Druid Hills High School

Druid Hills High School
Location
Druid Hills, Georgia, United States
Coordinates	33°47′37″N 84°18′58″W
Information
Type	Public
Motto	Quality Teaching, Quality Learning
Established	1919
School number	2055
Principal	Mindee Adamson
Grades	9–12
Enrollment	1,421
Average class size	250 to 400
Student to teacher ratio	16.8
Campus	Suburban
Color(s)	Red and Black
Athletics	Baseball, Basketball, Cheerleading, Wrestling, Cross Country, Rifle Team, Football, Golf, Soccer, Softball, Swimming, Lacrosse, Tennis, Track & Field, Marching Band, Volleyball, and Wrestling
Mascot	Red Devils
Newspaper	The Spotlight
Yearbook	SAGA
Website	A Premier Dekalb School
The main building as viewed from the school's picnic area.

Druid Hills High School is a high school operated by the DeKalb County School System. It is located at 1798 Haygood Drive, in the Druid Hills CDP in unincorporated DeKalb County, Georgia, United States. It serves the Druid Hills CDP, the North Druid Hills CDP, and the North Decatur CDP.

School Characteristics

Schedule

Druid Hills runs on a block schedule, meaning that students normally take four classes per semester. Some classes last two semesters because of curriculum requirements, such as many Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate Higher Level classes. First and second period classes at Druid Hills are 90 minutes long. Third and fourth period are slightly longer because of lunch and the afternoon announcements. All lunches are 25 minutes long. Because lunch is during third period, which lunch a student goes to is determined by what class they have during third period.

Enrollment

Enrollment for the current 2009–2010 school year is 1,421 students in grades 9-12.

Accreditation

Druid Hills is accredited by the Southern Association for Secondary Schools and Colleges and the Georgia High School Accrediting Commission.^{[citation needed]}

School media

Druid Hills has three primarily student-run media outlets: The Spotlight, the school newspaper; ‘‘SAGA’’, the school's yearbook; and WDHS, the in-school news network. The Spotlight, founded in 1938, is the oldest school newspaper in DeKalb County and is published monthly during the school year, funded mostly by advertising revenue and the PTSA. SAGA publishes yearly. The publications are run by classes rather than extracurricular clubs.

History

The School's Founding

Druid Hills High School is one of the oldest schools in the DeKalb County School System. Emory University founded Druid Hills School in the Fishburne Building on the Emory Campus in 1919 as a school for faculty children. In 1928, the K-11 school moved to its current site at 1798 Haygood Drive. In 1959, the elementary students were moved to the then new Fernbank Elementary School and Druid Hills then housed grades 8–12.

Briarcliff High School Merger

Briarcliff High School graduated its first class in 1962 and was closed in 1987. In the 1987–1988 school year, the student body of Briarcliff High School merged with Druid Hills High School. The tradition of Baron's Hall, which was established in 1962 at Briarcliff High School, was maintained when the two schools merged. Today the old Briarcliff High School building and campus houses Open Campus and the DeKalb School of the Arts.

Shamrock High School Closure

In the spring of 1996, Shamrock High School graduated its last class as a high school and is closed to be converted into a middle school. In the fall of the same year, Shamrock High School merged with Druid Hills and the former building reopened as Shamrock Middle School. In 1993 Shamrock High School acquired its NJROTC (Navy Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps) program. With the merger of Shanrock High School with Druid Hills High the decision was made to maintain Shamrock's NJROTC program and it moved to Druid Hills High School, thus becoming Druid Hills NJROTC. Today Druid Hills houses grades 9–12.

Alfred Uhry Theater

When the Druid Hills Theater was renovated under the non-profit Uhry Theater project organization, the modernized theater became known as the Alfred Uhry Theater after the playwright Alfred Fox Uhry, a Druid Hills alumnus from 1954.

The Joseph C. Faulkner Library Media Center

The Joseph C. Faulkner Library Media Center was dedicated May 24, 2004 in honor of Joe Faulkner's retirement after 33 faithful years of teaching English and coaching cross country at Druid Hills.

Baron's Hall

Baron's Hall is a tradition that was established in 1962 at Briarcliff High School and was maintained when Briarcliff High School merged with Druid Hills High School. This traditional ceremony is held for the purpose of honoring seniors who have excelled in the areas of athletics, leadership, service, the arts, academics, and foreign languages. The National Beta Club of Druid Hills sponsors Baron's Hall. Three anonymous judges then judge their applications.

Judges for Baron’s Hall use a tally sheet to determine the awards. The judges give one tally mark for every year that a student participated in an activity. (Example: Football = 1 tally mark in the designated box). If a student has achieved letters/bars or has had a leadership position, one point is appointed for each. (Example: Captain of football = 1 tally mark, a letter and 2 bars in Cross Country = 3 tally marks). The tally sheet is arranged by category; by the end, it is obvious which seniors deserve awards. Four to eight seniors are chosen per category.

Sports

Cross country

The Druid Hills cross country team enjoyed success in the 2008 season. Both the girl's and boy's teams made the state championship, placing 8th and 5th respectively. Druid Hills' Nabil Hamid won the AAA state championship with a time of 15:49.82.

Boys Basketball

Druid Hills high school has won three boys basketball state championships: 1953, 1954, and 1957.

Girls Basketball

Druid Hills high school won the girls basketball state championship in 1960.

Boys Lacrosse

Druid Hills will begin it's very first sanctioned Varsity Lacrosse games in the schools history. The team is forming off of the previous Druid Hills Lacrosse club which catered to all high school students in the surrounding area. The team will compete in GHSA Section AAA Varsity Lacrosse.

Boys Gymnastics

Druid Hills high school has won three boys gymnastics state championships: 1956, 1964, and 1965.

Boys Track

Druid Hills high school has won seven boys track state championships: 1951, 1952, 1953, 1955, 1959, 1960, and 1963. Long-time WSB-TV news anchor John Pruitt was a member of the 1960 state champion team.

Girls Tennis

Druid Hills high school won the 1981 girls tennis state championship.

Renovation

Druid Hills High School recently underwent a major renovation. The renovation was originally scheduled to be completed in August 2009, but due to many delays, the date was pushed back into October 2009. The changes made during the renovation include:

• New restrooms on the second floor of the main building.
• Updates to the media center
• Expansion of the girls’ locker room
• A new two-story building to house science classes
• Increased wheelchair accessibility
• New HVAC system

Notable alumni

• Sam Massell, Former Mayor of Atlanta. Class of 1944
• Ron Blomberg, Major League Baseball Player for New York Yankees. Class of 1966
• Brenda Boozer. NYC Metropolitan Opera mezzo-soprano. Class of 1966
• Herman Talmadge, Former Georgia Governor (1947, 1948–1954) and Former Georgia Senator (1956–1980).
• Alfred Uhry, Playwright. Class of 1954
• Ray Stevens, Award winning recording artist. Class of 1957
• Hermann Flaschka Award winning mathematician (Class of 1962)
• John Pruitt, WSB-TV (Channel 2) News Anchor
• Josh Arieh (Class of 1992) World Series of Poker Champion

Feeder schools

The following elementary schools feed into Druid Hills:

• Briar Vista
• Fernbank
• Laurel Ridge
• McLendon
• Sagamore Hills (partial, about 80% feeds into Druid Hills)

Druid Hills Middle School, formerly known as Shamrock Middle School, is Druid Hills' only feeder middle school.

External links

• Druid Hills High School
• Druid Hills High School NJROTC Website
• Druid Hills High School Athletics Website