American Heritage School (Plantation, Florida)

American Heritage School
Address
12200 West Broward Blvd, Plantation, FL 33325
Plantation and Delray Beach, Florida
United States
Coordinates 26°07′16″N 80°18′39″W / 26.121029°N 80.31086°W / 26.121029; -80.31086Coordinates: 26°07′16″N 80°18′39″W / 26.121029°N 80.31086°W / 26.121029; -80.31086
Information
Type Independent, Coeducational, and College Preparatory School
Established 1965
Founder William R. Laurie
Grades Pre-K–12
Color(s) Black & Gold          
Mascot Patriot
Website http://www.ahschool.com

American Heritage School is an independent, nonsectarian, and co-educational day school for grades Pre-K through 12 with approximately 2,400 students.

History

The school was first established by William R. Laurie in 1965 for part-time after-school programs.[1] Due to dissatisfaction with Broward County's public schools at the time, Laurie began full-time classes in 1971 in a former church in Fort Lauderdale, and two campuses were consolidated onto a 35-acre campus in Plantation in 1975. The school's financing then depended on loans from parents, and the school survived a financial crisis in 1991 after one parent made a substantial monetary infusion.[2] By 1995 the school restructured its debt and obtained a new, larger mortgage, which enabled it to begin a rapid program of expansion that turned the school into what one newspaper called "the largest and fastest-growing private school in Broward County".[1]

American Heritage (also known as AHS, or simply "Heritage") is modeled after Southern universities, in both its buildings and curriculum. AHS is divided into two partially independent institutions, American Heritage and American Academy.

Academics

Through American Heritage's liberal-arts curriculum, students are instructed and supported by small class sizes in each of the three divisions: Pre Primary School (Pre-K through kindergarten), Lower School (grades 1 through grade 6), and Upper School (grades 7 through 12). The college preparatory curriculum at American Heritage serves "to develop critical thinking skills, problem solving abilities, and lifelong learning." There are over 50 student clubs and organizations, and multiple service opportunities on and off campus including pre law, pre engineering, and pre med programs. American Heritage is currently ranked the number one private school in the nation for Mu Alpha Theta and number two in the nation out of all public and private schools. The school boasts a powerful applied mathematics team that co-won the international COMAP High School Mathematical Contest in Modeling (HiMCM) and made the Semi-Finalist distinction for Moody's Mega Math Challenge in the same year (2014). American Heritage also has a wide program in Visual and Fine Arts including:

Visual Arts

Strings

Bands

Drama

Vocal Music

Patriot Post

American Heritage also has a monthly newspaper published by students which is also available online at http://www.ipatriotpost.com.

Campuses

American Heritage has two campuses

American Academy

American Academy is a related, but separate, school, designed to help students of average or higher intelligence who have minor learning disabilities. According to American Heritage's website, the Academy "is not designed to accommodate the needs of students with severe learning or emotional problems." As a separate school, the Academy's test scores, college admissions, and other results are not included in American Heritage's national rankings.

Facilities

The Plantation campus is a 40-acre (160,000 m2) campus and colonial style complex that includes an award fine arts program that is housed in a 100,000 sq ft (9,300 m2) facility which contains a 1000-seat Proscenium Theatre, black box theatre and spacious studios for all areas of the arts, sports fields, Olympic- sized pool, and quiet courtyard areas. The library is a 10,000-square-foot (930 m2) state-of-the-art structure housing 5 interactive classrooms, 150 computers, and 60,000 volumes of books and reference materials.

Notable alumni

References

  1. 1 2 Paul Belden, "Emerging Elitism", New Times Broward-Palm Beach, December 10, 1998.
  2. ↑ John F. Berry, "Weathering The Storm American Heritage School Survived The Pitfalls Of Two Decades.", Sun-Sentinel, August 7, 1991.
  3. ↑ http://www.ahschool.com/boca/ahbocadelray.html
  4. ↑ http://www.ahschool.com/plantation/ahplant.html
  5. ↑ http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/sports/baseball/american-heritage-grad-antoan-richardson-part-of-d/nhWmH/

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Thursday, April 28, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.