah, Georgia, United States.

History

In 1867, the Beach Institute was established by the Freedmen's Bureau with funds donated by Alfred Ely Beach, editor of Scientific American. The school was privately funded as a manual training school to provide a means for newly freed African Americans to assimilate into white society. By 1874, the institute was appropriated by the Savannah-Chatham Board of Education for the purpose of providing free education to Savannah's African American citizenry. Although the Beach Institute closed its doors in 1915, it was reopened as an African American cultural center and is currently operated by the King-Tisdell Cottage Foundation. The Beach name survives in the name of Alfred E. Beach High School.
In 2010, Beach High School was selected as the recipient of "Outstanding Service By a High School" at the 38th annual Jefferson Awards, an honor for community service and volunteerism.

At the end of the 2009-2010 academic year, the Savannah-Chatham County School District released the school's faculty and staff personnel, citing inadequate academic progress over the previous five years.

Enrollment

Beach High is open to residents of Chatham County in grades 9th through 12th.

Academics

Beach High students undertake a college preparatory curriculum that includes four years of English, history, and laboratory-based sciences ; three years of mathematics and foreign language; a semester each of introductory art, music, health, and computer science; and two lab-based technology courses. It offers students a broad selection of elective courses.
Beach offers the district's only CISCO networking academy. Students who complete this program are eligible to take the CISCO Certified Network Associate examination. The Health Professions program partners with Memorial Health University Medical Center and CVS Pharmacy to provide internships for Beach High students.

Advanced Placement

Students can choose from Advanced Placement courses in Calculus, English III, English IV, US History, European History, and Biology.

Special education

The school has special education programs for the following areas:

Clubs and organizations

Beach High fields 11 varsity teams, including football, basketball, baseball, soccer, tennis, wrestling, softball, and volleyball. The teams compete in the Georgia High School Association's Region 3-AAA.

State championships

Georgia Interscholastic Association
The school won the boys' state basketball championship in 1953, 1963, 1964, and 1965.
[Georgia High School Association]
The school won a boys' state basketball championship in 1967 under coach Russell Ellington. The girls' basketball team won a state championship in 2000 and 2017.

Notable alumni

Alumni have become president of Savannah State College, Georgia state senator, mayor of Savannah, and dean of a major university in New England.

Books