Pine Ridge High School

Pine Ridge High School
Location
926 Howland Blvd. Deltona, FL 32738 Deltona, Florida, USA
Coordinates	28.8869°N 81.1626°W / 28.8869; -81.1626
Information
Type	Public High School
Established	1994
School district	Volusia County School District
Principal	Mr. John Atkinson
Faculty	101
Number of students	2,800
Color(s)	Black, Teal and Gold
Mascot	Panther
Website	[1]

Pine Ridge High School is a high school located in Deltona, Florida. It was built in 1994 and is located at 926 Howland Blvd, near S.R. 415. Pine Ridge High School's team mascot is the Panther and its colors are teal, black, and gold.

Pine Ridge has a twin school Atlantic High School. Both schools were built on the same design but by different contractors. Both campuses have the iconic courtyard clock and different colors.

Academics and Curriculum

Similar to many schools in Volusia County, Pine Ridge High School has specialized academies that have been successful in helping students to graduate with unique skills. They include the Academy of International Business and World Languages, Agriscience Technology and Communications Academy, and Sports Science and Emergency Services Academy. The school has its own student supported early childhood/ preschool program called The Pee Wee Panthers. The school has an Air Force Junior ROTC program.Pine Ridge offers AVID and Advanced Placement courses. the school offers seven different foreign languages including Chinese, German, Italian, Russian, and Spanish. There are many courses available to support students with unique needs in the ESE and ESOL departments. Pine Ridge has a variety of programs available to students in the performing arts such as chorus, band, drama and dance. There are also fine arts as well as career and technology courses.

Extracurricular activities

Pine Ridge has many activities and clubs in which students can participate. Some popular ones are the Anime Club, Astronomy, CLAW Club, Earth First, FCA, FFA, Guitar Club, Health Occupation Students of America, Key club, Mu Alpha Theta, NHS, SGA, the school newspaper, The Scratch Post, and the school literary magazine, Spilled Ink.

The Pine Ridge High School Bands, currently run by director Paul Robinson, consist of Marching Band, Concert Band, and Jazz Band. The marching band provides entertainment during football games by playing stand tunes during the game and performing on the field during half-time. It also plays at pep rallies, marching competitions, and parades. The concert band performs several times throughout the year. Performances include winter and spring concerts as well as MPA. The Jazz band performs at various functions including the Lakeside Jazz Festival in Port Orange, Florida.

Athletics

Pine Ridge has fall, winter, and spring athletic teams as well as a football stadium and soccer and baseball fields on campus. Pine Ridge shares a rivalry with nieghboring high school Deltona High. It has been dubbed the 'Battle of the Boulevard', due the schools being located on opposite ends of Howland Boulevard..

Notable Athletes

• Ben De La Cruz - Football/QB - Class of 2009 - Accepted a football scholarship to play for Bethune-Cookman University. After being a Wildcat for two seasons, he transferred to Eastern Kentucky University.
• Peter Peppers - Football/DE - Class of 2010 - Accepted a football scholarship from Evangel University.
• John Bennett - Football/OT -Class of 2010 - Accepted a football scholarship from St. Olaf College.
• Willie Mitchell - Football/LB - Class of 2011 - Accepted a football scholarship from the University of Central Florida.

Student Demographics

Racial/ethnic group	Number of students	enrolled in October	School %		District %		State %
	Female	Male	2008-09	2007–2008	2008-09	2007–2008	2008-09	2007–2008
White	527	628	51.5	53.2	63.2	63.9	45.3	45.9
Black	12,833	159	12.8	11.5	14.5	14.5	23.0	23.1
Hispanic	344	332	30.2	30.3	15.8	15.6	25.0	24.7
Asian	11	17	1.2	1.2	1.7	1.5	2.5	2.4
Am. Indian		6	0.3	0.1	0.2	0.2	0.3	0.3
Multiracial	48	42	4.0	3.7	4.5	4.2	3.9	3.6
Disabled	146	292	100	20.3	16.4	17.0	14.3	14.4
Economically Disadvantaged	477	529	44.9	40.5	46.6	42.5	49.6	45.9
ELL	31	45	3.4	4.0	6.1	6.0	11.8	11.9
Migrant					0.5	0.7	0.5	0.5
Female	1058		47.2	47.3	48.7	48.6	48.7	48.7
Male		1184	52.8	52.7	51.3	51.4	51.3	51.3
Total	2242

Link Crew

Link Crew is a program started in the 2006-2007 school year where chosen upper-classmen help freshmen throughout the year by getting them to participate in school activities and help with academic classes. This program was originally run by Mrs. Bedard, but upon her resignation it is now sponsored by, a teacher affectionately called, Mrs. Grebosz.

Principals

• Sandra Rowe 1994-1996
• Kevin Tucker 1996-2002
• Dr. Michael Mongelli 2002-2007
• Tom Russell 2007-2011
• John Atkinson 2011-Present

Assistant Principals

• Assistant Principal Dr. Kevin Hart

- ESE Department

• Assistant Principal Kathryn Dyer - Curriculum and Title 1
• Assistant Principal Dr. Thomas Robare - Data Processing
• Assistant Principal Jennifer Williams - Discipline and Testing, also a guidance consuler

AFJROTC

Pine Ridge High School has their very own award winning Junior ROTC program. The FL-941 Cadet Group participates in many Activities such as; Parades, Community Service Projects, Campouts, Summer Leadership Schools, and Drill Competitions. As well as contains many extra curricular teams such as the "Golden Vengeance" Ceremonial Team (Drill Team and Color Guard), the "Spitfire" Orienteering Team, and an Armed Drill Team. The Motto for the Group is "To build better citizens through active citizenship." The school no longer has those teams, however they still have the AFJROTC program.

AFJROTC Drill Awards include:

• 2001 NHSDTC (All Service Nationals) 3rd Place Overall
• 2001 NHSDTC (All Service Nationals) 1st Place Color Guard
• 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2004 State Champions (First team ever to do three years in a row)
• 2004 Air Force National Champions
• 2004 Southeast Regional Champions
• In 2004 the Ceremonial team had its record year, finishing with 7 overall trophies out of 8 meets. The team was led by Cadets Burke & Inthachack(Drill Team) and Cadet Gonzales(Color Guard) and coached by SMSGT Olszewski(Drill Team) & Col.Vick(Color Guard)

The Program is commanded by Col. W. Wright (Ret.) and SMSGT Olszewski (Ret.).

External links

• Current Pine Ridge High School Web Site
• Pine Ridge High School Web Site
• No Child Left Behind School Public Accountability Report
• School Grades
• http://www.greatschools.net/modperl/browse_school/fl/3042
• http://schools.publicschoolsreport.com/Florida/Deltona/PineRidgeHighSchool.html
• http://www.educationindex.com/usa/florida/deltona/pine-ridge-high-school-81965/
• http://www.publicschoolreview.com/school_ov/school_id/20008
• http://fl.localschooldirectory.com/schools_info.php/school_id/20919
• http://www.ratemyteachers.com/schools/florida/deltona/pine_ridge_high_school