Venice High School (Venice, Florida)

Venice High School is a secondary school located in Venice, Florida which educates students in grades 9-12.

History

Venice High School, which was built in the late 50s, has been criticized for its aged buildings for students but has recently built a new music building and there is talk of building a new high school. However, Riverview High School, which is also in Sarasota County, is currently building a new high school. This has pushed the possibility of getting a new high school many years back. In 2006 Venice High School was named an "A" school by the Florida Department of Education. The school has increased its graduation rate from 63.9% in 1999 to 84.7% in 2004.

Student Body

As of 2006, the school principal is Candace Millington. Venice High School enrolls over 2,200 students annually, in contrast to the state average of 750. Of those in attendance, 95% of the student body is Caucasian, 2% Hispanic, and 1% Asian and 1% African American. The school also has a significantly lower percentage of students eligible for the free or reduced lunch program compared to the state, 14% compared to 45.4%. [1] The mascot of the school is the Indian.

Programs and Alumni

The school is noted for its small learning communities, its Academy of Excellence, and has an Advanced Placement Program. In past years, students have attended colleges such as University of Florida, University of Central Florida, Florida State University, New College of Sarasota,University of South Florida, Florida Gulf Coast University, University of Miami, University of Tampa, Saint Leo University Manatee Community College, and Santa Fe Community College. Out of state colleges of prestige have included Georgetown University, Vanderbilt University, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, New York University, Auburn University, and The United States Naval Academy at Annapolis. Venice High had an undefeated State Championship Football team in 2000. The volleyball team has won two state titles, the last one in 2005. There have been a number of State Champions in wrestling, the last one being Jeremy Cooke a two time State Champion in 2005 and 2006. The baseball team is the 2007 5A State Champions with an overwhelming 12-1 victory over Port St. Lucie High School. The game was called in the 6th inning due to the 10-run mercy rule.

Notable alumni

Notable alumni of Venice High School include:

• Greg Pitts, Office Space Movie Actor [2]
• Mark Guthrie, Major League Baseball player [3]
• Jon Knott, baseball player for the San Diego Padres [4]
• Jack Voigt, Major League Baseball player [5]
• Sean Cw Johnson, TV Actor [6]

Issues

Venice High has been noted as well as Sarasota County as a whole has having drug problems with several expulsions in the 2004-2005 school year. However the school worked hard and with several methods they addressed this issue at school creating the Indian Pledge that has been quite successful around the community. Venice High has facility issues with a lack of adequate science labs, ill equipped portables, and aging classrooms. Some of these problems are being addressed currently with new construction that is occurring during the 2005-2006 school year. This construction was originally scheduled to be completed before school started in August 2005. This late construction had over 350 students in science classes without any lab facilities or running water. The faculty has had a few teachers investigated in the past: one for drug use as well as the selling of drugs to students and a few for sexual harassment, molestation charges and unprofessional conduct including changing grades. None of these teachers still work at Venice High. [7].

External links

• Venice High School official website
• Venice High School profile provided by schooltree.org