Page 162 - South Mississippi Living - April, 2018

THEFINALSAY
MICHAEL LINDSEY,
Principal of
Gulfport High School
Beautiful, innovative, and functional are
all words that describe the new Gulfport High School, which is a source of pride for the community. In 2015, Gulfport School District passed a bond to begin construction on a new high school. Our community was given the opportunity to design a building to accommodate existing programs and provide advanced technology and state-of-the-art opportunities for students.
This project includes a 9th/10th grade building, a fine arts building, field house, ROTC,
practice gym, new theater, and an 11th/12th grade building which includes our Career and Technical Education programs (CTE).
The fine arts building contains a 200-seat theater, a
large band hall, percussion room, choir room, and five
art classrooms. It provides opportunities for students including drama, jazz band, concert band, symphonic band, flag corp, art 1-4, ceramics, AP art studio, and AP art history.
The 9th-10th grade building allows for a “school within
a school” transition for 9th grade students. It contains
28 classrooms, 20 state-of-the-art science labs and was designed to promote student-centered learning and teacher collaboration across disciplines.
The 11th-12th grade building, also known as our Academic Institute building, contains three career academies. In 2011, Gulfport High School became the first public school to realign its educational structure to offer an innovative, career-focused approach to a student’s junior and senior year. As students work to master a rigorous college prep curriculum, they also receive real world exposure to their areas of interest through project- based learning, clinical observations, internships, and
job shadowing. The institutes are communication, arts,
and business (CAB); science, technology, engineering,
and math (STEM); and health and human services (HHS). Every junior and senior is a part of one of these academies.
The HHS Institute contains law and public safety, medical technology, and teacher academy. This institute has
classrooms such as a courtroom, hospital room, and a classroom designed to simulate an elementary classroom. The STEM Institute contains a full auto mechanic shop,
an engineering shop and a building trades classroom.
Our CAB Institute contains a web media production/ graphic design program that includes a Mac lab and two production studios so students can create video/audio projects. It is also home to Admiral Nation, the school store managed by business students who earn real-world skills by running the store’s inventory and point-of-sale system. The last specialty classroom in CAB is the culinary classroom. It contains a demo kitchen for teaching, a dining area that seats 48 people, and a commercial kitchen with three stations.
Each student is able to create an individual educational pathway that could include any of our 10 CTE programs, traditional college prep courses, over 18 Advanced Placement courses, dual credit courses or be a part of our Middle College program. Our Middle College program allows students to earn an Associate of Arts degree from MGCCC and a high school diploma by their senior year.
All of our new spaces were designed to allow students the opportunity to discover and develop their passions while empowering them to choose an educational pathway that integrates their skills and interests.
There is no doubt that this is one of the most innovative high schools in this region and is a gem for Gulfport.
specialized
162 SOUTH MISSISSIPPI Living • April 2018
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